I should have taken pictures mid project but hopefully this will help someone anyways. I found a donor ashtray and used the dash part (with the 4 screws) to hold the deck. I shimmed the top of the DIN plate thing with a small length of wood and put in 2 small screws from the top to hold the wood. I took the support strap that came with the deck and attached to the rear of the deck and bent it over the top of the ashtray mounting plate and secured it with a screw to stablize things. I then slid in the assembly (used the lighter feed as my constant power feed, the existing radio power feed as the accessory power feed and grounded the whole thing to one of the 4 ashtray support screws). I removed the 2 rivets from the ashtray faceplate discarded everything else except the actual ashtray door. I shimmed the bottom of the ashtray mounting plate to level it up with the bottom of the dash using more wood. I riveted on a small hinge to the ashtray door and screwed that into the wood. On the right I used some speakerwire with a knot in one end through the old rivet plate of the ashtray door and secured the other end around one of the mounting screws to stop the door from opening past horizontal. To make it open and close easily and quickly I made it super simple and used a magnet mounted to the left of the top part of the dash (see picture). Now I can just flip up the ashtary when I park and it looks original except for the 3 rivets on the bottom of the ashtray door (and my original ashtray assembly is tucked away in the garage just because I couldn't bring myself to carve it up. Plus I can always go back to 100% stock if I want too). In the rear I put in 2 6X9 Infinity speakers in carpeted enclosures that ride along in the back seat. I have had all 5 of us out in the car in this setup and the kids just moved them to the center and there was still room. The speakers have standard quick disconnects so I can easily put them in the trunk, remove the face plate from the deck and put it and the remote in the glove box and lock it for safekeeping, and flip up the ashtray and no one knows I'm not listining to the stock radio. It isn't the perfect setup but it works for me!
Great idea! :TU: Those ashtrays are pretty much useless anyway, nobody seems to be able to pull them back and DOWN to open them... I had a CD player mounted there, but not hidden. Note I said HAD. Some %$*^&&# ripped it out of the car one night while it was parked in my driveway. :af: What I wouldn't give to have been standing there with a shotgun and a cell phone...
Great job, and clever idea. However, that puts the radio a little too close to the passenger for my tastes, lol.
