Redo Your Entire Center Console - How To

With surround sound becoming so popular at home, more and more people want the same sound quality in their rides. You can buy a single-DIN center channel ready to drop in your dash or you could custom mount a driver right in your instrument stack. Even if you pass on 5.1, this how-to shows you the steps to totally customize your center stack, including rerouting the HVAC controls and smoothing in your aftermarket gear, such as this Kenwood double-DIN monitor.

We performed this install in a Nissan Maxima, which comes with a plenty of room in the dash for the stock equipment. A good place for the center channel is at the top of the center stack, where the HVAC and hazard buttons are.	Pull out the entire center stack and disconnect all of the cables. Now figure out where your HVAC and hazard buttons will fit. Here in the Maxima, the HVAC controls come in a single strip, which we can reposition underneath the new head unit. The tricky part is the factory thermometer, which is just to the right of the controls. We'll get rid of a cigarette lighter and ashtray to make room for this at the base of the stack and flank the hazard and defrost buttons around it. Take apart the HVAC unit and cut the HVAC bezel so it will fit in the factory trim beneath the new head unit.	Once you've decided where everything will go, and made sure the equipment actually will fit, start cutting the existing factory bezel. Use a Dremel tool to cut the trim a little larger than the bezel that came with the radio. This makes the head unit look stock. Do the same with the HVAC bezel and relocate the buttons.
For solid and clean results, it's important to mount the equipment first and fabricate around it rather than fabricating and then mount the gear. Mount the HVAC controls and the new head unit securely in the factory brackets. Now, superglue the bezel into the trim and remove the equipment.	Scruff up the entire bezel with 40-grit sandpaper and then tape up the head unit and HVAC. Mount them back into the bezel and, using a 3" grinder, grind down all of the bezel's sharp edges so that the various pieces visually flow into each other.	Now fill in the gaps with Rage Gold body filler. Smooth it out to the edges of the bezel. Remove the equipment again so it won't be scratched during the sanding process. Start with 40-grit to knock down the high spots and finish it off with 80 grit. It's important that there are no imperfections since they'll definitely show up during the primer and paint stages.
Mount the radio and HVAC in the stack and reinstall the bezel securely. Mounting the unit securely guarantees that all of the fabricated pieces fit tightly.	The center channel will be placed within the lines of the dash. It helps when building a frame for the material to secure to, to tape the sides of the dash and construct a frame out of MDF.	The best way to securely mount the driver is to create a ring. This way the speaker can mount from the back. Cut a ring from MDF and round over the inside edge to eliminate unattractive 90-degree angles. Superglue the ring in place.
Stretch and superglue the grille cloth in place. Make sure you pull the cloth tight so it won't sag as the resin is applied. Cover the panels and floor to protect them from drips and mix 8 ounces of resin with 8 ounces of 1/32nd milled fibers. This gives it more strength. Apply evenly and let it cure completely.	Next, smooth the piece over with Duraglas and sand out the rough spots. Be sure to let the piece cure completely before removing it from the vehicle in order to prevent warping.	We'll use acrylic to mount the tweeter that comes with this. Cut out the desired shape and bend it to get an interesting angle.
Glue the tweeter pod in the desired location and Duraglas it in place. Then, superglue the entire tweeter mount to the center channel piece.	Install the center channel panel to the dash to make sure that the tweeter piece is lined up and straight. Then, mold it to the center piece with body filler (we don't need the strength of reinforced body filler, which is harder to sand anyway).	To match the rest of the interior panels, take a piece of the dash to a paint shop so that the paint could be dye-matched. It only takes a few coats.
After giving all three pieces a final sanding, it's time for primer. The Slick Sand variety can be built up and sanded very easily.	Before reinstalling the panels, stick the soft side of Velcro to the edges to prevent the panels from rubbing against the dash and damaging each other. The finished result will look completely integrated - much better than the mishmash of colors and dash kits that were in place before!