philbe1 Posted April 12, 2004 Posted April 12, 2004 this past weekend i installed a Kenwood KDC-X579 headunit in my car 200watts 50X4, 230$ unit but the sales guy sold it to me for 220$ Let me tell you this thing does just about everything except talk to you. The headunit itself is very nice but I take great pleasure in saying that i did not spend a DIME taking it to a garage to have it professionally installed. I did it all myself. Installing a headunit in a Honda or VW is not too difficult but i think we all know how near impossible it is to find Dash kits for our es300 mor specifically the 97 model. Anyway I fabricated a dash kit myself. basically I took the old stock unit out, disassembled the radio and removed the stock amp. I gutted the Old headunit so i could use the same face plate and the side metal clips that hold the face plate to it. now a normal Dinn size radio no where near matches any holes or what not to the stock face plate so what i did I bought a very THIN piece of plexi glass glued the piece very securely to the front of the stock faceplate and put my Dremel with cutting disc to work. slowly but surely i carefully trimmed a new hole for the new headunit to fit with a bit of recess in the dash. "but plexi-glass is clear" you say? I bought a can of 10$ spray paint that actually molecularly bonds to hard plastic. after 15 coats of black flat paint and drilling a hole for my amp switch. so that at anytime i can turn off the sub woofers with the click of a switch. It was ready to be installed. Everythings done and it looks very close to professional and it sounds great. I am waiting on a buddy of my to let me use his digi camera. and i hope to get some pics up so u all can see in the next few days. Oh and a word of advice to anyone looking in the market for an aftermarket head unit get one that can also play MP3's i have 2 full 700mb discs one has 151 songs and the other 117 songs. Who needs a cd changer with that amount of songs on 1 disc. PEACE ALL. :D
Lex3486 Posted April 12, 2004 Posted April 12, 2004 Nice man! Do It Yourselfer's rock! (I'm one myself B) ) Saves money AND is unique.
es3doubleO Posted April 12, 2004 Posted April 12, 2004 No doubt!! I installed my head unit myself too. I think thats its a good experience.
FLiP Sp33d Posted April 12, 2004 Posted April 12, 2004 Pictures!!haha we all want to see it what he said!
philbe1 Posted April 12, 2004 Author Posted April 12, 2004 I'm a workin on it, Gotta get a hold of my buddy when he's not working but soon I promise :D
steviej Posted April 13, 2004 Posted April 13, 2004 got a better idea. A bunch of us are meeting up in Edison, New Jersery on Sunday, April 25th. Deleware is not that far away. Plan to meet up with us, and that way we can see and listen to your fine craftsmanship. B) DIYs are the best. steviej
bbsal Posted April 13, 2004 Posted April 13, 2004 yea that sounds good see if you can make it to the meet we are all going too.doing it your self is great and you feel proud after a good install! mp3 discs are the greatest!i have 3 discs totaling over 500 songs and dont ever need a cd changer.i have the pioneer 7500 so i can scroll thru all the songs and read what each one is like im on a computer.cool stuff!anyway let us know about the meet!im from philly and im going so delaware isnt much further.
danp007 Posted April 16, 2004 Posted April 16, 2004 this past weekend i installed a Kenwood KDC-X579 headunit in my car 200watts 50X4, 230$ unit but the sales guy sold it to me for 220$ Let me tell you this thing does just about everything except talk to you. The headunit itself is very nice but I take great pleasure in saying that i did not spend a DIME taking it to a garage to have it professionally installed. I did it all myself. Installing a headunit in a Honda or VW is not too difficult but i think we all know how near impossible it is to find Dash kits for our es300 mor specifically the 97 model. Anyway I fabricated a dash kit myself. basically I took the old stock unit out, disassembled the radio and removed the stock amp. I gutted the Old headunit so i could use the same face plate and the side metal clips that hold the face plate to it. now a normal Dinn size radio no where near matches any holes or what not to the stock face plate so what i did I bought a very THIN piece of plexi glass glued the piece very securely to the front of the stock faceplate and put my Dremel with cutting disc to work. slowly but surely i carefully trimmed a new hole for the new headunit to fit with a bit of recess in the dash. "but plexi-glass is clear" you say? I bought a can of 10$ spray paint that actually molecularly bonds to hard plastic. after 15 coats of black flat paint and drilling a hole for my amp switch. so that at anytime i can turn off the sub woofers with the click of a switch. It was ready to be installed. Everythings done and it looks very close to professional and it sounds great. I am waiting on a buddy of my to let me use his digi camera. and i hope to get some pics up so u all can see in the next few days. Oh and a word of advice to anyone looking in the market for an aftermarket head unit get one that can also play MP3's i have 2 full 700mb discs one has 151 songs and the other 117 songs. Who needs a cd changer with that amount of songs on 1 disc. PEACE ALL. :D U DA MAN. I have a 1997 ES 300 and I have always had after market head units to run my subwoofers in previous cars. In this car, I had to tap into the factory amp/subwoofer in the read deck and run RCA cables off of it. As you know, the sound is not near as clear, and bass does not hit as hard or clean. I have seen some custom installs, but I like to keep a factory look. I also have a toggle switch hidden under the dash to turn off the subs when I don't want the extra bass. You might make me get the dremmel tool out and start cutting. Were there any wiring harness compatibility issues when you hooked up the new cd player? You can email at lacey_dan@hotmail.com if you'd like to see pictures of my install.
LEX88 Posted April 17, 2004 Posted April 17, 2004 BBSAL IS THAT YOUR CAR IN THE PIC?? IF SO WHAT KIND OF RIMS ARE THOSE, DID THOSE COME OFF AN LS???? GOTTA SEE PICS OF THIS JOB, I WAS PLANNING ON GETTING AN CD CHANGER THAT READS MP3 BUT I GOTTA SEE THIS
philbe1 Posted April 18, 2004 Author Posted April 18, 2004 there was a wire harness compatability problem but that was easily solved when i cut the original harness that is on the car and made my connections that way. I would have never attempted it if not for the Haynes manual for the lexus, It shows what ever wire goes to. in fact if you ask for a wire harness for a lexus they give you a toyota one. and i found how the hard way (-14$) that the pins on the toyota harness and the lexus harness snap together but the wires do not match. so for example a B+ line on the lexus connector may line up to a left speaker negative on the toyota harness. so best be is to get the Haynes manual with the wiring schematic and just make your connections with the help of an aftermarket wire harness. I had to learn from experience.
philbe1 Posted April 29, 2004 Author Posted April 29, 2004 i'm trying hard guys to get my buddy's digi camera from him but he works weird hours. hopefully soon i will have pics of my headunit for you guys . also am looking into aftermarket wheels. has anyone delat with WheelsNext.com??? they seem pretty reasonable. what do you think?
SKperformance Posted April 29, 2004 Posted April 29, 2004 I am just wondering why not buy the Lexus rca connections to run the stock speakers off the stock amp and the metra kit to install in the dash for about $30 total i just realised you have a 97 too bad i actually have a 97-01 leather face platecustom made to fit your car. but the metra rca connector would have still worked
exdotcomer Posted April 29, 2004 Posted April 29, 2004 skperformance- still got the faceplate? any pics?
danp007 Posted April 29, 2004 Posted April 29, 2004 i'm trying hard guys to get my buddy's digi camera from him but he works weird hours. hopefully soon i will have pics of my headunit for you guys . also am looking into aftermarket wheels. has anyone delat with WheelsNext.com??? they seem pretty reasonable. what do you think? Go to Super Buy Tires.com They are the cheapest and they have a huge selection. If you have any concerns about what will fit, they can also help you out with that.
HoeBag Posted April 29, 2004 Posted April 29, 2004 wheels make a car... save up and buy some nice ones all the expensive wheels are worth paying 700+ a wheel... i wouldnt go for cheap stuff
SKperformance Posted April 29, 2004 Posted April 29, 2004 yah i have pics look in the buy an sell section for my post it has pics in there with all my other stuff for sale
philbe1 Posted April 30, 2004 Author Posted April 30, 2004 can i have 700+ a wheel? hehe nah i've been searching and I am definately not gonna go with the first thing i see. However I do have a limited wallet when it comes to wheels and tires and 700+ a wheel is a bit too *gulp pricey for me. don't worry guys when i finally decide to get some wheels i'll make you all proud B)
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