themasta3

ok, some of you guys might criticize me for this, but it's my car, so i don't care. a couple months back, i started to wish that i had the stock Pioneer radio in my 92' ES. when i bought my car, the radio and changer weren't included, and all it came with was a *****ty Sony CD deck. i decided that the stock radio look was much more tasteful than the ugly silver CD deck and solid black paneling behind it, however, i didn't want to give up having a CD player in my car (even though i could get the changer installed, i never have liked the idea of it being in the trunk, and i wanted something that was accessible while driving. So finally i came up with an idea to combine the two (stock radio w/ changer AND a CD player up front.

the result: a fully functional stock radio and changer in trunk (once i purchase them on ebay) and a fully working CD player right below them.

now i know some of you are saying that's impossible, but through my ingeineuity (spelling?? hehe) and determination, i made it happen.

this mod isn't for people who are afraid to cut stuff (w/ their handy Dremel tool), i decided to do it not having any instructions just because i've got 170k miles on my lex, and i figured if i messed up it wouldn't really matter, however, i didn't mess up.

i'm sure you all wanna see some pics, so i'll go ahead and give you some links and then continue on w/ my tutorial:

pic 1

pic 2


ok, as you can see from the pics, the cig lighter and change compartment were removed, but the cupholders were left (very necessary). i wasn't about to do away with the cupholders in my car, not a chance! and since i don't smoke, getting rid of the cig lighter didn't bother me at all.

here are some brief steps. this mod was fairly time consuming, so im not going to go into detail about these steps until i hear a positive response from you guys.

1. remove climate control and radio unit so you'll have some room to work.

2. pry up the wood panel that goes around the shift stick (use flathead screwdriver on the end closest to the e-brake handle. from there you'll see 2 screws that were covered by the wood. unscrew those, and then unscrew 2 other screws right below where the radio used to be, that hold the bracket on. that should release the cupholder/cig lighter piece.

3. unscrew the cupholder piece from the cig lighter piece (they're actually 2 pieces screwed together.

4. after finishing all the cutting and glueing, the cupholder unit fits right back where it originally was, and the CD player fits right in the hole created by removing the cig lighter piece.

those are the EASY STEPS that are required to perform this mod. if enough people are interested in doing this mod on their ES then i'll post the more difficult steps.

the more difficult parts consist of using a Dremel to cut away little bits of the inside console so that the CD player can fit. you also have to cut the 2 vertical wood pieces that run along the side. the CD player won't fit in between them where the cig lighter piece did, so you have to cut them right above where the CD player will begin and where the cupholder piece ends.

probably the hardest part of this mod was attaching the bracket to the cupholder piece. originally, the bracket (which kept the cupholder/cig lighter piece securely fastened to the inner console) was attached to the cig lighter piece, which was removed. i had to remove the bracket from the cig lighter piece and actually use an adhesive to fasten it to the cupholder piece. i originally used a liquid rubber product to glue them together, but have since found a much better product that i'll discuss if this mod gets good reviews.

once all of that was completed everything fit perfectly. the cupholders ejected without rubbing against the CD player, and the CD itself worked just fine (no problems with ejecting or inserting CD's even though the player itself was in an upright position close to the shift stick) all of the CD wires were long enough to move down below the cupholder piece.
there are only a couple things left for me to do:

1. find some way to cover up the 1 inch of the bottomof the CD player that's visible (the CD player itself is pushed down as far as it can possibly go)
2. buy the stock radio and cd changer off of ebay (i'm interested in buying if anybody has them for sale!)
3. and once i get those two items, get them wired so that i can have them on at the same time, either listening to the stock radio/CD's in the changer, or listening to the CD that's in the CD player up front.

well, that's one hell of a long post. i hope i didn't bore you guys too much. i guess i just have a tendency to type a lot. heh, oh well.

i really think that this mod is pretty cool for those people who want the look of the stock radio without having to sacrifice their single-disk CD player. Please let me know what you all think! i'm pretty sure this is a first for an ES, so i'm happy to be able to add a new mod to the list for ES's. well, gimme some feedback!!!!


Peace,

Curtis

themasta3

i just put up a post in the Lighting forum on my sucessful Audi TT HID retrofit in my 92' ES is anyone's interested:


https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...threadid=65290

squarehat

Pretty clever. I don't smoke, but I do use the ashtray to hold change for parking meters, and I use the lighter to charge my phone.
But I can see why you want an in-dash CD player, after owning two cars with slot-loading in dash players, going to the trunk changer and having to pick music ahead of time was an adjustment.