Ok, so I bought a w205 and a blackbird to go with it. Im feeling lazy and decide to bargain with the manager and he hooks me up with a free install. He tells me they are going to "CUSTOM MOLD" the head unit into my dash. I start laughing and ask him if he is talking about using a fancy pancy 'dash kit'. He says yes. I should have stopped there but man.. I really didnt feel like ripping the dash off... so I let them install. Observe:





Notice the "CUSTOM MOLDING" around the left side and the bottom. Yeah, nice job car toys. It's hard to tell but the left side of the screen is poking out about half an inch further than the right. (no joke) I wish I had a pic showing how far forward they mounted the unit. It was terrible.

Well, I decided that this is what i get for letting 'professional installers' touch my car. I do a little research... order the pac tr-7 bypass, ipod cable, and a nice metra dash kit (part #99-7602 from crutchfield) and head out to the garage. Viola:





So... lessons learned:

1) If you want something done right you have to do it yourself.
2) If you want something done right you have to do it yourself.
3) If you want something done right you have to do it yourself.

 

looks good

 

Wow, you did a great job on the "rework" install. I have the same unit in my car, did the install myself and my unit is sticking out about 3/4 of an inch.

Cartoys sells the blackbird II now? Where did you get that background?

Great job!!

 

much better with metra dash that custom mold **** they did looks like the older 03-05 dash to me.

 

yeah, those units are awesome. i have a IVA-W200 with the blackbird. The blackbird is freaking amazing. I love being able to dock it into my car or take it with me wherever I go, incase I'm riding with another friend and we want to use the navigation feature. If anyone wants a screen and navi, GET THAT COMBO!!

 

Yeah, at first they had it sticking out A LOT. I then set it flush but the face wouldn't open. I just kept drilling holes in the bracket until i found a happy medium.

I dont have the blackbird II yet, still waiting. I downloaded the background from some dude's website. It is a speciall file format (*.apn) that you have to convert and he wont tell anyone else how he does it. Oh well... you can send him a pic and he will convert it for you. (what an attention *****)

 

I'd like to send him a picture of Alison Angel and convert it to a wallpaper.

You can also register at Alpine and download some cool wallpapers there. I got mine setup where the background changes each time I start up the car. It's pretty neat.

So, I'll need to drill holes on the bracket, eh. I used the stock brackets BTW.

 

looks real good

 

He has a lot of cool background images... lots of chicks and cars etc. Some people send in pics of them with their gf's/wives.

About the changing background... do you have a w205? Where are the images stored? It was my understanding that it would only store one pic at a time. Do you have them stored on a CD and just leave it in the drive?

 

Does anyone know of any reputable stereo installers in Fort Worth or Arlington? I have a HU and amp to be installed.

 

Nice. Any pics of the Blackbird docking?

 

looks great nice install

 

bings a reliable guy for norcal locals. he did my avic d3 install perfectly

 

You can get a more flush mount by drilling new holes in the factory bracket. I drilled mine about 3/8" back from the originals. Ended up only having 3 holes instead of 4 because of the way the bracket is shaped but it's tight and very flush.

 

So let me get this straight. A retail business that probally spends 15 - 25 thousand dollars a month in rent here in dallas. Plus power and tools hooked up with a FREE installation and you are complaining? I will agree its not the nicest installation but moaning and groaning over something someone did for you for free then bashing them for it on the internet doesn't seem to cool to me.

 

ok, first of all. 15-25k/ month in duncanville? and they have lots of expensive tools and they pay for electricity? is this really relevant? hell, if ANYTHING I would say these factors should result in a 'professional' install. However, what I received was comparable to a retarted monkey attempting to finger paint a square on my center dash.

secondly, if a manager tells you he is going give you a nice, clean install... I think it is fair to assume that he is going to give you a NICE, CLEAN install. regardless of the cost.

So when the manager of Car Toys promises me a clean install, and gives me a $hit install... i will bash him online ... all day ... and all night.

 

Question: How flush is your w205 and does it still open without any problems?

 

nice nice

 

Did you figure out someway to get the navi to work with the alpine screen also whats the guys email address

 

http://www.pride-rock.com/forum/apnlist.php

Eventually, he will have a webservice running so that we may upload our own images and they will be automatically converted to the .apn format. Untill then, you just have to submit the image to him, but make sure you follow his instructions on the correct size/dimension/compression (ie. jpg/gif/tiff/png/etc) otherwise he will just ignore your email.

Luckily, he has a few nissan logo images already uploaded and thats all i wanted. (im a big fan of stock looking headunits and the nissan logo makes a big difference)

take care