I've been working on this project for a while and finally finished it up this week. I re-did the entire audio system including a 205 amp alternator, big 3 upgrade, audio battery in trunk, 4 amps 2000 watts, 1 W7 12" sub, and a total of 13 speakers.
I also modified the stock nav system to hold a aftermarket dvd/nav system where the 6 disc changer was. I have headrest monitors, back up camera, bluetooth, ipod control, wifi and lots more features. Also removed the rear arm rest and built a custom box for speakers in its place.
Here are a few quick pics from my iphone, I'm thinking I'm going to remove the cadillac vinyl decal from the sub but other than that it's finally complete! Trunk is wrapped in the same suede I did my headliner in:
So the head unit mod wasn't super complicated but did take some doing. The hardest part was all the bondo work to redo the face so it looked decent. Basically when you open up the nav unit the six disc changer is in the bottom section, all you have to do is disconnect it and remove it. Then cut out the metal casing to accept the aftermarket unit as well as the plastic cover and slide the new unit in.
I ran all new wires for power, ground, speakers, rca's, navigation antenna, bluetooth mic, so the unit is completly independent of the factory unit. The factory wiring all stays stock. The factory unit still operates as normal but it is not connected to any of the sound system. This way you retain the factory navigation if you want it (aftermarket is WAY better) and all the stock car controls. The aftermarket unit opens in front of the factory NAV screen and closes when you want to use the factory NAV unit.
The benefit of this beyond having front, rear and sub pre-amp outputs and improved control over your EQ and sound is that I now have full ipod control including video, pandora, etc to the aftermarket unit, have bluetooth, a USB input for a hard drive, better navigation, HD and Sirius radio, video in and out for headrest monitors and other video input sources and a rear backup camera which is badass seeing as I have 15% tint and tinted reverse lights.
Also note that the factory NAV unit has nothing more than a piece of acrylic infront of it, if you screen is scratched you can swap it out with a new piece from Home Depot for $5 and the screen is brand new!
Its a nice system but for kicks I have to imagine trying to explain how to use this on a family trip, no those button work the old system, no that is the wrong screen, no use the remote instead of the knobs, no only this other gps can do lookups while driving, yes both can play dvd's but I have to slip the ebrake on for this other screen since I have gps going on this other, no you can't get any audio with that movie since I want to hear the directions but I don't want to slip the ebrake on anyway so forget it.
Not that complicated, you use the aftermarket system for everything. The only purpose of retaining the old system is for checking car systems and retaining gm service lights.
Your right its not really that bad but I personally don't like the screen in front of a screen. My option was to either 1) get a video in to the stock crap or 2) use a stock CTS radio to maintain the DIC funtions and hack in a 7" touch screen where they have the huge disc changer space. Option 2 would still work out but me being over the top I would have spent and arm and a leg for something I don't really need.
All of that negativity aside (sorry) your looks great and it turned out nice.
Not that complicated, you use the aftermarket system for everything. The only purpose of retaining the old system is for checking car systems and retaining gm service lights.
Great to know on the CTS option! If you swapped the LED's in it like I did in my HVAC screen and cluster it would look decent, a lot better than this option. Yeah the $800 one is the one, pricey mod just to update a crap NAV unit to begin with, but still very cleaver.
Just getting going on the speed mod's now myself, got new heads and cam to put in this weekend to compliment my intake, headers and exhaust followed my the LS7 clutch and tune! Super stoked, nothing beats the hum of these motors!
amazing job on everything, I'm sure it's like a whole new car as far as entertainment goes! respect man! I'm currently doing my system (just upgraded the big 3 and finally got the box finished) but i was curious how hard was the rear arm rest to do? Did you actually make a new one or just modify the old one?
Thank you for the compliment. The arm rest was easy, just took the whole assembly out and sold it on ebay. Then build a box to fit (I made mine out of plexiglass but you could easy do wood) in the same dimensions (you have to make a slit in the box for the brackets to slide past), did a little bondo work on the face so the speakers would sit flush and wrapped it in vinyl. Then drill a hole to run the speaker wire through the back and you're done!
awesome thanks, im going to try to duplicate yours, besides i never really liked encouraging back seat riders to have drinks anyway lol... are those 5.25 speakers? Seeing your set up really made me not want to half ass mine so ill probably wait till this weekend.
I just dumped the POS nav unit! Istalled a single DIN eclispe cd7200, focal speakers, jl10w7 sub, 2 audison amps (lrx series). It could compete in a SQ competion and I don't miss any of the factory BS.
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