Custom 'carputer' fabrication // car audio build thread
 

doncarbone's Custom Car PC

Introduction

22yo webmaster and computer geek...decided some time ago to attempt to get a working computer in my 2003 OZ rally (will soon be doing 2.4L 4G69 swap!) as I wanted to listen to music from my iTunes and maybe put on the odd movie on long trips. There are of course many other reasons I wanted a computer in my car.

A brief back story... Over a year ago, I started by mounting a cheap 3G netbook onto the dash. I bent some aluminum to craft a monitor stand which held in place a 10" netbook laptop which had the monitor flipped the opposite way around (so the keyboard/base was behind the monitor on the dash). I powered this with a 300W inverter and connected the laptop's sound to an AUX-in on a single pre-out JVC head-unit that I bought for around $50. Since then, and after being laughed at by passengers, I've decided to try and do something a little more 'complete' and higher quality.

So that being said, let me present to you my work-in-progress car computer build!

Components/Materials:

- Kinetik HC1400 power cell (front/starter)
- Kinetik HC800 power cell (rear auxiliary)
- Stinger 300amp isolator
- 10.2" Xenarc 1020TSV touchscreen monitor
- 300W inverter (from before, will power the monitor and be used for misc)
- Griffin Powermate programmable dial
- Opus Solutions 350W 12V power supply
- PC with 4GB DDR3 ram, Dual Core 2.4Ghz athlon cpu, 120GB solid state drive, Creative X-Fi sound card + two 120mm blue led fans (fabricated in trunk)
- Focal 165A1 components/tweeters
- Focal 165CA1 coaxials
- Two 10" Image Dynamics IDQ10V3 2ohm subwoofers
- Hertz EP4X 4-channel amplifier (150W x 4)
- Alpine MRP-MR1000 Monoblock amplifier (500+ x 2)
- Dynamatted the entire interior/trunk/doors
- Applied 0.5" thick neoprene foam throughout the vehicle to absorb road/engine noise
- Two 60mm Prosport volt gauges (for each battery)
- 3-way USB hub
- key/lockable LED valet switch for PC power

Pictures:

Attachment 336838
Removed entire dash panel / climate control / stereo / trim, two PVC pipes where gauges will eventually go. At this point i was Noob Level I.

Attachment 336839
Metal screen frame glued in place and fleece fabric stretched over top...i think at this point i said to myself more than once "what the **** am i thinking?" Mixed my first ever batch of fiberglass resin for this step.

Attachment 336840
Glued the frame in place, cut mold

Attachment 336841
"Well it will look strange if the rest of the panels dont match?" - ah screw it so started smearing fiber-enforced filler across. :lol:

Attachment 336842
Starting to take shape, added the gauge pods above

Attachment 336843
Sanded a bit and testing fitment...decided to have it stretch overtop the instrument/gauge cluster above steering wheel

Attachment 336844
Wish i took some pics between this pic and the last, added in USB ports from hub, hole for valet switch, hazard light and 2 component switches

Attachment 336845
Primed and sanded, still lots of dents and scuffs

Attachment 336846
painted, bit too glossy, I have since applied quite a few layers of dead flat toner

Attachment 336847
stripped interior, time for dynamat -__-

Attachment 336848
have dynamatted the entire floor, front doors, trunk and doubled up on trunk lid

Attachment 336849

Attachment 336850

Attachment 336851
Neoprene, 1/8" strips glued together, this particular piece went in the door. Couldnt find thicker neoprene from a Canadian dealer, so went with the only roll on amazon.ca (1/8")

Attachment 336852
Now to move the climate control panel

Attachment 336853
i hate working with this stuff

Attachment 336854
-__-

Attachment 336855
bit better

Attachment 336856
in the meantime, will spray on some toner

Attachment 336857
looks a lot better, i think since taking this pic ive used more toner

Attachment 336858
new battery, 0 gauge, inline fuses and isolator all fixed in place

Attachment 336859
all internal wiring fed underneath the carpet, two USB extenders, monitor cable, monitor power cable and 0 gauge from front to rear battery fed through

Attachment 336860

Attachment 336861
side note, since i spilled resin on my front seats and they are pretty poor seats in the OZ rally, i bought these new ones! very comfortable and the bolster support is great! (in anticipation for the 4G69 + mods)

Attachment 336862
climate control relocation starting to come together

Attachment 336863
painted, still needs toner to match dash

Attachment 336864
more madness! filled over where ash tray used to be, time to get the griffin dial mounted

Attachment 336865
angled base toward driver, griffin pictured top

Attachment 336866
light guard and some finish (this dial has a very bright blue LED on its base, i wanted to contain it a bit with a guard)

Attachment 336867
getting the guard in place

Attachment 336868
what a mess

Attachment 336869
cleaned up a bit, good ol' bondo

Attachment 336870
spot putty and some sanding

Attachment 336871
primed, griffin in place, will be attaching it to the base via velcro

Attachment 336872


And there we have it, that's all I have for now, will update as I go!

- Don

this looks awesome... sub'd for the finished product.

don't crap out on this and let me down.

thank you!

will update as often as possible

Found some time today to paint the climate control mold and the mold around shift boot..also velcro'd the griffin powermate in place too

Attachment 336799

Attachment 336800
looks a lot better with the toner on it

Attachment 336801
oh ya this notch in the top left is for the wire, less of a hump for the wire, will make for a cleaner install

Attachment 336802
will be interesting to see it illuminate once in car

i'll have both these in the car tomorrow

Another one of climate control with stickers on:

Attachment 336798

I wish I had the materials/money/will power to do something like this...it looks awesome

Thanks man.

I've cut corners money-wise where I was able to...PC was built mainly from old, scrap parts from previous PC builds, fiberglass and filler i've used is basically the stuff you get at Canadian tire (no special/premium stuff)...borrowed a friend's air compressor and die-grinder...USB cables and all wiring I bought from www.monoprice.com ..speakers/amps, dynamat on sale from a www.woofersetc.com, paint from industrial paint and plastic, local store that mixed the paint for me at a good price.

this project has been on-and-off for around a year now, only recently have I been going strong again working on it consistently, so i've definitely had time to save money and find the right components

update:

have attached to the mold bolts to connect to dash securely. bolts are held in place with JB weld front/back and lock washers

Attachment 336685

Attachment 336686

Since doing this I've filled over holes/scruffs on front, painted, applied toner:

Attachment 336687

Attachment 336688

pc power switch (not mounted yet), monitor switches, usb ports visible but they need work, might see about painting around edges or getting some sort of trim for that

Attachment 336689

as well as 3 bolts on right side that have been stealthily hidden, I had to drill 2 bolt holes on the left.

Attachment 336690

u can't see these bolts, basically out of view and sort of behind the steering wheel...but just to make it cleaner i'll paint em to match dash and see if i can clip on a plastic covering

more to come soon!

Another of hazard light switch:

Attachment 336684

going to see if i can find a stencil or sticker for the hazard light emblem

Made a quick video:

Today tested mounting of touch screen and usb hub - all working great so far!

Attachment 336676

another angle, tested calibration on touch (5-wire resistive), calibrated at 9 points, working great so far!

Attachment 336675

Haven't made an update for some time...been waiting on this mess to arrive:

Attachment 336576

That looks really good! I was really tempted to do something like that, but because I didn't have the time I just doubt a single din pop-out screen and didn't worry about it.

so far this weekend been working on the trunk:

Attachment 336573
3/4" mdf, battery holder to keep it from moving (thing is so tight i can barely get the battery back out lol)...will add trunk floor on top of frame, underneath are all my components, small latch eventually to get to spare tire

Attachment 336574

Attachment 336575
comp will sit on this side, will make a custom fiberglass casing for it and connect in-take and exhaust fans

i thought about that but only one i could find that has VGA/DVI on back was a motorized xenarc (same brand as my touch screen), but it had really ****ty reviews, tons of complaints about the pop-out mechanism failing. is only 6-7" too :/

braced trunk frame with 1 x 1, glued with screws vertically and horizontally. strong as hell

Attachment 336554

Attachment 336555

Attachment 336556

have been busy with work but started this evening on the trunk floor:

Attachment 336537

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That is amazing!

I look forward to seeing the continued progress and also the final product.

:thumbup::thumbup:

Thanks I'll have an update this weekend hopefully. Waiting on an add-a-circuit fuse-tap to get my isolator working. Once that's done I can start hooking up all my components to the aux battery and install the dash mold

managed to get all my wiring done and mounted mold to dash with screen. tested it with a laptop in the trunk and all working so far:

Attachment 336395

wires hanging out are for PC power switch

short video:

took this at work today:

Attachment 336304

Attachment 336250

took one from driver's perspective - valet switch wired up, inverter has been wired up for monitor, going to test power supply/PC ignition controlled start-up hopefully tomorrow!

hey everyone I apologize for not updating this thread. i am still busy sourcing parts for my engine swap and I have managed to get some carbon fiber a-pillar overlays into the car which look great - I'll get a pic up here asap!

my new tranny (4G69) arrived the other day, motor and ancillaries should be here next week!

Attachment 336088

Attachment 336089

i think i will make a separate thread once the engine build is underway...but figured i'd let everyone know here who is following my computer build that i'm a bit distracted at the moment sourcing parts for my engine :)

pics aren't working for me, but i am work and they may be blocked

do they work now?

yep. it was/is my work.

where did you pick up the transmission? rebuilt or new? price(if you don't mind)? my tranny is on its way out.

Used but not a rebuild... 75,000km. From an auto recycler a few cities over from where I live. I paid $600

nice! did they provide any information of what kind of car it came out of?

i have a buddy who is currently looking around for a newer eclipse 4g69 for me with as low of miles as possible.

car was a 2006 ralliart that was rear ended

that's friggin amazing! good work, sir.

thanks man appreciate it

few new items going in:

Attachment 336019
evo VIII steering wheel

Attachment 336020
two 10" Image Dynamics IDQV3

Attachment 336021

Attachment 336022
AudioControl MATRIX line driver (PC sound card --> line driver --> amps)

Just found this thread through your signature. Ive wanted to do something similar to this before but never had the drive to take it to the level you have. I love the build so far. Great work! Have you gotten any more done to it since October?

Thank you. I've done a fair bit, mainly with the trunk fabrication and building my enclosure for the two 12" drivers since October. During the winter I turned my attention to a full motor swap (4G69 into OZ Rally). Much of the winter involved sourcing parts (finding a motor, transmission, harness, ecu and a giant list of other parts) and 3 weeks ago (early feb) my mechanic and I began on the swap.

I'll be creating a thread to showcase the progress of the swap as well as some new interior items I'll be adding :)

Awesome! :) I cant wait to see some updates!

looks great, nice work so far...what kind of PC are you using? the mock up looks like a standard ATX (or micro) form factor, why not go with an itx form factor? it will greatly reduce power requirements.

It's a custom build and yah it's ATX but it's a very basic build - i don't foresee it causing any problems for the OPUS 360W PSU.

I chose ATX for the simple reason that i had most of the parts needed for a basic, low power PC build laying around the house already

specs for the PC:
- amd ahtlon II 3.0ghz X2 cpu
- mushkin 4GB ddr3 ram
- 120gb kingston ssdnow solid state drive
- two 120mm cooling fans
- create x-fi sound 5 channel sound card

case will be a custom fabrication based on the metal mid tower case you see pictured in this thread.

i've been considering a build like this myself, i was thinking more along the lines of this:
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=667...nufacture=ASUS

the motherboard comes with a media remote control, that has a mini qwerty keyboard on the flip side of it...

and this:
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=377...ure=Mini%2DBox

uses 12v DC input...perfect for automotive...

very cool - motherboard looks great, psu is a bit low on the voltage though and for that price i'd def go with an m4-atx (250W) or an opus similar to mine ( maybe the 120W or 250W) http://www.opussolutions.com/

opus and intelligent automotive are the guys to go to for vehicle computer psu's. hit up www.mp3car.com - these are psus that are built specifically for an auto application, they are rugged and DC-DC

EDIT: great to see another NCIX customer, maybe the best site in canada?

Nice job! I hope to see more and get motivated.

You are a talented (and brave) young man. Thank you for sharing with pics, keep the projects going!

Thank for you the compliments.

I've turned my attention to my motor/tranny swap which you can see here: https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/al...gine-swap.html

As things progress and I put my dash/interior back together I'll begin to update this thread further!

Great job!!! that pc looks very nice in the car {thumbup}

lol ur response to this reminded me i have to actually finish this project still lol. been too busy with the engine swap and awd swap

Good work though no updates.