No I'm not going to rip out the existing head unit to put the empeg in the dash. It just wouldn't look right.

Alternatives:
1. remote display.
2. something custom.
I'm still thinking about that. Unstack the components and spread them out flat, front to back.
Only need one disk. Set all this on top of dash just over radio. Packaging would be conformal to curve to dash, with display sitting just above the headunit cutout. I really need to make a design sketch.

An admittedly amature photoshop of the idea.
I'm going to have to rethink this. My mental picture didn't quite envision the face being that large. Something a bit shorter in height.

New Idea: The display module has single in line leads. How far could I remote the display from the display card?

How far could I remote the display from the display card?

Not any farther than it already is. FAQ entry here.

I'm not clear on why replacing the stock stereo is a problem in this case? From the photo, it looks like a simple adapter plate would do the trick.

Hi Tony. I've read about that many times, But I can see how I wasn't clear about my intent.

I meant to ask how far the glass part could be extended from the display board.

75mm would let me package the display board flat and mount the display in something with a thinner vertical dimension. Even 25-50mm would work in a pinch. My assumption is that there would be no problem adding that length to the switches and knob leads.

I'm figuring that by unstacking/flatning everything, except for the glass part itself, I can come up with a package WxDxHGT of 175x230x25mm thick. Maybe even thinner if I want to demount the tall jacks. At the moment thickness is probably limited by drive shock mount rubber.

New thought. The glass is 35mm tall. I should go mousing around the Nortika site to see if there is a display that is the same in every way but smaller.

BTW. From the picture I posted, it might seem there is enough room for a transmission hump mount, there is not. Least ways not for an unmodified empeg. I might get away with a 25mm tall version that had a back sloping display. That could, just be the ticket. Wire routing is much easier below. I'll have to mock up a cardboard housing.

Pictures show a mat board mockup of a 25mm thick housing. This box is a conservative minimum size for unstacked components with a sloped front. Final would have curved top that matches contour of dash. Sides would be sloped out a few degrees, with corner rounds. Housing would be larger in hgt and wdt to add these features.

Upper Right: Unit sitting on dash. For comparison.
UpperLeft: held where display would be if vertical and hanging over front of dash. Top of display would be even with top of housing if housing were held flat as in upper right.
Lower Left: Wedged under dash, a steel box would give enough to fit. Sideways because it just bearly fits between paint and, I'm not sure what, I'll call it the firewall. The package would have to be no more than ~15mm thick to fit and no longer than it is wide. This pretty mutch puts paid to the idea of tranny mount.
Lower right: Tranny left side mount. Would interfere with fwd seat movement. Right side mount (not shown) is undesirable as the hump is already biased toward the passenger.

Still exploring, but the remote mount is looking better right now

Keep in mind that to protect the HD, it should only be mounted horizontal.

I looked up the performance specs of the travelstar drives. They are rated the same for shock loading in all three principle axis. So it should be ok. The only thing to look out for is that the rubber mounts should be arranged vertically. If I undertake reboxing this with the idea of mounting it vertically, I'll setup the mounts properly.