1999 Honda Accord questions

Greetings!

Some folks I know at work are working on getting an empeg and a second head unit (for tuner and physical media) installed in the dash of a 1999 Honda Accord. I see that it has been sort of done before, but a few questions:

a) Is the factory opening dual DIN, or is it 1.5 DIN?
b) Has anyone succeeded in getting two DIN units installed?
c) Is there a special mounting kit that can be used to get dual DIN working?

Any comments, recommendations, suggestions or ideas are welcome. Fortunately, the person doing the install is much more competant in this than I am, but I am on the board more (thus I am posting).

I have yet to do a Honda, but have done 3 other small Japanese sedans (Mitusbishi Eclipse, Toyota Corolla, Nissan Altima) with an empeg and another head unit. My experience with all three is that the "double din" spaces are about 1/4 in. too small to accomodate an empeg and another head unit without trimming.. All three have required holes in the side of the sled to bolt the sled to a mounting bracket. All three have required trimming of the bezel to fit the empeg.

That said...with some nice trim work and a little squeezing and cramming, all three have ended up fitting and looking good.

Link to Tony's 2000 Accord Gallery
Link to Docring's 1994 Accord Gallery

I keep looking at the opening and wondering if I can't squeak something in there. Yes, it's a tad smaller than 2-din, it's more like 1.75 din. But someone very clever might be able to do it.

The thing is, a lot of the CD players out there have a fascia that is a bit smaller than the actual din opening. If I could fit that behind the plastic bezel, and mount the two units as close to each other as possible, and if the bottom lip of the empeg fascia (handle, actually)overlapped the CD player just enough, then it MIGHT just work.

I'd have to adjust the mounting position of the empeg upwards just a hair... Can't be much because it's already almost touching the top of that bezel.

I think what it really comes down to is that bezel. I *think* (not sure) there's enough room in the interior metal cage for two units. That cage is completely removable of course, and you can drill whatever mounting holes you want in it. But the outer bezel is the killer, you'd have to be certain both units will fit. I just don't know the answer to that yet.

Please tell your Honda-installing friend one critical thing: Removing that bezel is tricky if you don't know the secret. Here is the secret:

There are two screws at the bottom of it that you can see. But there's one screw top-center, behind the clock, that you can't see. The clock must be carefully popped out to get to that third screw. In order to prevent scratching the bezel, you must wrap a soft cloth around the tip of a large and blunt flat-blade screwdriver and gently pry the clock out from the bottom. I've done this dozens of times now without scratching the bezel, but you must be very careful of it each time you do it.

Thank you Crutchfield Master Sheet.

In the same way that Japanese single-DIN stereos are narrower, might double-DINs also be shorter?

Hm, dunno.

Looking at Docring's Gallery, I see what he did was essentially what I was thinking might be possible on mine, allowing the empeg to overlap the CD player below it.

The difference is that I was thinking I'd remove or modify the CD player's trim ring so that the two units snicked together nicely, instead of the handle sticking out like that.

Exactly... I got it all to fit in my Altima, but ended up leaving the trim ring off of the CD Receiver. It fit nicely that way but there was a couple millimeters of space on either side that normally would have been covered by the trim ring. It wasn't noticeable at a glance.

I was gonna cover it with some plastic notebook cover inspired by your trim ring for your sled, but then my wife totalled the car and took care of that problem.

It's funny how some problems tend to go away by themselves if given enough time.

Thanks for the input. I have sent them a link to this thread and have also passed along the comments. Much appreciated!

Loren's install thread has good tips about how to trim the bezel if that's required. Make sure to check the posts by loren and SE_Sport_Driver.

Please post some pics when finished so we can see how it came out.

My install is double DIN in my Volvo, but it was brilliantly simple and fit perfectly (damn installers still charged me mucho though it was so simple).

Here's a link to the original thread. The MPSS-4 source switcher is great for an empeg/CD-radio setup. When the empeg is the primary, it remains powered on when you put it in suspend mode to activate the CD-radio. And it wakes up instantly on any button press, cutting the power to the CD-radio. Well, that is, if you use an external amp for the setup.

Here's one of my very first posts, talking about the setup of the switcher.

Yeah, it's too bad Hondas don't have a full double-din dash opening.

Quote:

a) Is the factory opening dual DIN, or is it 1.5 DIN?
b) Has anyone succeeded in getting two DIN units installed?
c) Is there a special mounting kit that can be used to get dual DIN working?

a) It's not either. Just a bit less than 2DIN though.
b) Yes. Me. Kinda.
c) No.

What I ended up doing was duct-taping the empeg cage and the HU so that the faces would be even when viewed from the side. Then I took a piece of metal and screwed bolt into the back of the cage and HU so the rears were secured together. The time consuming part is taking the stock HU apart from the two side mounting tab/brackets and mounting them to the Alpine HU's side screw holes. It takes some time to line it up right but once you figure out where to drill the holes you're good to go. The flash in the pic below really makes it look crappy but it does look cool when it's view under normal circumstances. I'm actually going to modify this further soon so the two units will come out a bit further and be closer to me.

The only thing was that I had to trim off the lower section of the Alpines trim bezel: