My Head rest monitor install

[A16NS V]

Just thought I'd share some pictures from my recent monitor Headrest build The screens were a bit unusual in that I 'came across them' as just screens with no trim to speak of. They are Sony made though and reasonable quality. I guess the fact they are just screens means they would fit in as I was about to find out space is tight in there!

Having spoken to the dealer the headrests themselves break down to individual components which means you don't have to go to the expense of replacing the whole thing. The skin can be replaced for £60 saving a lot on the whole unit.

It also means that the headrests are built to be broken down which makes cutting them up a lot easier to do

Firstly you can take the skin off by looking at the seam underneath which is where it fastens to itself in a 'hook' kind of way. If you lever it with your fingers it will come apart.



You can then pull the plastic frame out of the foam.


Which gives you access to all the parts.


After these are out you can unscrew the torx bolt which pins the frame to the plastic to give resistance when adjusting it. The frame is further held in by the molding tabs which fold under pressure releasing it.


After seperating the frame I found that these are hollow so good enough to feed the wiring through. Using a pillar drill I could make the hole in the right angle at the corner. This would be a nightmare to do freehand as the metal is quite tough. There is also no sign of being weakened as the hole wasn't too large.



Next I traced round the monitor on the foam and began to cut out the shape with a Stanley knife blade. Although thick in places if you take your time it is quite easy to to.

[A16NS V]

This then allowed me to put the screen in to see how much plastic needed dremelling out.




All looking good so far I then had to fabricate my own brackets made out of plastic banding you normally get from packaging in kids toys (I never said this was a professional installation )

Once this was all done it gave me the shape I needed to cut the skin once everything was back together. As a tip it's worth leaving as much 'flap' as possible to tuck into the sides of the screen.

Then Install the screen and feed the wire back down the seat. The bottom of the seat comes off in a similar way to the headrest seam kinda like a double hook. it takes some force but you can unhook it from one end and the rest follows. Routing the wire,however, was a pain as the wire drops neatly enough down the hole but to get to it from the bottom you have to feel your way up the seat back till your fingers stop. They feel like they won't go any further but with enough force you can prise an opening underneath and the wires will be there. Bit hard to explain in text!
I wired power from the main fuse board after ordering the fuse wire from the dealers. There is a couple of spaces free to use from the ignition switch feed. I also put a temporary switch in as I wanted to be able to turn it on or off at will. I'd like to get an OEM switch somewhere so it looks fairly standard but need more thought to it. Also being that the power is off the ignition switch I have to leave the engine on when the kids are watching if I leave them with Mum as I go off to Halfords for supplies! (as was the case today)
Feed for the monitors comes from a Din DVD player that I got off fleabay for £23.00 and has an AV input if I decide to adjoin a PS2 or the like later. I did have to use the CD changer audio feed wires as I didn't want to sacrifice my Aux input for my Ipod. I used a dual throw dual pole switch which flicks between audio from the dvd or changer and works a treat.




All in all chuffed to buggery! Roll on MFD2 for front screen action!

[pittVRS]

Great install, do you do this for a living? It's very professional.

[Dr Zoidberg]

That's a cracking job you've done there - excellent write up too.

[A16NS V]

Originally Posted by pittVRS

Great install, do you do this for a living? It's very professional.

That's very kind of you but 'enthusiastic fiddler' is more accurate

[SimonJ]

Great job, looks really good. Excellent write up too.

I'd really like some screens in my Recaro headrests but haven't found any LCD's I like. Where did you get yours and what size are they?

[A16NS V]

Originally Posted by SimonJ

Great job, looks really good. Excellent write up too.

I'd really like some screens in my Recaro headrests but haven't found any LCD's I like. Where did you get yours and what size are they?

They are 6.5inch screens and came from another use originally. However, once you strip an LCD from frame work and other external trim they all start to look the same. i.e. screen and circuit board!

[djswivel]

It's guides like this that make me wish I wasn't so cackhanded...

[red-devil]

Top job looks very neat