New $20 Stereo, $200 effort. Who needs an ashtray anyways?

Man that looks great so far!

Added in some top trim to finish out the panel.

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Extended the power wire between the two halves of the deck, or at least I assume that's what the wire is. Used some styrene to build a bar to retain the wire and keep it from moving. Reinforced it with some hot glue to keep the wire secure.

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And now back on the hunt for the correct flat flex cable.....

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Looking good.

Very nice craftsmanship. Lot's of creative thought in this project. Thanks for sharing with the group.

Thanks guys, I'm trying again on getting the correct flat flex cable to reconnect the halves. If this one doesn't work then it's solder time... very very tiny skilled solder time... Which means my woodburning kit and caveman quality skills will need to be shown up by someone with skill. Luckily I think I know a guy.

Chances are I'll rock this unit till it fails then just mod in a nicer unit down the road. Again this is more of a proof of concept than anything. $20 stereo and I don't smoke so I'm not losing anything by trying.

So... Turns out the first cable I ordered should have been correct had the seller sold me what was listed... Second cable was wrong because I ordered smaller thinking I misinterpreted the metric system when I ordered the first cable, that I only recently found out wasn't my mistake. 3rd cable was also ordered correctly from a different seller but I'm assuming seller 1 and 3 both get their cables from the same illiterate mouth breathers. Soooooo after some refunds and so on and so forth attempt 4.... Yes 4 at getting the correct cable is under way. In 10-20 days I should have 3 cables that will work. Why 3? Because it was free shipping at X amount and shipping on just the one would have put it a few $ over said amount. So in keeping with my low cost high effort theme I filled my cart with things that are debatable as to my need for them and spent ~$1.00 less.... Anyways, just an update and soon, I hope, I'll have this in place and be able to demo the glorious workings of a sub $20 stereo chopped down and shoved into an ashtray.

nice work man
the deck in my truck is where your tape deck is, is that the normal aftermarket location, or did my uncle do a custom job on that?

Depends on how he did it but there is an aftermarket dash kit that puts a deck there.

you can kinda see it in the third picture here