Well, today's job was meant to be pretty straight forward - just swapping over the headunit, how hard can it be? Turns out, a right PITA job! I have chosen a Pioneer MVH-X360BT, reason being there is no CD slot or tape deck, meaning less moving parts and thus less to go wrong thank to vibrations from extended offroad use or driving over corrugations. It has a USB port to the front, allowing iPhone/iPod/Andrioid connection and control via the headunit. It also has Bluetooth, both for handsfree phone calls (sound via the car speakers) and Bluetooth audio streaming, and finally it has an aux-in just in case none of the others work with your chosen device! Oh, and a radio tuner, of course.
Anyway, so I am aware that the front dash panel needs to come out, but every thread I read had conflicting info (particularly about speakers, more on that in a bit). In addition, Haynes and his manuals were typically unhelpful (detach dash panel as required: thanks). So, first up was to remove every visible screw in the dash/ashtray/etc., disconnect all the switches (easier said than done thanks to relatively short wiring!) and remove the dash panel:
After trying to delicately remove the dash panel, unfortunately opening up a previously unnoticed hairline crack in the process, I eventually got the dash panel off. The 'tilt' lever on the steering column really hinders this operation by the way! Anyway, got there eventually. So next up was swapping out the headunit - I had read all sorts about white plugs and grey plugs and bypassing amps, but in my car there were two grey plugs into the standard headunit, these went straight into the Autoleads adaptor (SOT-062) I also purchased, and everything worked spot on - no swapping permanent/switchable live feeds or anything. Result! Only two issues were the headunit does not come with the required 5mm x 8mm mounting screws to fit the Toyota mount plates, and getting all of these wires tucked behind the headunit was not easy, even with the extra space below the single DIN apperture, but got there in there end (ultimately a CB radio will fit in the second single DIN slot below the radio, looking at a TTi TCB-900 model as it is single-DIN but very shallow depth, and has a front mounted integral speaker:
http://www.4x4cb.com/public/item.cfm?itemID=2090):
Now I had a fully working headunit I wanted to investigate why the RH speakers weren't working, and fit the new 4" speakers to the under dash location (no front door speakers) and rear doors. Turns out the new 4" speakers won't fit without some interior modifications, and I want everything to look as OE-fit as possible, so they shall be returned. Fortunately the front driver's speaker wasn't working because it was unplugged (yes, seriously), so having skilfully plugged that back in they are all working fine with the new headunit, and sounding...acceptable. I'll replace them at some point, but no major rush, I'm just happy to have music from all 4 speakers! And actually, with the new headunit kicking out a bit more power the sound isn't all that bad either.
So then, as Haynes said, fitting was the reverse of removal (if anything even harder to get the dash panel in and past the "tilt" lever) but got there in the end, having also braced the rear of the cracked dash area with a bit of scrap steel to prevent it from snapping into two pieces:
I'm pleased with how well the new headunit fits in (doesn't look too flash or modern), sounds (MUCH better than the 21 year old Toyota unit!) and works from a Bluetooth/handsfree perspective, so a morning well spent!
Lastly, I removed the front towing eyes as later this week I will be fabricating some front recovery points and will use the original towing eyes as a template for the bolt holes.
NEXT JOB: front recovery points and begin to plan out my storage system with lots of cardboard templates!
