2nice2slow

My Kenwood Nav, looks just like the Pioneer. I am looking to upgrade to change it to a smoother one once I find one. I have to look into the carbon fabric wrap. Did you install yourself or professional install?

jkowtko

I installed myself ... took me a total of 8-10 hours over four different spurts ... most of the time spent in the discovery process. If I had to do this again it should take less than half that time.

Fyi, I started doing all of my auto repairs about a year ago, fed up with the high auto shop labor costs, padded hours, and questionable quality work and incorrect fluids. In the past year I've replaced brakes/rotors, shocks and struts, front suspension arms, trans mount, done engine/trans/diff/PS/brake fluid flushes, all for a fraction of the cost of getting it done for me, and with the comfort of knowing what's in the car. This radio install was icing on the cake, turning an otherwise ugly and outdated sound system into a (as soon as I replace the speakers) great one.

2nice2slow

Ive been working on my cars for 12 years, so I understand what your saying. (Ive done engine swaps conversions aspiration changes etc. ) Though never wrapped any carbon fabric. Just curious. Thanks for the time heads up.

jkowtko

I recently wrapped smoke-tinted vinyl on my son's Honda Accord taillights and side markers. If the carbon wrap is similar (vinyl) it's actually not that hard once you get used to it. Just buy a heat gun -- the vinyl really stretches around corners and still retains quite a bit of thickness and strength.

2nice2slow

I had my civic lights done in 2000 ..so years ago. So I understand what saying. Like everything ...time consuming.

jkowtko

Really not that time consuming. We did the Honda's four taillight sections and the two rear side marker lights, including pulling the lights off the car, all in about 3 hours. That includes the time spent learning how to do it, and a lot of the time was spent stretching the vinyl over the spherical curvature of the outside taillights.

If I had to wrap the double-din faceplate on the Benz it would take me maybe 10-15 minutes.

jevsays

Looking into upgrading my HU this upcoming summer....

Would something of this sort suffice

Or should I invest more properly and look into a Pioneer or other high quality 2-DIN?

I noticed there's a lot of other harnesses, and possibly extra labor (electrically) to be done with other aftermarket products.

Thanks in advance!

jkowtko

This looks like an aftermarket radio with custom-fit faceplate and controls, mounting tabs, and pre-built wiring harness. You still have to do all of the excess wiring ... the only thing it will save you is getting a faceplate and spending time wiring up the harness.

I also don't see any fiber connections (which aftermarket radios don't have).

ncmudbug

I've never heard of Koolertron - that doesn't necessarily mean anything. It looks a lot like a Dynavin that I understand was made in China. A few people on this forum bought one and I never heard any complaints about them, but I would buy something from a more well-known brand like Pioneer or Kenwood. I have a Pioneer X940BT that I like pretty well and it cost me less than the Koolertron you pointed to (maybe about the same if you include the install kit, antenna adapter, harness, and steering wheel controls).

Just a thought.

Good luck and let us know what you got!

phister

if you want an OEM looking one go with Dynavin units

http://www.dynavin.com/products/product_1.php

phister

i got the older Pioneer F700bt for my audi for only 200 and upgraded all the firmware to 2013 maps. cool thing about pioneer is you can hack it and install maps and what not, the Pioneer units run on a windows program.

Check www.AVIC411.com its a site dedicated to the Pioneer headunits and if the pioneer site stopped doing firmware updates and map updates, members on there have made firmwares to upgrade them. Theres DIY on how to do it, all you need is a SD and it takes about 45 mins for it to load but you only do about 5mins of acutally doing anything most of it is the files moving over from the sd card to the hu hard drive. With that I like the Pioneer HU.

hcoronado

princejeeva

hi did you have to get a wiring harness to get the connection for the steering wheel and the factory amp to the aftermarket deck. Did you have any problems when installing?

Cruel-Merc

W203 2005

jim00seven

What brand/unit is this? Looks very nice!

Cruel-Merc

OEM command mcs II

mlopez218

ninouno

Looks nice! What model and brand is it?

mlopez218

Not sure, it's chinese but all in all works fine, specially the GPS! Audio quality could be better though.