I got sick of the stock radio being a piece of crap. Despite it having good sound it was clunky and I no longer own a CD so the 3 disk in-dash changer + the extra 6 disks in the boot seemed like an awful waste of space.
I fitted a used Alpine head unit I had laying around, Is certainly not new but has all the good stuff I will ever need including a radio, usb input and bluetooth. I disassembled an old genuine radio, removed the plugs and used them to make up an adapter harness rather than hacking all of the wiring to bits. It also allowed me to use all of the original amplifiers. The only item sacrificed was the centre dash speaker. On a positive note the head unit has an additional sub out so I built a box and installed a 12inch subwoofer as well.
I had intended tracking down a non centre speaker dash but instead figured I might use the old speaker mount and cover to house my boost gauge that has been mounted so far in 2 different and equally terrible spots. I grafted a piece of plastic tube unto the top of the speaker cover and then wrapped the whole lot in the carbon wrap I used on the dash trim. I intend covering it in grained grey vinyl so that it will match in with the dash but this will do until i can find some that is suitable. As a bonus, there is plenty of space for at least one more gauge if I ever feel the need.
While I was at that stage I took the opportunity to pull the dash out and repair the broken dash mounts. To my surprise only one was broken. Was a relatively easy fix using some sikaflex and some light steel plate.
I also fitted my V70R cluster. The second hand one I purchased had 400 000 odd km on it so I pulled them both apart and fitted the faces and needles to my original cluster.... problem solved
oh... and replaced the broken glovebox insert while I was at it.
