Some coupes have an airbag in this position but mine did not. After looking inside the dash I decided that there was enough space to mount a changer. I then set about removing the trim panel and cutting a hole in the dash big enough for the mod. Using a dremel to cut through the steel reinforced foam padded vinyl made the job easier but certainly not easy!

I then manufactured a mounting panel which was GRPd in place and reinforced with steel straps.

The trim panel was then trimmed on the inside and fitted with big hinges (necessary because of the compound curvature of the dash - it has to push the flap out as well as down.

Cutting the dash - a daunting process!
I used a dremel with glass fibre cutting disk for most of this.

When the original Audi part was removed, it left am imprint of where it had met up with the dash. This mark was used as a guide to the cutting and I made sure not to cut within 1mm of this mark. Doing this meant thet when the flap was shut, there was absolutely no sign that anything was different to standard.

Mocking up the conversion base. It was decided that hinges this size were needed because of the complex compound curvature of the dash. The hinges were needed to push the flap out as well as down to clear the dash. Smaller hinges would simply notr have been able to accomplish this. Using these hinges & limited by the size of the flap - I estimated that I had about 2mm either side of the changer for errors! Vertical mounting clearances were similarly restricted!

The shaped 'flap plate'.
This was made out of a piece of MDF and P38. Whilst here the MDF looks flat, it was in fact hollowed out on the back due to the curvature of the VAG part.

The back of the Audi panel was covered in tin foil, then the wood was hot glued in place. P38 body filler was then used to smooth in the edges. Thwn dried this was trimmed off and covered with black vinyl for a very professional finish.

All the parts finished and coloured.

How the base was fitted to the car - Resin along the fromt edge then a few steel straps to bolt it firmly to the car's heater ducting & fan housing.
You can see here the cut ducting. This was replaced with flexible ducting leftover from a previous job! This new ducting gave the changer the couple more centimetres needed.

The flap and base fixed in place.

Job done!

page 1 = Intro
page 2 = Doorbuilds
page 3 = Sub box
page 4 = Stealth CD changer install
page 5 = Amplifier mounting
page 6 = Other Audio bits
page 7 = More car pics