# 2008 Lexus IS250 Double Din



## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

Did this one last week. It was actually quite a bit easier than I thought it was going to be, hardest part being prep for paint but the radio bolted right in and removing the circuit board from the factory deck allowed the climate control to work like normal without stashing the whole radio someplace. Here's the pics. 









The victim
























Here's the circuit board that needs to be removed. Just unplug the ribbon cable at the front, remove two screws and it lifts right off.


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

I made a little ABS box to house the circuit board and cut out a hole for the Molex plugs to peek out, making the installation much easier.
















Here's the radio all bolted in place.








Just getting an idea of where I need to cut.








After all the cutting and grinding. I chose to leave the top part on so that it could still clip into the factory panel like normal. I tried to leave the bottom on, but due to the angle of the deck, the bottom part made the sides bow out a bit.








A close-up of how I chose to fill in the little circles. After grinding the surface flat, the factory plastic was a little thin for me to trust a plastic adhesive. So, I made a piece of ABS to go a little bit further behind, secured that with CA glue, put some nice deep gouges all around and then packed the hole with UPOL filler. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of this part, but I'm sure you get the idea.








I also had to modify these little silver pieces on the sides of the dash so that the new radio did not push them to the side, causing gaps.








I mounted the a/c box to the radios mounting brackets. It fit perfectly.








The harnesses came up over the top and plugged in.


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

Here is the piece all painted and installed.
















Factory change drawer opens and closes no problem and the screen opens easily.
















And a couple of shots of the car just because I think it is particularly bad ass.


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## Jumbo Jet (May 31, 2008)

Nice! Looks great


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## BlueAc (May 19, 2007)

Nice!!!


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

good lord Jon hahaha...I would have chickened out and went with the beat sonic kit and single din and lost the vents if an IS owner wanted an aftermarket headunit that badly 

awesome!


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

What is beat sonic? It really isn't that bad too be honest man. Do it... come on... do it!


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## BlueAc (May 19, 2007)

Beat-Sonic AOK-15

Looks like crap... I couldn't see u using that Bing!


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## ISTundra (Jan 3, 2009)

Nice work, as usual.

I've seen this car around. Did this guy have an MS-8 in the trunk?

And I agree -that beat sonic kit looks like ass


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## jtaudioacc (Apr 6, 2010)

great work! that beat sonic kit doesn't look too good for that car. but, most of them do look really great. many of them are factory toyota parts, too. just differs from car to car.


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

Oh wow, yeah I would never use that thing.

ISTundra, yes he does have an MS-8 in the trunk. I am redoing his amp rack next.


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## Salad Fingers (Jun 14, 2009)

Yea, we did a 350 about a year ago and put a P99RS down in that same spot. It had factory nav and the climate control worked fine. Then a couple of months ago I sold a guy in a 250 a Kenwood KIV-700 and some Boston amps and subs. He didn't have factory nav or the Levinson system, and we had to keep the board from the factory HU in there like you did. We also couldn't get the factory amp to turn on, so a 2XS and Boston GT-4100 were added to the work order. We also added a battery in the factory amp location. He had just bought the car a couple of days before, was planning on keeping for a long time, and since we had already taken the board out of the radio we just used the front plastic from the factory radio and molded it (like it looks like you did). Where did you get the paint you used? We had a local paint shop mix ours up, and while it came out pretty good it wasn't perfect. It actually looks better in person, but here is a link to how it turned out...

Mobile Sound Systems's Photos - Lexus IS 250 2007 | Facebook

Bing, you should not be afraid of this vehicle at all. Also, please don't ever put that goiter of a dash kit the Beat Sonic makes for this car. For as cool as some of their other stuff is I just don't know why they made that thing!!


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## Niebur3 (Jul 11, 2008)

It looks very nice. Was it was possible, meaning was there room to have moved the whole center stack down so that the hazard button section was at the bottom of the stack. Then remove the radio display and moved the HVAC display down to where the radio display was and installed the DD HU so it looks like the factory touch screen?


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## Niebur3 (Jul 11, 2008)

Salad Fingers said:


> Yea, we did a 350 about a year ago and put a P99RS down in that same spot. It had factory nav and the climate control worked fine. Then a couple of months ago I sold a guy in a 250 a Kenwood KIV-700 and some Boston amps and subs. He didn't have factory nav or the Levinson system, and we had to keep the board from the factory HU in there like you did. We also couldn't get the factory amp to turn on, so a 2XS and Boston GT-4100 were added to the work order. We also added a battery in the factory amp location. He had just bought the car a couple of days before, was planning on keeping for a long time, and since we had already taken the board out of the radio we just used the front plastic from the factory radio and molded it (like it looks like you did). Where did you get the paint you used? We had a local paint shop mix ours up, and while it came out pretty good it wasn't perfect. It actually looks better in person, but here is a link to how it turned out...
> 
> Mobile Sound Systems's Photos - Lexus IS 250 2007 | Facebook


I like the pic!


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## trojan fan (Nov 4, 2007)

Niebur3 said:


> I like the pic!



That one also looks nice and clean


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

Niebur3 said:


> It looks very nice. Was it was possible, meaning was there room to have moved the whole center stack down so that the hazard button section was at the bottom of the stack. Then remove the radio display and moved the HVAC display down to where the radio display was and installed the DD HU so it looks like the factory touch screen?


I'm not too sure, didn't pay attention to that part of it but I'd sure as hell be willing to try! I'd much rather do it that way.


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

Salad Fingers said:


> Yea, we did a 350 about a year ago and put a P99RS down in that same spot. It had factory nav and the climate control worked fine. Then a couple of months ago I sold a guy in a 250 a Kenwood KIV-700 and some Boston amps and subs. He didn't have factory nav or the Levinson system, and we had to keep the board from the factory HU in there like you did. We also couldn't get the factory amp to turn on, so a 2XS and Boston GT-4100 were added to the work order. We also added a battery in the factory amp location. He had just bought the car a couple of days before, was planning on keeping for a long time, and since we had already taken the board out of the radio we just used the front plastic from the factory radio and molded it (like it looks like you did). Where did you get the paint you used? We had a local paint shop mix ours up, and while it came out pretty good it wasn't perfect. It actually looks better in person, but here is a link to how it turned out...
> 
> Mobile Sound Systems's Photos - Lexus IS 250 2007 | Facebook
> 
> Bing, you should not be afraid of this vehicle at all. Also, please don't ever put that goiter of a dash kit the Beat Sonic makes for this car. For as cool as some of their other stuff is I just don't know why they made that thing!!


Looks good man.

The paint was a Duplicolor that was almost a dead on match. If I could change anything about it, I would have used a satin or a flat clear on it because the sheen was a bit off. I'll get the name of the paint tomorrow at the shop and let you know.


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

you prolly right on not using that kit, but then again, i see stuff like that on JDM magazines on really gorgeous installs lol...maybe its got that JDMness factor 

so this is a non nav model right? i have yet to encounter one of those...i assume you cant do this to a nav model becuase the screen integrates with the stock audio?


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

Salad Fingers said:


> Yea, we did a 350 about a year ago and put a P99RS down in that same spot. It had factory nav and the climate control worked fine.


I assume dash is the same between 250 and 350?


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## [email protected] (Nov 7, 2010)

Niebur3 said:


> It looks very nice. Was it was possible, meaning was there room to have moved the whole center stack down so that the hazard button section was at the bottom of the stack. Then remove the radio display and moved the HVAC display down to where the radio display was and installed the DD HU so it looks like the factory touch screen?


That would be a LOT of work. YOu would basically be rebuilding the whole dash. IIRC the hvac and radio were all together, so getting that apart might take quite a bit of work.
The dash tapers as it gets lower, so you would have to trim the sides as it went down, and then deal with the bevel on the outside edge..

Way, WAY more work to do it that way....


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## Salad Fingers (Jun 14, 2009)

JayinMI said:


> I assume dash is the same between 250 and 350?


Yea, the only difference in dashes that I've seen is nav or non-nav. Even then the area where we and the OP put the aftermarket is the same.


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## Salad Fingers (Jun 14, 2009)

simplicityinsound said:


> so this is a non nav model right? i have yet to encounter one of those...i assume you cant do this to a nav model becuase the screen integrates with the stock audio?


Yea this one and the one in the pic I posted are non-nav models. The only thing you have to do is keep the board from the factory radio in the car. It's small enough to stuff back in behind your aftermarket. The first one I referenced to with the P99RS in it was a 350 with nav and everything worked just fine! For whatever reason it's only the ones without nav that have something for the AC running through them. I've seen the stuff you do and either version of this vehicle would be a cake walk for you.


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## Niebur3 (Jul 11, 2008)

JOey Knapp said:


> That would be a LOT of work. YOu would basically be rebuilding the whole dash. IIRC the hvac and radio were all together, so getting that apart might take quite a bit of work.
> The dash tapers as it gets lower, so you would have to trim the sides as it went down, and then deal with the bevel on the outside edge..
> 
> Way, WAY more work to do it that way....


Sure, more work, I never said it would be less. But the results would be amazing if done right. I did something similar with my TL and it came out really good. 

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/1287654-post158.html


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## specc00 (Jan 6, 2011)

the color is almost spot on after the paint is completely dry. I also added an aswc to retain my steering wheel controls.


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## jjwwttyy (Feb 13, 2011)

i got the factory nav so what is the best location to install the aftermarket head unit? by doing that, will the nav and the button still work?


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## Salad Fingers (Jun 14, 2009)

jjwwttyy said:


> i got the factory nav so what is the best location to install the aftermarket head unit? by doing that, will the nav and the button still work?


Same place as in the pics, and you don't have to worry about the A/C stuff we've been talking about.


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## eviling (Apr 14, 2010)

its nice and all but why didn't you just put the cd changer on the bottom. or take it out all together, with ipod connection, i have had my pioneer avic z 130 for like 3 weeks now and i don't even think i've ever opend it to put a cd in, the only time i opned it was to check if it works lol. only cd i ever use is my ms-8 cd, and i'm gonna rip that to my ipod soon so i dont even have to do that


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## Salad Fingers (Jun 14, 2009)

eviling said:


> its nice and all but why didn't you just put the cd changer on the bottom. or take it out all together, with ipod connection, i have had my pioneer avic z 130 for like 3 weeks now and i don't even think i've ever opend it to put a cd in, the only time i opned it was to check if it works lol. only cd i ever use is my ms-8 cd, and i'm gonna rip that to my ipod soon so i dont even have to do that


Huh?


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## jjwwttyy (Feb 13, 2011)

Salad Fingers said:


> Same place as in the pics, and you don't have to worry about the A/C stuff we've been talking about.


so i can just disconnect the radio from the car and get rid of the factory radio? is there anything that i need to keep?i am sending my car to the audio shop next week and they told me the only choice for my factory nav still working is the place the aftermarket one at the middle A/c vent which is located at the top of sat nav and therefore there wont be any A/C in the middle.


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

eviling said:


> its nice and all but why didn't you just put the cd changer on the bottom. or take it out all together, with ipod connection, i have had my pioneer avic z 130 for like 3 weeks now and i don't even think i've ever opend it to put a cd in, the only time i opned it was to check if it works lol. only cd i ever use is my ms-8 cd, and i'm gonna rip that to my ipod soon so i dont even have to do that


Im not too sure what you're talking about. I completely removed the factory disc player. Also, most people don't use cd's anymore, but some do.



jjwwttyy said:


> so i can just disconnect the radio from the car and get rid of the factory radio? is there anything that i need to keep?i am sending my car to the audio shop next week and they told me the only choice for my factory nav still working is the place the aftermarket one at the middle A/c vent which is located at the top of sat nav and therefore there wont be any A/C in the middle.


I'd probably go to another shop man. I would never use that dash kit thing that was listed on this thread. Lose and a/c vent? Are you kidding? I live in AZ!


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## ISTundra (Jan 3, 2009)

My understanding is this...

For systems with OEM NAV, you can remove the cd changer unit at the bottom and still retain all your NAV & climate control functions. Here's the problem, you have two choices to grab your audio source signal:

1. After the OEM amp, in which case the signal is stepped on pretty heavily by DSP and divided by channel, so you'll need a processor to overcome this. Don't try the MS-8, it doesn't work in this situaton with the OEM NAV.

2. Grab the source signal out of the NAV unit. If you do this, you'll lose volume functions processed in the OEM amp, like voice guidance and BT, maybe others.

Someone can clarify if I'm wrong. I tried #1, with the MS-8 in an IS350 with NAV.


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## suka4thong (May 14, 2008)

awsome work!
wish you were in so cali to do mine!


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