They don’t make ‘em like they used to, and perhaps that’s a good thing.

So as you may know I like taking shit apart. (which is perhaps the reason I registered takeshitapart.com ). Anyway, I managed to scrounge a 6.5″ display and decided it belonged in my ’08 Ford Focus.

Now the first car I started messing with the electronics in was a 1986 LTD. To swap the radio, you opened the ash tray (remember those?) and pulled two phillips screws, the center area opened up and you swapped the radio. I had a few similar era LTD’s. It got so I could swap radios in these in less than two minutes.

Now flash forward… um almost twenty years? It’s gotten more complex, not even the almighty crutchfield has a tear apart for my focus yet.

But I did find this which helped me in my quest.

http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=147694

Long and the short of it is in the three hours since I came home from work I did manage to get the radio out. I ran out of daylight, so I just have a gaping hole where my dash used to be, but hopefully by 8 AM tomorrow (I’ll work on it before I go to work), I’ll have a nice little LCD to which I can attach a Mac Mini, or maybe just my iPod to.