No one would break into a car to steal the radio-only stereo that comes with the car, would they? It doesn't even have a cassette deck! So when you get a good expensive stereo that plays CDs and mp3s and DVDs and laserdiscs and has 24 channel surround sound and a direct digital microwave link to every radio station in the country, make sure it has a faceplate that looks just like the crappy stereo that came with your car. Voila! No one will steal it.
-- omegatron, Jul 07 2004

a more generalized version here on the HB http://www.halfbake...0not_20get_20stolen
[luecke, Oct 04 2004]

A really boring faceplate http://www.wilcoweb.com/ghost/index.html
At least, I think it can be visited directly. [dpsyplc, Oct 04 2004]

JVC Chameleon http://www.garagevi...e/tuning/radio.html
Try Babel Fish to read the german... [PainOCommonSense, Oct 04 2004]

Definately baked, but I can't remember if I saw the pic on the web or in a car magazine.
The cover for the head unit had dials and everything on it.
-- MikeOliver, Jul 07 2004


I was thinking to myself today that VH1, MTV, and some reality TV should provide a nice distraction instead of editing sound or obscuring naughty video. I thought immediately of a boring automobile stereo faceplate, because if it's supposed to look different on TV -- it's supposed to look different enough that you can't see it on radio. A side effect of the visual add and tuning subtract would be a loss of offensive program sufficient to alter the perceptions of victims of the jive propaganda, and a further incentive for producers of offensive material to clean it before release or to risk loss of profit as loyalists bail.
-- dpsyplc, Jul 07 2004


I would like to do this for my Pioneer unit, which has a really awful user interface anyway. There's a 12-pin connector that this plugs into. I don't know the protocol or pinout, and my reverse-engineering skillz aren't l33t enough to work it out. I could see if they sell the unit separately, then buy one and redo the switches - it'll certainly look cheap then! :-)
-- rmd6502, Jul 07 2004


Did someone steal dpsypic's brainplate?
-- lostdog, Jul 07 2004


Zero Relevancy anecdote: I was caught by the cops once for driving without due care and attention. I was just looking down changing the radio when the police guy told me to pull over.

Shame I had just about got the new one plugged in and everything too....

But seriously JVC do the Chameleon which looks great when it is turned on but looks folds it self in to look like the front has been removed from a cheap face-off car stereo. it's Great!
-- PainOCommonSense, Jul 08 2004


dpsyplc... have you been on the wacky baccy? Also (totally unrelated)..is your name pronounced "disciple"?
-- david_scothern, Jul 08 2004



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