Trannyman95

After stewing over finding a factory cd player or going aftermarket I opted aftermarket. I tried to do some searching on DD installs in a 97 and read that "yeah it will fit fine" to "cutting required" , then decided to take a stab at it. I wasnt looking for anything fancy or expensive and didnt like the idea of a single din radio in the gaping hole in the dash where the stock one sits and outside of a Navi or DVD unit there wasnt much options until I came across the new Pioneer FH-P8000BT cd player. It doesnt have much glamour but seemed to be loaded with good usable features, especially the built in Blue Tooth capabilities. I bought the radio a few weeks ago and last weekend got around to installing it. Below are pics of what I had to do to make it fit. When I originally removed the stock radio I was in shock with the lack of room for a double din radio, but the room IS there after you do some cutting. I already had a Ford late 90s installation kit which was nothing more than a few trim pieces and some side plates that screw to the radio and click into the stock trim, but that didnt work out for this truck at all and was meerly used for spacers to hold the radio snug in place. I had to remove the black housing that the radio sits in and cut it up and to drill holes and run long screws through the side of the radio to keep it from wanting to sag. After cutting out the plastic in the back of the dash and putting the radio in I found that there was a metal bracket that holds a module that was getting in the way. At first I trimmed part of it and after playing with the way the radio sits in the dash it was just in the way altogether so I removed it and the module is laying on the radio as there isnt much room for it. Anyways the pics show what I had to trim and do for fitment and I hope this is useful to anyone interested in see what is really involved! BTW the radio sounds TONS better than the factory unit did! I havent even used a cd in it yet but really like the Bluetooth as it came with a mic that you put on the visor so you can talk on the phone hands free and store up to 400 #s in the memory, and also keep up to 3 devices programmed so you can have 3 different phones if you need, his and hers for us which works great and the voice on the other end is very very clear which was suprising to me. There are a lot of options in this radio, more than i will ever use. It also has a USB plug and included extension cable that is IPOD ready and you can also plug in USB memory sticks with music on them which is handy also if you have music on your pc that you want to play on the radio.

NGM

Good looking install. How long did it take ya?

Trannyman95

Longer than I planned! I really didnt know what it was going to take to make it fit, I would say after putting together and taking apart a handful of times for checking fit I had a good 2-3 hours in everything. Being that I had no idea what needed cut it was all trial and error. I hope anyone thinking about going DD can find this info helpful to save a lot of agrevatoin!