"Toyobaru" Ultimate Radio Panel
To quote Justin Hammer from Iron Man 2, "This is my Eiffel Tower. This is my Rachmaninoff's Third. My Pieta. It's completely elegant, it's bafflingly beautiful, and it's capable of reducing the population of any standing structure to zero."
Okay, that last part might not technically be true (unless you're wiring up some things I don't want to know about), but the rest is! I've taken my switch panels to the next level with this bolt-in replacement for that useless (and terrible-sounding) radio your car came with. Pop the old radio out, bolt this one in (well, you'll need to do whatever wiring you want to do first), and you're good to go!
There's a lot more customizability on offer for this one, so please check out the product description below for the full details!
NOTE: My understanding is this should fit vehicles with the "trapezoidal" head units, but it will require you to acquire the older "square style" trim pieces for the dash.
Note: Switch panels are made-to-order, and may take up to one month to ship.
I want to stress up-front that I expect this to be a very low-volume part. A halo product if you will. These are not mass-produced. They are made individually, and take a fair amount of my spare time (and this is my side-gig; I also have a full time job). The high price reflects that, along with the fact that I use premium switches (for example, the panel in the promo photos contains $115 worth of switches alone), and the fact that each order can be customized rather thoroughly.
This is a drop-in replacement for the OEM radio. The main chassis consists of three parts:
- The front face: This is CNC machined from black ABS, and is the surface to which the switches and faceplate mount.
- The rear support bracket: This is also CNC machined from black ABS, and provides structural rigidity (there is no flex whatsoever), as well as locks the industrial switches in the proper orientation.
- The mounting brackets: These are 3D printed out of black PETG plastic, and contain embedded hex nuts into which the bolts thread (they are NOT merely threaded into the plastic.)
The faceplate is black anodized aluminum, which is CNC cut and CNC drag-engraved. It is fixtured in place by the switches themselves; not the bolts. The bolt heads sit recessed through the facepate and tighten down onto washers recessed into front face. This is to prevent the faceplate from deforming when the bolts are tightened, and the sunken bolts look a little cooler/cleaner that way.
Four different types of switches are offered with this panel. Note that the bottom row only allows for the round, black toggle switches. The top row, however, can accomodate any of the four styles. All of these are high-quality APIELE switches with an excellent, sharp, clicky feel to them when engaged.
- Black Ring-LED Toggle: These 10A rated switches are finished in turned, black aluminum, and can be had as either momentary or latching. Choose from 5 LED colors (red, blue, amber, green, white). They are 1NO1NC style (four leads), with two additional leads for the LED (+/-).
- Selector Switch: These 10A rated industrial switches feature a silver aluminum collar. The black knobs are high quality plastic, with very little wobble. They are 1NO1NC style, featuring screw connectors. The entire rear portion of the switch can be removed separately.
- Key Switch: These 10A rated industrial switches feature a silver aluminum collar. They come with two keys each. They are 1NO1NC style, featuring screw connectors. The entire rear portion of the switch can be removed separately.
- Push Stop Switch: These 10A rated industrial switches feature a gold aluminum collar, and a red aluminum knob with white, laser-engraved lettering. They are 1NO1NC style, featuring screw connectors. The entire rear portion of the switch can be removed separately.
Each of your four switches can be labeled with the text of your choosing. You will note in the product photos that there are a variety of ways to label a switch. By default I offer two different sizes of text, as well as the option to "reverse highlight" the entire button (the "START" button in the photos) You can also option dividing lines between buttons. I am open to offering additional customizations (such as the arrows you see on the right), but I am not an artist, so these must be simple and relatively easy for me to implement (there are also limitations due to the fact that things are drag-engraved.)
There are simply too many customization options to simply offer them on the page, so I will reach out individually to open a discussion regarding your switches and engravings, and will provide mock-ups for you to confirm before proceeding with the order.
And yes, the panel comes fully assembled!
Installation is simple: pop the radio trim piece off, unscrew the four bolts securing the radio, remove the radio (being sure to disconnect all the harnesses), and then use those screws to install this switch panel (it is recommended you start threading all four bolts in, then tighten the LOWER bolts first, and then the UPPER bolts, and do not overtighten them as you can crack the mounts if you do so.
Wire harnesses are included for each push button switch, and the other switches include removable "wiring blocks," for lack of a better term. Wiring is going to be different for each person depending on what they are wiring, and how they are doing it, so that is left up to you to do. Each switch has 4 primary connections: two NO, and two NC (and the LED switches have two additional connections for LED +/-. You can use these connections to configure the switches to operate in different ways. You won't always use all of the connections). For example, the LEDs can be on ALL the time, or only when the switch is activated. A guide is included with your order to help you in this regard.