Cheap Anti Theft Device for Your Automobile's Cd Player

Intro: Cheap Anti Theft Device for Your Automobile's Cd Player

Has somebody stolen your expensive (or cheap) cd player in your car? Tired of removing and hiding your radio's faceplate everytime you park your car? Well here is a simple solution. Make a fake cassette face plate for your expensive radio! Fool those conniving thieves. It should cost you $free - $5 the most.

Things you need:

Old OEM (original manufacture equipment) radio that came with your car or from a pick n pull junkyard.
Glue or glue gun
Cutting device ( dremel like tool or other sharp object)
ductape
card board
black marker

STEP 1: Remove Cassette Face Plate

Most oem radios has a plastic face that are held by snap on tabs. Just pry these tabs to get the plate off the radio's mainbody. Keep all plastic knobs ,buttons, cassette flap and anything that is visible from the face plate. If there are wires just cut them. You can toss the main body, what we need is the face plate and its buddies.

• remember to dispose old electronics properly

STEP 2: Clean Up the Inside of the Face Plate

What we need to do is remove extra plastic that is sticking out inside the face plate. Use a dremel to clear things out or some really sharp knife.

*careful with the sharp tools

STEP 3: Place Some Backing Materials

After gutting the face plate we need something to glue the buttons, knobs, lcd etc. I used some card board. Keep in mind we need the inside of the face plate as recessed as possible cause this is where your cd player's faceflate will "hide".

Glue the buttons and knobs. I also glued the lcd screen to the face plate to convey a more authentic radio. If there are card board showing just use a black marker to hide it,

STEP 4: Finish Product!

In order to keep the face plate from falling from your cd player you can glue some extra plastic, velcro, small magnets, paper clips or what ever you think will keep it from falling. Be creative! I used a 1inch by 1/2 inch pice of metal that I glue to the face plate which slides in to a gap on top of my cd player.

Comments

[stich626]

I like the idea, but it only work in vehicles old enough to have used a unit with a tape deck..
I did this years ago in my s-10 that had a din and a half g.m. radio.. put the am/fm face plate over the "better radio" .. it worked, as this was before the head units had removable faces, and you took the whole radio out of the cage, and took it with you.. great idea, back in the day, but if a thug saw you walking with it, they asked themselves what else is in that vehicle?

[Napalmjerry1391]

yeah, or you could just take the face off like a normal human being

[Cousin eddie]

The thing is.... that a lot of people DO take the faceplate off & then stash it under the seat or somewhere else in the car... because they are lazy. ANd thieves know this.... so they may break into your car anyway in hopes of finding the stashed faceplate. And if they dont find it... they will often damage your headunit (or another part of your car)out of retribution. I PERSONALLY prefer to affix razor blades to the edges of my headunit (and remove the facplate). Sure, I may have to clean up a bunch of blood, but at least the thief gets what he deserves.

[DriX]

You can attach razor blades to the underside of the seat, so when the thief searches with his hand, he will get a nice surprise.

[vallesan]

lol great idea thx

[andrew101]

ok do that and leave ur car unlocked in a busy parking lot with a hidden camera fr like 6 hours and send me the footage pleez :D

[cry_wolf]

If you actually do that i give you maddd props :D

[yesterdays_girl]

But they might want the unit itself because a lot of times multiple faceplates fit multiple DACs.

[camp6ell]

and not every head unit has a removable faceplate, einstein.

[Derin]

yea but for oem wolkswagens the interesting thing is that one has removable faceplate one does not.the one with the remvble is from a vw 2001 transporter and both are blaupunkt

[z3ds]

Yeah you are right! but I think it is also normal for a human being to be innovative don't ya think?

[Jolleyman]

I think putting a fake faceplate on to discourage theft is pretty innovative, don't you?

[MadMechanicMike]

even with the face plate removed theres still a visible head unit. anyone who really wants it will probably take the time to steal it. for one, you can sell head units without face plates. the plates can be purchased for cheaper than the entire head unit, obviously. also, if i was a thief and i saw a head unit, face plate or not, i could deduct that they could have more audio devices in the trunk, ie subs, amps, cd changers, etc. once i know this it would be worth it to break in and try to take them. on the other hand, if i see that theres an old crappy stock stereo in there im gonna move on to the next car.

[jomac_uk]

To be honest, i would rather hide the face plate, its OK making a false cd player front that looks good, and saves your real cd player from theft, but what about the damage the thief makes getting into your car after the dummy CD player, not counting any extra damage he causes because he then trashes the inside of your car in temper. I think its simpler just to remove the faceplate and take away all temptation, nice idea though.

[Blackice504]

great idea and to the man who said put a tape that sticks out that would be great as well but i think that you should be able to install the security system from Robocop MagnaVolt if you not seen this its a little ad in the movie and basicaly it kills the low life that try's to break in the car by electric shock. coz at the end of the day they are in the wrong and should pay for that. same with homes. sure maybe have a warning on the car window or house window or something and if there dead the police just remove the body from your car or home.

[slaggerr]

 Might be nice if you cut a tape into say 1/4 and have it sticking out.  I would think that a thief would spend less time inspecting your goods if he sees a tape in there.  Good idea all around.

[1dot21gigaflops]

My 240 got broken into a few months ago, they didn't take my crappy CD deck though. I thought about using hex or square screws for the deck and the module it screws into. or even welding it in there...

[ThinkBeforeYouSpeak]

yeah my kicker subwoofers, diamond audio amp and Side Speakers and alpine ceck were stolen, $5600 down the drain, who takes the side speakers anyway, lmfao

[Derin]

my dream is fitting the alarm to a car stereo so the thief gets to cr** his pants

[syrax]

That car look like mazda ? :) Or wrong?