WarmGXP

Hey guys, I have poked around a little on the internet tonight without finding much about the answers I'm looking for in regards to some damage to my 2006 Grand Prix GXP. I've owned this car for a few years, but I'm far from an expert on the interior and stereo stuff so I could really use some advice.

Today while I was at work my car was broken into by a (pretty unskilled?) thief. From the looks of it he stuck a screw driver between the glass and the front portion of the door and pried outward until the window broke. So not only do I have to buy glass, I have to figure out how to take care of the bent up door. Unfortunately, I think that's the easiest part of my repairs.

The criminal mastermind must not have brought along a phillips screwdriver, because instead of unscrewing the 4? 6? screws holding the nav unit in the dash he decided to break the plastic of the actual dash at every mounting corner. He then decided to tug/pry on the front the Nav unit, but not before ripping the off the slots where the clips of the dash trim snap in on each side. Fortunately or unfortunately the guy didn't figure out the unit was still being held to the dash in a couple more places, so he gave up and left.

Even though one side of the screen was bent nearly an inch away from the main part of the unit, the radio still functions somehow. I took it out of the car tonight (no reason to reward him if he comes back for round 2 tomorrow).

I decided to disassemble part of the Nav unit once I got it inside my apartment to see if I even had a prayer of getting it back in decent shape. I borrowed the picture below from a different thread on here, but that frame piece on my unit is completely mangled. I think with enough patience and time I may be able to straighten it, but I'm not sure.


The screen of the nav unit rides in a plastic frame with the outer portion being similar to the one I'm posting a picture of below. The difference being that the one for the nav unit has a track the screen rides in, slots for cd and dvd and a PCB screwed to the back. My question to you guys is, is there anywhere I can find one of these? I've looked around the web for someone selling a broken unit but haven't had any luck so far.





As for screwing this or any other unit back into the dash in the future... Since the thief broke all the mounting points off of the dash, how the heck will I go about installing something? Unless I'm overlooking something, I don't think this section of the dash can be removed and replaced even if I were to find another GXP at a junkyard or something. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I'd really like to fix this without spending an arm and a leg if possible. Being less than 1 year removed from college, shelling out $1000+ for a replacement radio/cd/nav & side window isn't really in the budget right now. (Student loans & rent are brutal even with a pretty decent job.) I'd love to find someone with a broken unit or something I could buy, but I have a feeling finding a needle in a haystack would be easier than that.

Sorry for rambling, but my mind is all over the place trying to wrap itself around this situation. In short, I'd really appreciate anyone sharing advice/ideas/expertise on this. If my descriptions of the damage are confusing let me know and I'll try to upload some pictures tomorrow.

(For anyone wondering this happened in the middle of the day, downtown in a pretty large city, in a pretty busy parking garage I pay to park in, that has 24/7 security. Also, the thief's total "haul" for his efforts was about $3 in loose change.)

tim4daflow

damn man sorry for ur troubles sounds like u had a shitty day! as far as the radio situation would have to see some pics to really understand whats all broken if its like the plastic trim on my GXP my dash cracked around the HUD i pulled the piece out and used some stuff i got from autozone that was like plastic bondo and sanded it smooth then used some dupli-color vinyl and fabric black paint it matched pretty damn good

dezldave961

You may need to do an epoxy/gorilla glue job on the tabs for the main dash framework, since it'd be a huge pain to get it all apart to replace right now. Luckily, cosmetics aren't an issue, since it's all covered by trim afterwards, so just re-attach and do a clean job.

Good luck, and update us with any progress, for reference to assist others in the future.

Sidenote on the HUD trim: for $75-85 you can get that HUD/defroster trim panel (p/n 15795046) from a place like gmpartscenter.net or another GM parts dealer online, and spend 20-30min replacing it, if you'd like to avoid current/future cracks in the original.

LeadfootDuramax

iTrader: (6)

Do you have full coverage insurance? With the damage to the door, window, etc it is going to cost some $$ to fix all of those things right. I would just go that route.

I have not tried to fix the items on the nav unit you are so I am not much help with that specifically. The suggestion above to order the new panel is good advice.

Post some pics of your car and the damage. We might be able to be a little better help.