I want to buy a double din stereo for my 96 blazer, the only problem is that sometimes I am in iffy neighborhoods, so a double din stereo is just begging to be stolen from my car. Has anyone used the stock radio as a face plate? I have seen in other car forums that they use the oem stereo, take it apart, and use the front as a faceplate for their new stereo. Or has anyone bought one(google dummy din faceplate) online?

 

never heard of buying one but have seen people make a fake that sits over the new. they even went as far to make a cd stick out of the fake and make it really unappealing. another great deterrent to thieves is a good alarm system. a flashing led on the dash is a great "dont mess with me" item that saves you hundreds if not thousands in the end

 

My buddy did that on his Scion xB and it looks great. When he's not in the car, he just tosses the faceplate over his nav system and nobody has messed with it yet.

 

You can buy the dummy faceplate on Ebay.
AS01 Detachable Dummy Security Faceplate for Universal Double DIN Car DVD Player | eBay
I might just buy this one, take my stock radio apart, and see which one fits better. I'll just buy an LED light to make it appear I have an alarm

 

tinted windows help a lot. put a piece of felt or some type of fabric over the radio so no one can even tell what is there. the false radio face is a perfect idea if you have room to deep set the replacement radio.

 

I probably wont even take out the dummy faceplate. I want the Double din stereo for the back USB input that it has. Just turn on the stereo with the remote. I always put my ipod on shuffle anyways.

I believe you cant have front tints in Illinois .

 

You can actually. Last year the law changed, but you cannot go more than 35% anywhere (rear windows, etc) if you do the fronts. I'm not sure about the percentage, but I do know you can for sure tint the fronts now. (My sister in law is a lawyer and made sure I was aware of this, haha)

 

I have the factory privacy tint in my rear windows(dont know the percentage). So I can do the front up to 35%? Anyone can give me a ballpark figure to tint my windows 35%?

 

The privacy tint is how dark you can go up front. It is 35% according to this site

 

maybe you can use this instead?

MP3 USB SD Player Module with Remote Control