[alien]

OK - so i got a new GPS and with a sierra window being small as it is, i needed to find a better way of mounting it... and it turns out the standard dash hole (most have the door bit snapped off) is a perfect size!

First i took off the door on mine (i had a hinge behind it) and gave it a good clean out:


Next was to make a cardboard template for some acryllic:


Template made, off to a signwriter i know to get it made out of 3mm acryllic, got it home and smoothed it out - nice rounded corners etc:


Now the fun part - burning a hole in the dash!!! Rather than a drill i figured a soldering iron would do a neater job - and it did VERY well!


Finished hole, cleaned up with some sandpaper as best as i could, its smooth to touch believe it or not:


Ran a wire through the hole and behind the dash, and attached my GPS cable:


Pulled the cable up behind the dash and with some needle nose pliers got it through the hole:


I first tried some foam double sided tape, but it wouldnt stick to the dash plastic, so i used some silicone instead - note the 2 globs at the 'front':


Acryllic installed into dash:


My 2 globs act as anti-vibration modulators:


New cigarette lighter plug installed under the glove-box, wired to IGN:


GPS Mount suctioned on to acryllic. I dont think it needed the suction either as it stuck pretty well without me locking it down! haha


GPS Unit clipped into the mount, hardly vibrates at all on low idle and no vibration while driving:

[gregdixon]

That GPS looks real nice. Is it still a 4.3" screen or is it bigger ?

[alien]

yeah thats 4.3" (110mm diag).

I'm also running it in "night mode" - its way easier to read at a glance.

i forgot to mention - the bend in the acryllic is so the glue holding it in has less stress on it, or, if the glue fails the acryllic wont tip up diagonally and fall out - plus it looks neater =)

[Bruce]

Looks great but CLEAN THE DUST AWAY

[alien]

dust? bah thats nothin! =)

yeah its pretty dirty in there - the flash makes it look way worse though.

No point cleaning it until summer is over. The dash/seats all get a wipe down after each trip out, but everything else (things you dont touch while driving) can wait. Its way too dusty here in summer, and i'd be cleaning the whole thing inside and out weekly if i was to try stay on top of it.

[vermin]

Be honest alien - you just need a project.

I know how you feel...I am always looking at Jimbo and wondering what other holes I can drill

Looks good - I think you will be happy.

[alien]

haha well it was fun to do, and considering the acryllic was free and everything else i already had, except the aftermarket plug ($24.95), it was cheap too!

[ando_zook94]

Awesome idea!

[Proxy]

How much to make me one? would one of these tomtom mounts work if i flipped it?

[alien]

haha i wouldnt make you one, but those pics show how easy it is to do =)

i think that mount would work just fine.

[Proxy]

alien wrote:

haha i wouldnt make you one, but those pics show how easy it is to do =)

i think that mount would work just fine.

fair enough, where would i go to get it made?

[alien]

any good signwriter... just make the cardboard template like i did, give them that and ask for it to be cut and bent out of 3mm acryllic. I used gloss black, you can get all sorts of colours as well as clear.

make sure your template is 100% spot on, and tell them the template is the outside dimensions, if they treat it as inside the acryllic wont fit in cos of the 3mm thickness.

[eXc450]

Looks good

Forgive my ignorance, but what is the acrylic for? Just looks? It seems that it only extended the existing dash by a few mm, and the mount isn't attached to the extended part anyway, so wouldn't the GPS mount have just fit straight into the existing hole?

Also, what did the acrylic cost you? I will keep it in mind for other stuff.

[alien]

Acryllic is there for 2 reasons:
1) the plastic is quite porous and not a nice smooth, shiny surface
2) where the hinges used to hold the door is not flush, and i had 2 screw holes from where i'd previously fixed my door with a piano hinge.

Another advantage is; because i routed the cable before installing the acryllic, the cable/plug cant fall back through the hole, as the acryllic is taking up space, reducing the size of the hole.

Another, other, advantage is the silicone under the acryllic providing some dampening to vibration... im sure its not doing much, but anythings better than nothing =)

I got the acryllic for free, cos i put a bit of work through the signwriter i used to make it. I wouldnt expect it to cost more than the time taken to cut and bend it though, maybe $20 tops?

[Benz]

I think it's just there so the gps mount sticks down properly.

they need a smooth glass like surface to stick to.

[Che]

Brilliant, i'm getting a square of acrylic to block the hole off completely. Is this something any old signwriter should carry? And the suction cap works 100% on the acrylic surface?


Also - does anyone have a pic from behind of the digi clock in the dash? I wanna to take it out with least damage to the rest of the dash... hopefully without taking the dash off.

[alien]

suction cap stuck to the acryllic without me locking it down (sucking it up)... its just as good of a surface as glass.

Most signwriters would carry it - whether they have the gear to bend it is a different story - but you're sealing yours so it wont matter.

i would however recommend you seal yours up before closing the front - if you look through the little hole where the door's latch clicks in you can see light from the demister vents - LOTS of dust gets in through there!

Personally though i wouldnt seal it shut, if you take the gps mount out and push the cable out the way you can still put stuff in there temporarily.

as for what the back of the clock looks like... no idea - theres way too much in the way to see behind it - although a search of the forums should give you the 'dashboard' thread - im sure theres a pic from behind in there?

[Che]

Here's how I mounted my GPS up high. No more wires down the centre of the windscreen:




Firstly i've secured the gps mount with a short bolt. I pulled off the rubbery suction cap off the gps mount and rolled a nice amount of bluetack in the same place to flatten and tighten into.




Getting stuff down the windscreen pillar was a piece of cake, took me about 30 seconds to jiggle this guide cable through the gaps




I sticky taped the GPS cable to the guide cable and pulled it back through



The GPS cable has three wires and a circuit/fuse, so I decided not to cut into it but to install the 12v socket I had spare under the dash, powered from the dash 12v socket wire.



Great success. This is what you want to see

[Che]

Edit ^^ pics now working