First post


I've had my new 1.2 Lounge for nearly a month now and my 'tinkering' side has started to twitch...

I ordered the TomTom predisposition and bought the Satnav, but am finding it a pain to keep picking the damn thing up from behind the seat and pulling it off the dash when I park (my last car had built-in satnav)

So I started thinking whilst stuck in traffic the other day how there must be another way and I came up with this:

(Cue dodgy photoshop job! )



Looking at pictures of stripped down dashboards there looks like room to push the base of the satnav back far enough to keep it flush with the top of the radio and as it is not very thick can keep the correct angle without going back any further than the top of the vent.

I have taken the first step by ordering a set of vents from ebay for a tenner and will start to modify this in the following way:

Cut down the middle of the centre portion of the vents and trim down the 'slats' enough to leave a gap in the middle.
Then construct a shroud to cover the tomtom by plastic welding scrap plastic.
Lots of filling and rubbing down followed by finding a suitably matching paint finish.
All of this can be done out of the car and it will all be reversible by replacing the stock vents.

Are there any other examples of this out there? I'm obviously aware of the chinese DVD player that fits in place of the radio and vents, but I like Blue&Me and have the interscope audio system.

Steve

A very interesting idea

Other than the Chinese unit, you can also get a double DIN kit to fit whatever double DIN unit:

http://incarmusic.co.uk/ct23ft13-fiat-500-double-din-facia-panel-adaptor-cage-kit.html

I don't like the idea of losing the side to side vent adjusters though.

I'm afraid there is one thing that is very very wrong with this.















You listen to Heart.

Only joking. Good luck with it. I have to say that if I tried to do what you are planning it would look a right dog's dinner.

I'll give you that one, to be fair it normally says 'blue & me media player' but the USB stick was at home in the laptop that day!

I've done stuff like this before, back in 1999 before most people knew what an mp3 was (!) I had a pc in the boot and an LCD screen between the seats of my old people carrier...

Steve

UFI said:

A very interesting idea

Other than the Chinese unit, you can also get a double DIN kit to fit whatever double DIN

I don't like the idea of losing the side to side vent adjusters though.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I hadn't seen that one, but am very happy with the sound and functions of the interscope and blue and me... Just hate all the plugging and unplugging of the sat nav... I drive 60 miles a day and have found the live traffic features invaluable for getting me to work on time, almost every day I end up on a different route, so still use it even when I know where I'm going..

I've often ended up losing centre air vents in previous carpc installs with no regrets and with this I will still be able to adjust as I will just make the opening narrower.. I'll post some pics once I've chopped up the new vents :devil:

Steve

Thanks eBay

Spare vent arrived today and was immediately pulled apart, I just have to plan my cuts now!



Steve

Slats removed and preserved ready to be shortened, centre part removed and split to preserve mounting points for slats. Next step is to find a suitable mould for the top, maybe a flowerpot or a plastic cereal bowl to match the shape of the speedo cowl.
[/IMG]

The other option is to buy a spare instrument cowl and chop it down to size.



More to follow....

Steve

Great idea to mirror the instrument binnacle's shape

UFI said:

Great idea to mirror the instrument binnacle's shape

Click to expand...

I want to make it look as OEM as possible so I think that has to be favourite, I'll have to cut wedges out of it to bring down the size and it might look odd with a rectangular screen in a rounded housing...

Next stop Ebay then off to photoshop land!

Steve

Seagull said:

it might look odd with a rectangular screen in a rounded housing

Click to expand...

It never stopped BMW doing it with the MINI:

OK, I've ordered a cream cowl off ebay for a tenner and have made a mockup of what it should look like...

To fill in the void between the satnav and the top of the circular binnacle I have added a digital voltmeter.

[/IMG]

Luckily my fabrication skills are better than my photoshop skills



In the second pic the surround has the dark grey grained finish of the dash, but I don't think I will be able to make the joint between that and the existing dash look right, so will probably fabricate that in plastic and finish it in the same paint finish as the front plastics.

BTW I am aware that this is fitted to a TAIF 005, the first decent pic I found was of a LHD car!

Steve

And you're still listening to Heart!

RobinPJ said:

And you're still listening to Heart!

Click to expand...

Do you know, I nearly edited that but thought no, nobody will mention it again.... lol

Seagull said:

Do you know, I nearly edited that but thought no, nobody will mention it again.... lol

Click to expand...

Here you go.

RobinPJ said:

Here you go.

Click to expand...

Hmmmm..... So Heart is wrong but R4 is OK?, I suppose I would be able to hear the satnav lady better lol

Just bought this.. only 1/2" high and will fit in fine, it's bright yellow and should match the other dials when behind some smoked black acrylic.

Yay, the next bit has arrived for me to start hacking up! The tricky bit here is to cut down the width so that I still have part of the air vents usable without making the shape look odd. I think if I cut out a section of about 3" from the middle I should be able to shape it to look right... I might even be able to keep the bottom part where it starts to curve back round, then I can use the menu control button holes for something....

Had a couple of hours free today so I got the multitool out and started cutting :devil:

First I had to trim part from the middle to get a pleasing width:



Rough edges are not a problem at this stage!



Trying it on for size...







Now I just have to keep cutting and filling until I get the right shape

Well so far this looks about how good a job I would make of it.....

The shape is starting to come together now, a little more 'plop' on it and I'll do some more this evening