LosAngelesLGT Posted February 23, 2010 Share Posted February 23, 2010 Thats about 10,000 x better than hideous post mounts!!! Maybe 100,000 x better. (And probably cheaper too! ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rytoe Posted February 24, 2010 Author Share Posted February 24, 2010 I did the exact same thing you did almost. When I was at auto zone i picked up one of those cup holders for 6.99. Cut it apart and stuck it in. This goes for the person wanting to maybe have it set in more. the top part where the plastic opens for the door to slide up will hold the plate in place and if you trim the rounded edge of the plate on the bottom to have "L" bends in them inverse to the way the rubber stick mat in there fits. Also, I cut the width a little shorter than what was suggested and put some standard auto weather stripping on the sides to seal it off and get a better hold. pics??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rytoe Posted February 24, 2010 Author Share Posted February 24, 2010 Nice job. What you did is very creative. I've been looking unsuccessfully for a suitable mount for my iphone. Something like this would be great. I'm just wondering how you deal with thieves. In my neck of the woods, they break into cars even if they see the outline of a suction cup on the windshield. I think the empty clip on the door might cause them to do the same thing if they think the device is stowed somewhere inside the car. When I leave my car after charging my phone, I even hide the loose charger cord so it's not visible. Sounds paranoid, but I've heard too many break-in stories. I guess i was hoping it looked more permanent, and not something that could be a smash n grab. although in my neck of the woods im not TOO concerned about it. Scooby Fan showed me his idea. He made a plastic plate that covered the unit. I didnt do that cause I didnt really like the look of it, and my car is always garaged. Tinting windows could help too... thats next on my list Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cholmes1 Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 Sorry for kicking an old thread and great DIY. I was curious if you had any ideas on how to mount the Garmin and still use the cover lid? I had a similar setup to yours on my Impreza and my car was broken into by someone looking for the GPS?! It, of course, was not in the car anytime I park overnight. They literally took nothing from the car, just shattered the passenger window, tore the glove box off, and the center console open and threw the contents everywhere. So for my legacy I would like to do this, but want it to be as stealth as possible. Ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icee0711 Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 Sorry for kicking an old thread and great DIY. I was curious if you had any ideas on how to mount the Garmin and still use the cover lid? I had a similar setup to yours on my Impreza and my car was broken into by someone looking for the GPS?! It, of course, was not in the car anytime I park overnight. They literally took nothing from the car, just shattered the passenger window, tore the glove box off, and the center console open and threw the contents everywhere. So for my legacy I would like to do this, but want it to be as stealth as possible. Ideas? Wow I forgot about this thread, and yet I still use this little mod every day. The way this particular thing works is the plastic plate is sized to kind of clip into the seams that the door uses, so you have to take it off. You might be able to fasten in a smaller plate by putting the screws in the walls of the cubby if you're willing. What I did was kind of ghetto but it holds so far.I glued the rubber stick mat to the plate I made and mixed with the weather stripping it puts a REAL tight hold but if I twist it just right I can pull the whole thing out and I do to hide it. I actually have to clean my car and put a belt on later today so I can look into other ways for you. Just hit 90k and all I need is a belt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cholmes1 Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Thanks for the info and update. I may just try to put in an OEM nav system or pay some fabricator to install an upgraded one in that spot... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsquarewi Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Sorry for kicking an old thread and great DIY. I was curious if you had any ideas on how to mount the Garmin and still use the cover lid? I had a similar setup to yours on my Impreza and my car was broken into by someone looking for the GPS?! It, of course, was not in the car anytime I park overnight. They literally took nothing from the car, just shattered the passenger window, tore the glove box off, and the center console open and threw the contents everywhere. So for my legacy I would like to do this, but want it to be as stealth as possible. Ideas? I was able to fit a Garmin 765T into the cubby with working lid. Here's an outside photo. I don't have the 'tear down' photos unfortunately. Basically it came down to a whole lot of cutting out the interior of the cubby pocket. I also had to cut out the center of the lid's interior door. The perimeter of the inside lid is held in by 2 very tiny screws through the top lip of the door. The 765t is mounted in it's cradle in the pocket on a [ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002T0EK64]short RAM plate flush mount [/ame]which is screwed into the back of the cubby pocket. The bottom of the cradle pretty much is sitting right on the top of the clock unit. The cradle power cord (which is needed for traffic) is plugged into an auxiliary power outlet I have hidden behind the lighter/ashtray assembly. Based on the fact that I was able to fit this unit in with the cradle I would guess that it may be possible to fit a 5" Garmin unit in sans cradle. The cradle adds maybe a 1/2 inch or so to the height of the total unit which is about the difference between this 4.3" and a 5" unit in height. I think the tipping point would be where the power jack is on a 5" if it would interfere or not. The only downside of this install is that I would call this a semi-permanent mount. There isn't enough room with the lid to lean the unit forward and out of the cradle. About the only way to get the unit out of the cradle is to take the cubby out and click it out with the lid in the down position and pull it up. This obviously can only be done when the whole unit is out of the car. EDIT: Added some additional close-up photos showing the cut-outs in the cubby to make room for this. I struggled with the inner part of the flip-lid and how to get it re-connected to the outer part and be rigid enough to support the side posts on the hinge. At first I tried glue (the reason it looks a bit messy on the inside) and then ended up using the tiny screws going down through the top lip of the outer shell into the separated inner pieces. Using black ones would have been better, but this was a "winging it" thing and found the tiny screws in my screw, odds-n-ends jar. These are some pretty up close and personal photos and trust me, you can't see any of this rough dremel work when sitting in the car. Looking up at the lid with your head by the cd player you can see it, but not in day-to-day usage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cholmes1 Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Great write-up and information bsquarewi. Thanks very much...I am currently looking at multiple options, but now that I know it can be done, that does provide some additional motivation. Best, Charles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsquarewi Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 If you are not looking for the latest and greatest in stand-alone GPS units, Motorola released a wide-screen GPS unit last year that would be an absolute perfect fit for an internal cubby install. http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/Consumer-Product-and-Services/MOTONAV/MOTONAV-TN765t-US-EN They unfortunately, have not shown any commitment to update it any further or expand the line. There are people out there that have worked on hackey updates for it but nothing official. I seriously considered swapping out my Garmin for one of these, but I may end up trying to find a 5" Garmin unit that I can squeeze in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shotokan1509 Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Not bad. I see you removed the shift knob, was that to get the console apart? If so, a trick to avoid it.. moving the gear selector out of park gives enough room to get the console over the knob. Of course do this with the car off, on level ground, and hte parking brake set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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