hey, I want to find a way to mount my Garmin on the front cupholder, which I will hopefully be able to close with the Garmin on it. I've see this visor mount Garmin makes:


I figure I can rig something up, assuming I can find clips that don't have such a big arc...something more tight like a flat cotter pin or something. Anyone know what type of clip or fastener I'm looking for and where I might find them? I saw some cheap-a$$ aftermarket visor mirror at Target today, and I was tempted to buy it and throw the mirror away, cuz the clips look like they might work....

 

I tend to forget about that cup holder, but now that you mention it, I'm going to try and do something similar for my TomTom. A bonus would be to somehow route the power cable back through the cup holder and out the bottom of the dash (or maybe even hardwire it)!

 

you work on the wiring, I'll keep at the mount. I bought one of those cheap visor mirrors, $1.99 at the supermarket. The clips are perfect but I wish I could also use the plastic back of the mirror, but it's a tad too wide.

Garmin makes a ball mount that I see online for about $5:

I think I'm just a piece of plastic and some Gorilla glue away from completion....

 

slightly different question, but I hate to start another dumb thread: does anyone know how to remove the "upholstery" from the cupholder? It must be removable so that MB can make one cupholder part and cover with every different dash color. My thought is that if I can easily enough remove and reinstall that little quadrilateral of gray vinyl, I'll drill holes into the plastic part behind it and mount the Garmin ball I bought.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking, and it's pretty easy to remove. With the cup holder extended, slide the dash portion upwards -- it comes right off.

 

Not sliding right up; 'fraid to force it...

 

Not coming right off; don't wanna force it.

 

allright, I'm back to this crazy idea. I gave up on removing the dash-colored vinyl: I think it's held on with some kind of adhesive, and I don't want it to be to hard to restore it to original. I started thinking about taking some kind of fabric, maybe vinyl, and adhering it to the INSIDE of the cupholder, but having this fabric cut into such a shape that it would flop over or drape over the cupholder when it's closed. The more I tried to think about what material would be pliable enough to drape yet strong enough to mount the GPS to, the more I started thinking it might not need adhesive at all. It occurred to me that plastic, like the kind milk gallons are made of, might work. Unfortunately, today was trash day, and I had this eureka moment after my recycling had been picked up. Anyway, I made a "prototype", if you can call it that. Let's start with an "after" pic:


I would certainly be open to any suggestions here, even to stop posting this craziness if that's the consensus, but I think it's possible that with a little input from you younger smarter types, this could be a lot less ghetto and might just work.

First, I made a template (forgive me; I used a takeout menu):



The hole at the top goes inside the cupholder and catches on the spring-loaded rest that's there to hold a cup snug.

Not having a milk gallon to work on, I used a takeout container top (hey, a theme here). It tore at the top, so I had to duct tape it (I actually considered making the whole thing out of duct tape at one point. Talk about ghetto.....

That mounting piece is one I bought from Garmin some time ago. I like it for this application because it has threaded holes in back that allow me to screw it right to the plastic.

So I put the top with the hole in the cupholder and carefully close it.


Like I said, this idea could use some tweaking, but I like it better than my previous hackjob mounting solution (pics from my old C230):

 

what about the power cords ? where did you hide them ?

Andy

 

I'm not one to always have the GPS on, so I can usually use it on battery power. When required, I have a splitter plugged into the back seat lighter and cords come up on either side of the console (same connector for BBerry or Nuvi). Works for me.

 

The reason im asking its because it will looks way better if you can hide them all behind the dash/panel/console..whatever that can cover those wires lolz. Or may be we can hard wired them to cigarett lighter then ?

Andy

 

I just checked the WIS and it looks like it's pretty simple to remove the cover.

Extend the cup holder out and look under it. There should be an arresting pin that you have to turn 90 degrees. After that it should just slide up and out.The pin is labeled 1 in the pic

 

I don't know the size of your garmin.

But for my sirius I removed the ash tray and cover, ran all the wires through it, put the mounting hardware right there, and my sirius looks like its in an OEM position.

 

Does the WIS list a part number for the cover? I'd love to by an extra, then drill a hole and mount the ball for the GPS.

 

Any pics chris ?

Andy

 

I'd like to see the pics too, just for curiosity. I used dyno's WIS instructions above to make an equally ghetto, but somewhat cleaner looking install, using plastic from a milk gallon, along with another Garmin mount I had. One end of the plastic is sandwiched between the two pieces of the Garmin mount, and the other end is sandwiched between the cupholder mechanism and trim:

[IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG]

 

ha! i'll take a picture on my phone when i get out of work today and upload it tomorrow.

 

Looks good when mounted! I have tried looking for a part # for that cover but can't find it anywhere. Have you tried to call the dealer? Or maybe send parts.com a message

 

allright, hopefully I'm done now! I trimmed it up, so I can close the cupholder when I'm not using the GPS (usually), but attach it pretty quick when I need it. If I could get an extra cupholder cover, I might've just attached a ball to it, but you've gotta be careful about that, due to crackheads who'll smash a window to look for a GPS in a car.

Anyway, this is what the plastic piece looked like originally:

The holes to the right fit the cupholder cover:

The hole on the left allows the "AMPS" mounting system on the ball mount parts to "sandwich" it:

So I made it into two pieces that fit together and come apart:



Now it's easily attached and mounted or stashed and closed.



Now I'll probably buy a COMAND and render this entire exercise moot!

 

Nice work! Looks a lot better

 

thanks; the important thing was to be able to close the cupholder and hide the ball. Now to get to work on the iPod/aux in cable!

PS: I painstakingly resized every photo in this thread, but they still appear huge.

 

lol, the last ones were pretty good

 

Hey, OT, but it is my thread. I took some of my plastic film and used it to remove my hood badge: what a POS that is !

 

Hey, OT but it is my thread: used that thin plastic to remove my hood badge...what a POS that is! Plastic? Or metal?

 

I believe it's plastic. I was able to take mine off with my fingers..lol