I had a thread a few months back about my V1 display etched into the rearview mirror. Well I finally got around to taking some pics. Here they are.

I mounted the V1 in the rear center headrest. Not much to show here.



Dismantled the remote audio and extended the volume knob



Mounted the volume knob on the console of my extremely dirty car



Desoldered the piezo speaker in the remote audio and moved it to the AC vent (you can see a small circle under the yellow arrow)



And last but not least pics of the mirror up and running.

 

very creative. clean install. great job!

 

That's Bawler! Very Nice!

 

great job !!!

 

Looking good!

Where'd you put the mute button?

 

I am really interested in how you mounted it to the rear headrest. Do you have any detailed pictures of it? Thanks.

 

Professional Job. Looks very good.
One question. Did you replace the rear view mirror or modified it?
The OEM rearview mirror has automatic dimming function as you know.

 

very nice install !

 

Clean & Professional. Very nice!

 

yes please, would love to see the rear headrest pics too

BTW SICK INSTALL, I LOVE HOW "HIDDEN" IT IS

If you dont mind me asking, how much was the install, was it DIY or online company or what?

Again, AMAZING!

 

one more question...

What did you do with homelink? Does the V1 display take it's place?

 

Amazing! Great Job!

More details! More pictures!

How do you get a V1 etching into a rear view mirror?
How was the running of wires all over the car?
How's the performance of the V1 now in a rearward location?
How did you put the V1 display into the mirror? Is there a lot of room inside the mirror behind the glass?

 

I'll answer questions on Thursday. I had a very long day today and tomorrow is going to be another long day as well. Here is a thread from when I first started this project that may answer some of the questions.

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...ight=mirror+v1

 

I don't know if you are familiar with V1. The remote volume control knob can also mute the V1 and turn it off and on. Basically it does all the functions the knob on the main V1 does. I mounted it in the console next to the mirror control knob.



If you are interested in having this done but homelink is holding you back rest assured you can have working homelink. The shop that put the display in my mirror is used to doing the newer MB's. Supposedly there is a lot more room in the newer mirrors then in our W210 mirrors. The shop said they could keep the homelink fully functional in my car but it would require cutting, bondo and more time. Since I don't use the homelink I told them I was fine with them removing it. They did send me the homelink circuitry and it could probably be retrofitted somewhere else if I desire but right now I'm not concerned about it.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of when I was doing the work. Basically what i did was remove the headrest from the car, then remove the leather cover from the headrest (the leather comes off and goes back on with no tools) I then used a razor knife to cut out the foam in the shape of the V1 and also the foam blocking the front and rear receiving horns. I made sure the V1 was sitting straight and level I heated and bent some thin plastic sheet from a hobby store to cover the missing foam in front of the horns and then I glued the foam back together and reinstalled the leather cover with the power cord running down the back of the metal headrest support. The head rest still goes up and down normally but when it is up the radar detector will be pointing straight up and down which is no good.

It's the original mirror that came on my car. I sent it out and had the display mounted in it. (this is the only thing I farmed out) Yes the factory auto dim still works like its supposed to, the V1's auto dim works like it is supposed to also, and the little light under the mirror still works. On top of that I could have kept homelink if I wanted to but I chose not to since I don't use it.

Honestly theres not much to the rear headrest install. You simply remove the headrest cut out some foam and reinstall everything. Looks like a totally stock headrest.

I sent the mirror to a shop that has locations in NY and FL. I sent it to the NY shop (I'm thinking the FL shop does this mod for Renntech because I've seen similar pics on Renntech's site but I don't know for sure) I don't want to list the shop name because I don't think they are a sponsor here but if you read Rock's post on the W211 board you will probably find what you need to know.

https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/248207-my-custom-stealth-valentine-one-radar-install.html

The rest of the install I did myself.

What details and pics do you want to see? That is really pretty much all there is.

Running the wires is not too bad but I'm kinda used to these things. Searching the forum here will teach you how to remove just about every part of your car and is a ton of help.

The radar performance is probably compromised over mounting the V1 high on the windshield like its supposed to. I can pick up local radar drones from well over a mile and I had a save from a real cop car the other day that I think was around 1.5 miles and over a small hill. The arrows also work just like they should. The V1's laser detection is now nonexistent but thats why I have a laser interceptor jammer.




>>>>Hope that helps. If anyone has any more questions feel free to ask away.

 

One last boring pic of the rear headrest I didn't post it the first time cuz theres not much to see. Thats all the pics I have for now.

 

Man o man, great work. Very professional

 

Awesome, thank you for the details. Do you have any worries about the headrests (and the V1) gettin shaken up over speedbumps?

My buddy's S4 has a mute button something like this:

 

Not really. I don't see how speedbumps would give it any more abuse in the headrest then up on the windshield or clipped to the sunvisor. I could be wrong but time will tell. As low as my car sits I pretty much have to crawl over speedbumps anyway.

OK I see what you are talking about with the mute. A lot of people run those tiny micro mute buttons so they don't have to reach up to the windshield to mute it every time they get falses. For most people the main V1 unit is still accessible to set the total volume and use the on off switch. Since mine is now hidden I bought the remote audio unit from V1 and it has a mute function so adding another mute button would be redundant.

 

You know your warning range will be decreased by a little. but overall this is an excellant set up, much better than K40

 

Your V1 is positioned inside the headrest, so it shoots through the leather?

 

Yes but it doesn't "shoot" it receives. Radar will pass thru objects like leather, plastic, glass, etc but it may lose some strengh. Lidar (technical term for laser) will not pass thru opaque objects like leather and colored plastic but it will shoot thru glass. Right now my V1 has no Lidar detection but still has pretty good radar detection. I am getting alerts from almost 2 miles in some cases.

 

Sorry…I meant receives not shoot.

 

Hey man,

Just became a member of this forum and I love it! Such a wealth of info.

I just got an 09 C300. I have the V1 and was thinking of putting it in the rear center headrest so I got onine to see if anyone else has done this and found only you so far.

My question is...I took the leather and foam off the headrest and for one..the V1 left in the case wont fit between the two headrest posts...will with the case off but Id prefer to have it on.

two...how did you get into and through the white plastic frame? I dont know how different ours are but mine and a very solid but more importantly very odd shaped with deep slots and weird shapes etc...and since the v1 barely slides in between the posts the plastic will have to be removed right up to the posts which will compeomise the rigidity. Did you run into this at all? Maybe the plastic has changed? I love the job you did and I completely agree having it completely hidden is more than worth ever having to hide it quickly or even having to deal with it period! I mean the thing picks up over 2 miles sometimes!! so what it might be a mile and a half now? I can slow down in a mile and a half you know. And where did you end up putting the display and vol? It said ashtray but I saw no pics? Do you have any? I am doing ashtry also. Its like the ideal spot with the quick door to cover. So far I have cut out the little cigarette holder on the chrom trim peice of the tray and smoothed and reshaped the cut edge to the plactic. I cut a peice of lexan and will be mounting that to the chrome trim to make a clear cover. On that I will be placing a peice of mirror tint so that you will only see the lights on the display when they come on. The vol knob will be also mounted on that peice along with a little Mercedes emblem to the left side which will be computer cut in a darker tint and there is a blue led to be under it. So when the v1 isnt lighting and the tray is open you will just see a mirror and a blue light benz emblem. I have been taking photos of every ste as i do with every project i do. I will be posting them when it is all complete.

I am just a little stumped on the v1 unti mounting and i want to use the headrest.

thanks anyone for your help and keep up the good work!! And keep the pictures coming. I wish everyone on this forum took pictures of everything! How sweet would that be!

 

Thats quite a bit to decipher but I will try my best. First off I've never sat in a new C class so I really don't know how they are set up any pics? Second putting the V1 in the headrest was not my first choice but I think it was the best choice on my car. I had originally wanted to put it inside the headliner up by the windshield like I've seen on other non MB cars but there was no room on my car so this was the next best choice for me.

I've never examined a C class headrest but on my W210 there is two metal posts and a black plastic frame between them. In my case the V1 fit almost perfectly in there and I only had to grind down two little (about 1/2 the size of a grape) bumps on the black plastic to get the V1 to sit perfectly level on the plastic. I left the V1 totally intact and in its original case.




Do you have any pics? Perhaps you can reinforce it after cutting it out by epoxying in some more plastic supports or even welding between the two metal posts. Or maybe its just not going to fit in the headrest of a C class without a lot of work. On my E class it fit pretty easy. You may have to go with another installation point perhaps in the headliner by the front windshield (my first choice if you could fit it) or even building a pod on the rear deck like Rock's car

https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...r-install.html

After I realized mine wouldn't fit in the headliner I was going to build a pod on the rear deck like Rock has but I noticed my headrest sits up higher then his (his is almost flush with the deck and the pod shoots over it) and decided to use my headrest instead.


Thanks for the compliment. I know I have compromised some range of radar detection and lost all my laser detection (My Laser Interceptor jammer takes care of laser now) so I'm probably more vulnerable to radar tickets but I'm willing to live with that for a hidden system. This is not for everyone as some people want maximum detection range at all costs.


If you are not familiar with the W210 you may not have noticed it in my pics. The display is etched into the mirror (you should be able to notice that pretty easy) but the volume knob is on my console next to the shifter. I was originally going to put it in the ashtray but after installing my Sirius in the ashtray there was not enough room for the V1 volume knob. I instead drilled a hole in the console and put it here




I guess I did a good job of making it look factory if you couldn't tell.

Sounds cool. Please post a link or pics when you are finished.

Me too! In fact sometimes I wish I took more pics of my own stuff as well.

BTW I have another thread on radardetector.net about this install (along with a few crappy pics of my Laser Interceptor)

http://www.radardetector.net/forums/...hidden-v1.html

and there are some good threads by the user languy99 (and even a video I wish I'd seen before I did my install) showing how to mod the V1 LEDs and volume knob as well as some other cool installs by REBinc Note and some other users. If you are not already on that site you should check it out.

 

I've seen this setup before. Very hot!