Alright, i recently aquired an ipod with a cable for the radio from a friend, and after i used it for a day i realized that i was missing out (never had any kind of mp3 before) so i decided id make a nice place to put this thing. I decided that the coinholder in my center console was useless as i put my change in the cupholder, so it was the perfect spot.
The ride: '98 zr2 blazer. my daily/tow rig for racin the sleds.(dont mind the dirtyness. its winter.
The objective: modify coinholder to become a slot to keep ipod in.
Budget: Around 30 bucks for building supplies max.
So heres where i started. Alpine headunit with flushmount adapter(much nicer then the ones that stick out imo):
This is where i want to put it:
First thing i did was i ran the cable(plugs into back of headunit) down in the dash, behind the heater cover/underdash panel, underneath the center console, and out the hole that the coin holder snaps into:
This is what im using for this project. ABS plastic:
First pull the coin holder apart and remove the springs:
Then cut out the bottom of the coin holder. i drilled a hold and then used a hacksaw blade to cut this out as i dont have the best tools. use a file to clean things up:
Then measure inside end to end, and cut a strip of the abs. It is best to use a straight ende and a utility knife, scoring t a few times, then simply bend it and it snaps off with a clean edge. After you do this, use heat, or in my case a propane torch, and heat it up so you can fold it up so it looks like this(using a square steel stock or something helps keep it nice and straight):
Now put the “sleeve” into the coinholder, and use the ipod to guesstimate how deep you want it to sit, mark it, and cut the sleeve to length so it sits flush:
Now, we will cut 2 small strips and heat and bend them up like the sleeve, to mount on the sides so that the ipod stays inside the sleve and not slip into the center console:
I had to get a little creative so that i could hold them when bending them up:
Now that you have all of this, you can start glueing it together. I’ll get a pic of that tomarrow when i head back out. In the meantime while its glueing, you can move on to the next part.
Take the top of the coinholder, and cut the top off like so:
After you cut the top off, you an see its very easy to take out the inside. Only a couple small cuts of braces to remove:
Now, i measured an 1/8" extra all the way around, and cut out the top plate for the holder. I then took and drilled two 5/8" holes at each end . and used a hacksaw blade to cut out the middle. make sure to file everything down and that its nice and straight:
Tomarrow i will get pictures of the slot all glued together, top mounted on, and hopefully completed.
Total time invested so far, about 2-3 hours.
