My objectives:-

- Get my iphone out of the cupholder*
- Something that would connect easily to the ‘y-cable’
- Would work for my iphone 3G, my wife’s iphone 1G, my kids’ ipod touch
- Wouldn’t cost $150 like the beautiful Kuda mount.
- Look OK, and ideally be easy enough to enough to mount/dismount using only one hand

* If you're ok with the cupholder location... see Robin Casidy's elegant solution...
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...g3-holder.html

Prototype #1
(and so far this was ‘good enough’, so there isn’t a #2 yet! Works well, looks ok and took me < 2 hours)





Detailed instructions:-

NOTES:
I used purely parts that I had laying around in the garage. I suggest you improvise!

The metal for the fix to the car frame was an aluminum strip that I had (it can be bought at the hardware store)… I’d recommend getting something thinner than I used if possible... you'll see that it makes the plastic panel bend out a bit... last picture in gallery).

The Perspex was an angle bracket that I had (I think it was a shelf holder). I also thought of making that piece out of wood, or I was going to use the same aluminum strip to make some kind of holder section. But the Perspex was wider and easy to dremel out… so for now that’s what I used.

I used the standard ‘Y-cable’ to mount. I didn’t glue it… I was lucky enough to dremel just right to get it to ‘jam in’ and hold tight. The y-cable mount has an advantage and disadvantage. It holds the phone very tightly… the phone will not ‘rotate off’ as you go around a bend; the bad news is that it does that by ‘clipping’ the phone in… it has those two little plastic ‘releases’… those MUST remain accessible… this constrains the design and makes ‘one hand mount/dismount’ a tad tricky.

STEPS:

I have posted pictures in my gallery. They are numbered to correspond to the steps below.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...e/9999/way/asc



1) Tools:-Parts:-2) Bend the perspex strip. (I had a ‘jet’ firelighter from the bbq that worked fine .

The bend will be just more than 90 degrees. The short piece should be about ¾ inch.

3) In one end of the Perspex strip, dremel out a hole that will allow you to ‘wedge’ the iphone connector in place. The phone will lean ‘back’ slightly, so be sure to make the hole a bit away from the corner (I did this because each of our ipods/phones has a different thickness case on it).

You should be aiming to wedge the ‘fat’ part of the holder, as to add/remove the phone every day, your fingers need to be able to ‘press the buttons on the side. I thought I’d need to put some small screws in from the back to hold the connector, but I got lucky with my ‘wedge’…its pretty snug.

After steps 2 and 3 you should look like this...





Drill a hole in the back of your holder, behind the connector. TIP: Make it really low so it doesn’t touch the phone (lower than mine in the picture).

4) Take the metal strip and drill two holes. (one end should be the same diameter as the T20 screw behind the panel in the footwell, the other the same as the screw for your connection to the ‘holder’).

Take the ‘holder’ end and bend about one inch just over 90 degrees (you’ll want to make it ‘more bent’ later). Be sure that it is ‘flat’ where it will connect to the holder. (To achieve this I put the long piece in a vice, and used a giant adjustable wrench to clamp the 1” piece and bend it…).

Then, just below that twist the metal just over 90 degrees. (you’ll want it ‘more bent’ later, to ‘adjust to taste’). The direction of that twist IS IMPORTANT. See the pictures and attach the plastic mount and ‘role play’ it before your twist it!!!



5) Remove the plastic panel (it’s pretty easy; you just need to undo clips from the front (nearest seats) then open the glove compartment and ease it out).

Attach your holder to the T20 screw.
You'll probably remove and bend your metal repeatedly until you like the ‘angle’.



Reassemble. Admire your handiwork and $150 saved. Post a picture here.

Enjoy

(as I said... this is a hack job... maybe Robin Casidy will make a beautiful version and sell it for $35 like his other one).

 

That looks pretty good.

Just as an FYI for everyone, make sure your improvised mount includes some sort of protection for the docking port on your iPhone.

This one looks good but if whatever you make allows the port to exit unevenly you will crack the body of your 3G or newer iPhone an td Apple will recognize that as a user failure and not a manufacturing defect.

 

Hey where did you get your Panic button? I want to get something that says "Eject!"

Nice iPhone mod! Gotta get mine outta the cup holder as well..

 

Much better than the other post...

 

Took me a while to work out what the heck you were referring to... Just found it, deleted it. Thanks wiseguy.

Hey, when are you adding the 'hot-tub' mod?

 

You can only get the Hot Tub mod in the Clubman...

 

I think it will come standard in the new Crossedover.