I don't know if this has been posted before, but I've been trying to decide if I wanted to buy the MiniFini cupholder since I've had some close calls where my coffee almost spilled into my radio/HVAC controls since it was mounted so high up.

Well, this mod works. All it takes is a little Dremel work to remove the two little molded screw dimples. Keep in mind that doing this permanently removes the possibility of going back to the original cupholder location. Once I removed the dimples, I put some 3M double-sided tape (the really sticky automotive "red" version) onto the backside, carefully lined up the bracket, and voila - relocated cupholder. Interestingly, the bracket conforms to the tubes perfectly regardless of where it's positioned.

Here's the final result:



Cheaper than the MiniFini, and I think it works just as well!

Thanks,

Al

 

Very clever. how is ingress and egress when using it?

 

Nice!

What happens to your cupholder when the seat slides all the way up?

Do you think it could be mounted on the driver's side downtube?

 

Just like the MiniFini, moving the passenger seat all the way forward will cause some interference. You can turn the cupholder sideways to yield a little more space, but not much. Really the passenger seat is almost all the way forward when it comes in contact with the cupholder, so I'm not too worried about that.

The other thing is that the passenger's left knee may touch the cupholder, so if you're acting as a taxi a lot, you may not want to consider this. Most of the time, it's just me in the car, and well, it's all about me and my convenience. I think a little discomfort from the passenger is worth it if I don't have to worry about sticky coffee or softdrink residue in my radio/HVAC controls.

Lastly, it could be mounted on the driver's side. The bracket has no top/bottom to it. It would just depend on whether you as the driver would be bothered by the cupholder near your knee.

Thanks,

- Al

 

My MiniFini never touches the passenger seat - cause I keep it pivoted all the way in front of the gearshift.

But this is the nicest approach to the OEM addon cupholder I've seen, for sure. Nice work!

 

It's good to be king.

 

Yes. It certainly is.

 

Quote:

and well, it's all about me and my convenience. I think a little discomfort from the passenger is worth it

+1, in fact I need to get rid of that seat and just turn it into a cooler

 

Wow, I think I know what my next mod will be! Great Job!

 

wow. it looks like it came like that. awesome job.

 

Nice job. I find that the MiniFini cup holder holds drinks much more securely than the factory holder. I have the MiniFini in my MINI and my wife has the factory one in her's.

 

I like it, I have two cupholders now. The one on the driver's side gets in the way of the key, especially when a cup is in there. How is mounting it halfway down - between the OEM position and where it is now?

retroom

 

That is very clever. Does the small cup to the left and rear of the newly located cup holder get blocked much?

 

retroom - if I mounted halfway down, the bracket would still fit/conform on the downtube. However, it would defeat my purpose in trying prevent splashing into the HVAC controls. I'm amazed at how much coffee can splash out of the little holes on a coffee lid when the cup is full.

billie_morini - I don't know about the small cupholders to the rear, but the rightmost one (just to the left of my relocated cupholder) is unobstructed. In fact, I have a little coinholder in there and have no problems getting to it.

I'm sure the MiniFini cupholder is more secure. It has much tighter binding points. I think much of the stability of the stock cupholder is compromised since it can be swiveled from side to side. But for my concerns this mod serves it's purpose, and for free it works just fine.

As Murphy's Law would have it, the higher up the beverage, the more likely it will spill/splash into a critical parts.

Thanks,

Al

 

ASC,

I have done this and found my coffee cup pulled the holder off the down tube so I used some zip cordes and now it is very secure. I ran the cords down thru the holes so that the front is held tight. I much prefer it down lower that up top.

Art

 

Is it actually level this way. The one thing I hate about it being mounted at the top is that it isn't level.