Saturday, March 14, 2015

Mounted Mobile

Before
I think this is the first project revolving around our nice car, Gustavo (AKA Gus the Golf).  He's a 2011 Golf TDI with a manual transmission.  It is just about the most Euro car you can buy in America.
This project isn't actually on the car, but an accessory.  I recently learned about the existence of cell phone cradles that mount in a car's CD slot.  Since I don't like the windshield suction cup, dash-top, or vent mounted units, this seemed like the perfect solution, keeping the phone in plain view without blocking the line of sight or breaking fragile vents.  It sits between the two center vents, and only blocks the emergency flasher button, which I don't like looking at anyway.  The big red triangle is just too shouty.
Anyway, I bought one of these mounts and put it in the car.  It is great, except the fastener that spreads the paddles in the CD slot stuck down more than necessary, which blocked part of the infotainment display.  I determined there was some room to improve it.
Before
Before
I did some filing on the plastic bits to slim them down and cut off about six millimeters of the threaded portion of the bolt.  You can see the results below.
After
After
It's still not quite ideal, but it is definitely better.  Overall, I'm very happy with this product and highly recommend it.

No comments:

Post a Comment