Cup Holders to Ipod Holder, A how to guide, lots of pictures Options

[Legit94GT]

Well i am doing a stereo system build in my car and rather than have my ipod cable get put into my glove box i wanted something a little more custom, so it came to me one day when i was cleaning that i might be able to fit my ipod in where the cup holders are. This also keeps your ipod from rattling around in the eglove box and cause more scratches. So i got my i pod(one of the 2nd gen ones that are twice as thick as the one today) and it looked like it would fit so now that my build is going down in a week i had to get started on it. So i will try to explain everything good...

You will need:

A philps screw driver

A small hole saw, aka a jib saw(or a hack saw blade)

A file

Sand paper

A peice of something to make the base. I use a peice of 3/16x3.5 in Aluminium and cut and sanded it down to size. Be carefull not to go with something to thick other wise the ipod wont fit inside the armrest.

Any type of contact cement or appox will work, if the base plate is sanded to be a tight fit.

Narrow strips of rubber matting


First start by un screwing your armrest. there are two screws that hold the arm rest to the center console. There are six screws that hold the plastic peice to the arm rest. Once the plastic piece is off you can see how to remove to actual cup holders peice. If you have a vice to hold the part in use it, but be carfull not to over tighten it or you will break it. Start by cutting out the middle peice with the small saw or blade. try to stay away from the edge on the first you cuts then work your way in.






Next you need to unscrew the latch. You will need to cut off the plastic tab that the latch screws into. This will remove the latch, but even with the latch gone there is no play in the armrest anyway.




Then comes the sanding and filing to make everything nice and smooth on the inside of the cup holders, some more cutting maybe required. Once you are satisfied with that you need to fit whatever you have decided to use as the base. I used some aluminum and cut it to the right length on a bandsaw. Now you can use whatever material you feel like, diamond plate, wood, plastic, whatever just as long as it is rigid enough to hold the weight of your Ipod. Once it was the right length i took it to a belt sander to sand it down to the right width to fit into the bottom of the cup holders. Once i got it to the right width, where it would just barely fit in i took it over to the polishing wheel to clean it up a bit.



With my base plate sized and clean i got out the appoxy and rubbed it all on the sides. Then i clamped it all together for 15 mintues to let it set up. I would advise you to follow whatever your adhesive tells you to, some require you to wait a long time.



I then glued the rubber onto the sides of the cup holders. NOTE: when you remove the center cup holder plastic peice it is not solid, it is hollow and when you sand it to the outside frame it will look bad. you can sand it all the way down then paint it or do whatever you want, this is just what i did.

Once everything is set up you are ready to put it back in your car. The I pod cable will fit on top ot the base plate and under the plastic, BUT you need to cut a slot here... So that the cable can run into the tray.


I wont get into wiring as i am not doing any, but once the cable is wired to your head unit you will need to run in under your shifter then cut a slot into the armrest compartment to run the cable, be sure the Ipod cable is secured so it wont fall down and get mixed up with the shifter cables and everything else. Once it is ran through your center console just run it into you new tray and plug in your Ipod Alot of newer deck let you control your whole ipod through your Head Unit, if yours does that then you can just keep your ipod in there and not worry about it, i dont know any body who is going to rip off the cup holders when they are stealing a car lol

Once you are done putting it all back together just sit back and enjoy:)

[ra65_22re]

Thats awsome! I need to do this. I just throw my ipod in the armrest. How will u run the cable to the ipod? R u goin to keep it in the cupholder when ur using it? I prob goin to do this and look at where to put some cupholders 2.

[Legit94GT]

Thats awsome! I need to do this. I just throw my ipod in the armrest. How will u run the cable to the ipod? R u goin to keep it in the cupholder when ur using it? I prob goin to do this and look at where to put some cupholders 2.

My deck controls my ipod so when it is hooked up i dont have to touch the ipod, i really only have to even pull it out and remove it when i want to put new songs on it...

Honestly i never use cupholders so i didnt have a problem tossing them, but if you use them alot you might want to keep them... alot of cars now put the cup holder in the bottom part of the door, maybe you could make a custom holder down there?

To run the cable you just.... read the how to forum located
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I totally did that arrow wrong... i lack keyboarding skills lol

This post has been edited by Legit94GT: May 29, 2008 - 10:33 AM