henryr01

First I’d like to thank 2007AcuraRL for the guidance in how to get through the firewall. After working on this project, I now have a new respect (or awareness) for the RL. The last car that I did any serious work on was a ’71 Mach 1…and that was a LONG time ago.

The first thing I did was take the front grill off. Once you get the front beauty plate off (the one surrounding the hood release), the grill pops out via two plastic Zus fasteners on the bottom of the grill. The only real options for mounting the radar and laser detectors, was on the front, aluminum sub-structure. I really didn’t feel comfortable drilling into anything that is structural or safety related, so I fell back on my old standby…Epoxy! I used epoxy for the Radar mount and I coated one side of the laser detectors with epoxy. I let them both sit overnight before placing any type of load on them.




The front laser detectors blend in very well.




The next day, once I found out how to get through the firewall, I ran all the cables for the detectors. Based on 2007AcuraRL’s recommendation, I was able to trace the Hood Release cable to the fender well and pop the rubber grommet out. To get to the hood release rubber grommet, turn the steering wheel full lock to the left. This frees up enough room for you to remove the inner fender well.


I popped a coat-hanger in and traced it to the driver’s side above the fuse panel.


I then pulled the 3 cables (1 Radar and 2 Laser Detectors) through the firewall. I was concerned about the fender well chafing the cables, so I used the same rubber grommet. I used an exacto-knife and split one side so that I could remove it. I then trimmed off about 1/4” of the rubber so that it would fit with the extra cables.


The rear laser detector was pretty straight forward, but very time consuming. First I had to remove the rear license plate. Then, just to the right and a little lower, I drilled a hole just large enough for the laser detector cable to pass through. All of the cables have large rubber groumets built into them, so I reused that one. I then I removed the right hinge off of the trunk (because that is where the electrical cables are) and passed the cable through top of the trunk, behind the DVD player and into the passenger compartment. There was no easy way to get the cable from the trunk/back seats without removing the rear seat bottoms. Fortunately, that comes out fairly easily. The cable then just worked its way under the door scuff plates to the area by the right front fuse box. Sorry no photos…nothing too exciting to see.

I’m still stuck with the problem of where to install the remote display unit. For now, it is living in the “Not an Ashtray” compartment. The good thing about this is it almost disappears when the door is open, which it is most of the time because my sunglasses half hang out of it.


Also for now, the Remote dual color LED is living wedged between the dash and the A-Pillar. It’s high enough to get my attention without distracting, out of sight in case any local law enforcement want to walk up and chat, AND it’s not permanent.


Overall, this took all afternoon/evening. It would have been done sooner, but we were dodging Tornado warnings/sirens most of the evening! As of yet, nothing that was done is permanent and can’t be moved if need be. The only holed drilled was on the trunk, but its aluminum and is out of sight behind the license plate.

Again, I could not have done this without the assistance and encouragement from others on this forum. You are ALL a great bunch of people and I look forward to a long relationship.

Touge

Nice work and write up. Good to see other RL'ers working on there car

2007AcuraRL

Nice job and you are quite welcome. Since I've got all the Acura shop manuals feel free to ask in the future if you need something. As for the Bel, give me a chance to catch up to you and install mine and then I'll share with you my install ideas for fully-remote-mounting the display. I'm still leaning towards mounting the display right into the speedo gauge so long as there is clearance. In my TL, I put the display panel (there using ribbon wire and metal foil shielding to connect it to the circuit board which was mounted elsewhere behind the dash) but there might not be as much real estate in the RL gauges.