i've been thinking about a custom ipod mounting for my '06 tsx.

what do you all think about this?

dremmeling out an ipod sized "hole" in the top of the cup holder door, so that the ipod would be completely set inside the door. i believe that it is thick enough (for the newest generation of video ipods, 30gb) for the ipod face to be flush with the face of the cup holder door. my only concern would be messing it up, or it not working right, and then having to replace the entire cup holder housing ($130 USD).

does anyone know where i could get just the cup holder door for cheaper?

also, would it be possible to pry apart the black plastic part of the cup holder door and the carbon-fiber-looking piece of plastic, and just dremmel the top piece? my guess would be that there is empty space between the two pieces of plastic as opposed to them both being solid.

if done correctly, it would be possible that the cup holder still retain open/close functionality, and if the ipod was either taped in glued in, or a tight enough fit, it wouldn't fall out when the cup holder door opened.

 

The cupholder door can't be purchased separately... you have to buy the whole assembly.

As for your idea, I assume you'd want to be able to run this audio into the HU, most likely through the aux input? Where's your connection going to run? If you're going to run the sound via the aux input, you'd need to be able to connect the wire to the top of the iPod; if you're going to use a Blitzsafe/USASpec adapter, you'd have to connect to the bottom of the iPod. Even if you run an FM modulator, you'd need to connect to one of those ports. You probably can't open and close the door, even if you were able to dremel out a perfect hole because of your wire connection.

Why don't you just get a cradle, and mount it to a KUDA console?

 

maybe you can try junkyards (online searching of course)

 

why do you want to see the ipod?

 

I like this idea, cause you can always open the door and hide the cutout when you're not mounting the iPod. Only problem is you lose the cup holders!

 

i like to have it on random, but of course, sometimes you run into songs that you don't want to listen to. i don't want to have to open the armrest every time to just hit the next button. plus, if it is easily accessible, it would be less hazardous to do while driving.


i've got the belkin auto kit. as for the connection, i would just dremmel out the space necessary for the auto kit. i've got the black model, so it wouldn't be too conspicuous with the black plastic of the car.

the wire connection would likely not interfere with the opening and closing of the door because, when the door is closed, the wire would be on top of the door, and when opened, there is enough of a gap between the door and the side of the housing that if it DID have an effect, it would be so slight it would be unnoticeable.

the cup holders could still be used (i only use them a small percentage of the time), you just would not be able to use them and have the ipod showing at the same time.


really the important parts of my questions were 1) if the door itself could be purchased (thank you, amadeus303, for answering that) and 2) if the door is likely to be hollow or solid


i looked more closely at the door yesterday, and there are 6 screws on the underside of the door that i took off, but the top plastic piece still did not separate easily. it is probably also clipped on. i think i broke one of the clips, so i decided not to pursue it any further.