all the windows on you cavalier are compound curved. meaning they contour in multiple directions, but there is a spot just above the gauge cluster near teh dirver side door (near the sticker in blucarbon's sig) that will mount your gps just fine. fine enough that i have had mine there for 7 months without the suction cup loosing grip. i even drove half way across the continental us and took some really hair roads in alabama. route 100 believe it was and never had an issue with it. clean your windsheild with rubbing alcohol and you will be fine, before you use the locking clamp for suction cup press it up to the window as hard as you can. in your case you might want to have a buddy do it for you. it will work. no velcro, no gas station special cell phone holder. if that does not work then go and get one of the weighted dash mounts and use the adhesive pad and mount it to that.
the tint came out pretty well for the rear window being curved up and down and left and right. i have a pretty decent amount of experience with tint so it wasn't terrible. and it's not illegal to tint your front windshield if you have that top eyelid strip as long as it's not too long and not too dark. mine is about 6 inches and is 35 percent so it won't be a problem. i've seen some cars have like 1/4 of the way down with like 5 percent. those are the cars that will get into trouble.
yeah you have a locking mount....those things are the only ones that work, my mother has one and it never fell off once. i have a dingy plastic one with no lock at all...but i will take your advice, thanks!
Weebel wrote:Hey a thread that brought me out of OT LOL.
Man I dont know anyone anymore and I've been here for years.
Dude... just put it on the windshield with the suction cup... thats what I do.. its not like you have a show car or just happen to be good at fiber-glassing. If you try this right now your going to regret it. One big thing I thought of is, what do you do when the GPS finally gets old and quits working and now you have a hole in your dash that isnt the same size as any GPS you can buy? You'd have to do it all over for the new one.
I need to come out of OT more.
Here's my idea:
You fiber glass a small case around your GPS. If you have a smaller GPS your case would be a bit bigger than the GPS, so as for the base of the casing to fit into your next part:
On the dash (bezel), you fiberglass a hole that would be sort of rectangular and in such a way that the base of the FB case you made for your specific GPS would fit into the hole. This rectangular hole would be the standard size for all your future cases. An example of this is the case for the automatic window switches. They are mounted in a case that fits into the specific hole in the center console. You can just pop it out and pop it back in with a perfect fit.
In the same way, on the bezel, you make a rectangular hole that would fit any-size GPS, but you don't mold it according to your GPS, but according to a specific rectangular dimension which will be matched by the rectangular base of the case that you will mold around your GPS, and will be used for all future cases.
Many advantages:
-being able to upgrade/change your GPS
-it's much easier to work with the huge bezel on just a rectangular shape, than to mold the GPS straight in
-if you make a mistake on the case, you can just redo it. it fits right into your hand, and it's not big and bulky
-you don't have to configure the wiring to make the GPS switch on when the car starts(although it would be an amazing thing to do); in the casing, you can just leave a hole for the ON/OFF button, and switch it on before popping it in the bezel
-last but not least, if, in the future, you have another kind of gadget you want to put in that spot, you just pop out the GPS, make a case for your new gadget, and pop it back in.(this also means that you can have say two gadgets you always like to use, you can FG a case for each, and during the day your first gadget is in the bezel, and at night when you go out, you can just pop out the GPS and pop in your other gadget. And this can be done on a daily basis. Note: it would still be possible to wire the GPS to the car start and just wire everything up into a plug that you can plug/unplug each time you switch gadgets)
got photos of this Hassoun, it sounds like a pretty good idea. would it go right on the dash where my first photo showed? I saw a posting of someone who cut a hole in their dash and mounted a fiberglass hole in there to fit their GPS in, don't want to do that. but your idea sounds good, just looking for some pics.
justin depending on what route you go with. you can get the locking mounts on amazon for under 10 bucks. i ended up getting one for my wifes truck. if you go hassoun's route then remember to read all the tutorials for working with fiberglass and get your self a good respirator. of the two that i have both are asbestos (sp) rated. expensive but you only get one set of lungs. don't cheap out on the respirator. making the surround for teh gps would be a good starter learning project. for my first i made speaker mounts for the rear window area. it looked like crap. but the second project of evil eyes turned out a lot better. you start small and build up.
one last thing if your worried about your gps getting damaged while making the surround for it, cut a block of 1x4 to the dimensions of your gps unit.
My brain hurts like hell after reading all this.
I <3 JGM
I think bigfoot is blurry,
that's the problem. It's not the photographer's fault. Bigfoot is blurry. And that's extra
scary to me. There's a large, out-of-focus monster, roaming the countryside.
"Run! He's fuzzy!" "Get outta here!"
In Loving Memory of Phil Martin December 14 2005
somebody thinks amazon.com is the place for car modding stuffage
I usually use Amazon for stuff that is much cheaper than autozone. Like some wire butt connectors I got 100/pack for like 7 dollars while at Autozone I could only get like 20 of them for that price.
Not that I've ever done anything like this... but I know when my gps is anywhere except for on the windshield, the reception is really @!#$ty. I have a Garmin 255W, so its not like its a super cheap one. It would have to suck do all that fiberglass work to just have the gps not work. Overall, probably not the smartest mod to sink time/money into.
And by the sound of it, it looks like you are one step away from getting thrown out for having multiple accounts.
rbs9009 wrote:Not that I've ever done anything like this... but I know when my gps is anywhere except for on the windshield, the reception is really @!#$ty. I have a Garmin 255W, so its not like its a super cheap one. It would have to suck do all that fiberglass work to just have the gps not work. Overall, probably not the smartest mod to sink time/money into.
And by the sound of it, it looks like you are one step away from getting thrown out for having multiple accounts.
i stuck it on the left above the sticker which someone suggested. it hasn't fallen once and looks pretty good there. i like it in that position. it looks like it's just floating there. we will see how well it holds up. here is picture:
the first bit if information youve taken on this site and you now have a resolution to something lol
I have gps in my hummer and think its annoying as hell. But if your still scared of it falling off where you have It mounted in your last pic put some supports between your gps and your dash to help hold it up/support it
If your interested in custom aluminum tilt wheel levers hit me up!
no it took 3 pages to figure out the best solution. so many different opinions, but this guys suggestion was good after advice from the other people.
I'm still quite intrigued by how good my idea is, if someone is willing to redo his bezel, like double dozen.
Maybe one day I'll get around to learning to fiberglass and may just do that.
Hassoun wrote:I'm still quite intrigued by how good my idea is, if someone is willing to redo his bezel, like double dozen.
Maybe one day I'll get around to learning to fiberglass and may just do that.
The idea is not very well thought out. What happens when you have a GPS that is bigger then your current one? You might as well just glass it in like posted before and then redo it each time you replace it. Idea is great just not very well thought out in the aspect of replacing it.
Disclaimer:
Dey see me Trollin' Dey hatin' for trollin dey trying to catch me ridin dirty.
^^ Only Fiberglass components if you know how to fiberglass..or willing to pay for it to be re-done over time
The garmin series are a stanadard casing... with upgrade features.
Don't be afraid of change... it will happen, just know that you'll be doing re-work and you're ok with it.
The probability of replacement will happen, just are you willing to accept it.
It's not the fact that it isn't well thought out.. it's the fact that you're afraid to re-work. Most people that fiberglass are not afraid of work or re-work and the more you work with fiberglass, the faster you get. This is a general statement (not towards you Matt)
I could turn around a bezel in 4-6hrs of work, so it wouldnt bother me if I had to replace the GPS to a different style or size.
And no, I'm not accepting orders. lol This mod is easy for a beginner.. just need to attempt to try it.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Wednesday, June 30, 2010 8:36 AM
Cavie Freak aka E-Thug wrote:Hassoun wrote:I'm still quite intrigued by how good my idea is, if someone is willing to redo his bezel, like double dozen.
Maybe one day I'll get around to learning to fiberglass and may just do that.
The idea is not very well thought out. What happens when you have a GPS that is bigger then your current one? You might as well just glass it in like posted before and then redo it each time you replace it. Idea is great just not very well thought out in the aspect of replacing it.
The whole idea was to solve this problem (in bold). You make the hole in the bezel to fit the biggest possible GPS (I think 5"). That way even if you have a small GPS (2.5") you just make a case that fits the hole, but at the same time fits the smaller GPS. So you'd have extra space to work with.
As for doubledozen, you are right about trying to avoid redoing the "big work". I have yet to watch my second video on fiberglassing. I've only watched on on FBing and CFing so I have a very basic idea. What I'd really love is to meet someone nearby who works with FB and to spend time and learn with him. That way I save time, money and frustration. Plus I get better advice. We'll see.
Hassoun wrote:Cavie Freak aka E-Thug wrote:Hassoun wrote:I'm still quite intrigued by how good my idea is, if someone is willing to redo his bezel, like double dozen.
Maybe one day I'll get around to learning to fiberglass and may just do that.
The idea is not very well thought out. What happens when you have a GPS that is bigger then your current one? You might as well just glass it in like posted before and then redo it each time you replace it. Idea is great just not very well thought out in the aspect of replacing it.
The whole idea was to solve this problem (in bold). You make the hole in the bezel to fit the biggest possible GPS (I think 5"). That way even if you have a small GPS (2.5") you just make a case that fits the hole, but at the same time fits the smaller GPS. So you'd have extra space to work with.
As for doubledozen, you are right about trying to avoid redoing the "big work". I have yet to watch my second video on fiberglassing. I've only watched on on FBing and CFing so I have a very basic idea. What I'd really love is to meet someone nearby who works with FB and to spend time and learn with him. That way I save time, money and frustration. Plus I get better advice. We'll see.
So what if they come out with one that has a 7 inch screen and will not fit that hole? Your idea is great but with the way electronics are changing is why I say its not well thought out. You would have to make one for a 20 inch screen to keep up with how things are advancing. I am one of those not afraid of doing the work to make it fit perfectly. Now if you want to try and make it easier for next time go ahead but it will not look as good as a custom molded setup like has been posted in the thread already. But go on ahead and make it look like a aftermarket head unit and a crappy filler kit if you want to. Might as well make it look more stock then making it look like someone bought a mounting kit and put it in.
Disclaimer:
Dey see me Trollin' Dey hatin' for trollin dey trying to catch me ridin dirty.
Cavie Freak aka E-Thug wrote:Hassoun wrote:Cavie Freak aka E-Thug wrote:Hassoun wrote:I'm still quite intrigued by how good my idea is, if someone is willing to redo his bezel, like double dozen.
Maybe one day I'll get around to learning to fiberglass and may just do that.
The idea is not very well thought out. What happens when you have a GPS that is bigger then your current one? You might as well just glass it in like posted before and then redo it each time you replace it. Idea is great just not very well thought out in the aspect of replacing it.
The whole idea was to solve this problem (in bold). You make the hole in the bezel to fit the biggest possible GPS (I think 5"). That way even if you have a small GPS (2.5") you just make a case that fits the hole, but at the same time fits the smaller GPS. So you'd have extra space to work with.
As for doubledozen, you are right about trying to avoid redoing the "big work". I have yet to watch my second video on fiberglassing. I've only watched on on FBing and CFing so I have a very basic idea. What I'd really love is to meet someone nearby who works with FB and to spend time and learn with him. That way I save time, money and frustration. Plus I get better advice. We'll see.
So what if they come out with one that has a 7 inch screen and will not fit that hole? Your idea is great but with the way electronics are changing is why I say its not well thought out. You would have to make one for a 20 inch screen to keep up with how things are advancing. I am one of those not afraid of doing the work to make it fit perfectly. Now if you want to try and make it easier for next time go ahead but it will not look as good as a custom molded setup like has been posted in the thread already. But go on ahead and make it look like a aftermarket head unit and a crappy filler kit if you want to. Might as well make it look more stock then making it look like someone bought a mounting kit and put it in.
That's why you sell the old bezel and build a new one. If you did it once, you can do it better the 2nd time.
