[lkn]

I never round a good place to hold my iPhone until now. I have always had the phone either in my pocket or on the passenger seat. So I decided to create do a custom mount of the iPhone dock to the sunglass tray holder.

Here is a picture of what the custom integration looks like:


Yes, the sunglass lid does close.
I also followed the Sunglass Tray Light Mod if you had noticed in the picture.

The following items were used for this install:

1. Dremel Tool
2. Sunglass Tray
3. iPhone 3G Docking Station
4. Slim Monster 3.5mm Audio Cable
5. Griffin PowerJolt SE

[bsamoul]

No steps to show what you did?

[lkn]

Originally Posted by bsamoul

No steps to show what you did?

figured it was self-explanatory but here are the steps for auto:

1. Pull hand brake lever
2. Put car in neutral
3. Remove auto shift lever
4. Remove auto shift boot
5. Remove connections going to shift boot panel
6. Remove wooden trim
7. Remove ash tray and install sun glass tray (there's a DIY for this)
8. Dremel the bottom of the sunglass tray to pass through ipod connections
9. Install iPod dock
10. Put everything back together.

There's a DIY to rewire the ash tray lighting if you care to bring the amber lights over.

Just note that I have found the tray only fits the iPhone 3G dock. The universal Apple dock does not fit the ash tray nor the sunglass tray. I haven't tried any other types of docks; but I am assuming if you find a dock that's just as the same size as the iPhone 3G dock that the dock will fit in the sunglass tray.

Also, don't bother trying this install in an ash tray; there's just not enough room to fit the dock.

The install is pretty self-explanatory. Let me know if you have any questions.

Sorry, I didn't take any pictures during the install.

[FrankoQ]

First, shame on you for not taking pics during the install. lol.

I like it!!! Been thinking about doing something like this and now I'll have
to try it.
A couple of questions...
1) what holds the 3g dock to the floor of the sunglass tray?
2) The sunglass tray has a rubber mat. Are you still using it or did you remove it.
3) Do you know if the 3g dock will work with an iphone with a cover?
4) what is that thing... looks like a foam mat on the tray?
looks like you are trying to hide the wires and the dock underneath.
If so, could you take a pic without it?

If you don't want to see the white dock, why not paint it black?

[lkn]

Originally Posted by FrankoQ

First, shame on you for not taking pics during the install. lol.

I like it!!! Been thinking about doing something like this and now I'll have
to try it.
A couple of questions...
1) what holds the 3g dock to the floor of the sunglass tray?
2) The sunglass tray has a rubber mat. Are you still using it or did you remove it.
3) Do you know if the 3g dock will work with an iphone with a cover?
4) what is that thing... looks like a foam mat on the tray?
looks like you are trying to hide the wires and the dock underneath.
If so, could you take a pic without it?

I left the dock white as I think it accents area nicely. It's up to you if you want to paint the dock black to match your foam piece.

If you don't want to see the white dock, why not paint it black?

I'm glad you enjoy the idea.

To answer your questions:
1) I cut a small piece of styrofoam that I put under the iPhone 3G Dock to stand the dock up. I used aluminum tape to hold the dock and the styrofoam into place. Aluminum tape allows you to mold the dock to how you'd like the dock to stand.
2) I removed the sunglass tray rubber mat as I wanted maximum length from the front of the dock to the back. The reason is because the iPhone 3G Dock is small lengthwise. However, when you add on the power adapter and the audio cable, then the length is increased and the dock now has very small room to move. That's why it's critical that you purchase a power adapter that is fairly short (lengthwise) and an audio cable with the head being very small. I chose the Powerjolt and the Monster 3.5mm Audio cable for the iPhone.
3) The iPhone 3G dock will probably not work with a cover as the dock is made specifically for the phone. The dock wraps around the bottom of the phone. I do have a cover on my iPhone (it's probably hard to tell from the pictures). The cover I have is a military grade plastic wrap that goes around the phone (protects the phone from any type of scratch whether it be car keys, rocks, etc.). The cover is called BodyGuardz if you are interested.
4) The black mat is what I recycled from a shipping box. It's basically a foam piece that I cut out to match the size of the sunglass tray. What you will need to do is to cut the mat to fit the tray and depending on the thickness of the foam, you will have to shave off the thickness of the foam so that the cables will fit flatly on the back and shave of the front since the sunglass tray indents in. It's going to be difficult for me to remove the foam piece as I don't want to rip the mat; but it's pretty easy to do.

I hope this helps your install process!

[FrankoQ]

It does. thanks.
I went to the apple store yesterday and compared the docking stations...
the universal and the 3g
bought the 3g, but liked the fact that the universal can take the 3g with a cover.
Also bought the Incase Slider cover. the bottom comes off so you can dock it without removing the entire cover.
I will be doing some testing to see if I can do something like you did.

[toughluck]

That is nice! You might be able to also drive while using the Google GPS feature if the destination is not in the iDrive, too.

[OwnAge]

Looks great. I want to do the same thing but i have iphone4 and the doc for it is huge. Got to figure something out

[boxr545]

Haha this is pretty cool