A couple of months ago I got rid of ye olde Falcon and upgraded to a newer one. So before trading, I got rid of all the radio gear out of the car and it's all sitting in plastic bags in the "junk room" at home.
I think it's time to start putting some stuff back into my new car, but I want to do it tastefully ... and anyone who's seen the setup of my old car will know it was anything BUT tasteful last time round!
For starters I mounted the antennas by drilling holes in the bodywork - it wasn't a problem with the old car because . . . it's an old car and who cares?!?. But there's no way I'm going to start putting holes in my new car!!
So I'm looking for suggestions. For antennas, I'll probably have UHFCB, scanner and mobile phone ones on there eventually (the mobile phone is a "real" one, not a wussy glass-mounted one).
I already know where the CB radio's going to go - there's a spot in the centre dash which is ideal. The other stuff I have no idea yet...
Your playing with fire a bit if you don't want to make any holes. One of the biggest things I need customers to know is that whatever goes into their car needs to be done so that it remains in place and in a safe place in the event of a crash. This means keeping objects out of the way of flying heads and hands and legs etc. and making sure they stay put if there is an impact and not coming loose and flying into yourself or someone else in the car, or even worse someone outside of the vehicle.
Have a look at trying to make some brackets up maybe for the radios to mount on. The brackets could then screw into the car in an inconspicuous place behind a dash or somewhere similar. Or screw stuff into panels that are easily removed and replaced when you sell the car.
Also look at how long you are planning to keep the car. If you are going to keep it for ten years, then does it really matter if it has screw holes in it when you sell it? I know it is new now, but you need to look at the other end of the scale. Make the job look neat now and it will look near for some time to come.
MOST IMPORTANTLY. Don't put anything in the way of an air bag. If an airbag goes off and finds a radio in it's way there is a good chance it will take the radio with it and plant it in your face. This could be a very ugly scene indeed.
If you really mustn't drill any holes then use a very good double sided or hook and loop tape. Stick it down, then be vigorous with the equipment and make sure it wont come loose.
As for antennas there are a number of different things you can do including brackets that bolt onto existing bolts along the fender areas and small screw holes in fenders for brackets, and even brackets that saddle the trunk lip. RFI also makes antenna brackets that double sided tape onto the outside windows, Laser Antennas make Laser clear antennas for mobile phones and UHF Two ways (including CB's). If you have a tow ball and don't use it you could even use this as an antenna mount. If you don't use the seat belt bolt holes in the back on the parcel shelf or have some speare room there you could even put an antenn or two (small ones) on the parcel shelf. This way they can't be seen from outside as easily.
Then we get onto power. Always try and run power (negative and positive) directly to the battery. Don't tap it off the cigarette lighter or under the dash. With a transmitter always fuse both the negative and the positive. This protects the trasmitter if there is an earthing problem in the car and it tries to start the car through the radio. Instead it will just blow a fuse.
As usualy there are plenty of other tips. This will do for now. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
Wow that's an old post ... I'd almost forgotten I'd written it
Well things have progressed a bit since June ... I now have a proper car kit for my new phone, connected to the external antenna. GME make a mounting bracket specifically for BA Falcons, so it made it nice and easy in the end. I bought two, one for the driver's side and one for the passenger side... So my scanner or UHFCB antenna will go on the other bracket ... eventually.
(Of course once I get my Foundation amateur licence, that'll mean MORE radios and MORE antennas - but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it...)
Fortunately, the airbags in my car are in the steering wheel and in front of the passenger's seat - not really places where I'm likely to be hanging radio gear. The spot in the centre console looks to be about DIN sized which is why I think I can squeeze something like the Uniden UBCT8 in.
As for the rest - I'll plan as I go
Cheers,
Doug Bell (Zebedee) VK6DB
WARSUG Forum Administrator.
It is very dark.
You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
I actually recognised it as an old post when I read it but though it was worth replying to anyway as installations are commonly something that many people undertake at home. Realistically they are not hard, but in my opinion they do require a little nouse, and should be done properly (the first time), otherwise the install might as well be sitting on a seat with a battery on the floor and an antenna blue tacked to the window.
I have been working in the industry for the last 10 years and have seen some really dangerous stuff out there. I remember at 4:30 pm one Friday afternoon (I knocked off at five and was going to the City to party that night) I had a taxi pull into the driveway (we had a taxi contract to look after radios and data). He had just had his meter installed at a shonky location and came in to get his radio looked at before it worked before the meter install and not now. I got my head under the dash and started looking around. Next thing I could smell was burnign plastic above my head, shortly followed by fire. The next thing I instinctively did was pull the negative terminal on the battery and throw the fire extinguisher (Dry Chemical) in there. This of course put the fire out but made the drivers car look like someone had broken open a bag of cocaine in the car and thrown it around. Of course my boss spewed on me, to which I explained our equipment was safe because we installed it properly, but of course the meter wiring had caught fire because it was tapped off the ignition with no fuse and no electrical tape (or solder). A strand of wire had come off and touched the body of the car and that's where it started. I ended up working till 6pm and cleaning and re wiring the car after many arguments that it wasn't my problem, then vacuuming it out as well. The driver was going crazy (which was great).
Anyway it points out what can happen when you don't do the job properly the first time and I think it is worthwhile impressing a quality job and more importantly saftey, especially in a vessel where no one wants this happening at any time, never mind when your doing 110 KM/h with a family in the car.
I totally agree - plus the "shonkies" generally do a job that looks revolting, either in the way they mount the gear, or the next time you pull the dash out and discover a spaghetti-fest behind there
Dazla,
I'll see what I can do with photos... What I like with the BA Falcon, is they provide power to the fusebox ready for a handsfree kit and they also provide a way of sending the phone audio through the car stereo system (both providing radio mute and better quality audio...)
This is the way I went, for the sake of a decent radio mute and because it meant not having to find somewhere to mount the speaker under the dash somewhere...
EDIT: Pics of how I did my car kit install can be found here.
Last edited by Zebedee on Wed Nov 16, 2005 8:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Doug Bell (Zebedee) VK6DB
WARSUG Forum Administrator.
It is very dark.
You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
The Commodores are very similar today. I'm not sure if they provide the audio path since I haven't done a phone in a Commodore for a long time, but they certainly provide the power. It's up on the passenger side. If you slide your hand up the body side of the glovebox you'll feel a small connector up there. It provides permanent positive and negative power to the battery as well as ignition sense.
I also like the idea of the audio patch and the mute in the Falcons makes the job so mounting parts so much easier.
