Only the best Homemade Windshield Mount

[ncolsens]

First things first, head on down to your local Autozone or whatever and buy yourself a new interior rearview mirror $12.95, next take it home and Remove the mirror from the packaging and smash it

Remove retaining screw from rear view mirror retaining bracket and remove two screws from the back of the TT backing plate and remove the swivel arm, save the little screws, after removing the swivel arm remove the 4 tabs that hold the swivel ball, at first I was just going to bend the tabs over but in the last step I found that the cover would fit so they had to come off

Cut the ball off of the suction cup arm and remove the cover

Drill 5/32 inch hole in the TT back plate

Slip the cover over the rear view arm, it maybe tight but it will stretch a little
Put it all back together again

It took about 30 minutes, once you take apart the mirror and the back plate of TomTom you will get the idea

 

[ncolsens]

Finally Installed

New windshield mount finally complete and installed

 

[Arno]

Good report and detailed pictures.
Do you use the locking screw or do you just slider it on and off again when parked?

 

[mgfiest]

very nice job... how did you hide the power cord to your unit?

 

[paspossible]

Good but one more place for your head to crash into in case of accident.

 

[ncolsens]

Good report and detailed pictures.
Do you use the locking screw or do you just slider it on and off again when parked?

I just slide it off and stow it away, or just pull the visor down to hide it from view

 

[ncolsens]

very nice job... how did you hide the power cord to your unit?

The power cord is routed up and over the headliner, I cut the power cord off and it gets its power from the ceiling map lights

 

[ncolsens]

Good but one more place for your head to crash into in case of accident.

Well if did not use a seat belt you might hit your head on it, but then the last thing on my mind in the event of an accident would be hitting my head on a piece of plastic, the windshield scares me just a tad bit more

 

[Arno]

The power cord is routed up and over the headliner, I cut the power cord off and it gets its power from the ceiling map lights

I thought the USB in is 5 volt and the ceiling light 12 volt.
I also understand that the TT cigarette lighter adapter has an overvoltage chip so the TomTom doesn't get fried.

 

[flyer1024]

that's real slick! great idea.

I'd skip the smash the mirror part though....isn't that seven years bad luck?

 

[paspossible]

I drive a lot and I've seen people slipping out of the seat belt in a collision. I personally destroyed the bottom part of a dashboard with my knees in a 30MPH collision and I never figured-out how my knees reached the dashboard since I was wearing my seat belt properly.

The windshield is a large, flat surface. A GPS mount is a small, pointy thing sticking-out a few inches out of the windshield. These few inches might one day be what was missing between the seat belt holding just enough so you don't hit anything hard and head injuries.

Call me paranoid!

 

[ncolsens]

I thought the USB in is 5 volt and the ceiling light 12 volt.
I also understand that the TT cigarette lighter adapter has an overvoltage chip so the TomTom doesn't get fried.

I have a femaile lighter socket inside the headlinger that I plugged the TT cord into, I did have to cut off some of the excess cord as there was no room above the headliner for it

 

[tommy832k1]

that's sweet i like that

 

[SX2002]

You've done a great job, but can I ask, what was wrong with the stock mount? Also, I guess your new mount is permanent as with mirror mounts?
Cheers,
Ron.

 

[ncolsens]

I like the idea installing everything above my field of view on the windshield, I now have my TomTom, SATRadio, DVD Player Screen,radar detector, Tachometer and a remote screen that monitors engine performance and my OBD computer screen. My vehicle is lit up like a christmas tree at night and many cars are afraid to pass me at night when they see inside my truck, even with it's push and brush guards and nerf bars on the truck