8 hours in the garage yesterday...

[nfpgasmask]

...and here is what I did:

1) I bought the Coleman Safari Rack (thanks for the tip, Etlsport!). However, with our stock Yakima rack, the mount points didn't quite line up with the Coleman rack, so I had to shorten the tubes by 3/4 of an inch. Now it fits perfectly, and was a h3ll of a lot cheaper than the Yakima or Thule basket.







2) Finished installing Tone's frame mounted hitch receiver and wiring harness. What a BEOTCH, but it looks sweet! Thanks Tone!





3) Bought a ScanGuage II from Tone also, and embedded it below the lower DIN slot. It looks REALLY good sunk in here, and fits totally solid. I cut the rectangular slot out with my Dremel, making the project pretty easy. But, the Dremel left the opening a little rough around the edges. I took some black rubber tubing I found at Home Depot in the plumbing section and split it down the side to make a little "frame" for the top, if you will. But I am not to happy with that either. Do any of you have any ideas for an actual frame or some sort of trim that would work here? I want to finish it off nice and make it look more stock.





I also made some time this lazy Sunday morning to update my VX Madness site, so check the pics and mods sections for some new stuff.

Thanks,

Bart

[Triathlete]

Looks good! I like the in dash power inverter. Was it a pretty straight forward install or did you have to do some modding of it? What model is it and where did you pick it up from?

[nfpgasmask]

Hey Billy, thanks! The power inverter is one of my first mods. Its made by Vector, I picked it up at Pep Boys, iirc. And no, not straight forward at all!

I started by taking apart the inverter so I could spray the shell of it black (it was bright red). After that, I took the DIN pocket out, and then basically hacked and hacked until I got the inverter to fit. The inverter was about 1/8 of an inch too tall, and about 1/8 of an inch too wide. So I had to cut the top of the DIN pocket and cut grooves along the bottom on the sides so it would fit. Plus, I had to cut apart the back of the pocket to make room for the cord(s). At the time, I did not have a Dremel. Looking back, this would have been a piece of cake if I had a Dremel, but for this mod I used a jig saw and if you could see behind the trim, you would see what a mess I made of the DIN pocket.

Anyway, I originally had the cig lighter adapter sticking out along the side of the inverter, but later I had the idea to run the cord behind and up into the ash tray via a hole cut in the back of the ashtray. So now, whenever I need to use it, I just pull the cord out from the ashtray and plug it in. It comes in handy for powering up my cell phone, video and regular camera, etc.

Bart

Looks good! I like the in dash power inverter. Was it a pretty straight forward install or did you have to do some modding of it? What model is it and where did you pick it up from?

[Ldub]

Do any of you have any ideas for an actual frame or some sort of trim that would work here? I want to finish it off nice and make it look more stock.

Rack, etc. look good !
I don't know the material thickness of your cutout for the scan gauge, but you could try some black door edge moulding(cut 45 deg. miters in the corners)...get the cheapest you can find @ K or Wal mart.

[Ldub]

Thanx Bart... I was browsing around your VX page (very nice), minding my own biz as usual, when I saw your link to the weathertech rain guards. I've been meaning to get a set, just hadn't got around to it.

Anyway, they're on their way.

[nfpgasmask]

Black door edge molding, hmmm, I will look for that next time I am at the Depot or Wally World.

Thanks dub!

Bart

Rack, etc. look good !
I don't know the material thickness of your cutout for the scan gauge, but you could try some black door edge moulding(cut 45 deg. miters in the corners)...get the cheapest you can find @ K or Wal mart.

[etlsport]

i really like you scangauge mod.. so i decided to go one of my own... just chose a different location.. Thanks for the idea i love the way it turned out!




no more sliding around and no more visible wires

[nfpgasmask]

Yeah, I like where I have mine, but I still need to make it look a little more flush. I have been unable to find any suitable trim or edging to use. The good thing about where mine is, is that it is completely solid in there and the wires are all tucked under the dash.

Bart

PS - How the heck do you set these to calculate gas mileage? We have a 22.5 gallon tank, iirc, and the scan gauge does not have a setting for 22.5??

[etlsport]

i just set mine at 22 gallons.. the size of the tank shouldnt matter with the mpg calc..