BigMike

I completed the installation of my Garmin 2610 in the Navigation cubby. Total time was 90 minutes. I ordered Garmin power cord from Amazon for $23 and bought a GPS antenna for $19 off ebay. You can buy a Garmin external antenna for $99, but the $19 antenna works just as well.

1. Follow these instructions on how to remove the console/dash
http://liljerk.morpheus.net/350Z/dash_removal/ ***Caution, when you remove the console piece in Step 3, place something on the console piece to the rear because the clips on the bottom of the piece you're removing are sharp and will scratch your console.

2. Inside of the '05 Nav cubby, there are 2 holes on the bottom towards the back that are used to hold the rubber piece in. I made the right hand hole bigger so the entire power cord would fit through. I ran the antenna wire though the hole in the back left. The picture in Step 9 (above URL) must be an older Z that doesn't have the holes.

3. Connecting the Garmin power cable. There are only 2 wires - black and red. See Step 15 at the above URL. There are two wiring harness plugs in the back of the factory radio. Look at the larger plug and you will see a light green wire at the far end of the plug closest to the radio antenna. That wire is "switched power". I tapped into that wire and connected the red wire from the Garmin power cable. I crimped a round connector to the black wire and grounded it to the right hand screw that is removed in Step 9.

4. GPS Antenna - I used velcro to hold the antenna in place between the defroster vents as you can see in the picture. I used a drill bit the size of the cable to make a small notch in the edge of the console to allow the cable to be routed inside of the console without pinching it.

5. Reinstall the dash

The Garmin 2610 is a perfect fit for that cubby space. When the GPS is installed, it looks like it belongs in there. But when I want to use it in my other cars, I can pop it out, disconnect the wires, and go.

You will need to go into the options menu on the 2610 and choose Display Options. Disable the Auto Brightness feature. If you leave it on and its a sunny day, you won't be able to see the display because the unit will go to the lowest brightness setting.

zmansoon

Nice setup. I don't take my car on trips very often but I did some back road driving today and was wishing I had a setup like this to guide me back to the highway. Where did you get your Garmin from?

Also, do you mind having the cubby lid up? I keep my sunglasses in there and usually shut it back. I suppose if I had something cool to look at it wouldn't bother me though. Good theft prevention as well to have it hidden away so easily.

Gilley

iTrader: (12)

Nice job. I have my Garmin 2620 sitting in the cubby of my G coupe. I haven't found a need for the external antenna yet, but it would be a nice extra to have.

BigMike

I got my 2610 from http://www.gpsnow.com for $650 delivered. I think they've come down a few bucks. I put my sunglasses in the overhead sunglass bin.

I needed the external antenna because I couldn't get a signal with the until in the Nav cubby. I got the 2610 over the 2620 for 2 reasons. The biggest reason was I use it on my Harley and the vibration would kill the hard drive in the 2620. The other reason was the price and one less failure point (hard drive). But the 2620 is a great unit.