subscribe......cant wait to see the finish product!

 

The cubby hole area for mounting the concealed display looks so odd to me. Looks out of place. With the amount of skills you have should of done the mirror display imo! But looks like you did a good job nonetheless.

 

To each his own I guess =) my main objective is to make it less obvious I have a detector to trailers/cops... a shining beacon of light from my mirror does not do that.

Sorry for the hold up guys! NCAA Tournament kills me weekends =)
I am making my 3rd PVC indicator light thing has I am never satisfied. Might just scrap the idea and come up with something else.

 

dismantle the gauge and put them behind the lense

or have them coming out the bottom of the mirror

 

UPDATE 4/19/09

Finally, I got off my lazy *** and did something... Here we go!

Marked out some acrylic for the led pod..


Cut out...


Glued it on..


Another shot..


Ground the acrylic flush..


I didnt like the way the glue looks crappy around the sides..


So i decided to paint over that part... masked..


painted..


unmasked..


This looks okay... I tried shining some LEDs through it, and the sanded acrylic didn't diffuse like I wanted. So I decided to redo it without sanding..
Remade here with 4 LED holes...


Still looks bad, if you ask me.. So I made a third. No pics as of yet, but it came out perfect. I will take pics of it in the next update.

Its about time I actually accomplished something.. so I decided to tackle the hardwiring of the V1. Here is the kit that comes from Valentine.


Here is the connector that goes to the power outlet on the passenger side of the dash.. i think dont think the earlier model Z's have this outlet.


Cut into the sheathing..


Tap the power wire..


Plug in the positive wire for the hardwire kit.


this bracket was the only place I could find a decent ground in the area..


Took the V1 Visor mount, removed the clip, and drilled a hole in it.


Got one of these screw pop pin jobbies from the auto parts store..


Mounted to the headliner using the existing mounting hole..


Another look..


This is how level the garage floor is..


Yikes..


Shoved a little piece of acrylic between the headliner and the mount to even it out.. now it matches the garage floor...


Glued the acrylic in place..


Took out the passenger side A-pillar.


started running the cord under the headliner..


Connected one end...


Tucked the wire behind the pillar..


Along the side of the headliner..


Down the pillar..


And through..


Pillar back into place..


Took the console back out..


Replaced the cubby with the original, now with Concealed Display.


Running the cord for the CD..


Installed, hooked up, and testing..


Looks good!


Ziptied the wiring up under the dash.. done!


Started getting dark and I didn't feel like cleaning up right then, so I will take some more finished pics for the next update...
Finally feel like things are getting done, nice not to have the coiled cigarette lighter cord anymore.

Next up, hope to get the LI heads installed... Also shots of the new LED pod which came out AWESOME and looks natural in its place.

 

keep it up man, i love your builds

 

Am I the only one that goes straight to Ebay after seeing stuff like this?

 

Straight to ebay for what? =)

 

why cant you just buy one of the v1 mounts and mount it under the mirror, much cheaper, easier, and not time consuming vs. what you are currently doing.

 

I don't really think you get it.

 

apparently not

 

ohhhhh... didnt read the part where you state that you didnt want to make it obvious from the lights up high

 

but if you mount the lights facing behind then wouldnt the cop see the light that way too???

 

when you connect the remote display the V1 display stays off

 

Yeah, OP is trying to "Conceal" his display as compared to having it in the open under the mirror. I do have a question though... seeing that you've placed the actual device towards the rear window, have you tested the reception from that location? Wouldn't the back of the passenger seat or rear view mirror cause insufficient readings?

Good job btw....

 

oh that makes perfect since

 

does your seat touch the roof?

 

i think he means the rearview mirror and other part of the headliner

 

To buy a V1 and try this DIY.

 

The rear mount is not an original idea to me, as much as I would like to take credit
There are a handful of other members here who have mounted it back there, and I PM'ed all of them to find out what they thought of it. Each one of them was happy with it, and reported no loss of performance.

That being said, now that I have driven around a couple of days with it, there is a trade off. I've lost a hair of sensitivity from the front sensor, and gained a bit more sensitivity in the rear. It's not that noticeable. I imagine it would be more noticeable if there was a LEO trying to radar people from an overpass.. which I have heard happens, but in my 12 years of driving I have never actually seen, and thus am less worried about that than having everyone who sees my car also see my $400 RD -- or have people start tailing me on the highway because they can see I am using a RD.

In the next update, I will take a straight on picture from the rear of the car with the hatch up.. you'll be able to see the V1 has a clear line of sight to the front of the car. No doubt laser detection will suffer, but laser detection in a radar detector is useless. They should call it ticket detection, because if it actually goes off and its not a false alarm, you are getting a ticket if you're speeding. That is why I am also installing the LI.