Cupholder Mod in Detail..fill in the blanks

[JAFO]

Ok, so I got the cupholder. On searches of this, it looks like a 5 minute pop in procedure. I'd like this detailed for posterity, as well as to help me out here.

How to get the tray out where the cupholder will go (http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5400)

Got the thing and I've Dremel'd off the tab on the bottom at the back of the cupholder, that prevents it from going in the slot at all. Nothing to it. Go around with a Dremel cutting wheel and comes right off.

Take off the swing arms for the drinks. If the tray is on the bottom, there's no room for them to drop down. If on top, they'll catch on the middle bar when the tray is closed, and the tray won't come out.

Test fit, slide it in. Hits the wiring harness back there, since this is deeper than the empty slot that was there. Using a large flathead screwdriver, pryed up the tabs holding the harness to the metal brace back there.
Test fit again, put trays in. Top tray still hits the wiring harness, but push and it'll go in. Not good enough though.
-----someone fill in the blank here-----

Also, the lower tray doesn't go in all the way, it hits the metal bracket that the wiring harness was secured to.
-----someone fill in the blank here-----

If the cupholder tray is moved to the top tray, to give your drink some room so it won't tip over, the tray doesn't come out far enough to let you put your drink in there. Even if it did, there isn't room due to the angle of the dash. The climate controls would interfere with it.
-----someone fill in the blank here-----



In short, the drink tray needs to be moved to the top and some modifications made. There also needs to be some additional work done to make room inside for the trays to easily slide in. If it takes more than just pushing the wiring harness back more, someone please fill in what you did. I got fed up trying to get the tray back out and quit messing with it for now. Are people cutting off the points on back of the trays? That would fix the depth problem, but it probably needs that leverage to work right.

Not sure this is the mod to do if I want it to look & function as if it was a stock piece. I'm probably just missing something that should be obvious. I'd like to fill in the blanks here for posterity, as well as to get this thing in there right. Maybe I'm the first idiot to ever take more than 5 minutes doing this, but I'll just suffer that embarrasment for now. ;) Most mod's have little nuances that get overlooked in discussion, but I like to document everything possible for others.

[Mike8675309]

The harness should be able to be moved sufficiently. You might want to pull the radio out and make sure the harness isn't bound up there causing problems.

Don't cut the ends off as you need that to allow the units to slide out far enough.

You need to smooth out the catch that prevents the cup holder from comeing out too far so that it can come out far enough to clear the HVAC controls. Then, too keep the drink from flying out, you need to jerry-rig a new stop to keep it from coming out too far. I was able to do this to mine with a sheet metal screw screwed into the plastic.

Also note that it isn't a 100% perfect fit. More like a 99.5% fit. Why? The DIN opening really isn't flat. So while the top corners of the unit will fit flush, the bottom corners will be slightly visible.

[turbospeed]

can anyone post a pic of it installed? where do you install it in the vmm hole? or where the jbl stock cd player was ?

[Mike8675309]

http://www.frontiernet.net/~miketoni/images/tbird/cupholdermod.jpg
http://www.frontiernet.net/~miketoni/images/tbird/cupholdermod2.jpg

[JAFO]

Thanks for the info! That screw in the picture makes more sense than what I had pictured. Couple of questions:

1-Do the drinks wear a ring or scratch up the ash tray lid?


2-So your trays do close all the way?


After getting a ticket last night, now I'm thinking that I might want to put a PB scanner down there now. And a Valentine up top. :rolleyes: Wonder if a scanner would fit where the VMM would have been? They come smaller than DIN.

[Mike8675309]

I guess the drinks could wear or scratch up the ash tray lid if you have cans of pop and leave them in there alot. I typically just have something from a fast food joint in the holders.

About the only issue I noticed is that condesation from the cups or cans dripps down on top of the ash tray, so you have to wipe it up everyonce and a while.

My trays close all the way such that the push button on the front works to release them. I have an aftermarket radio in mine so maybe the harness was a little more flexible for me. But I just shoved it out of the way with a screwdriver and it seems to have stayed.

The screw needs to go right about where it's pictured. Just past the joint there, but not so far back that it interfere's with the extension of the tray

[banbro]

Well I just got done doing this last weekend and believe me when I say I feel your frustration. The initial problem I ran into on my install was the fit. I got the housing to snap into place but when I tried to put the trays in they would either pop out again or not go in all the way. I ended up going to the extreme and removed my center console, instrument cluster bezel, the bezel around the coin/cup holder, and the glove compartment to make adjustments. I have to admit that I would do it all over again though. It was so much easier to move wires around and place them elsewhere with everything opened up.

You mention hitting the metal bracket the looms are attached to... one thing I discovered is the wire loom that runs to the center console came over the metal bracket and was unable to stay out of the way because of its positioning. When I thought I had everything out of the way so it would fit and was still having problems that is when I decided to re-route that loom. By unhooking it and rerouting it under the metal bracket I was still able to make the connection and the trays were then able to slide in with out trouble. I trimmed the edges of the metal bracket with a few layers of duct tape just to make sure the sharp edge would not wear through a loom and cause me problems.

In the long run I am very glad I pulled everyting apart. I found out the RCA wires going to the amp in the trunk that were running under the center console were actually being pinched and I am sure it would not have been long before they got cut or worn through.

Good Luck!!

[Mike8675309]

For those curious, here are some more pictures.

http://www.frontiernet.net/~miketoni/images/tbird/cupmodcloselook.jpg
Closed from the passenger side (notice the lip that sticks out on the corner)
http://www.frontiernet.net/~miketoni/images/tbird/cupmodpasslook.jpg
Closed from the drivers side
http://www.frontiernet.net/~miketoni/images/tbird/cupmoddrivlook.jpg
The back of the cupholder module with the units installed
http://www.frontiernet.net/~miketoni/images/tbird/cupmodback.jpg

Grind or cut the circled areas off.
http://www.frontiernet.net/~miketoni/images/tbird/cupmodgrind1.jpg
http://www.frontiernet.net/~miketoni/images/tbird/cupmodgrind2.jpg