scratch built hidden ipod dock

Well my wife got this new nano nano


so after hearing her complaints about never getting to listen to 'her music' in my car... i decided to install the ipod adapter. Problem is, I don;t want the damn cable hanging out somewhere, and i don't want the thing sliding around.
I needed to fab an ipod dock.

Rule 1: No cutting holes in interior panels... especially upholstered ones.
Rule 2: Can't stand out like a sore thumb
Rule 3: Must be as slick as possible... damn that cassette drive dock was cool.


this is what I came up with:
on the e34 there is a power port in the glovebox... seemed like a nice place to put the nano nano.









i had to trim out the power port hole slightly taller, and then cut the included ipod dock adapter (apparently comes with all new ipods) down to serve as a base.
Unfortunately, there was insufficient depth to be able to glue it directly to the backside of the power port opening. I had to space it back, which meant angling it to center the ipod in the hole (adapter is slanted). Once I had it glued in place and reinforced with some stringers back and forth, I took the remnants of some clamshell packaging and my little pencil butane torch and glued and wrapped the plastic to enclose the area. A little black paint inside and out to make it match and look OEM-ish...






At this point I needed to glue the ipod connector on the back of the dock to be finished but thought I'd take a couple of crappy pictures first.

 

o make this work, I had to slightly mod the Alpine cable connector. it normally has little prongs that retain the ipod so I had to cut and file those down. Otherwise they would prevent the ipod from being removed from the front.









here you can see there is room to use both fingers to remove it, and it doesn't touch anything... just 'floats' to avoid scratches. No problems with it over bumps either.






I'm pretty happy with it, even though i am not an ipod guy.

 

CC: I have a (some would say THE) black e34 wagon. It's great for hauling my sons around, camera gear etc.

some pictures up on cardomain. Click below.



Still a work in progress, I just switched from my Clarion 755 dz and changer that i have been running for the last 10 years to the alpine 9835, and have an original a300 factory watercooled in the closet... waiting to find a killer deal on a jbl p1220d or 12" IDQ since PG cyclones are such a PITA to find and maintain.
Should have my alarm in next week, going to order the factory connector and pins so I can make it plug n play and not hack up any factory wiring.


So far it is converted to 5 speed, SLS deleted, E code headlights with working tilt motors, rear fogs, rear lighter and map lights, electrochromatic mirror with integrated alarm led... about as Euro spec as I can get it. At some point I will pull the roof rails back off again, delete them, and have the roof resprayed to finally get it to 'loaded' Euro spec.