Okay, so this could fall in electrical too I guess, but It seemed better here. So many of you are amazing carftsmen who turn out incredible DIYs on a regular basis. I, on the other hand am extremely impatient, a bit sloppy, and always stretched thin on time. I can install anything that M7, Alta, Helix, whoever can produce, but my own capabilities often fall short of my grand plans...

That said, I spliced my Drive + Play, my Sirius reciever, and moved/cut wires/and endlessly figited with my Alta bar with wreckless abandon for a long time. It seemed that I needed to finally fix that slop. So, with the economy in the toilet, and a desire to work on my car, I set out to make a switch panel.

It houses my Linnear Logic Scangauge2, a Belkin USB port (though thats more of an illusion as its plugged into a 12V socket), a master power switch tied to the Sirius and Drive+Play, a switch for my GPS (which i hardwired under the guidance of a family friend who works for Garmin), an on/off switch for the USB (accessory) port, and a switch for each pair of IPF lights on the light bar.

It may not be perfect, but I am quite proud of it. I have lots of pictures at home, and if theres any interest I'll put them up later, but for now this will give you the jist of things.

 

I like it

 

Well done bro, If i was in the market for an r53 I'd definitely ask for you hand doing that myself.

 

Terrific idea. l like the layout too. Even used the old style switches like the Orig Mini's....and covered over those basically useless cup holder to boot....

A+

 

looks great! much more fighter jet esk!

 

i dig it.... whered you find the USB thing?

 

Thanks! The way it came down, I was going to lose about 1/2" (from diameter) of the cup holders. So I opted to panel over them altogether. That, by the way was a nightmare. For as small as it all was (7.25" x 4.5") it was all a nightmare. The nitrous-style, or as I prefer to call it, "bomb release" switch was utilized just to help remind me to turn it all off. Originally it was to include indicator lights, but there just wasn't enough space because of the bracket on the back of the panel to hold the Scan Gauge. I have considered mounting those lights elsewhere (like up on the dash near the tach).

I used several cardboard templates to get it all right. Originally, for example, the scan gauge would have been at the top, but there were clearance issues. (One template is in the pictures)

All of the wiring was bundled and run up the center console, then to either the accessory it controlled, or under the dash, through the firewall, and were then fused and connected to the positive battery terminal, which was relocated into a sealed box.

The panel itself was .0996" ABS plastic, which, was free by a strange turn of fate, and in such quantity that I could've made 10 of these, had I not messed up so much.

The plastic is IMPOSSIBLE to cut. If you use the wrong kind of blade, or move too fast, the plastic will melt back together after the blade passes through. In the end I used a Craftsman Jigsaw with Heavy Metal Blades, and a small pistol-grip hack saw primarily for the interior cut for the SG. Here's some more pics, if anyone wants to know more, or see more, as I have many pics, PM me.

 

We went on a road trip and I bought a Belkin Ipod Charger for my Girl's Kia, since the mini doesn't do well with luggage and a 60 lb yellow lab. It turned out to be a two-piece charger, one being the typical USB to Ipod plug cable that would come with any Ipod (but black). the other part was the typical cigarette plug, but with a USB plug. After ALOT of searching I found a really sleek, black 12V socket at Radio shack, installed that and then inserted the USB port. If I need the standard 12V socket I can pull it out, but with it in, I can easily charge my phone (Samsungs crazy charger to USB cable), My Girlfriends' phone (Blackberry's standard mini-USB to Standard USB cable), My bluetooth, an ipod (although the Drive+Play takes care of that need), etc... Originally, I had planned to use a 4-port Kensington USB hub which was like 3.25" x .5" x 2". Apparently this particular unit was crap and exceedingly hard to find so I took this approach instead which was good because as with the indicator lights, it wouldn't have fit

 

gotcha. Radio shack. I havent been able to find them 'released' yet... but i guess thats how, as an Ipod kit lol

 

Well, I got the charger at best buy. radio shack was where I got the 12V socket.

Anyway, I got pics up on my gallery if anyone would dare some to see it. If anyone wants anything or has any suggestions, please lemme know.

 

That's pretty cool. Looks very rallyesque.

I want to add more switches, mostly for dramatic effect. Perhaps make one a fuel pump or battery switch, maybe some on the roof by the sunroof controls. I'm odd, but I think it would be cool to have to flip through several switches before starting the car.

 

Great idea!

I need to make a switch panel to house switches for lights and such and this is great. Originally I wanted to make one like ImaginoX (nano car) [I definitely got that username wrong] had done in an aluminum box. But this seems much simplier

 

Looks cool. I like it. You should probably find some designed to dress it up a bit and make it look OEM.

 

My car has satellite radio, a Harmon Kardon Drive + Play, GPS, Boost Gauge... My friends all call it the "Space Ship." And now they joke it has a launch sequence as I flip on the switches. I always liked the industrial look of the stripped down race car. For practical purposes, theres only so much one can do, but I liked this mod. It turned out quite well, and I plan to enhance it with a few other mods, which will include indicator lights for the switches up on the dash above the far left vent, and a battery kill switch in the same area. I have already determined I can fit the hardware, even the 4ga. cable necessary for the cut-off switch. So far the only limitation is how to run the heavy cable, and how to figure out which wire goes to which switch... I highly recommend labeling sh*t if you do anything like this. There are additional pics in my gallery -- including mods under the bonnett to conceal the 5 fuses, wire, and the positive battery terminal. This has also led to other under-bonnet mods for a little more race-inspired appearance. We're all weird, and because I can't afford much right now, these have been fun little mods. Plus, the guy I tried to buy the plastic from apparently worked under my dad at Monsanto for 8 years, part in Massachusettes and part here in St. Louis, and just handed me about 48 square feet of high quality ABS.

Also, to the guy that said to make it look more OEM, that's not what I was going for. For your wants thats cool, and I'm sure it would look good in someone elses car. I don't mod cars because I want them to look OEM.

 

I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. Please don't take any of my comments as an attack. If anything, I admire your work; I wouldn't even know where to begin if I had to start a project of this caliber. It's truly a job well done.

 

AWESOME
now it looks like the car can lunch some rockets to slow cars to move them out, and eject seat :D:D:D
lol
it looks very cool

 

I didn't take any offense. Everyone does car modding a bit different. I'm just a bit eccentric. We all do this stuff but in the end, there aren't that many companies that make stuff for the Mini -- Coming from a person who used to work on Hondas. This is just a way to set mine apart.

 

I forgot to ask, where did you find the plastic with the 90 degree bend like that ? Is it readily available by chance ?

THanks.

 

The real difficulty of this project was making everything fit together perfectly. This was no more evident than around the Scan Gauge. However, the other place was between the panel itself and the cup holder piece. Apparently, based on your question, it went well because that isn't a 90 degree bend, it's two pieces. I've never seen an angled piece. The stuff does flex though. See the attached picture of a new under-bonnet piece.

This is no plug at all, just fact. The plastic came from ACI Plastics, which was only selected because they had a regional location 4 blocks from my work. Unfortunately they are pretty much midwest and south/southeast. My dad has a lot of experience with plastic. He was a chemical engineer in Monsanto's Plastics Division for two decades. A few years back when I wanted to make a custom dash for my CRX, he reccomended ABS, and I went back to it for this project. Per his experience, I know that most of the manufacturers of ABS sheet cut down massive sheets to fill orders. In the case of a small enough request (and my experience is that it helps to explain what you're doing, albeit briefly, to the contact), some will just give you scrap from cut-downs. I believe that the piece for the dash was like 6' x 8' and cost about $20 plus like $5 per cut (you know, to get it in a car). Anyway, I hope that helps. The thickness need not be much, this was under a tenth of an inch, and more than rigid enough to support its needs while still being a pain to cut so, keep that in mind.

Attached are pics of my kill switch which is unnecessary but functional, and will soon be set into an ABS trim that will also hold Indicator lights that correspond to the switches. They will be in the narrow vinyl part of the dash above the Anthracite. Also, bored with a rotary tool, I cut down the whole plastic BS over the radiator support the other day. I put in one of my ABS pieces to cover the hoses as they put off a lot of heat. I'm pretty sure that cutting off what was there didn't hurt anything, and I'm positive what I put back in didn't help anything, but boredom struck and that's what we got from it. You can see the flexibility of the material here, and with the engine heat, combined with 100 degree weather, there has been no melting, burning, etc of the plastic. It WAS hard to wrestle in and to hold while I screwed it down. I am curious if the heat might have helped it to reform into its current position, but I haven't unscrewed it all to check out of fear of having to wrestle it back down. I highly doubt it could be creased though, but one might be able to join two pieces by fusing them together somehow. Hope that helps.

 

how do you live with no cup holders?

 

What cup holders? One is a change tray one is a cell phone holder. lol

 

or how bout a change tray and a biggie pac gum holder...ha

 

Big League Chew. Good stuff. lol

 

I went back this weekend and re worked a couple things. The initial wiring harness was a disaster-the byproduct of not exactly knowing what I was going to do. The other issue came out of a decision to omit indicator lights, resulting in me leaving stuff on. So, problems solved. Off to the pub! Cheers

 

wow liked it before love it now :P