Flush-mounting Zune into car? Anyone done it?

theorie · 05-29-2007, 02:28 PM

So, I have three Zunes...one in each color. I was recently thinking about installing one of the zunes in my car (1993 Mazda Rx-7). I use a laptop to load music onto my Zune, so updating it wouldn't be a problem. I could just "plug-in" and sync when I have my laptop in the car. Also, my car stereo has an AUX input so I can hook-up the Zune without a wireless transmitter.

Anyway, my car's interior has the PERFECT spot to flush-mount the Zune: right where the removable ash-tray is. It's just larger than the Zune, so I could probably remove the piece and bondo/sand/paint the piece so the Zune was perfectly flush-mounted.

Here's a pic of my car's interior:

I'm currently in NYC and my car is down in Florida, so I'll have to give this project a go when I get back. I think I'm going to photoshop what I'm hoping to do...so I'll post that pic when I get a min.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

theorie · 05-29-2007, 02:54 PM

photoshopped:

Zuneary Bypass · 05-29-2007, 04:05 PM

if you don't mind an ugly texture problem you could put it there, not to mention the bondo flexing with the vinyl. you would have a better result if you mounted a dock somewhere, because flush mounting it would not be a good idea on anything with vynil covered pieces. if you have a place you don't mind cutting that is metal and not plastic, you can certainly bondo it. yo can use epoxy or tiger hair (more fiberous and rigid bondo with more glass fibers).try finding a place to pount a dock..

JesusFreak · 05-29-2007, 05:54 PM

If you flush mount it with bondo, how will you charge it and put more music on it? Plus I wouldn't mount my zune that close to wiring, and the transmision.

Trogdor · 05-29-2007, 05:56 PM

i would put a small screen in there and use the video out deal and a dock

Zuneologist · 05-29-2007, 06:44 PM

damn thats sick!

theorie · 05-29-2007, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zuneary Bypass

if you don't mind an ugly texture problem you could put it there, not to mention the bondo flexing with the vinyl. you would have a better result if you mounted a dock somewhere, because flush mounting it would not be a good idea on anything with vynil covered pieces. if you have a place you don't mind cutting that is metal and not plastic, you can certainly bondo it. yo can use epoxy or tiger hair (more fiberous and rigid bondo with more glass fibers).try finding a place to pount a dock..

that piece is not made of vinyl. its made of hard plastic.

see, this guy flush-mounded the controller for his aftermarket ECU into the same piece of plastic:

add bondo, and sand:

texture & paint:

thats why i was thinking i could flush-mount the zune into the spot where the ash tray was...

Quote:

Originally Posted by JesusFreak

If you flush mount it with bondo, how will you charge it and put more music on it? Plus I wouldn't mount my zune that close to wiring, and the transmision.

i was thinking i would buy the car carger kit USB kit and just hard wire it in to a power source. i did this before with my radar detector - that way you don't have that ugly cig-plug power jack thing sticking out of the dash. if it's hard wired in, i'll never have to charge it.

as far as adding files, i figured i would run the USB cable into the glove box. then, whenever you want to charge it you just open the glove box and plug the USB cable into the laptop

also, i'm sure it will be fine right there. as in the pictures above, this other dude mounted his ECU controller right next to it and he never had any problems. (he posted a post-instal update on rx7club.com, where i found the pictures)

Napoleon Iven Quinnly · 06-01-2007, 12:51 PM

Sounds interesting, in theory i suppose it's possible if you know what your doing

let me know how this turns out

Aden · 06-01-2007, 01:14 PM

I would have thought a better idea would be to get the zune dock and remote, get it working from the cars battery, along with one of those incar dvd screens or something mounted on the dash which is plugged into the zune dock which connects to the zune, so you have a zune connected to a tv, like you would with the normal tv with zune anywhere else, and a wireless remote which could be left free or mounted almost anywhere in the car, maybe in that dash area you said. Expensive but would look great. There is a video of something like this on youtube, but it have 5 seperate tv's connected to a zune on a dock at the front. I will try and find it.

solidsonata · 07-04-2007, 12:37 PM

when mounting it in there I'd put a piece of 1/8" plexiglass a bit above the screen to protect it. It would suck if you hit the screen with your elbow or something and broke it

ShadowedIce · 07-04-2007, 12:52 PM

I would get some plexiglass like the other guy said. What i dont understand how you are doing is the sync cable and charging. You said you were gonna hard wire it to charge, so that leaves to place for you to use the sync cable. You could use a sync cable and feed it to your glovebox and then have it hooked up there for a hard wire (use like some kind of USB extension) and then if you want to sync it just disconnect it from the extension and then plug it into the laptop. It would also be really nice if you got a remote to control it so you dont have to look down to change songs.

Airfighter · 05-18-2008, 11:31 AM

ok i have an idea if you were to figure out a way to get power to the zune then you could do this. As far as syncing why cant you just do a wireless sync then you will never have to take it out. If you were able to make sure that you dont hit it with you elbow then you should be ok. you could also try to make a custom fiber glass enclosure around it with a hole in the bottom for a charger to be plugged in and hard wire it to the car. as far as the sanding goes you will have to sand the whole thing or it would look weird with part smooth and part textured.

chuck · 05-22-2008, 07:32 PM

Hey I am workin on one of these mods right now. I have a v2 dock that I am mounting above the stereo in a 96 accord. my only problem is the v2 dock does not have the zune interfave for a input, so i could not put the car charger into the back of it like I could with the v1 dock.
I took a car cell phone charger that puts out 5.30v (checked with a meter)

I hooked it up to a usb jack and charged a creative zen with no problem.
tried to hook the zune dock into it and the remote worked but the zune did not say it was charging.

I am going to put a resistor in there to make it 5.00v even, but would that even make the zune say it was charging?
I bought a usb charger(cheap one) and had the same problem.

I think I might have to just match the voltages and call it a day.

Anybody with suggestions?

djrichmond · 05-26-2008, 11:05 PM

I am actually considering the same kind of project for the inside of my car. Although instead of actually cutting into anything, I am going to build a holder that will set my zune where my CD's are kept.
There is plenty of room to mount it, plus it will be easy to hide away any kind of wiring behind the face. Not to mention that since I have the zune I have no need to CDs!!!

I think this kind of mounting would be more practical in the case of something breaking of having to use your zune somewhere else... Just my two cents.

I tried to post a picture of the dash but I can't yet because this is my 1st post. But go here to see it.
h ttp://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/graphics/roadtest/hardessen/hardessen_dash.jpg

djrichmond · 05-26-2008, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Airfighter

as far as the sanding goes you will have to sand the whole thing or it would look weird with part smooth and part textured.

you could always just buy a can of spray texture...

zune08boardaccount08 · 05-27-2008, 07:30 PM

I just got the ver. 1 dock cheap off the web, and I have a Zune car charger to hook it up. I like how the dock boosts the audio out level. Without the dock, I had to crank up my car stereo volume when I play the Zune thru AUX in. The docking station in the car is the best solution I have seen yet - just a matter of where to put the dock.

alec534 · 05-29-2008, 11:29 AM

It might become terrible annoying to look down at that angle to change songs or watch videos. Have you considered hooking up a video/audio out cable and using a small monitor?

Beausiph · 05-30-2008, 01:32 PM

that would be sweet

133794m3r · 05-30-2008, 02:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theorie

So, I have three Zunes...one in each color. I was recently thinking about installing one of the zunes in my car (1993 Mazda Rx-7). I use a laptop to load music onto my Zune, so updating it wouldn't be a problem. I could just "plug-in" and sync when I have my laptop in the car. Also, my car stereo has an AUX input so I can hook-up the Zune without a wireless transmitter.

Anyway, my car's interior has the PERFECT spot to flush-mount the Zune: right where the removable ash-tray is. It's just larger than the Zune, so I could probably remove the piece and bondo/sand/paint the piece so the Zune was perfectly flush-mounted.

Here's a pic of my car's interior:

I'm currently in NYC and my car is down in Florida, so I'll have to give this project a go when I get back. I think I'm going to photoshop what I'm hoping to do...so I'll post that pic when I get a min.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

do it.... just do it.... I say go for it man... and I believe in you.

05-29-2007, 02:28 PM	#1 (permalink)
theorie Jr. Zuner Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Manhattan, NY Posts: 38 Reputation: 10 $zB: 4 Donate	Flush-mounting Zune into car? Anyone done it? So, I have three Zunes...one in each color. I was recently thinking about installing one of the zunes in my car (1993 Mazda Rx-7). I use a laptop to load music onto my Zune, so updating it wouldn't be a problem. I could just "plug-in" and sync when I have my laptop in the car. Also, my car stereo has an AUX input so I can hook-up the Zune without a wireless transmitter. Anyway, my car's interior has the PERFECT spot to flush-mount the Zune: right where the removable ash-tray is. It's just larger than the Zune, so I could probably remove the piece and bondo/sand/paint the piece so the Zune was perfectly flush-mounted. Here's a pic of my car's interior: I'm currently in NYC and my car is down in Florida, so I'll have to give this project a go when I get back. I think I'm going to photoshop what I'm hoping to do...so I'll post that pic when I get a min. Thoughts? Suggestions? __________________ My Zunes: Black 1st-gen Zune upgraded w/ 80gb HDD & 850mAh battery To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

05-29-2007, 02:54 PM	#2 (permalink)
theorie Jr. Zuner Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Manhattan, NY Posts: 38 Reputation: 10 $zB: 4 Donate	photoshopped: __________________ My Zunes: Black 1st-gen Zune upgraded w/ 80gb HDD & 850mAh battery To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

05-29-2007, 04:05 PM	#3 (permalink)
Zuneary Bypass Zuner Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 52 Reputation: 10 $zB: 4 Donate	if you don't mind an ugly texture problem you could put it there, not to mention the bondo flexing with the vinyl. you would have a better result if you mounted a dock somewhere, because flush mounting it would not be a good idea on anything with vynil covered pieces. if you have a place you don't mind cutting that is metal and not plastic, you can certainly bondo it. yo can use epoxy or tiger hair (more fiberous and rigid bondo with more glass fibers).try finding a place to pount a dock.. __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

05-29-2007, 05:54 PM	#4 (permalink)
JesusFreak Freak for Jesus Retired Staff Experienced Zuner Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 203 Reputation: 22 $zB: 0 Donate	If you flush mount it with bondo, how will you charge it and put more music on it? Plus I wouldn't mount my zune that close to wiring, and the transmision. __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

05-29-2007, 06:44 PM	#6 (permalink)
Zuneologist Doctor of Zuneology Retired Staff Elite Zuner Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Houston, Tx Posts: 2,200 Reputation: 76 $zB: 0 Donate	damn thats sick! __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Campeones 06/07!!!!

Remove Advertisements Sponsored Links
Zune Boards Advertisement

06-01-2007, 12:51 PM	#8 (permalink)
Napoleon Iven Quinnly Hacks and Mods Crew Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 629 Reputation: 15 $zB: 134 Donate	Sounds interesting, in theory i suppose it's possible if you know what your doing let me know how this turns out __________________ With all due respect, Napoleon IQ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

06-01-2007, 01:14 PM	#9 (permalink)
Aden Posting Disabled Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: www.darkzune.com Posts: 585 Reputation: 7 $zB: 13 Donate	I would have thought a better idea would be to get the zune dock and remote, get it working from the cars battery, along with one of those incar dvd screens or something mounted on the dash which is plugged into the zune dock which connects to the zune, so you have a zune connected to a tv, like you would with the normal tv with zune anywhere else, and a wireless remote which could be left free or mounted almost anywhere in the car, maybe in that dash area you said. Expensive but would look great. There is a video of something like this on youtube, but it have 5 seperate tv's connected to a zune on a dock at the front. I will try and find it.

07-04-2007, 12:37 PM	#10 (permalink)
solidsonata Zewbie Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 1 Reputation: 10 $zB: 0 Donate	when mounting it in there I'd put a piece of 1/8" plexiglass a bit above the screen to protect it. It would suck if you hit the screen with your elbow or something and broke it

07-04-2007, 12:52 PM	#11 (permalink)
ShadowedIce Experienced Zuner Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 135 Reputation: 13 $zB: 12 Donate	I would get some plexiglass like the other guy said. What i dont understand how you are doing is the sync cable and charging. You said you were gonna hard wire it to charge, so that leaves to place for you to use the sync cable. You could use a sync cable and feed it to your glovebox and then have it hooked up there for a hard wire (use like some kind of USB extension) and then if you want to sync it just disconnect it from the extension and then plug it into the laptop. It would also be really nice if you got a remote to control it so you dont have to look down to change songs.

05-18-2008, 11:31 AM	#12 (permalink)
Airfighter Zewbie Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 7 Reputation: 10 $zB: 10 Donate	ok i have an idea if you were to figure out a way to get power to the zune then you could do this. As far as syncing why cant you just do a wireless sync then you will never have to take it out. If you were able to make sure that you dont hit it with you elbow then you should be ok. you could also try to make a custom fiber glass enclosure around it with a hole in the bottom for a charger to be plugged in and hard wire it to the car. as far as the sanding goes you will have to sand the whole thing or it would look weird with part smooth and part textured.

05-22-2008, 07:32 PM	#13 (permalink)
chuck Squirt Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 15 Reputation: 10 $zB: 13 Donate	Hey I am workin on one of these mods right now. I have a v2 dock that I am mounting above the stereo in a 96 accord. my only problem is the v2 dock does not have the zune interfave for a input, so i could not put the car charger into the back of it like I could with the v1 dock. I took a car cell phone charger that puts out 5.30v (checked with a meter) I hooked it up to a usb jack and charged a creative zen with no problem. tried to hook the zune dock into it and the remote worked but the zune did not say it was charging. I am going to put a resistor in there to make it 5.00v even, but would that even make the zune say it was charging? I bought a usb charger(cheap one) and had the same problem. I think I might have to just match the voltages and call it a day. Anybody with suggestions?

05-26-2008, 11:05 PM	#14 (permalink)
djrichmond Zewbie Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 3 Reputation: 10 $zB: 2 Donate	I am actually considering the same kind of project for the inside of my car. Although instead of actually cutting into anything, I am going to build a holder that will set my zune where my CD's are kept. There is plenty of room to mount it, plus it will be easy to hide away any kind of wiring behind the face. Not to mention that since I have the zune I have no need to CDs!!! I think this kind of mounting would be more practical in the case of something breaking of having to use your zune somewhere else... Just my two cents. I tried to post a picture of the dash but I can't yet because this is my 1st post. But go here to see it. h ttp://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/graphics/roadtest/hardessen/hardessen_dash.jpg

05-27-2008, 07:30 PM	#16 (permalink)
zune08boardaccount08 Jr. Zuner Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 36 Reputation: 9 $zB: 3 Donate	I just got the ver. 1 dock cheap off the web, and I have a Zune car charger to hook it up. I like how the dock boosts the audio out level. Without the dock, I had to crank up my car stereo volume when I play the Zune thru AUX in. The docking station in the car is the best solution I have seen yet - just a matter of where to put the dock.

05-29-2008, 11:29 AM	#17 (permalink)
alec534 Zuner Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 87 Reputation: 18 $zB: 7 Donate	It might become terrible annoying to look down at that angle to change songs or watch videos. Have you considered hooking up a video/audio out cable and using a small monitor?

05-30-2008, 01:32 PM	#18 (permalink)
Beausiph Experienced Zuner Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 190 Reputation: 13 $zB: 106 Donate	that would be sweet __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Thanks To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Sponsors