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StreetPilot III and V1 in roof rail: the ordeal is finally over

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Old Jun 22, 2003 | 05:50 PM
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From: Timonium
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After two weekends without much time spent on anything else, the StreetPilot III and V1 custom roof rail install is finally complete. As I noted in the other thread, at the last minute I decided to mount all of the hardware in the roof rail. There is not a milimeter of spare room there, and everything barely fit. I did this because the long cable runs of the special flat cable were producing screen artifacts.

This project was the most intense (and gratifying) of any I've done, and due to my own carelessness last night (I made an incorrect power connection and fried one of my two SP III motherboards), very costly. Given the amount of labor, agony, and money I've thrown at this, if I had to do it over again, I probably wouldn't.

I hastily took some photos as the sun was setting, and I'm afraid they don't do the install justice. For some reason, the countours of the piece look more sharply defined than they do in person.

Mounting the thing was a PIA, and without the help of my son, I couldn't have done it. Since the piece loses all but two of the 6 stock mounting points, getting it into place was a bit difficult. I held my breath when I hit the on button. If it hadn't worked, I would have committed suicide

Some features that don't show in the photos. There's a din plug hidden out of sight near the windshield for attaching a computer serial port output to download maps and routes from the MapSource software. The attena is hidden in the secret compartment. A speaker is mounted in the driver's footwell for the voice commands.







I'll take more photos under better lighting conditions when I get a chance. I especially want to post some photos of what this looks like from the driver's seat, which is where I'l be seeing it most of the time.
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Old Jun 22, 2003 | 06:26 PM
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Great job! Congratulations on a really amazing mod.
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Old Jun 22, 2003 | 06:29 PM
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Looks great. Keep it up.
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Old Jun 22, 2003 | 06:39 PM
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What about from the front of the car to see the back of the V1?
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Old Jun 22, 2003 | 06:55 PM
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From: Timonium
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Originally posted by ruexp67
What about from the front of the car to see the back of the V1?
There an opening on the windshield side of the roof rail so the V1 can "see".
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Old Jun 22, 2003 | 06:56 PM
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Outstanding job Rick!!!
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Old Jun 22, 2003 | 07:08 PM
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It does look nicely done.

I would think that the mounting point would adversely affect the sound output of the V1. Is there an opening for the speaker or is it loud enough for you at higher speed with the top down?
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Old Jun 22, 2003 | 07:21 PM
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Very nice addition Rick. We have all been anticipating the progress of this ever so patiently. The finished piece was well worth the excruciating wait.
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Old Jun 22, 2003 | 07:51 PM
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Daddy like...
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Old Jun 22, 2003 | 07:53 PM
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Definatly an ambitious project...looks real slick
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