Factory Leather

Hi - Excellent forum guys! Read every post over the last 12 months, and will be reading through the rest tonight. Learnt lots of stuff since stumbling across the site. I am 30 days into an order for a C4 Coupe. Its absolute torture, delivery is circa Summer '03. I've been driving M3s and XK8s for the past 5 years and feel its time to move on up the ladder a bit. I'm suffering an unbelievable urge to buy things for the car already, I've got a remote garage door opener coming over from the States(Homelink supplied by JP Customs as per posts on this site) in addition to several other planned modifications. The biggest being a custom phone holder coupled with a Bluetooth car kit, I'm going to hang on for a while before getting the kit in the hope that there will be improvements between now and then. The phone holder, IMHO, has to be small and compact and fit as seamlessly as possible into the car. What I have in mind is a replacement panel to sit where the ash tray and electric window buttons do in a stock car. I intend to have the current panel, minus the ash tray moulded and merged with a precise cutout of the phone I wish to house, a Nokia 6310 (I'm of the opinion that such a phone should suit my needs for the next 2 years, not really interested in these new picture messaging toys). I've found somebody who is prepared to create a 3D scan of the phone and, with my direction, make the necessary changes to it (involves cutting the scan out of a rectangle in their CAD software, removing some of the deep cuts etc) and then producing a plastic prototype in their 3D printer. I believe from the things that I have heard that these guys are really top notch as rapid prototypers and have quoted a reasonable price for the work, far better than buying a nasty looking Nokia CARKXXX. I know from experience that the person creating the mould to reproduce the ash tray console is superb and expect a truly faithful reproduction. He is also going to employ his modelling skills to remove the rear buttons holes as these will not be needed. The current spec for the car includes a leather rear console. This means that the ash tray section will be covered in leather too. What I really need to know before I can get these guys to go ahead and create a scan is the thickness of the factory leather. The phone cutout needs to be expanded by this thickness in order that the phone can be fitted as snuggly as possible into the cutout. I need to know this information before they will agree a price, which they are prepared to honour x months down the line. So, if anybody has a piece of factory leather floating around and could get an approximate measurement of its thickness/depth I'd be extremely grateful. Cheers, Lee.

I don't have the thickness, but you might find out by going to the RUF website and emailing them. They deal in custom leather all the time. In fact they will supply anyone with an ash-tray delete covered in leather for $350. In order to cover the "delete" thingy they have to grind the piece down a bit, so after it's covered it will fit into the hole. That grinding, if you can find how much it is, should give you an idea how much you have to compensate for.

Thanks for the suggestion Don, I'll be sure to speak with Ruf about this. I have a driving day on the 13th and this will require a visit to the dealership. I'm sure that somebody there will be able to help. The salesman that I'm dealing with is away until the 10th, otherwise I'd be getting him to find out. Patients is a virtue... sadly a virtue that I lack! Cheers, Lee.

You can see another option for a very low profile phone installation here: <a href="http://www.geocities.com/esklut/V60Install.html" target="_blank">Eric's V60c in 996 Cab....</a>

Why don't you just order the car with the phone prep package? Everything comes pre-installed and all you have to do is buy a nokia cradle and pop-in your phone and then at least you'll have hands-free and a factory GSM antenna. Your idea is great but it sounds like alot of grief when there's a factory option already tried and tested. I understand that the UK has banned talking while driving and the only way you can do this is by using a hands-free phone so before going through all this expense and effort try to make sure that what you want to do is legal

Thanks for the input. I intend to have the factory support and get the bluetooth kit connected to this. I have a Nokia cradle in the M3 and find it a pain in the butt. Its over on the passenger side and keeps getting knocked by whoever sits there. Its beginning to mishape the panel to which it is connected - I don't want this to happen to my new baby when she comes. It is turning out to be a lot of hassle and expense. The quote for the 3D scan has come back way too expensive for my liking. I still like the idea and will continue to investigate alternatives. One simpler solution is to have somebody cut a panel the same size as the ash tray cover and route out the shape of the phone from this panel - far far simpler and a whole universe cheaper. Anybody had a bluetooth kit installed yet? For those unaware of such things, the car kit can connect using wireless technology (bluetooth) to a bluetooth capable phone, 6310 et al, thus allowing use of the factory installed mic and car's audio system without having to connect the phone to anything, the phone can even stay in your briefcase. I'd love to know if the quality is good or not?

This all sounds pretty complicated just to talk on the phone. I have a nokia 8260 that I charge in the car with the lighter plug wire and when I want to talk hands free I just plug in the little headphone wire and put the earpiece in my ear. Sorry I don't know all the technical names for these items but I think you know what I am talking about. Anyway, sound is clear and I just lay the phone on the little shelf under the stereo and don't have to jimmy rig the car and it costs about $3.

Personally I don't like having things in my ears, call me pathetic if you wish, I just don't like it. I know that a lot of people are more than happy to use the earphone based handsfree kits. I'm probably going to end up placing the phone in the lower centre console storage space. I can't justify the cost of having sat nav as it would rarely be of any benefit to me, so the space left by not having this option will provide an ideal location. It would still have been nice to get things exactly the way I want them. Oh well, should have started a precision engineering firm instead of becoming a software developer. I'm putting the idea to rest now, in favour of a much simpler solution. For those interested, this is how I had visualized it looking in the end: Cheers, Lee.

It looks good and you seem determined to do it so best of luck I tried bluetooth ear piece from both ericsson & Mototrola, both connected with the Nokia 6310 and wasn't that impressed with them and now I'm back using my trusty wire ear piece. Sometimes the reception cuts out and sometimes it doesn't sound as clear so I suggest you try out an ear pice before taking the plunge into doing alot of mods. P.s. the Porsche phone cradle looks sturdy enough for me so have a look at that as well