Well, most of the major hurdles facing this project from the outset and the ways that I overcame them have been detailed in the tech posts I have written thus far and have published over the last couple of weeks. Although there were really a seemingly endless number of hours spent modifying, fabricating and wiring to finish this project (or at least finish it to the point you’ve seen here), I’ve tried to just cover the most challenging ones - rather than go into minute detail on every single aspect of the integration. By the way, I’ve really been enjoying answering the questions (and listening to the advice of) the many people emailing me directly about the more intricate details …

I got the opportunity to integrate a dock into a Z4 on Saturday. This one was particularly challenging, as I had to fabricate a new ashtray insert from scratch to trim out the raw iPod dock that lives underneath. I used Duratech short-strand fiberglass filler for the base of the mold and part, and then smoothed the insert out with Ultralite and Rage Gold body filler. A nice thick coat of FeatherFill primer and some Krylon satin black paint, and what you see here is the result. The piece simply drops into the ashtray location from above (the dock is attached to the part) and is connected to a Dension ICELink Plus for full control of the iPod through the …

Sorry these updates are slow in coming - I’ve had a ton of emails to answer (thanks to everyone for their questions and information) and a lot of site issues to deal with. I’ve got a few more detailed photos of different portions of the install up my sleeve, so keep an eye out for more posts! This post will go into a little detail on the fabrication of the aluminum bezel that surrounds the Xenarc 700tsv monitor and OEM climate controls. I’ve had more than a few questions about this, so hopefully this will get some of you going on your own projects.
As mentioned in the previous tech post, I originally wanted the MacMini to live in the dash …

This is a little fundraiser, just to help out with hosting. As you may know, we were Slashdotted the other day and oour bandwidth has been killed for the month. We are already over 41gigs over our limit for March. Ouch. Our pockets hurt. Hopefully a few hundred of ya’ll have a buck in your PayPal account or a credit card that you can push towards us. We’d highly appreciate it…

DONATE HERE

Hola! Well, Slashdot blew the shit up, and although we are recovering, the site is likely to be down randomly this month. Over 40 gigs of overage traffic has led to multiple death threats, and calls at all times of the day from a creditor in Pa. I think those calls were for TT…..I’m sorry, and maybe Matt disagrees, but there are a lot better things to spend the $200 on right now (Beer, Jack, Crown, a new skateboard, The Pink Pony etc).

We are starting to look for a few advertisers, or what not, so if you are interested (before we come calling you), send us an email to ads@tunertricks.com —-and if its major hit me on my pager.

And …

I didn’t even know it was going to be on, but an observant viewer (thanks for the info, by the way) caught a little blurb on my MacMini install last night on The Screen Savers. It’s going to be replayed a couple of times, so check it out if you’re interested. Thanks in large amounts to The Screen Savers for picking up the install and mentioning it on the show.

I meant to put these up on the original MacMini GTi post, but decided it might be better just to do them seperately, so here are a couple of extra shots of the car that don’t really relate to the Mac install at all… I did the trunk about two years ago and am currently working on getting some nicer and larger wheels for the car to step away from the stock exterior look. I also didn’t mention - for those who may wonder - that the car is a 1.8t GTi, not a VR6. Thanks to everyone for checking it out. The response has been overwhelming.

Sorry about the delay in posting, folks. I got slashdotted and my entire site went down Saturday night through Sunday morning. We’ve just now gotten access back to the post entry page, so I figured I’d go into a little detail about why the MacMini is in the glovebox (because that wasn’t the original plan) and how I got it in there.

I’m not sure why it seems like such an appealing idea to me, but I have always wanted the dash in my car to have just two a/v devices in it: No radio, no dancing equalizer lights - just a simple interface consisting of a touchscreen and a slot to load CDs and DVDs into. I had a setup …

Finally got to do an iPod in a Touareg using the spot I thought was best for this vehicle. I would’ve preferred the iPod straight instead of angled, but you gotta do what the customer wants, right? Anyway, I thought it turned out really nicely. I used a Blitzsafe aux input adapter to make the audio connection, and of course a charging cable to keep the battery topped off…
By the way, the next MacMini tech article will be posted tomorrow morning(ish), so check for it if you’re interested. Thanks everybody for the overwhelming response to the GTi MacMini install. I put a lot into it, so I really appreciate the feedback. Tomorrow…

I got to work on a three-day old 2005 Infiniti M45 Monday and came up with a nice, simple dock install for this vehicle. The switch located to the left of the dock interfaces with the car’s video system to create an additional A/V input to supplement the one Infiniti already supplied at the rear of the console…

As part one of the tech info posts on the GTi MacMini install, I wanted to put up a few pictures and a description of the process of moving the power button and power indicator. This is going to be pretty wordy, so click at your own risk…

The first issue I saw with the MacMini in a car environment was the fact that Apple located the power button for the computer on the back of the chassis. This makes total sense for them to do, since Macs are usually put to sleep instead of being shut down after each use. However, in a car, you really can’t let the computer sleep constantly without supplementing the vehicle’s electrical system in some …

Well, it kept me from posting regularly, took about two weeks to plan and occupied nearly every night for about three weeks, but the big project I’ve been promising to post on is done…finally. I actually finished it last week, but wanted to make sure I had covered all the bases and that everything was working properly before putting the car back together and photographing it (thanks to Ryan for the quick shoot).

When the dimensions for the MacMini were announced, I immediately got to work figuring out what the best way to integrate one into my own car would be. If I was going to put a Mac in my car, I wanted to make sure it had all of …