What material to use to custom fabricate iPod holder into center console?
 

I want to turn the removable ashtray of my Miata into an iPod holder. Whats the best way to go about doing this?

The ashtray is basically a hollow metal tub, and i just wanna fill it with something and cut/mold a recess in it for the iPod so it sits flat in it and doesn't slide around. Of course i'll have it sanded and painted and whatnot, just wondering what the best material is to actually 'build' it.

The tray is fairly large (guesstimating around 7" long, 4" wide, and 2" deep) compared to the iPod, so its gonna need quite a bit of filler.

I was looking at fiberglass, but I don't think it would work as well with sharp, intricate corners/curves. Body filler I'm not sure if it's solid enough to actually form a shape. I was thinking something like epoxy putty but I imagine that's mainly used for smaller repairs. I have never worked with either before and don't know whats the best.

Thanks

yes ,I did this . Get some bondo (or duraglass) , tape your ipod up with enough layers of tape to make it a bit bigger , then mix up some bondo and push the ipod into the bondo , let it set up ( be really sure you pull out the ipod when it is just starting to set , now you have a pocket in the bondo which is the shape of your ipod , you can dremel the top to smooth it out , and dremel out the bottom if you want to use a ipod adaptor

Thanks. Would the bondo only be used for the surface where the iPod sits, or would it also be suitable as the filler to go inside the ashtray?

i.e. can I just fill the entire ashtray with bondo, then simply stick my wrapped iPod in there to form the shape? Or will such a large 'chunk' of bondo crack or break?

make sure you leave a section for the wire also :) or you can be super stealth and have the wire run through the bondo :)

Haha yeah for sure. I use a Line-Out dock that plugs into the bottom that I'll also mold into it. I was also thinking of even rigging the actual dock connector into the bondo, thogh I'm not sure I can manage that lol.

Here's some inspiration for you;

http://hzemall.com/our_gallery/insta...ti/install.htm

Wow thats almost exactly what I want to do, except laying flat instead of standing up.

Would you happen to know what material that grey stuff surrounding the iPod dock is?

Looks like SEM texture paint to me. Fairly straight-forward to do. If you need a hand.....

:)

Thanks orgasm_donor, but I was wondering more what the stuff he used to fill the space between the iPod dock and the ashtray, what that was.

A search of google of SM Texture Paint led me to this tutorial which I think is exactly what I can do: http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/fabr...zel-mount.html

I'll fill the ashtray with foam, cut out the shape I want, then smear bondo all over it, sand it down and paint; does that sound like it'll work?

I would skip the foam and just use Bondo/filler/icing

Need alot of patience, bondo, different grades of sandpaper and texture paint.

wtf is unfathomable? WHoops I guess I posted with my gf's account lol... Anyways, thanks.

Wow! That is amazing! It looks so professional and OEM after he installed it!