Motors Quick Corsa/Road Angel mod [If you're fashion over function - DON'T look]

Hi all,
I spent a couple of hours this morning in the sun trying to fit an old Road Angel Classic into my Vauxhall Corsa. Although It isn't the neatest of mods it certainly works well! (Anyway you can't see the not very good bits).

I want to put it here like this:


Unfortunately the power lead for it disappeared with its old car, so I checked the mains lead it had - it outputs 9V
I found an old multi power wall adapter and plugged it in at 9V and it worked ok, so moved the voltage down - worked down to 7.5V - then with fingers crossed moved it to 12V. Left it for a bit, and no smoke or heat when I got back so phew! It did cross my mind that the power pack could be regulating the I enough to keep it alive, and the car battery might not be so forgiving.
I want it to turn on/off with the key, so the only wires readily accessible were those behind the radio. I tested the theory like this:


This is what I had to work with - no conveniently placed holes


I undid some screws that let me move the bit around the dash off slightly. I nibbled off the corner so the power lead didn't mangle:


Almost finished - with the screws tightened up the gap is much less!


This is a useful place to put the wire as it is easily accessible from below! Routing round the steering column:


Cable Management! Didn't want it getting caught on moving things so I secured it for as much as possible:


Thank god there's light behind the radio:


This made getting the cable through to here much easier:


I sliced a small amount of insulation from the 0V and wire from the key - it's using a tiny current so i figured it would be ok. The main power for the radio comes down a separate (thicker) yellow wire - it uses the red one to know if the car's on or off!
The radio is a non vauxhall one, so needed an extra adapter cable between the corsa plug and the radio socket. I used this is removeable if necessary


So screwed the panels back on, plugged it in, turned the key an wooohooo! It stays on until the key is actually removed - turning it to position 0 it stays on.



That was the easy part. Now it has to be screwed down

Right don't shout at this:

The washer like thing is a neat little fitting that you put in a hole in a thin material, and as you tighten a screw into it, 3 legs spread out and secure it in the hole. I'e used them extensively on fibreglass and they're really neat - as long as the hole is perp. to the surface!
With the windscreen it was impossible to drill a decent hole, and also impossible to use a screwdriver. Made a total mess of it.

So then I thought - Cableties!
The larger hole i thought I'd drilled into the air ducting but apparently not. The second one had much more resistance than that first so i was slightly worried I'd hit something. Turned out to be a false alarm - It is VERY difficult to see / feel underneath the surface on a corsa! (drilled a pilate hole first)


I was going to cable tie it initally, but couldn't find anywhere to feed them through to hold it. I tried undoing these screws to remove the light switches...but they're clearly thought of that one


I *did* try gaffa tape, but it didn't seem to stick to the plastic at all. Good thing too i suppose

It took SO long but I managed to get a cabletie base installed. It's 2 connected way beneath around a metal bar - I couldn't reach up to where the holes are! You can also clearly see the mess


It's got 2 cableties in a X shape holding to the cabletie base - seems very secure tbh. It certainly doesn't move during normal driving! Only problem is it can't be removed so will have to be careful where I park it


Now just got the GPS to install


The unit hasn't been powered up for at least a year now...it updated instantly (serial port!) when i plugged it in. Lovely bit of kit!

-Profqwerty

 

You should have taken an ignition live feed from the fusebox .

Also, if you're worried about it getting nicked, why not reshell it into the MFD housing?

 

i am still confused on what is that....

 

my thoughts exactly. What the hell does it do? from what I can make out it is some sort of radar/dangerous spot warning thingy

 

I think its a gatso/speed gps thingy.

http://www.roadangel.co.uk/products/roadangelcompact/index.html

Any idea if it spits out NMEA data?, might be worth hooking it up to a carpc

 

I thought about putting it there, but I wasn't too confident with being able to reassemble the interior so well.

It's a speed camera detector.

http://www.blackspot.com/support/classicroadangel/index.html

It simply bleeps at you when approaching speed cameras (it has a sensor for portable ones too). According to the instructions it can output location data (on serial port) too.

It's very useful as I do a lot of driving in places I haven't been before.

 

Errr velcro sticky pads? No drilling, can be removed easily and the pads can be taken off when you sell the car.

 

The velcro pads tend to not stick very well to that faux-leather vinyl finish on most cars, because it's bumpy.

And, on a lot of older cars, the dash has been cleaned and armor-all applied so many times that adhesives just slide off it.

I could never get velcro to stick on the dash of my Oldsmobile, it would just slide downwards.

 

you need a road angel in a corsa?

 

You're right nothing sticks to it that stuff.

Ahaha. Certainly - braking (moderately) results in the thing vibrating like mad.

 

Go practise in a scrapyard .

 

Would have been a better idea to fit a rev counter?


I love my corsa, it's so raw and basic

 

Aren't these illegal ? They detect speeding camera's, don't they?