Custom phone and cup holders

[MJNewton]

Soon after buying our 2013 Fiesta Titanium two shortfalls for us became apparent - the lack of an obvious place to mount a phone (for sat nav use) and the lack of a cup holder in the rear. I looked around at a load of options and thought I'd share what I settled with in case it is of use to anyone else.

First off with the phone holder my usual solution of a universal vent holder (being universal is important as my wife and I have different sized phones to cater for) didn't lend itself well to the Fiesta's dashboard and vent layout. The often-recommended Brodit 654252 was an obvious candidate but I didn't like its positioning - far too low down to safely use in my opinion and something of an eye sore when not in use given how much it sticks out into the cabin. I then found the Brodit 604253 which is an A-piller mount. Quite pricey at £16 but extremely good quality and, equally importantly, a great location. Brodit mounts come in two parts - the mount base and a phone-specific clip attachment. Given the desire for a universal fitting (I think I may have seen a universal one from Brodit but it was very expensive) I opted to make my own 'clip' using a combination of a Herbert Richter 57510011 swivel mount adapter (£8) and Vagus Electronics adjustable mount (£3). The whole thing cost £27 so pretty pricey but given the use we'll get out of it for many years to come I think it was money well spent. Here's the end result:

...with a close-up of the mount (left-to-right: spring loaded adjustable-width Vagus mount screwed to the Herbert Richter ball joint and then screwed into the Brodit mount):

The positioning is perfect - flush with the profile of the dash (and therefore reasonably subtle when not in use - my wife didn't even spot it at first but to be fair that may say more about her than the mount! ), within driver's eye line but not obscuring the screen and also well within reach.

For power I didn't want cables strewn across the dashboard and so I tapped in to my hardwired dashcam power source in the OBD cubby below and ran a short USB cable from there:

The cubby doesn't need opening to access the power cable as there is a hole in the finger cutout that it can be pulled from and pushed back through when not in use (leaving a small amount exposed to grab it again):

 

On to the rear cup holder the desire for this stems from us having a newborn baby to look after and so one of us always sits in the back with her. With us doing lots of trips out and drinking gallons of free Waitrose coffee a cup holder is an essential item for us at the moment! I opted for a folding cup holder (£4.22 from eBay) mounted to the rear of the centre armrest:

It required a couple of self-tapping screws (the small holes it'll leave behind should be easy to fill afterwards) and is very stable in use. When not in use it folds away neatly and doesn't look too out-of-place (it matches a lot better to the naked eye than the camera image appears to suggest) nor does it get in the way given the recess on the armrest:

 

[Jonro2009]

Good job on your custom parts, they look good. I'm not a fan of phone holders, especially ones that obscure the drivers vision. Like the ones that are smack in the middle of the screen, I appreciate yours is neither. Brodit are pretty expensive aren't they, more so the clips rather than than the actual bracket. Anyway, my biggest pet hate is visible wiring as I'm sure is a lot of peoples. If it were me I would bring the wire out at the bottom of the cubby, under the trim towards the door rubber and then up under that until you reach the top of the dash. Then run the wire up the a pillar behind the bracket, follow the bracket towards the clip and then bring out a length to plug into the phone. On the flat bit at the end of the power lead I would put a bit of Velcro and then put the opposite bit on the brodit to stick it to when there is no phone. Time consuming butworth it I think.

The cup holder is my favourite though. Such a simple idea but it wouldn't come to me lol, I over think things (see above [emoji6]). It actually looks like it should be there so I would be tempted to leave it there for good now. I'm sure the next owner will appreciate it. The holes left behind, tiny as they are would be more of an offence to the eyes than the functional cup holder.

You have given me ideas now [emoji6] the wife will kill me if I ***** about with her car though.she moans enough when I do things to mine. She even moaned about putting the dashcams in, I think that was just because she had nothing else to whinge about that day though.

[Jonro2009]

Ps loving the idea of the bin, I'm off shopping later funnily enough....
Congratulations on the new arrival, is this your first? My wee one is just one now, one of us still sits in the back! Amazing time in your lives now, you see everything differently (I hate people that say that lol) all I can say is short videos of the baby doing its 'normal' things are essential. I lie in bed just watching them sometimes, makes crappy days end well. (Sorry I said it's, I don't know the s*x)


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[MJNewton]

We could well be married to the same woman! When fitting her dashcam (she doesn't see it as hers though; she sees it as *mine* but in *her* car!) the main criteria for correct placement was not visibility of the road/surroundings, invisibility to potential theft etc but rather whether or not she could see it whilst driving. It would've be installed in the glovebox or under the seat if left for her to decide!

Anyway, back to the subject in hand, good idea about the power cable. I think because in previous cars I'd always had a visible USB cable - albeit one as short as possible - I've kind of got used to it but your suggestion is definitely worthy of further thought. There is plenty of rubber trim edging available around the door/dash to hide the cable. Perhaps a right-angle micro USB plug would help things too at the phone/mount end?

Agreed also regarding the cup holder - you and I can obviously tell it is aftermarket but I bet a good many wouldn't. That or they wouldn't necessarily spot it at first glance as whilst it doesn't hide away it doesn't scream out at you either.

Re the bin someone bought that for my wife for her first car that but it's never been used for one - well, no more than than the rest of her car! It just gets used for general storage really, particularly now that someone is always in the back and so it is good for the likes of a charging cable etc.

Yes, it is our first - after a rather long and sorry story unfortunately (multiple miscarriages) and so she seems particularly special to us (I know they all are). Good tip on the video front but rest assured that thanks to my trigger-happy wife I reckon we have pretty much got the entirety of these first three months captured for watching back in realtime!!

[Jonro2009]

I think you may be onto something with the wife thing! 'My' stuff always seems to make it into 'her' car. [emoji23]
Yes, a right angled cable would defo do the job. I didn't think of that, I've never used one as I just forget about them. I used right angled connectors behind the tv though.
We had a hard time before Freya too, like you there was miscarriage involved and also difficult IVF cycles, so I completely understand why your baby is extra special. My wife likes pictures too, I reckon we could do a flicker book of her lol. Videos are more my thing, they capture the atmosphere and most importantly aren't as boring lol


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[MJNewton]

I think there are many of us that have been in a similar boat; that's why I'm so keen not to hide it away as we have living proof that there can be light at the end of the tunnel!

[biff55]

i love to see a good bit of diy fettling , its what makes Britain great :-D

the only down side to a pillar mounting though is its easy for someone to grab the device through an opened window whilst vehicle is stationary - a risk dependent on location obviously.

cup holder works a treat tho.

[MJNewton]

Good point re the theft risk. Definitely something to consider if you often have the window open (for better or for worse we seem to be slave to the climate control and so rarely open the windows).

[Jonro2009]

I think there are many of us that have been in a similar boat; that's why I'm so keen not to hide it away as we have living proof that there can be light at the end of the tunnel!

Absolutely! And it is amazing just how many people are going through similar things, thank goodness for modern medicine


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