Well, by popular demand, I’ve decided to make a iPod dock DIY. It’s not perfect, but hopefully from the information and pictures in this thread, you can get creative and make your own functional iDevice dock.


First things first, I got this idea from VWVortex. The member used an actual iPod dock and just Bondoed it into this stock ashtray insert.
Here is his writeup:
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.p ... st67353312


I also found another member who made his out of wood and then covered it in fabric. Might be a little cheaper to do if you have some scrap wood lying around.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.p ... st67351428

So, how did I do the one in my girlfriend’s 97? Well, I did it in a way that I could use the Alpine HU iDevice cable so if you just wanted a dock for charging and what not you can alter your setup.
What you need.
-A cable/dock/ or none of the above if you just want to use the audio jack
-epoxy/bondo/wood
-fabric or paint
-basic tools and sandpaper of course

Now onto the DIY. This is how I did mine. Again you obviously can make to suit to your personal preferences and mounting location (like you 04+ guys putting it in the ashtray sideways or something like that.)
1. I removed the little cup in the center console. I contemplated putting the dock in the pull out ashtray, but it would have covered up the fan knob, but you could totally put it there if you’d like.

2. I used the cup as a pattern for my “mold” by covering the entire inside in painters tape, then putting vasaline over the painters tape so that the mold would pop right out after it was dry.

3. Fill up the “pattern” with bondo or fiberglass resin. As you can see in later pics, I actually used both because I didn’t have enough of one to complete the mold so I had to use both haha.

4. Once the bondo/resin dries, pop it out of the cup. As you can see it doesn’t look perfect, but that okay, because it’s going to be covered later.

5. Now the tricky part. Since the Alpine cable is a little funky because it has 2 buttons on the side of it to unplug it from the device, I needed a way to pull the iDevice and cable out some so I could disconnect the 2. If you wanted to do a regular dock which you can just lift the iDevice off, than this whole process will be a little easier and you could do something like the first link I posted. Anyhow, I cut the bondo in half. You’ll see why in a second.

6. Then I started to shape the top of the dock to the size of the iTouch I was going to put in the car. Also, I started shaping the bottom in a way that the cable would sit in it, but not be able to fall out the bottom and thus be lost behind the center console. I also cut a slit in it to allow for me to slide the cable into the bottom instead of trying to run the tip through it since I already had it connected to the back of the radio.



7. After the bondo was shaped, I used adhesive spray (you can get it at the fabric store, walmart, Home Depot, just about anywhere) and wrapped the top and bottom in plaid.
8. I then cut a hole in the bottom of the plastic cup for the cable. Then ran the cable through the bottom piece of the dock and popped the entire dock into the plastic cup.


9. Finally I put the entire dock back into the center console and enjoyed having an iDevice in perfect reach but out of the way from the controls.


There are easier ways to do this, but this way worked for the particular cable I had to use. Again, getting an actual Apple Dock would be the best option cause then you could just trim it to fit and epoxy/bondo into the location you wanted.

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Dubs:00 VW GTI VR6, Low and Slow 91 VW GTI 8v, Shave the Bay!! 91 VW Cabriolet 8v, bitch Basket
GP's:04 GP GT, Past now G-Ma's Girlfriend's 97 GP GT, "Project Pink Power"

Great mod cant wait to do my own. thanks for the info.

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02 Chevy Zr2-sl2,2"BL,Mtclassic II's,Flowmasters,duratrak lockers 3.73's gears
97 Dodge avenger-to many to list-Sold
02 Gp Gt- Intake,Gmpp,PCM,3In Dp.

has anyone done anything like this with a 04+? any pics?

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No problem. Hope it helps

I can't say that I've ever seen someone with an 04+ do a dock before, I always just see them have the stands come out of the cubby hole under the radio. I wanted to mock something up on my 04's ashtray/coin thing, but never got around to it.

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Dubs:00 VW GTI VR6, Low and Slow 91 VW GTI 8v, Shave the Bay!! 91 VW Cabriolet 8v, bitch Basket
GP's:04 GP GT, Past now G-Ma's Girlfriend's 97 GP GT, "Project Pink Power"

i was thinking about doing this with an older car. just to give you a heads up they sell those white docks on ebay super cheap where you can actually plug the cable running off the back of your head unit into it, and it still has the standard ipod dock.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Charger-Hotsync-Doc ... 378wt_1200

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-Mike



2004 GTP Comp G

Dang, nice find. Wish I would have known about that before I made this one. I might actually get that dock and redo this thing so I can just plug the Alpine cable into the dock.

-- Thu Jan 27, 2011 1:21 am --

Well, I bought that one you posted, haha. Time to see if I can make this better now... or just put in my VW.

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Dubs:00 VW GTI VR6, Low and Slow 91 VW GTI 8v, Shave the Bay!! 91 VW Cabriolet 8v, bitch Basket
GP's:04 GP GT, Past now G-Ma's Girlfriend's 97 GP GT, "Project Pink Power"

ya not sure what the dimensions are in comparison the cup area you used. but let me know how it works out. im still toying with a few ideas.

_________________
-Mike



2004 GTP Comp G

It looks like it will be too deep, but I'm going to see if I could modify the dock a little and just trim the back and run those cable input to the bottom, but I'll have to see how the dock is put together.

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Dubs:00 VW GTI VR6, Low and Slow 91 VW GTI 8v, Shave the Bay!! 91 VW Cabriolet 8v, bitch Basket
GP's:04 GP GT, Past now G-Ma's Girlfriend's 97 GP GT, "Project Pink Power"