| letterman7 |
02-21-2019 03:57 PM |
And, of course, I totally forgot to put photos up of the spoiler. It's nothing special, just a grey primed blow-molded plastic piece.. which actually surprised me. I thought they were fiberglass. But then, I thought the running boards were fiberglass, too. So much to learn :-)
But.. the reason I purchased the thing for my panel was to figure out a place to put a reverse camera (or two). Since the panels have a major blind spot to the rear quarters, backing out and even some intersections can be an extreme challenge. Those that drive vans for a living are used to it.. I'm not, and wanted a little more vision in a parking lot. There are literally dozens of different camera systems out there that will plug into an aftermarket head unit, and just as many that are offered in a dash-cam configuration, using either a stand-alone dash cam or built into a rear-view mirror. I have the latter, and I love it. So.. in an effort to utilize the rear view camera (and it's wide angle lens), I was trying different configurations of where to put it, and none really worked for me. A bumper mount would put it too low; behind the rear window didn't offer enough field of vision. So I settled on adding the spoiler and placing the camera in a pod - one of those cheap faux sharkfin antennas. Then I got a little nervous - this would entail drilling the spoiler in a couple spots for the wire(s) to go through for the power/video. So.. a couple days searching Craigslist I scored a used spoiler for cheap to practice on.. in retrospect I probably should have done that in the first place! So.. here is progress so far. The fin had to be modded in shape a little to give it enough clearance for the roof when the hatch is opened, and it's being bonded in place in these photos. The camera will slot into the square tube from the rear and will be glued in place. The camera itself is waterproof.. I'll need to make sure the holes I drill in the hatch are well protected. The camera wire will be fed to the factory bellows between the body and hatch that house the wiring and hose for the third brake light and wiper assembly. The spoiler will be held in place with the 3M tape and the two factory studs, I've trimmed off the factory plastic "locator" studs to ease the install and to minimize the number of holes drilled. It's a slow process... I only get to mess with this kind of stuff after work and on weekends after all the honey-do's are done!
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...bc910f147c.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...d9565e70de.jpg |
