Coach Thrasher

Finished XA-300 Installation

Finally, I'm done with the XA-300 install. I didn't have any space in my glove box, so I mounted it below the passenger seat. I get an unusual number of search hits from Google and MSN for the XA-300, so I figured I'd post some pics for people:

I mounted a piece of wood as a base, to the floorboard with drywall screws (it's painted black in the pics). They sit flush with the board, and the screwtips are covered with black RTV so they don't scratch anything. The XA-300 is mounted to this board with velcro, so I can move it around for whatever reason. The important thing is that it works, and there's no more fiddling with half-working FM transmitters.

The passenger seat has been re-installed to the mounts. You can't see the XA-300 unless you look under the seat. All of the wires are hidden. It was easy to remove the passenger seat... the hard part of this whole installation was routing the wires under the center console from the Sony head unit. I also installed a 400 watt 120 volt inverter for charging cox-boxes and laptops from the road. The inverter is screw-mounted to the wood base.

The car you see is my 1990 Toyota Celica All Trac Turbo. Only ~2500 were sold in the US from 90-93... so it's pretty rare. This makes screwing up the car a royal pain in the ass since parts aren't available for it. I had to be extra careful when taking apart the dashboard... but that's ok, I'm one of those people that cuts through the "warranty void if seal is broken" stickers.

Now I'm ready for the drive to the Championship regatta at Lake Natoma this weekend. Audiobooks and podcasts, here I come.

Posted at 04:02PM May 18, 2006 by jason in Hardware  |  Comments[3]