If there is one thing I hate seeing here in Japan, it is the huge aftermarket navigation screens glued on or hacked into a hard to replace vintage dashboard. The hakosuka came from the previous owner with a cut up radio panel for just this purpose, but I needed a cleaner mounting solution after spending time sourcing and replacing it.

After trying a suction cup mount on the windshield for a few months, my obsessive compulsive cleaning instincts kicked in. I just couldn’t stand how it got in the way of the sunscreen (and wrinkled it) or left a gooey ring on the glass if I removed the mount.

Since the cheap little modification I hacked together to solve those problems has been working out well so far, I decided it is time to post it. I settled on creating a plastic bracket that could clip in and out of the ashtray within a matter of seconds. This fit the bill of not requiring any holes to be drilled and wouldn’t scratch any visible portions of the dash during use. After rummaging for materials, I found that the clear plexiglass top on a GoPro camera’s retail packaging just happened to be the correct width…and free.

So out came the ashtray to trace the mating profile from. I was in a rush so I didn’t document transferring the traced curves from paper to the plexi before taking a hacksaw and Dremel to it.

After some trial and error, I was able to reduce the contact points on the inside of the ash tray. The plastic is just flexible enough to slide over the top and clip in under the guide rails.

All the pieces back together and guiding me to Tsukuba.