First writeup I've posted in here so hopefully I'm in the right place. With that said, I "fabricated" a mount for a 3p controller in place on the factory ash tray. I wasn't able to find anybody else that has used anything other than double sided tape on the dash for our cars, so I wanted to share the process I used.


First, start by removing the center console floor and associated trim to get to the ash tray. I believe there's only one plug depending on if you have heated seats or not. Unplug and remove. From there you should be able to remove the entire ash tray assembly. Its only two bolts holding it down and one plug that is connecting the ac port.


Once its removed, you can start to disassemble the tray. Remove the wire on the back of the ac port from the trim, then remove the port. The ac port has a nut on the back of it. Once the nut is removed, you can slide the port out. Its a bit tight, so I went ahead and cut the wire since I'm going to hardwire a 12v USB fast charge plug in place of it.








Next you can remove the top slide. Underneath is a flat spring that holds tension on the slide cover. To remove, just use a pick to slide it out of the groove. Next, there is a push clip on each side of the tray. Just push one in at a time (or both) and slide the cover and guide trays forward to release.








At this point your tray should be just one piece and open for modification.






I started by also disassembling the cover from the tray. There are two clips on the backside of the tray. Unclip, lift, and slide back to disconnect the two.






Start by using your dremmel (or your tool of choice) to completely cut out the full center section to make room for the controller.




There is a guide floor on both sides that go from the front to back. Since there is no pressure or weight on the cover, I was able to remove one side (left) to make room for the controller wire to not snag on. I put the tray back onto the ash tray to mark what needed to be cut. After I took my measurements, I went ahead and rounded the edges as an extra precaution.






Then, I used a small bit to start shaving down the top of the tray to recess the controller a bit.


With your guides and lower cover tray, you can see where you are able to cut to without harming your guide floors (this is important to keep the cover in line with the rest of the console floor and prevent sagging.) On the front side, i came out all the way to the first lip and all the way to the center guide in the rear.




Once you get your initial measurements cut down, you can cut out your controller floor. For this, i opted for .080 plexiglass as its not too thick, but also provides enough support. Cut the plexi to go completely from edge to edge.


Now you can continue to shave down the tray to your desired depth. At this point i moved my attention to the cover itself. I shaved the front lip down and made it curved with the top. This will allow you to leave the controller much higher while not interfering with sliding functions. I removed most of the lip, only leaving maybe 1/8-3/16 lip remaining.




Once you've trimmed the cover, you can set it back on the slide tray and reinstall on the ashtray (I put the cover on and took it back off more times than I'd like to admit just to completely verify everything was correct during the process.) Put your controller in place and see how much more you need to trim for the controller to clear the cover. Repeat this process until you get your desired results. If you plan on adding a 12v usb, like I am, make sure your controller is far enough to the left to allow the plug to fit on the right.


Now that your floor is in place and mocked up, you can cut the side of the ash tray to allow the wire to feed through. Since the left slide is cut, you should have no issue with this step. Just remember, you will still have a guide in place, so it needs to clear that. Once the tray is in, it will cover the lower portion of the ashtray, so don't be too concerned about how much you cut on the bottom side.




Now we can move onto building the foundation for the usb plug on the right. I ended up using 5 squares of .080" plexiglass to get my desired height. I used a basic two part epoxi to glue the pieces together and left them overnight. Be sure that it does not interfere with your slide on the right. I found it easiest to glue all 5 squares together, then glue them to the controller floor once the glue sets. This will minimulize the possibility of mistaking placement.








I'm still waiting on my USB socket to come in, so I cannot post pictures of that, yet. I wanted to go ahead and start using the mount, so I just put a small dab of glue on both front corners to keep it in place, while still making it easy to pop back off when the time comes.








Since it was (semi) complete, I went ahead and reinstalled it in the car to make sure I like everything while I still have the chance to make adjustments before the final gluing of everything with the plug in place. I plan on wrapping the mount in suede to match the interior of the car. For now, i just threw a couple layers of matte black paint on it. I also plan on holding the controller in place using double sided tape just to keep from any movement. For me, everything is perfect and way better than having the controller stuck to the center of the dash. While it was out, I went ahead and wrapped everything in 3d carbon fiber vinyl. (Yes, I know the cup holder carbon is backwards. I will be removing that when I take it out to redo it.)





Hopefully this helps somebody else looking for a solution as well. Once my suede and plug come in, i will modify or add to this post to show the finished product and added steps.

 

Pretty slick!

 

Thanks you!