Garmin Nuvi 660 cubby installation

I'm looking at installing my GarminNuvi 660 in the cubby space of my Liberty GT.

 

I removed the cubby door and put the NUVI 660 in the hole. Pictures 1 & 2. Fit is a tight and doen't appear that the unit will fall out.

 

I quickly mocked up a cardboard bezel pic 3, 4, 5. I think this idea looks promising. Will need to make a bezel out of plastic or timber. Also will need to make it in such a way that I can remove the unit for connection to a computer. Any idea?

 

 

Regards

 

John

I just got my 660 this week and I'm planning the exact same project.

 

I have temporarily mounted the suction cup to a piece of 1/4" plexyglass I cut to the shape of the bottom of the cubby. The plexyglass is held down by a 2" foam block. Actually works pretty well. I'm consideing keeping it like this for a while. I need to get some pics up later.

I thought about doing this but was really relutant to give up the cubby space since the Legacy has so few places to put things.

 

You could try Tap Plastics and use their e-glass or carbon fabric to make the faceplate. It is paintable once done.

 

http://www.tapplastics.com

I don't have teh Nuvi but was thinking about getting one and doing something similar. I really would like to do a carputer but can't justify the $, especially when the nuvi could go from car to car. I would like to make it so that I could still easily remove it to access SD slot or to take it isn the wifeys car

Keep us updated. I'm going to be doing something similar soon. Looks like you already hardwired it as well. Unless you're just running it off the battery?

dv/dt, did you take the cubby door off? would like to see some pictures.

I have one, but use a dash mount. You may need the remote antenna for the cubby.

 

Personally I like to have it closer to my line of sight, and easily removable. Thursday I used it on foot. Thursday night a local hotel had three cars broken into and their GPS stolen. I've required everyone to enter in the security code so it's worthless if stolen.

dv/dt, did you take the cubby door off? would like to see some pictures.

 

Nope, the door is still on. The whole thing just slides in and fits snugly in the cubby hole when the door is open. Here are the pics...

 

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b71/dv2dt2/CIMG4174s.jpg

 

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b71/dv2dt2/CIMG4176s.jpg

 

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b71/dv2dt2/CIMG4177s.jpg

 

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b71/dv2dt2/CIMG4178s.jpg

 

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b71/dv2dt2/CIMG4179s.jpg

Thanks dv/dt. I might try the same thing. I think this looks easier than trying to make a bezel and building the NUVI in. It also allows easier removal for installing in my wife's car or getting access to the USB port or SD slot. And you can easily put the unit out of site when the car is parked.

My previous offer stands: if any of you can design a bezel in a CAD system, I'll build you one of black ABS on our Dimension 3D printer, as long as I get one too!

 

I'd prefer SolidWorks, so we could keep tweaking if necessary. It's not been a big enough desire to do it myself.

i mounted the small circular plate that comes with the nuvi in the bottom of the cubby. when i want to use it i suction the mount to the plate and away i go. when im done i remove it. im looking to do an install that looks stock however. how do you remove the cubby door? also, john.di.martino.....how do you keep your nuvi charging? it doesnt look like the cradle would fit in there. can you send me more pics and specific instructions because that is exactly what i want to do. thanks. also, can you take it out to use it in another vehicle easily? it doesnt look like it.

I'm looking at installing my GarminNuvi 660 in the cubby space of my Liberty GT.

 

The dash display in Australia must come broken. There's a "C" after your temperature instead of an "F".

 

Thanks for the picture. I was wondering how well the Nüvi 6xx fits in that cubby hole. I think I'll go for it.

i mounted the small circular plate that comes with the nuvi in the bottom of the cubby. when i want to use it i suction the mount to the plate and away i go. when im done i remove it. im looking to do an install that looks stock however. how do you remove the cubby door? also, john.di.martino.....how do you keep your nuvi charging? it doesnt look like the cradle would fit in there. can you send me more pics and specific instructions because that is exactly what i want to do. thanks. also, can you take it out to use it in another vehicle easily? it doesnt look like it.

If you're talking about hardwiring it, the best way to do it (in my opinion) is to buy one of those auto battery cords with the female end lighter socket on one end and the battery clips on the other. Cut the battery clips off and splice the wires into your existing lighter socket and just keep the new socket tucked in the back somewhere. Then just drill a hole in the back of your cubby and run the power cord for the GPS through there and plug it in to the socket you just installed. This way you can still use your original GPS power cable (while keeping it out of sight) and remove it (albeit with a little work) if needed for use on another car.

Wish there was a big enough market for me to design something for this... but honestly there isn't.

John-

 

Sorry to be off topic, but I tried PMing you and couldn't. I'm interested in the black colored insert in your automatic shift grip...did you paint it or does it come that way in your market? Thanks.

Wish there was a big enough market for me to design something for this... but honestly there isn't.

 

where do you get the foam and plexiglass for the insert method? is plexiglass easy to cut?

The foam came from some packing material from something I had shipped. You can probably find foam at stores that sell moving supplies.

 

I'm not sure where I got the plexiglass from. I just had it laying around. You can probably pick up a sheet at tap plasics or home depot. I just used a handsaw to cut the plexiglass. I've never had good luck using the glass cutter scoring method.

i installed the garmin nuvi 360, a little small for my taste but it fits nicely with the door off, now im trying to find the gray material our dash is made out of to fill in the corners. i hooked up the power cord by hooking it into the cigarette lighter through the back of the cubby hole and out of where the bottom of the plastic centerpeice meets the carpet on the passenger side. gives it a professional look since on the 07 2.5i we dont have an outlet in the cubby. ill post pics on how i did it if anyone wants to know. (used a wire hanger and duct taped the nuvi wire to the tip and fed it through the bottom of the plastic into the cubby hole when it was taken out)

John, I want to do something like this, but one thing that has been bothering me:

 

Most of the GPS units on sale seem to have power and other buttons on the outer rims of the units. Is yours one of these? How do you access power? Does it turn on when it gets 12v power?

The garmin nuvis activate when external power is supplied and turn off when the the power is cut

What a pain in the butt.

 

I decided to go for it, and install a Garmin. I bought a nüvi 670 (US / Europe maps), and put it inside of the cubby door.

 

My biggest problem, other than making it all fit, is the power supply. I was trying to be fancy and be able to take this in and out. I had an extra 12V outlet that I put in the back of the cubby.

 

The original 670 lighter plug is huge (I think Garmin is trying to compensate), and has a strange connector at the other end. I ended up getting one from a nüvi 350 instead, with a 90-degree mini-USB connector.

 

Then I had to cut away at the plastic behind the cubby in the dash, because of the 12V adapter I installed. Finally, the door won't open because the Garmin plug interferes with the antenna inside of the cubby.

 

I think if I had moved the hole for the 12V either all the way left or right, this would solve some of my problems, such as being able to open the door. If I could open the door, then I could take this in and out.

 

Now, my Dremel and I are on very intimate terms.

Eman, that's a pretty cool install. The cut could have been a little cleaner but overall, I like the idea. Not sure how good it would look with my 360 though, since its not as long as the 670. Still, I wouldn't mind picking up an extra cubby door and see how it turns out.

 

Is that second to the last picture just the JPEG viewer function? Also, you might want to look into going with an external antenna to get around the issue with the door not being able to open.

Eman, that's a pretty cool install. The cut could have been a little cleaner but overall, I like the idea. Not sure how good it would look with my 360 though, since its not as long as the 670. Still, I wouldn't mind picking up an extra cubby door and see how it turns out.

 

Is that second to the last picture just the JPEG viewer function? Also, you might want to look into going with an external antenna to get around the issue with the door not being able to open.

 

You're right about the cut. I want to clean it up, but I was too fed up with this project. Maybe later, when I have to pull it apart again.

 

The external antenna is also a good suggestion. I wanted to avoid it, but it would help out. I think I'll look into it.

 

The picture is the startup shot. I just threw a shot in there.

 

I picked the 6xx series because the proportions were better for the door. I thought the 350 might not look quite right, but that's also what I used for designing this.

 

Thanks for the comments.

Do you think the Tom Tom would fit in there? I have an 08 and was thinking of doing the same thing. But im not sure how i would go about doing it. I love the way eman did it!