406oc.co.uk

Since i find the central cup holder is incapable of doing its job while the car is moving i bought this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 2078wt_907
and after about 2 weeks of it getting a cruise round the world its finally arrived, i was expecting something cheap and flimsy but actually its very sturdy and feels like its made of good plastic, here is a few pics, sitting on the bonnet by the way:



Now it doesnt come with fixing screws, no big problem i just tipped out the box of screws and stuff i took out of the vitara when i was stripping it:

theres more where that pile came from, but my choice of screws came down to 2 types, speaker screws (the long ones) or the ones previously holidng a glovebox in place (the stubby ones):

I chose to use the stubby ones, the heads on the speaker ones were too small for the purpose.

Situating the cupholder was the next issue, i decided to mount it to the centre console in the passenger footwell because its easy reached, and where its sitting doesnt get in the way of any vents or the seat in the small person setting, here is it installed:


To test it out i bought the biggest can of red bull, opened it and it sat there just fine, drove back home and it was quite safe and easy to reach, even did a handbrake turn in the yard and it stayed in place, so its a success.
I

Flash photography has come a long, long way

Theres no flash on my phone, thats just the brightness of the photo turned up full on photoshop.

Ok got the lend of a nokia n86 8mp with a flash, heres some good quality photos, only problem is they are too good and show up dirt, but anyhow heres the cupholder:

thats the biggest size of red bull can there is and it holds it with ease

the glovebox did touch the top of the red bull, but i could still get everything out, and i dont drink the big red bull frequently.

closed:


It might look a bit off square but that can be adjusted in the light, and if i decide to remove it, and become disgusted by the sight of drilled holes well then i can always replace the panel its one of the easiest to replace.

and from the drivers seat thats what it looks like:


Ok its not the best looking cup holder doesnt work with the amazing percision of some cupholders ive seen in vw's and saabs but in a car with no useful cupholder its very useful to have, and if there is a passenger in the way of it opening its not a problem because thats what passengers are for is holding cups. Also ive checked this design of cupholder can hold a normal ceramic cup, think of that a nice cup of tea as you drive.

good work there and was always wondering why 406 design didn't come with proper factory cup holders plus a glove box which can be turned into a cool box very easily by diverting one of A/C vents.

If it's useful to you fella then great stuff! and as you say if you get bored with it you can just replace the panel.

Yip screws unfortunatley seem the only way to install it, i tried sticky velcro which was useless so i srewed it into the dash.
Its not too obtrusive or is it?

Stuff the end between the centre console and gearstick gaiter and job's a good 'un. £3 from Halfords. Fits 500ml bottles of diet coke perfectly, and has no problem with my travel mugs
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165686

Not as good with coupé seats because they're slightly longer and a fair bit lower...

If you dont mind me being critical of that item, i seen many of them when on ebay, they dont fold away, thats the advantage of mine.