R
Richard Ayrton
Guest
Vinyl could do a job for me - is it from eBay?Further to my post back in May, (and big thanks to MiiHere for giving me the idea), I've finally taken some pictures of my install. The vehicle is a 2012 BMW X1 (pre-facelift) in Titanium Silver. The camera is a Street Guardian SG9665GC.
First off, the original install, just sticking the mount's to the window:
Not very discreet! I had originally hoped to mount the camera at the top of the screen next to the rear view mirror, behind the "dots", without using the cable tidy. Unfortunately this resulted in some of the rear view mirror housing being in frame, so wasn't acceptable. Hence the location I've chosen to avoid that, but it just looks ugly.
So I wanted a discreet solution that looked as OEM as I could get, and I knew that meant extending the "black" section where the rear view mirror is. It was MiiHere who gave me the idea to use vinyl.
So here is my first attempt:
(ignore the white paper) - you can see this would hide the camera mount etc, but in my opinion (after I'd applied it) looked silly. I hadn't got it lined up straight and I hadn't gotten all the air bubbles out (this was actually completely black window tint film....in the first picture you can see two black squares on the top left and right of the screen....these were my little "test" swatches of different materials to see which I wanted to use!).
So I decided the black had to blend in with the original section. Thats what the white paper is....one of many templates I made with paper, so that I could just cut the vinyl to the correct shape.
Here's the finished article:
As you can see, the camera peeps out at the bottom. The black vinyl isn't the exact same "shade" as the OEM black section, but in real life it blends in quite well, and it doesn't stand out...lots of cars have these black sections on their screens now, so at a passing glance, you'd just assume it was original.
I got a stone chip that needed repairing and the repair guy initially thought it was genuine... I've still got the template so if the screen does need replacing I can easily do another one (now I commute 100 miles a day, I'm expecting more stone chips!...and now I commute 100 miles a day is the reason I got the dash cam....so many miles = so many opportunities to need it!).
When I first tried installing the vinyl I just tried sticking it to the glass.....it was impossible to get it in the correct position, so I used some water with "washing up" liquid mixed in and then it was easy to slide around to get the correct position and then "squeegee" the excess water and air bubbles out. Also note that in some of the pictures it looks like some of the vinyl hasn't stuck correctly - thats just the muck on the outside of the windscreen that isn't in the wiper path and also the "dots" around the original black section - they are flush with the glass, so not a problem to stick over, and until these pictures I hadn't noticed them that obvious....so in reality they aren't a problem.
From the driver side it looks like this: (apologies for the image being grainy...had to lighten a lot in photoshop to show any detail)
And the passenger side:
The pictures make it look quite big and obvious from inside, but it doesn't seem like that when in the car, i.e. not in your face.
In the drivers view picture you can see the GPS unit in the bottom left of the dash. I had initially put it at the top of the rear view mirror housing (tucked in behind the mirrors cable, just visible in the first two pictures) but you aren't meant to put it so close to the camera (interference?) so I moved it.
Because of how far down I had to mount it, the cable tidy doesn't go all the way up to the headlining, so you can see the wires at that point, but I'm happy with that....call it a compromise.
Taking pictures of the screen is quite difficult with glare and reflections....and also I could've washed it first.
Note my skater dude friend....he's been with me through about 5 cars! (thats 5 car changes...I haven't written off 5 cars!!!!)
Here's a screen grab to show the field of view:
Hope you like.