e30 Old School Car Phone - Final Pix

[cirrusblue]

A quickie on how my car phone mini project turned out. Other guys have some posts on the mid 80's BMW car phones installed into e30's. I thought they were cool looking at some car shows where I saw them and found 1 on ebay for cheap that was in nice shape. Here's where either you'll like what I did, or think it's useless. All the installs I thought looked a little bit bad. Some were decent, but the phone didn't quite fit into the center console, ridges were sticking out, or wires were in the way. So, I took another approach - I got a center console with a box for the cassette holder built in - and used that perfect fitting box, to retrofit the phone into it and then mount that into the center console. In my case, I didn't want the phone to work, it's just eye candy. This is how it came out. I remounted the phone pieces into the other box and it came out pretty clean.

[cirrusblue]

I used a dremel tool to rework some of the plastic and reglued some pieces inside the box. It's useless because it doesn't do anything, but honestly - that 1 inch tray wasn't big enough to store anything in anyway, the minute you take a corner the stuff slides under your seat - so I just like the look of it. It gets a reaction.

[nando]

Looks cool. The bummer is most networks are going to be dropping support for older devices like that. It's also illegal to use basically everywhere. :(

[rcsoundn1]

I want one like this for one of my cars. Id like to add the BT feature so its usable

[MR E30 325is]

Looks very clean and at home in your interior!

[cirrusblue]

Thanks MRE30. I was worried it would junk it up, but this way I got it pretty clean I think.

Anyone looking to do the Bluetooth mod, that one is cool but you'll have to fab some stuff if you want the phone to sit really flush in the center console.

[djjerme]

I love it! Such a trip back for those of us who remember when it was so special to see a "car phone." Some times, I miss the 80's..

[rcsoundn1]

What did you serach to find it out of curosity

[MC Hammered]

That installation look fantastic!

I'd wire up the keypad on the phone to an electronic immobilizer. No one would think to use it to unlock the car!

[cirrusblue]

I found mine on ebay s.earching - bmw e39 car phone - variations may find other similar ones - e30 etc

[cirrusblue]

E32 - seen some listed for this too

[TobyB]

Some times, I miss the 80's..

...but then I remember how much they sucked, and get over it.

t

[flyboyx]

it looks good. clean install. personally, i would prefer a husco, but if i didn't have that, this is a good second choice.