Hello!
I'm a long time lurker here, and have only posted a handful of comments, but have never created my own thread... ever!
But, this time, I think I finally have something to share.
Skip this mumbo jumbo if you just want to see the pics below, but for those that are curious, here's a little background info:
I joined my friend at his small start up company 3 years ago, but due to overwhelming market factors, we ended up cutting our losses and closing up shop after a paltry 1.5 year stint!
Instead of going right back into my industry and getting another desk job, I decided to prolong my unemployment by picking up some skills that I've always wanted to learn, but never had the time to.
I emptied my 401K early (penalty included!), and used those funds to buy a decent TIG welder, a mini lathe, and a mini mill.
Ordered a bunch of machining and welding books from amazon, and queued up a sh*tload of youtube videos.
Fast forward a year later, and I can say that I've got a pretty decent amount of shop time with these machines!
So, in order to test out my skills, I decided to chalk up a design project using my own 2013 CX-5 sport (this is the bare minimum you can get! paid $21k, manual tranny and the crappy stock stereo)
The stock audio system really sucked, so first mod was to tear out the entire system, head unit and all 4 door speakers.
I went with an Infinity 6.5" component system to replace all 4 doors.
Front tweeters are mounted in the stock speaker blanks on the dash.
The rear tweeters are mounted on the B pillar trim.
These are powered by a 4 channel Alpine amp (mounted under the passenger seat)
Door speaker signal is passed through a Clarion graphic equalizer (mounted next to the driver seat)
The reason I went with an equalizer is because this particular model allows for an Aux input where the gain can be independently adjusted (I hooked up a bluetooth receiver for this input, so that I can now have handsfree phone calling through the audio system)
The low end is taken care of with a Pioneer 10" flat sub, powered by it's own dedicated alpine mono amp (both are mounted under the driver seat in a custom sub box that barely meets the sealed air volume specs for the woofer!)
I wanted to clear up the space where the stock head unit sits for some of my electronics projects, so I separated the faceplate from my kenwood headunit by soldering three sets of network cables to interconnect between the face and body.
This allows the faceplate to be mounted up in the ceiling, and the head unit body can be tucked away under the passenger seat (the unit has a front usb input, so I have a 32gb drive with all my songs, and have no need to use the cd player)
The reason for freeing up the stock head unit space in the dash will become clear below.
A PAC steering wheel button controller is used to retain the audio control buttons on the steering wheel with my aftermarket Kenwood unit (no need to reach up to the head unit to change tracks).
Now the seat!
I have always loved the feel and support of a race bucket seat, so I just had to have one in my daily driver!
As you should know, there is absolutely zero aftermarket companies that will make a seat bracket to mount a bucket seat in this CUV, I guess I'd just have to make one on my own!
Since seats are a safety item, I over-engineered the design, and my paranoia caused me to over-weld the bracket joints, and spec'd out tubing that was stronger that it needed to be.
In the end, the seat bracket ended up weighing more than the seat itself! no regrets though, I didn't want to compromise my safety.
All the bolts used to hold the seat to the bracket, and the bracket to the floor were high tensile strength socket head cap screws.
I welded on a grab bar next to the door, this way getting into the bucket seat is pretty easy by first supporting my body weight while grabbing onto this bar.
Those that have gotten into a race bucket seat will know what I'm talking about here!!!
Disclaimer: I'm not racing my CX-5, I know a bucket seat has little purpose for this car, this is simply just a way to make driving a lot more fun.
The stock seat belt can be used becauses this particular seat has through holes on the side, which allowed me to pass the seatbelt through, so that the lap belt is still in full contact with my waist.
I absolutely did not want to install a racing harness since I still wanted to retain the ability to turn and look behind.
Since this is my daily driver, and will be seeing hour long drives through traffic to get to work, I wanted the seat bottom to be more cushy, so I sewed a little butt padding, and then two lumbar support pads that are velcro'd at the back.
So, what's with the shift knob?
After installing the bucket seat, I noticed that the aggressive side bolsters made shifting a bit uncomfortable when pulling the lever back, where my elbow would hit the side of the seat.
In order to correct this, I had to offset the entire knob forward by about 2 inches.
By cutting off the threaded portion of the shift lever, I was able to machine an adapter block, and then make a new knob that sits at the end of this.
After some trial and error, what you see in the picture is pretty much a perfect fit for me.
The shift knob itself is machined out of a solid aluminum block, the top portion is a solid piece of delrin also machined to create the round surface.
Delrin is an extremely durable plastic, it won't heat up during summer, and works well against surface wear (the surface is very smooth, which is also why this material is commonly used as bearing surfaces in industry)
If you notice the knob also has a collar with two buttons (black momentary tact switches), these are hooked up with internal wiring that runs up into the stock stereo dash area.
There is a microcontroller (Atmel ATmega168p - the same controller used in many of the Arduino boards) that takes the button signals as inputs, and controls the turn signal in the car.
A single button click will initiate a flash to pass sequence that will keep the turn signal on for 3 seconds, during a lane change.
A double button click will hold the turn signal for a complete left or right turn.
An accelerometer is also hooked up to the microcontroller to read lateral and forward g forces, when a predetermined lateral g is detected, the controller will then conclude that I have completed the left or right turn and shut the turn signal off.
The data is displayed in the LCD screen hud at the center of the dash.
The hud is mounted above the center speaker grill, so this mod is not permanent as this piece of plastic is a $10 replacement part from mazda.
The two gauges I used display the Coolant temperature and oil pressure (I never liked how new cars did away with the analog gauges for water temp and oil pressure).
These particular gauges (Autometer pro comp) have a logic output so that you can take setup warning lights when the temperature gets too high, or oil pressure too low.
I have them hooked up to a few LEDs that run along the perimeter of the LCD display (you can see the red lit up since my engine is not on, and the oil pressure is at zero)
And lastly, the phone mount in the center of the dash provides a convenient location in case I need to use GPS or to just take calls (using a Kinovo bluetooth interface)
The mount is simply the belt clip that came with my phone case, riveted onto a piece of ABS plastic.
And, that's all folks!
Sorry for the long long read, just though I'd provide as much info to accompany the pictures below.
I created this thread because I lacked a creative outlet while working on this project these past few months, and I hope I can throw something a bit fresh and unique into this forum.
Also, because I start my new job in a week, and wont be able to finish the other items on my to-do list for this car until later.
Hope you enjoyed it!
Thanks!
Bucket Seat in a CX-5!
Driver side seat removed:
Seat bracket, sub box, and mono amplifier:
Shift knob, with my own custom sewn boot, yes... I did learn how to sew during my unemployment as well =]
Shift knob, left button:
Shift knob, right button:
Tweeter mounted on the B pillar:
Under the passenger seat, pretty much an exact fit!
Back of the passenger seat, head unit body mount:
LCD info display:
Heads-up Display, housing made out of ABS wrapped with vinyl fabric:
Back of the Driver Seat:
View from the back seats:
Head unit faceplate mounted in the ceiling sunglass cubby:
Coolant temperature, and Oil pressure gauges:
Phone mount:
I'm a long time lurker here, and have only posted a handful of comments, but have never created my own thread... ever!
But, this time, I think I finally have something to share.
Skip this mumbo jumbo if you just want to see the pics below, but for those that are curious, here's a little background info:
I joined my friend at his small start up company 3 years ago, but due to overwhelming market factors, we ended up cutting our losses and closing up shop after a paltry 1.5 year stint!
Instead of going right back into my industry and getting another desk job, I decided to prolong my unemployment by picking up some skills that I've always wanted to learn, but never had the time to.
I emptied my 401K early (penalty included!), and used those funds to buy a decent TIG welder, a mini lathe, and a mini mill.
Ordered a bunch of machining and welding books from amazon, and queued up a sh*tload of youtube videos.
Fast forward a year later, and I can say that I've got a pretty decent amount of shop time with these machines!
So, in order to test out my skills, I decided to chalk up a design project using my own 2013 CX-5 sport (this is the bare minimum you can get! paid $21k, manual tranny and the crappy stock stereo)
The stock audio system really sucked, so first mod was to tear out the entire system, head unit and all 4 door speakers.
I went with an Infinity 6.5" component system to replace all 4 doors.
Front tweeters are mounted in the stock speaker blanks on the dash.
The rear tweeters are mounted on the B pillar trim.
These are powered by a 4 channel Alpine amp (mounted under the passenger seat)
Door speaker signal is passed through a Clarion graphic equalizer (mounted next to the driver seat)
The reason I went with an equalizer is because this particular model allows for an Aux input where the gain can be independently adjusted (I hooked up a bluetooth receiver for this input, so that I can now have handsfree phone calling through the audio system)
The low end is taken care of with a Pioneer 10" flat sub, powered by it's own dedicated alpine mono amp (both are mounted under the driver seat in a custom sub box that barely meets the sealed air volume specs for the woofer!)
I wanted to clear up the space where the stock head unit sits for some of my electronics projects, so I separated the faceplate from my kenwood headunit by soldering three sets of network cables to interconnect between the face and body.
This allows the faceplate to be mounted up in the ceiling, and the head unit body can be tucked away under the passenger seat (the unit has a front usb input, so I have a 32gb drive with all my songs, and have no need to use the cd player)
The reason for freeing up the stock head unit space in the dash will become clear below.
A PAC steering wheel button controller is used to retain the audio control buttons on the steering wheel with my aftermarket Kenwood unit (no need to reach up to the head unit to change tracks).
Now the seat!
I have always loved the feel and support of a race bucket seat, so I just had to have one in my daily driver!
As you should know, there is absolutely zero aftermarket companies that will make a seat bracket to mount a bucket seat in this CUV, I guess I'd just have to make one on my own!
Since seats are a safety item, I over-engineered the design, and my paranoia caused me to over-weld the bracket joints, and spec'd out tubing that was stronger that it needed to be.
In the end, the seat bracket ended up weighing more than the seat itself! no regrets though, I didn't want to compromise my safety.
All the bolts used to hold the seat to the bracket, and the bracket to the floor were high tensile strength socket head cap screws.
I welded on a grab bar next to the door, this way getting into the bucket seat is pretty easy by first supporting my body weight while grabbing onto this bar.
Those that have gotten into a race bucket seat will know what I'm talking about here!!!
Disclaimer: I'm not racing my CX-5, I know a bucket seat has little purpose for this car, this is simply just a way to make driving a lot more fun.
The stock seat belt can be used becauses this particular seat has through holes on the side, which allowed me to pass the seatbelt through, so that the lap belt is still in full contact with my waist.
I absolutely did not want to install a racing harness since I still wanted to retain the ability to turn and look behind.
Since this is my daily driver, and will be seeing hour long drives through traffic to get to work, I wanted the seat bottom to be more cushy, so I sewed a little butt padding, and then two lumbar support pads that are velcro'd at the back.
So, what's with the shift knob?
After installing the bucket seat, I noticed that the aggressive side bolsters made shifting a bit uncomfortable when pulling the lever back, where my elbow would hit the side of the seat.
In order to correct this, I had to offset the entire knob forward by about 2 inches.
By cutting off the threaded portion of the shift lever, I was able to machine an adapter block, and then make a new knob that sits at the end of this.
After some trial and error, what you see in the picture is pretty much a perfect fit for me.
The shift knob itself is machined out of a solid aluminum block, the top portion is a solid piece of delrin also machined to create the round surface.
Delrin is an extremely durable plastic, it won't heat up during summer, and works well against surface wear (the surface is very smooth, which is also why this material is commonly used as bearing surfaces in industry)
If you notice the knob also has a collar with two buttons (black momentary tact switches), these are hooked up with internal wiring that runs up into the stock stereo dash area.
There is a microcontroller (Atmel ATmega168p - the same controller used in many of the Arduino boards) that takes the button signals as inputs, and controls the turn signal in the car.
A single button click will initiate a flash to pass sequence that will keep the turn signal on for 3 seconds, during a lane change.
A double button click will hold the turn signal for a complete left or right turn.
An accelerometer is also hooked up to the microcontroller to read lateral and forward g forces, when a predetermined lateral g is detected, the controller will then conclude that I have completed the left or right turn and shut the turn signal off.
The data is displayed in the LCD screen hud at the center of the dash.
The hud is mounted above the center speaker grill, so this mod is not permanent as this piece of plastic is a $10 replacement part from mazda.
The two gauges I used display the Coolant temperature and oil pressure (I never liked how new cars did away with the analog gauges for water temp and oil pressure).
These particular gauges (Autometer pro comp) have a logic output so that you can take setup warning lights when the temperature gets too high, or oil pressure too low.
I have them hooked up to a few LEDs that run along the perimeter of the LCD display (you can see the red lit up since my engine is not on, and the oil pressure is at zero)
And lastly, the phone mount in the center of the dash provides a convenient location in case I need to use GPS or to just take calls (using a Kinovo bluetooth interface)
The mount is simply the belt clip that came with my phone case, riveted onto a piece of ABS plastic.
And, that's all folks!
Sorry for the long long read, just though I'd provide as much info to accompany the pictures below.
I created this thread because I lacked a creative outlet while working on this project these past few months, and I hope I can throw something a bit fresh and unique into this forum.
Also, because I start my new job in a week, and wont be able to finish the other items on my to-do list for this car until later.
Hope you enjoyed it!
Thanks!
Bucket Seat in a CX-5!
Driver side seat removed:
Seat bracket, sub box, and mono amplifier:
Shift knob, with my own custom sewn boot, yes... I did learn how to sew during my unemployment as well =]
Shift knob, left button:
Shift knob, right button:
Tweeter mounted on the B pillar:
Under the passenger seat, pretty much an exact fit!
Back of the passenger seat, head unit body mount:
LCD info display:
Heads-up Display, housing made out of ABS wrapped with vinyl fabric:
Back of the Driver Seat:
View from the back seats:
Head unit faceplate mounted in the ceiling sunglass cubby:
Coolant temperature, and Oil pressure gauges:
Phone mount:
