New wagon install.

[DieselFF918]

I have to say that I am kind of dissapointed.... I has hoping to see pics of an install in a litttle red RADIO Flyer wagon.

The station wagon pics are nice though, great job on the install.

 

[alexmc]

mrweather & comscanaus Where you have your remote heads mounted under the stereo, did you have to drill a hole to get the cable through or is there some other way? I've just bought my VE and starting to compile everything to be done to it.

Also mrweather do you have any other photos of the NMO mounts, and from the inside of the boot lid. I haven't decided yet weather to NMO in the boot like yourself or mount on the side of the boot. My little 450 UHF whip wouldn't clear the roof line if i went with NMO.

 

[Kasmus]

Is that a TK-790?

 

[mrweather]

Where you have your remote heads mounted under the stereo, did you have to drill a hole to get the cable through or is there some other way? I've just bought my VE and starting to compile everything to be done to it.

Presuming the Commodore is similar to the G8 in terms of interior trim, the cubby at the front of the console is open from above. No drilling to fish cable.

In my case, however, I did drill holes on either side of the cubby opening so that the mounting screws for the control head could pass through the plastic trim pieces to hold the head in place.

Also mrweather do you have any other photos of the NMO mounts, and from the inside of the boot lid. I haven't decided yet weather to NMO in the boot like yourself or mount on the side of the boot. My little 450 UHF whip wouldn't clear the roof line if i went with NMO.

I don't have any pictures of the mounts right now but I will take pictures and post in this thread (if the OP's is okay with it).

Is that a TK-790?

It is a control head that can be used with a 790 but the head actually controls a dual-band setup using a 790 and an 890.

 

[W4JLR]

Nice!

 

[mrweather]

Also mrweather do you have any other photos of the NMO mounts, and from the inside of the boot lid. I haven't decided yet weather to NMO in the boot like yourself or mount on the side of the boot. My little 450 UHF whip wouldn't clear the roof line if i went with NMO.

Here are some pictures of the underside of the boot (trunk) lid:

The NMO in the middle was the first one I did because I only started off with one antenna. Of course when you start drilling you can't stop! There are two other mounts: one behind the plastic clip thing near the bottom (you can make out the coax cable within the shadow) and the other at the top just out of the picture.

Close up of the middle NMO mount.

 

[commscanaus]

Just to add to mrweather's great pictures:

Have a look at this iPod cable installation.
The plastic panel (in this case the right hand drivers side) unclips allowing access to the rear of the radio unit.
It is possible to carefully fish cables through the holes shown.
The cubby hole has a removable plastic liner which you pull out to expose the holes.

The Pontiac G8 and Holden Commodore interiors should be identical except the drivers position of course.

As I have the Sportwagon version, running the antenna cabling has proved to be a bit of an issue.
What I am going to do is identify a gap in the side of the tail light mounting, make a hole in the side and feed the coax through into the vehicle body along with the internal wiring harness.
Tail light assemblies can be bought cheaply, so the intention is to get another one and make the modifications, seal it up neatly with silicon and the result will be invisible and water tight.

As mrweather has shown, the sedan trunk lid is the easiest mount to- as long as you drill those holes!

Commscanaus.

 

[mrweather]

Yes, the side panels below the dash unclip and swing away easily. The lower trim of the console also lowers so you have full access underneath to run cables (which I did for the control cable for the TK-790/890 control head).

The Sportwagon (which we never got in North America) would be similar to the Dodge Magnum so you've got a nice big roof but no trunk. Interestingly, the G8 GT (V8 version) has carpeting on the underside of the trunk lid whereas the G8 Sedan (V6) does not.

Of course the best part about installing radios in the G8 is the battery is in the trunk. Grabbing power for remote radios is a piece of cake.

Good luck with your install!

 

[commscanaus]

Ok- Had some spare time to investigate the coax through the tail lamp assembly idea.

The tail lamp housing pulls out easily to allow the replacement of bulbs, or upgrading to a different type of tail lamps. The housing is held in place with three long plastic threaded nuts, which are easily dropped during removal or fitment and will end up lost forever inside the vehicle body if you are not careful! (and forever rattle and clunk about too!)

Initially I thought it would be necessary to drill or Dremel the plastic to allow for the cabling to pass under the housing, but was surprised to find that it fit easily and neatly underneath.
There was even a nice oval shaped rubber grommet that was filling a hole in the bodywork.
Careful incisions were made with a scalpel and the RG-58 passed through and was fished into the cavity behind the tail lamp.
Silicon sealant was applied to keep any rain water from ending up inside the vehicle body.

The end result- neat and no more cabling crushed in the tailgate or damage to the rubber weather seals.
Not a hole had to be drilled either!

Commscanaus.

 

[mrweather]

Good job! Way to go finding an alternate ingress spot!

 

[garys]

Nice.

P.S. We don't have the Lumina (sigh). I am in love with the Commodores/Vaxhaull Vectra/VXR8, etc.

We had them for a little bit as the Pontiac G8, the hot version being the G8 GXP. GM shut down the Pontiac brand before the cars could flood the market, which is such a shame because that is a great car.

If GM had more cars like that here, they wouldn't have needed a .gov bail out!