Ashtray compartment replacement?

[dyeager535]

Just an idea.

I think a 3D printed replacement of the entire ashtray assembly would be great. Flat faced, so it wouldn't contour to the dash, but would allow for plenty of room behind it for wiring and a phone cubby, etc.

I don't have access to a truck to really study how this could work out, but I have a decent idea of what I think would be nice to have, how to mount it, etc.

Before I spend a bunch of time typing out the idea, does anyone else see benefit to a project like this? Would anyone have the skills and interest to draw it up for printing, 3D print it, and test fit?

I could care less if someone made money off the finished product (open source would be cool though, so anyone could print it) but ideas are free, and it would be nice to get a lot of feedback to come up with the most functional, user- and vehicle-friendly design.

However, if it's of minimal interest to others, then I'll relegate it to the good idea scrap heap.

Edit for future reference: stock cigarette lighter hole is ~.912" diameter.

 

[obijuank5]

I have something like that. I decided not to use it but I still like the idea.

 

[dyeager535]

Did you make it, or purchased?

Pretty similar idea, but I think a flat faced, blank upper area would be a lot more user friendly. I mean with 3D printing, could probably come up with a variety of modifications/plans.

Flat faced could be kind of ugly however, it would be something to consider.

Modularity would be nice, being able to add things like cup holders or replacing the upper face if a mistake was made. Or you wanted to change the layout of what you had already cut it for at a later time.

 

[obijuank5]

I bought it. There were options to be kind of modular for amount of switches or gauges and a different cubby style.

 

[dyeager535]

Doesn't look like bad execution, seems relatively aesthetically pleasing and functional. If there is enough room behind the ashtray assembly for maybe a 5" deep cubby, I think contour, at least to a degree, could be possible.

Being able to angle things towards the driver could be helpful too I suppose.

 

[dyeager535]

Long time coming lol. Decided to go a bit different way for a few reasons. The ashtray is down low. It is somewhat obscured by the 465 and t-case shifter. Not terribly, but its so low accessing anything down there would be a bit tough. Still a good spot for power outlets and a phone holder (or two) though. As always I'm somewhat pressed for time, and this crude piece of metal actually fit. At 6.5", the upper cutout in the dash is significantly wider than the ashtray location. This metal is way thicker than it needs to be, but its stout enough vibration isn't going to be an issue. The mounting point is actually a lot more stout than I expected it to be. GM did a good job structurally there.

The ashtray assembly is held in with four sheet metal screws (I'm guessing #8) but those won't really work for this. 6-32 screws will, so the bottom edge of this piece of steel is held in by those, where the top two ashtray screws go. I have a small piece of angled steel that will bolt in under this, where the ashtray goes, but unsure what to do...I do have a cobbled together old radio holder I made, if I were to mount it with the opening angled up a bit, a GMRS or cell phone would probably stay in place there. We'll see.

I've had a cheapy USB/Cigarette lighter plug kicking around for awhile, so I'm going to add this to the panel.

Cell phone holder is super cheap, and way too wide, but it's what I had. Quick measurement says there is enough room side by side for two good sized phones if the holder was closer to the actual size of the phone. I *think* it captures enough of the phone that the phone won't bounce out on rough roads.

Might be a decent mounting option for one of those do-everything head units.

 

[dyeager535]

I'm not really good with aesthetics. Functionality is my thing. Not many run without a dash pad I suppose lol. But oh well. It's done. Not planning for it to be the "final product", but I'll be using the truck for over a week, I needed to have something.

Had to steal the power from the stock cigarette lighter. Discovered some of the cavities in my wrecking yard GM auxiliary fuse panel don't lock, so I couldn't get power and fuse this panel from there. It would have been preferred so I could keep all outlets hot including stock cigarette lighter. I have an Eaton Bussman auxiliary panel to eventually replace the cobbled together one I have now, but it will be a project and I don't have the time to get it done.

Luckily the 12V+ cigarette lighter plug is a non-locking Packard connector (Delphi "56 series"), so I just removed the non-locking connector body. Since I had the right male/female 56 series connector bodies and terminals, converted it to a locking connector. Didn't cut anything.

Used a two-wire Weatherpack connector (ground and 12v+) to be able to keep it fairly easy to remove and work on.

Spade terminals have zero business being used on any automotive application. More about that later. But stuck with it since these were cheap outlets.

Light means success.

Mounting plate completed. Those are just drops of water.

6-32 screws somewhat thread in, but just enough to hold in place, not enough for a load. So need a screw and nut. These two replace the top two screws (of four total) that hold the ashtray assembly in.

Top down view of the screws in place. I tweaked the plate I made to angle backwards a bit, so going from the top down to tighten would have been near impossible. As it was, I planned to use nylock nuts, but I would have been there forever trying to turn them about a 1/6 of a turn at a time, so I went with two regular nuts and loc-tite. Hex head 6-32 (if made) would have made nylocs easy to use.

Right about now it was starting to get late and I had the mounting plate in place, but tested the power outlets before tightening them up. No power. After ensuring the weather pack connector had 12V and ground, I started looking at the rest of the wiring. Sure enough, one of them had pulled loose out of the spade connector crimp. Took them all back apart, used high quality barrel crimps to split the positive and ground into a one-in two-out wire setup (thus relieving strain off the spade terminals) and then re-crimped the spade terminals and soldered the wire to them. Maybe there are good spade terminals out there, but these had very flimsy metal for crimping. Luckily this isn't going to stop the truck or anything, so if they fail, I'll just know that next time, components with spade terminals are out of consideration.

Mounting plate in place, ready to go. I angled it back a bit too far, but had to have it mounted solid before I could tell. The upper part will rattle against the dash, I just cut a small piece of foam to wedge for now. Proper fix is pull it out and bend it again.

We'll see how it holds up. I have my doubts about the phone holder, both the cheap construction and the bouncing the truck does. I could probably clean up the wiring somewhat by adding the remote keyless entry system (under the plate just behind this contraption in the last photo) to the back of this plate, and using a multiple wire connector setup. The remote keyless system has worked out better than expected, so I plan to keep it.

 

[bigjbear]

Check Aircraft Spruce for hex head 6-32 screws. They should have them. They also have good spade terminals, but you need the right crimper for them to be solid. I like the restricted entry ones, but you need up need lots of sizes because they are sized for the wire.