While I've owned many pickups over the years, none ever had a cup holder. Not a big deal, it's kind of an art to drive a standard shift in traffic while holding a full cup of steaming, hot coffee, Most of them were marked by occasional spills, so when we got the '96 Ford, I was disappointed it didn't have one. Figured it'd be easy to find one on line, but no, there didn't seem to be anything, so had to adapt a universal holder. The problem was that there's no flat spots on the dash to easily mount it. The holder came with sheet metal screws, but thought it'd be better to bolt it on. So finally decided to use the ash tray, since it has a reasonably flat front and could be pulled out to reach it. Thought it'd be easier to work on after removing the tray, but that proved difficult. When it finally came out, the wires to the lighter were apparently cracked and shorted out. No big deal, just splice 'em back together, I thought.
So after drilling and bolting on the holder, it was time to re-splice the wires. A while back I'd gotten an electrical kit that had lots of fittings and a crimping tool, so when it warmed up outside the other day, thought it'd be done in a flash. But after three failed tries at crimping the fittings to the wire, gave it up for the day. Then I remembered an old crimping tool that hadn't been used in years, I'd gotten it from the sale table at a parts store. So tried again today and it crimped everything first try. Almost inconceivable.
The high end crimping tool (top) failed miserably, while the bargain bin tool saved the day.
The cup holder deployed for use.
And folds up when not needed. Suh-weet!
That looks like a nice clean install. Best part is when you have a spill it wont be hard to clean up.
ReplyDeleteThanks Scott. A simple job that turned into a pain in the butt. But now that it's done, well it wasn't so bad, I guess.
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