CB Radio installs on 2nd Gen Tacomas?

You do realize that you just rendered your firewall completely useless now, don't you? There is kind of a purpose to it...

-- Matt --

 

Umm...No he didn't. He went through an existing rubber grommet on the firewall. The "Firewall" is just a piece of metal between the cab and the engine bay...It doesn't really have anymore "fire protection" than any other body panel on the vehicle.

 

The rubber grommet is there for this exact reason..

 

Check out CB Radio Talk Forum @ http://www.cbradiotalk.com .

 

Rubber doesn't melt

 

only when there's a lot of friction.

 

Its there for water proofing, not fire proofing.

 

Figured I would show off my new mount. Here is now it turned out. I like it. Its flush and solid.





And here is where I have the external speaker.

 

So I'm a slowpoke....got the antenna mounted, got the 75 mounted up in the console. Now just need to order longer coax, run into cab, ground the antenna, plug in the power and tune the SWRs. I'll do pics when pulling the wires..........

 

Still need to paint the mounting plate and mount the antenna, but a ton of solder connections later... The cobra 29 LX is mounted.

 

How did you mount it? I have the same and it's always bouncing around!

 

Really like how you fit that in there. Have any other photos of the install? I have a galaxy DX979 that I want mount in that area. I was going to cut out the bottom of that area but wasn't sure what was behind there.

 

Nothing is behind there. You can cut away.

 

I will take some pictures at some point as I want to paint the mounting plate, but that probably won't be for a few weeks. I cut a hole in the bottom of the console to run the cables through that connect the face to the body of the unit, which is under the passenger seat. The face is then just a couple inches deep. Not sure how big your unit is, but back under there is the main air bag control unit, so pull your console out and check it out. It's only six bolts to have a look. The trickiest issue I had was mounting the plate. I bent a couple tabs back on the sides that allowed me to bolt it in -- a bit tough to get just right since I don't have a break, and the access to get the bolts in place is tight.

 

And dust, if you've ever gotten in that thing it's friggin plum full of dirt and dust

 

This is the ONLY spot I am interested in mounting a CB...please provide pics or instructions....for the love of god, lol.

 

I am traveling until Sunday, but maybe then since I am still trouble shooting my low output signal issue. I am hoping I haven't damaged the output circuits as I discovered and fixed a short in my antenna mount this morning. At least I got the SWR in check, but output power is still 1/2 to 1/3 what it should be.

 

Seems to me like you are the only person who has done the CB install the "right way."
It just looks so clean!

 

Thanks for that, but until I get a chance to fully tune it in and verify I didn't screw anything up in the process of separating the face from the main board, I'm going to reserve judgement on the result. I got rained out on my plan to tackle it last weekend, so I hope to resolve it this coming weekend. I'm getting good reception, but output transmission power is still a question. At any rate, I do like the location and fit.

 

OK, so I tore back into things today, so here are a few pics. As I stated before, this is a big job because you have to separate the face of the radio from the body or it just won't fit. The face goes in the console/dash space, the rest of the unit goes under the passenger seat.


Lots of wires...



I made a simple plate to cover the opening where the face of the radio was -- just to minimize the dust getting into the unit.

The cables are all routed under the carpet to the edge of the center console, then routed forward. Note that each cable has a different connector -- don't want any chance of mixing up the connectors as it could be devastating! (At the bottom of the second picture below, you can see my relay bank for my multi-camera system.) The antenna wire goes through the floor plug under the passenger seat and is routed back to the antenna which is mounted in my DiamondBack tonneau cover.

If you haven't had the console out, here's what's back there -- the air bag control unit!


All those other wires are for my multi camera system and an always on USB charging port. The radio cables are the three gray lines at the bottom of the picture.

Here's the part that makes you cringe -- as if cutting apart a perfectly new radio doesn't -- cutting a gaping hole in the back of the well in the console and drilling holes to hold the face plate. The face plate was cut, filed, and bent until it fit just right. A tab on each side is bent back to accept a mounting screw. The mounting screws are secured by using speed nuts. Similarly, a tab was left in the cut-out for the radio, bent back flush with the cut out, and that is where the radio face secures to the face plate.

Here is the console with the radio face installed.


And the final result...


Hope that gives everyone a view of what it takes to do this sort of mount...