As the interior of a modern car often offers limited space and because it’s a pity to drill holes everywhere I’ve been searching for a way to mount the head of a (Motorola) radio in a non-destructive way. Also a larger car offers almost no options to mount a radio. But I’d found one spot which takes relatively much space but which is hardly used for its original purpose: the cupholder. Mostly that part of the car is used for coins, receipts, candy wraps and sunglasses

At one of the well known webshops from the far east I’ve found mountings for phones and tablets by using the spot of the cupholder. As a radio head with built in speaker is relatively heavy the gooseneck mountings seemed to be unsuitable. But there are also mounting systems which appear a bit more solid and with a ball joint at the top.

First the ball joint was disassembled. Then the entire top could be lifted from the ball. A small piece of plastic connected the ball joint with the tablet holder. This little plastic joint was clicked into the tablet bracket using four notches.

The connection between the ball joint and the tablet bracket

As shown in the picture above two of the notches have been completely grinded away and the remaining two have been reduced in size as a rest for the bracket of the radio head. At the bottom part of this modified piece you’ll have the receiving part of the ball joint, connected with a small self-tapping screw. This screw hole has been drilled entirely drilled through the part with the removed notches with an M4 drill. In the cavity of the ball joint a countersink was used to have the head of the M4 screw disappear into the plastic so the ball joint could keep its function.

The cavity of the ball joint with the M4 hole drilled through, a 20mm M4 countersunk head bolt, spring washer and nut

Now the metal Motorola bracket was bolted on to the connection to the ball joint. As the Chinese plastic is not the best quality it’s important not to overtighten the M4 screw.

Finally this concept proved to be a workable solution. The location of the cupholder and the layout of the interior of the car determine the success. In this particular situation the armrest, gear lever and handbrake made placement of the cupholder a challenge.

Furthermore this concept can be used for every radio with a remote head. Constructing this cupholder mount half an hour manual labour and less than 10 Euros. So overall worth experimenting!