Batcave Switch Installation...

In the year that I've had this car just about every passenger has had the same reaction the first time they see the interior:

"Whoa! Cool speedometer! Hey... one of your little switches is missing... you should install and ejector seat button there!"

To which I respond:

"Yeah that would be cool but it would have to look perfect and actually do something..."

Which brings me to this weekends activities. Something that has always bugged me a little about the MINI is the lack of a convenient space for my garage door opener. Up until recently I just had it sitting in the door pocket- but it slides around when cornering and just seems sloppy. The other day I was poking around Bridger How To's and came accross a neat one on how to turn that empty toggle switch bay (normally reserved for rear foglights...) into a garage door opener switch. Feeling up for the challenge- and a little bored - since I haven't worked on the car in a while I took a trip to Radio Shack on my lunch hour...

One weekend and $23.75 later I had this stuff...



and a personalized and functional kick-ass little red button sitting in the dash. I've never been so excited to drive in and out of my parking garage (it's the little things isn't it?)

I took a few pictures of the procedure which consisted of dissassembling most of the lower dash and removing the two center pillars from the center console. The scariest part was not wiring the electronics- it was removing the knee-bolster under the steering column. Upon first inspection there seemed to be no good obvious way to get this out- no screws, no clips etc. Hesitant to leave things worse than I had found them I decided to consult the online "How To" once more. Their advice on this issue was to simply grab underneath the steering column and pull with both hands (so basically just rip the thing off) added to this advice was the note: "DON'T WORRY YOU WON'T BREAK IT" - I have to say that this left me wondering if they would be held responsible if I did break it?

I decided not and went back downstairs. I got in the drivers seat- reached under the column- got a good hand-hold and pulled down... at first nothing- then WHAM! Instantly the entire knee-bolster was on the floormat and my chin was on the steering wheel. So that happened. Surprisingly nothing was broken- including my jaw and I guess that is infact the procedure for removing that part of the dash- (silly bavarians).

The next challenge was to remove the center column pillars which seemed easier than it turned out to be- inorder to remove those I had to loosen the console around the stickshift and mirror adjustment switch. Six screws later the dash looked like this:



Once I had the switch bay out I decided to do the wiring and alterations upstairs in the comfort of my apartment (Special thanks to Kerry for letting me turn the kitchen table into a workbench- on which I soldered, drilled, filed and sanded).

The first job in the wiring was to connect wires to the switch- I simply soldered two lengths of wire to the two terminals on the switch and set that aside. A note on the switch: RadioShack had a great variety of switches- I chose a momentary switch (one that only closes the circuit while you are pressing it and opens it again upon release)- I bought two- a red one and a black one (the black one was if I chickened out on the red) Once I saw the red one in place though I was sure it was the one.

Now came the tricky part of the job- thats the part of the job where you go just far enough that you can't go back- you are now commited to finishing- This point was achieved when I drilled into the face plate of the switch bay- no going back now...

It turns out that the switch assembly is setup perfectly to accomodate an aftermarket switch and has ample room for extra wires and all that good stuff. The toughest part of getting the switch into the plate was making the hole big enough. My largest drill bit didn't quite cut it- so I rolled up some sand paper and had at it until the switch would go in. Once I had done that and the switch in place I moved onto the garage door opener assembly.

I was lucky enough to get an extra garage door opener from a friend who had one laying around- this is important because if I screwed it up when i was taking it apart and rewiring it- i would still have a backup and be able to get in my garage :) . The setup inside the opener is pretty simple and by tracing the circuits I was able to find the two spots on the back of the board where the current switch was connected. I soldered the wires from the new switch right onto the back of the circuit board and then put the whole opener back together. The result looked like this:



Now back down to the car...

One issue to deal with was the fact that since I'm not wiring this opener into the cars electrical system, it still has to get power from the standard 9V battery- which is fine- until I have to change it- so it has to remain accessable. Luckily there is a mysterious trap door in the panel underneath the switch bay in the center console- seemingly made for this specific application- and that's where the opener lives right now. I used some velcro tape to secure it to the inside of the panel and when I need to change the battery I can simply pop it open and replace it.

 

The finished product looks like this:



I have to say that I'm really happy with the result. I think it looks really cool and am glad that it actually does something. So far the reaction has been good from those who have seen it and it was relatively cheap and easy.

Next mod: Shift knob change (if it ever gets back from the chromer...)