PVC radio mount

Not sure if this belongs here or in the DIY board, but here goes:

My teenaged daughter with a technician-class ham license recently got a vehicle. I wanted to mount a 2m VHF transceiver in it.

Not keen on drilling holes in her car, I used a magnetic antenna and I fabricated a PVC mount for it. I thought someone might be interested in seeing how I did it.

I had some old (unused!) PVC sewer pipe from another project. I used a table saw to slit it.

Then I used a heat gun to soften the PVC. In retrospect, I could have used the table saw to cut the pipe again, to width rather than do what I did next, which was to unroll the entire tube.

Then cutting a strip off.

I again used the heat gun to mold it around the edge of the coin tray.

The next bit I neglected to photograph. See how it's at an angle in the above photo? That's because it's too long. That was intentional. The next step (not photographed) was that I completely folded the bottom up on itself. I didn't do a perfect job, and you can see the edge peeking out in this next photo. You can also see where I got the PVC a little too hot and made it a bit crispy!

With it folded, I could tuck the "tail" under the driveline hump trim.

Next, I painted it and pop-riveted a homemade mount on it, as well as covering the rivet heads with some felt. You can see the folded tail in these pics.

So, it just snaps into place. I don't think it will come loose, even in an accident. I ran the power wires under the trim to the rear passenger cigarette lighter. Same with the antenna coax. It goes out the rear door seal. She's not allowed to have passengers, so there is very little open-and-close to the door.

So, there it is. Hopefully, it's an idea that will be helpful to you. I sanded edges so it's smooth plastic on smooth plastic. My goal was to have no marring or permanent changes to the car's interior.

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PVC radio mount