How to get adhesive side of suction cup disc to stick to dash

jrjones60

jrjones60

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I picked up a car yesterday that had been detailed by the dealer. The dash is the rough grain type material. It was shiny so I figure that they used armor all or a spray wax on it. At any rate, I tried to stick the 3" disc (sticky side down) to the dash so I could mount my GPS and the disc wouldn't stick to the dash at all. Not to mention the sun reflecting big time off of it. Any suggestions will be appreciated. On the dash is the only place practical to mount the TomTom GPS.
 
It may not stick to dash because of the dressing that's on the dash you may have to get a dashboard mount for your gps that has strips of tape you sick on your dash
 
Yep, suction mounts just won't stay very long (even if you strip the dressing) on some dash materials. Because of the texture, they essentially will slowly let air into the suction mount and it comes unstuck after a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on the texture.

An adhesive velcro strip on the dash would be one option (and obviously the other side of the velcro on the GPS). It might look ugly, but if you always have your GPS in place while driving you wouldn't see it.

I take it you can't use the windshield to mount the suction disc. If you have a glass moonroof, would that be an option?
 
It is not the suction cup that I'm talking about. It's the round disc that is suppose to stick to the dash that the suction cup mounts on. I guess my question is what do I use to get the armour all or whatever they put on the dash to make it shiny off.
 
To remove armor all, use an all purpose cleaner. You may have to clean it more than once, this stuff is pretty nasty.
 
Depends on the material and how heavy the grain is but you still might have issues even after a through cleaning. What happens is that the hot sun will soften the adhesive enough that sooner or later the weight of the GPS will cause it to become lose and fall off. How long it takes depends on the quality of the adhesive tape. You might want to try removing the tape and replacing with a high quality thin tape. On harder plastics I've had great luck with 3M Automotive Attachment Tape PN #06377 Also remember that some tapes need up to 24 hours to form a bond with the mating surface. Also make sure the mounting disk is of a high quality. The thicker and more rigid the better! This is important in any area with direct sun light as the suction cup on the mount when you pull the clamp down will be trying to pull up on the disk. Sendo makes some of the best (most rigid) mounting disks out there. Additionally their adhesive is almost bullet proof.
 
Well.....I used the BlackFire APC and the "whatever it was" came right off. The adhesive disc that I have stuck with no problem. Thanks again.
 
Funny you are talking about GPSs, I just replaced mine today. I always prefer to use the suction cup directly on the windshield. I place the GPS just Under the rear view Mirror. It block the line of sight a little but I never found it to be a problem. I have a 5" model, if I was using 7" I don't think that would work though.

Anyway, got the Garmin 2595LMT as a replacement for the Tom Tom Via 1535M that I purchased 3 years ago.

I use my GPS a lot, my main job is doing deliveries and GPS can save you a lot of time and pain in a city like Montréal. Streets seems to have been designed by a bunch of monkeys searching for bananas. One ways everywhere, some of them spliting in both directions, some Streets have ones ways meeting each other, it's a mess. So thank god for the GPS system ;)

BTW, as a side note. For comparisson, I think Tom Tom's software is a bit nicer. I feel it was easier to follow directions on screen on the Tom Tom and the voice guidance was a lot more natural.

Garmin have much better maps, I will have to work with it for a while to see if it is true but the Tom Tom would try to make you do illegal things from time to time, and they are really bad at keeping maps up to date. On that note my Tom Tom was supposed to get lifetime maps but I was never able to get them. I sent several emails to Tom Tom and never got an answer... I strongly recommand people stay away from that company.

The new Garmin also comes with lifetime maps, I really hope I won't have the same issue.
 
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