So... as promised, pics of the rear view camera install.
First, I removed the rear plastic blister where the factory camera mounts.
It has a plastic insert that I first glued in place, then I drilled a 1" hole in it to mount the camera.
Then I mounted the camera in it. It's waterproof and it also came with an o-ring so it seals itself up on the outside. It also has two beveled rings to allow for precise angle mounting.
Here's the cam and blister installed
The video cable and power wires got installed next. I poked a hole in the rubber gromet in the camera bay and inserted the wires.
Next comes the fun stuff. I removed this rubber boot that the wires to the tailgate run through. It's right there in the door jam. I've lightened the background in this pic.
Then I ran a wire snake through the boot. What's a wire snake? Well Here I used a piece of 1/4" vinyl tubing. I've also used large wire ties. Anything that will safely poke through the boot so you can snake the wires through by taping them to the snake. I used a little tire restore juice to lube the boot first.
Once through the boot, I had to get it into the side panel. It's a bit hidden, but if you remove the jack and reach up and left, you'll feel where the boot and wires come through the door jam.
Here you can see the snake and wires routed through the passage, ready to pull through.
Now after reinstalling the boot, I had my wires through and coming out of the jack bay. I decided to install my camera ground wire in there so I filed and area clean and ran a fresh self tapping screw into the sheetmetal. It's a brace so there's no danger of going through the hull of the ship Captain!
Then it was a matter of tucking the wire under the side panel and working my way forward towards the fuse panel area.
I easily tucked the wires under the door sill. (I later pulled it up and put them under the carpet)
Now I had the wires at the fuse panel. I decided to get power for my camera from the cigar lighter fuse. I removed the lower dash panel and exposed the fuse panel...
...then after removing the plastic clip and one screw, I slid it forward to remove it.
I found the wire I wanted by looking at the back of the panel. It turned out to be the brown/white wire. It is switched with the key and it's fused with the cigar lighter. This is where I connected my main 12V+ power lead.
I needed a good grounding point for the system up front (power filter and monitor) so I decided to take advantage of the M6 bolt just below the fuse panel.
Next I needed to find the reverse light wire. This would make my camera and monitor come on when in reverse gear. After finding the color of it in the back panel where I previously saw the wires, I looked in the bundle of wires that ran down towards the floor behind the drivers kick panel. It's the red/yellow wire you see here.
OK now I had to get the cable from the power filter to my monitor. YEP! The wire snake to the rescue!! First I fed it down from the top...
...then attached the cable with some tape and pulled it through.
Next I ran the cable up the a-pillar, removed the sun visor, pulled the headliner down a bit and tucked it in.
And there you have it!
Oh yeah... the monitor mod... I'll get pics of that up later too.
Hope you enjoyed this journey through my VX!
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