After reading a few threads on the Taurus cup holder I got what I thought was an after-market version that was basically the same - Joe Black installed it for me while I was visiting him earlier this month. Unfortunately the "drawer" was too short - not much would fit in there (I was hoping for at least a 12 oz soda). I then sought out a Taurus Cup holder and managed to score a few for cheap (ended up with 3 - one good, one sloppily "fixed" and one missing the flip-down brackets for the drink). I searched through all the forum threads and read that some had issues either with drink clearance and/or the ends of the Taurus cup holder "drawers" hitting components in the console. So I posted a thread on here last week hoping for some additional feedback.

Today I dropped the fluids in both diffs and figured I could tackle the cup holder while they were draining - First image is of the pseudo-Taurus cup holder that Joe installed (sorry about all the white stuff flying around - had on some nitrile gloves and the talc got all over everything):



Pulling it from the dash I compared it to the much bulkier Taurus unit to figure out where to mount the CD changer brackets used to mount the previous cup holder:



It then occurred to me that I could slip the brackets back and do something to modify what sticks out, maybe solving both the can clearance issue and having to modify the backs on the "drawers" (SlowPro had cut his off):



To get this to work I would need to cut off the front edge to expose more of the "drawers" - I did this by using one of my woodworking vises and cutting, first with a hacksaw and then with a very large backsaw.



Note a couple of things I learned - extend the drawer so that if the blade cuts through any damage isn't visible - doh! This is what the end product looks like:



I then located the brackets so that the front 3/4" of the "drawers" could extend beyond the front trim piece:



However there were two issues. The first was that the brackets still needed to go back about another 3/8" to clear any obstructions. The second and this was the biggie - the bottom "drawer" (which holds the drinks) relied on the cross piece that divided the part I just cut off to stop the drawer from extending too far. By cutting it off, the drawer could be pulled completely from the unit, which wasn't acceptable to me. Luckily I practiced on the incomplete unit so I was only out a couple of bucks and about 30 minutes and learned some valuable information.

My next idea (actually it was my original idea which I changed after examining the unit) - remove the outer face of the Taurus unit so the front could extend beyond the VX trim piece. I did this using a stationary belt sander:



This actually worked rather well - it's not as pretty or as slick as one that recesses completely behind the trim, but at least it's functional and will do me until something better rears its head:



It actually extends completely to the AT shifter - I may still dress it up a bit but for now this is what it looks like - better than having a two-by-four duck-taped to the dash, but less pleasing than the original that just plain didn't work. At least with this I can get that Diet Dr Pepper can in there....



-- John