Mounting a Nexus 7 Into Your Car Using the ORIGINAL BOX

OK... so I own a 2005 Scion xB, which I seriously love. Fun car, cool style (in my opinion), and I think it's a dream car when wanting to do some automotive customs. A must have for automotive mods nowadays is definitely having a touchscreen entertainment center, and as far as technology goes, the simplest route to take is integrating a tablet. Now, depending on your vehicle, you decide where and how you want to install your tablet. You can go for an exposed, removable mounting system, or fabricate a fixed design for your device. 

I recently bought a Nexus7 tablet and I'm currently working on integrating into my dashboard, but for now I can't just have my tablet floating around in an insecure fashion and risk something happening to it prematurely. I like to take my time when custom-building, but at the same time I find myself unable to get produce a permanent solution just yet.

NOTE: This tutorial is regarding a super cheap route I took to "temporarily" mount my Nexus7. Doing it this way, while is cost effective and fast, is not what you would want to do if you're looking to show off or flaunt... unless you just don't care [as I kind of don't]. Enjoy the video to see what i'm talking about.

Step 1: Minimal Cutting + Minimal Tools = Maximum Efficiency

So you won't need much to get this done. The following are the only tools I used:

Swiss Army Knife
Zip-ties
Double-sided tape


You're dealing with a cardboard box, so you're not looking to change out of your church clothes for this one.

FIRST- The box has a middle section (smaller box) that is removable, which is where the charging cable, owner's manual, and headphones would be located. Take that section out.

SECOND- take your knife and make 4 simple punctures (cuts) on the on the bottom and back panel of your box [relative to the dashboard] where you'll be sticking in the zip-ties.

THIRD- Slide your zip-ties in, but don't close the ties until you've dry fitted the box onto your space. You'll see why in the next step.

Step 2: "dry Mount" and Tie

If you go back to the picture of my empty space [on the dashboard], you'll notice that due to previous cutting, i have a place where the zip-ties can go through to keep the box attached. Start placing the box in its place and fasten away!

ALSO... because of the zip-ties, you're going to have to cut slightly at where the edge corner of the accessories box fits into the bigger tablet box. the cuts are done to make channels for the zip-ties to fall into and everything sits flush as it normally would.

Step 3: Stick Down and Expose Buttons

So now that you have your box zip-tied, you want to make sure that for whatever reason it's "sturdy". Honestly, at this point... IT'S FINE. But just for shits and giggles, let's get a little OCD, yeah? Get your double-sided tape and throw a stip down behind the top of the box. I don't think it's super imperative, but you never know.

Now, you want to take two more strips of double-sided tape and slap them on that middle section (the removable smaller box). This is going to attach to the tablet and act as an anchor onto the bigger box... plus, this is how your tablet is going to stay on without falling while our drive. I positioned my box at a rather upright position, so this is of course necessary. If you have more of a slanted positioning, then you're in a better place, but your tablet will still fall out with a good enough bump. Not to mention, when you want to pull your tablet out, the little box slides out quite effortlessly by hand.

NOTE: I don't suggest using the EXTREMELY HEAVY DUTY tape. My is made by the Scotch brand and works rather well. If you're the type of person who is going to be annoyed at having this little box attached to your tablet when you take it out, the just don't do this. Keep in mind that stickier tape just leads to more cleanup [on your tablet] when you're trying to undo this.


By now you should've considered cutting a little into the box where any side buttons need to be exposed: power, volume, etc. It's cardboard... just cut it.

Step 4: Place and Done!

Now that you've got the box placed and any cuts made... slap on your tablet! You now have a quick mounting frame for your on-the-go entertainment, be it movies or just music.

Enjoy your temporary tablet integration. Remember the extra money you DID NOT spend. And if you're the lazy type who tends to leave start-up projects unfinished... Good Luck to you.