DIY Camera Mount

As i like to film a little bit of the trackday action from the car to upload on youtube, i needed a camera mount in the car. As you may be aware you can purchase mounts made for the job, but they can be a little on the pricey side..... and if you're like me, you want spend as little as possible
you can get some suction camera mounts from eBay for about a tenner, but most track's will not allow you to use these, unless there is no passenger in the car and they are fixed to the passenger side front screen, they usually say it has to be bolted down.

so after a little looking around on the web and seeing a few designs out there i thought i would give it a shot myself.



You will need

• a couple of U-bolts

• Wing-nuts & Washers

• A length of box section (i used 20mmx20mmx1.2mm mild steel, but aluminum would have been a better idea)

• a ball head for a camera (i just nicked one off a cheap tripod)

• plastic end caps to fit the ends of the box section

eBay special tripod, you can almost feel the quality




The camera is going to end up positioned somewhere between the two headrests, you don't want it too far over to one side just in case you stack the car and it goes into the other persons neck! but you don't want it to close so all you see is the view of someones shoulder either
so get the tape measure out and start marking up and cutting the box to length, and also mark out the position of the headrest brackets so you can drill the holes for the U-bolts.

Now its cut to the right length... get drilling! (BTW when drilling metal i usually use some CT-90 to help lube the bit, its bloody good stuff )



Now add the U-bolts and wing nuts (i used wing-nuts to make removal and fitting a little easier)



Now take off the ball head off the eBay special tripod (There was just a small screw that held it on to the legs underneath)



Drill another hole in the box section, and find a loger screw. (as the one from the tripod will be too short) Attach the ball head to the box section, and add the end caps.





Then see if it fits



Wella!




Then go out and buy some bucket seats.... and realize you will need to make a different one as you don't have a headrest anymore



*disclaimer* This is intended as a guide only! so don't come running to me with a camera mount sticking out of your neck because you didn't measure up properly!

Nice one Marty,

This post sure did help me the first time round although i passed my mount on to another Fiat owner as i have the buckets seats in now so i will have to fabricate another newer version,yet another tick to the list lol,

Cheers Scuderia

yea i have got to make one in the next couple of weeks ready for marham, haven't figured out exactly what ill be doing.... but I'm sure ill bodge something up

Stay tuned for part 2!

Back again

So after a bit of head scratching and looking at what stuff i had in the shed, i made this


Started off with an old downpipe i had laying about





Little bit of cutting later and i had this



And a perfect fit too



Then i used a bit of the box section i had left over from the last mount and did some fettling.



Time to get the welder out









Painted it up to look a bit neater





Bought another egay special tripod as the last one disintegrated as i took it off the old mount..... more on that in a bit



And to mount it securely to the cage i used some mikalor hose clamps, there much stronger than worm drive ones, but i guess they would be fine.



And to stop scratching the cage i stuck on some self adhesive padding. this stuff here was supposed to be stuck on the back of some brake pads i had on my clio, but i couldn't be ar$ed to do it so it was in the toolbox doing nothing and looked up to the job















I tried it out today..... but the ball mount is sh!t it keeps jumping around everywhere, Ive got to get a better one before the weekend live and learn eh

But apart from that, it's solid

yet another little good bit of fab work,

If your really stuck Marty just replace the ball itself with a bolt going up through where the old ball joint is mounted to the bracket? the same size in length as the whole ball joint then just secure it in place using a nut?? then just screw the camera to it?

You might have to adjust the bolt at the end so you can get the camera to sit in the right position but i think it'll work,

Hope that helps Don

Like this below?



Hope that gets you going for the weekend,

Cheers Scuderia

cheers don i should be ok (fingers crossed) i ordered a metal one today, and payed for guarranteed next day delivery, so it should be here in the morning

oops, forgot to update this

anyway the new ball mount did turn up

Hi Marty,

Could i ask you where you got the 3m sticky rubber pads from??

Cheers mate,

All the best Scuderia

Scuderia wrote:Hi Marty,

Could i ask you where you got the 3m sticky rubber pads from??

Cheers mate,

All the best Scuderia

ehy up

They come with the set of greenstuff pads i bought for my old clio, i should have stuck them on the back of the pads or somthing?? looked like too much effort

not sure where you can get it from tho
mabye somthing like this will do the job?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Neoprene-Rubber-self-adhesive-strip-10mm-x-3mm-x-5m-/350258895398?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_DIY_Materials_Plumbing_MJ&hash=item518d0e9a26



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martyboi wrote:

Scuderia wrote:Hi Marty,

Could i ask you where you got the 3m sticky rubber pads from??

Cheers mate,

All the best Scuderia

ehy up

They come with the set of greenstuff pads i bought for my old clio, i should have stuck them on the back of the pads or somthing?? looked like too much effort

not sure where you can get it from tho
mabye somthing like this will do the job?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Neoprene-Rubber-self-adhesive-strip-10mm-x-3mm-x-5m-/350258895398?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_DIY_Materials_Plumbing_MJ&hash=item518d0e9a26



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Hi Marty,

OK,cheers for the link

Thanks Scuderia