PERRYinLA

Many of you may recall a promotion by www.colormatchantenna.com (which is now SBS's premier sponsor, www.thesiriusstore.com) that gave away antennas painted to match your car's color. I was lucky enough to get one, and it looked great, but I always was curious to see if I could really make my antenna blend in by hiding it under the spoiler of my car.

So I removed the spoiler to see what was involved. Yick- that's 13 years of dirt under there- the spoiler had never come off before!



Here's the best position I could find for the antenna. Since the antenna is integrated with the cable and plug, it is not removable or spliceable. And the size of the plug is just too large to route through the existing holes you see on the trunk lid. Rather than enlarge a hole, I decided to route the cable around the edge of the trunk lid. The car's spoiler protrudes over the edge to hide it, so no one will ever see it. So that's the path you see the cable taking:



My spoiler, like most factory spoilers, is plastic and hollow- perfect for hiding an antenna. Here is the underside of the spoiler, where I cut a small groove with a razor blade to allow the cable to slide through the spoiler gasket:



Now that it is on the underside of the trunk lid, the cable is routed through the trunk arm:



The routing of the antenna cable from this point forward follows the same path I used for my amplifier's battery cable - through the trunk, under the rear seat, and then forward to the dash. You can see how the shape of this particular spoiler hides the antenna cable as it wraps around the edge, so my "shortcut" is hidden from view. A different spoiler might have required drilling a hole large enough to pass the connector through.



I'm happy with the install and the spoiler did not affect my antenna's performance- I get no more or less dropouts along my commute than before, when my antenna was on the forward edge of my trunk lid. The only problem with it is I no longer have an antenna to show off to my friends that are not familiar with satellite radio, but I can deal with that!

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Custom-mounted PnP2 (now a Sportster 4) and STEALTH antenna hidden under spoiler of an SC400. Full details at: http://www.sounddomain.com/ride/206749/3

jwt873

Great Idea !!

Most plastics will pass the signal with no loss in strength. (After all.. The antenna is made of plastic.. isn't it ) The signal goes through most paints too....

I have an old Pontiac Fiero that I putt around in during the summer (It gets 40 mpg).. I mount my antenna UNDER the font hood (which is plastic).. I mag mount it to the car jack.. Works great..

Whenever I see someone asking about mounting an antenna on a vehicle with plastic or fiberglass, I always suggest they try mounting it underneath first..