Alan
06-05-07, 09:49 PM
Ever wanted a shorter aerial for the back of your car, but didn't want a shiny silver thing from Halfords, and didn't want to loose any radio signal strength? Well, the answer is to fit a 7" aerial from a Honda Civic/S2000.
It's a cheap mod, as the aerial shouldn't cost you more than £6 or £7 from eBay, and it takes 10 minutes to do.
The first problem that people will have is getting the old aerial off. All of the aerials on SEATs are protected by an anti-theft mechanism. This take all of a few seconds to get around once you know how, and you don't break anything by doing it. First off, unscrew the aerial as far as it goes. You'll then find it won't pull off due to the anti-theft fitting. To remove it, grab on to the base of the aerial and hold tight so the roof doesn't flex too much, then pull and wiggle the old aerial. Side-to-side movements and rotating movements seem to make the job easier, and with a bit of force the aerial will come off.
Next step is to trim the Civic aerial so it will fit. The screw is the same size, but as you can see in the picture, most of the thread is covered by the plastic of the aerial. You'll need to trim it so it looks like th picture below. It's easiest if you have a Dremmel to cut off the plastic, but it should be easily do-able with a sharp Stanley knife or similar, and a file to smooth it off afterwards. Don't trim off to much, as it's easier to trim more off if it still doesn't fit than it is to patch it up if you take too much off.
After that's done, simply screw the new one on. Job done :D
As you'll see, it fits perfectly, the colour match is fine (ignore the picture, the flash went off so it looked different because of the different types of plastic), and your radio will sound as clear (or crackly) as it did before ;)
It's a cheap mod, as the aerial shouldn't cost you more than £6 or £7 from eBay, and it takes 10 minutes to do.
The first problem that people will have is getting the old aerial off. All of the aerials on SEATs are protected by an anti-theft mechanism. This take all of a few seconds to get around once you know how, and you don't break anything by doing it. First off, unscrew the aerial as far as it goes. You'll then find it won't pull off due to the anti-theft fitting. To remove it, grab on to the base of the aerial and hold tight so the roof doesn't flex too much, then pull and wiggle the old aerial. Side-to-side movements and rotating movements seem to make the job easier, and with a bit of force the aerial will come off.
Next step is to trim the Civic aerial so it will fit. The screw is the same size, but as you can see in the picture, most of the thread is covered by the plastic of the aerial. You'll need to trim it so it looks like th picture below. It's easiest if you have a Dremmel to cut off the plastic, but it should be easily do-able with a sharp Stanley knife or similar, and a file to smooth it off afterwards. Don't trim off to much, as it's easier to trim more off if it still doesn't fit than it is to patch it up if you take too much off.
After that's done, simply screw the new one on. Job done :D
As you'll see, it fits perfectly, the colour match is fine (ignore the picture, the flash went off so it looked different because of the different types of plastic), and your radio will sound as clear (or crackly) as it did before ;)