How to Make Custom Magnet Anttena for Opel Vectra a 91' ( Works on Any Car )

Hi,

I am pissed of the soccer/football vandals breaking the original antenna of my car, so I looked everywhere trying to buy an universal magnet vehicle radio antenna, only to see that that this is a lost cause in the Bulgarian market :D

If you all have been there ... the victims of soccer/football vandals, I will show you how to end the problems with the broken antennas forever !

The duct-tape is not helping to hold anything together. Is is used to tape the magnet to prevent scratching the paint of your car. You may find a better solution to that problem !!

You can buy one of these in you local plumbing store. It is some kind of plug for preventing a liquid spill in a pipe. It costs around one Bulgarian lev. (1 BGN = 0.57 USD )

Cut the rubber pad side walls and create a hole in the middle ( circle center YELLOW ) then a little cut for a cable fitting later on in the middle between the hole and the outside border ( half the radius RED ) with a knife as shown in the picture

1) A round flat magnet from an old FDD drive ( 0 lv. )
2) Antenna for Volvo s40 ( 7lv. )
3) File ( home tools )
4) Universal pliers ( home tools )
5) 2x ( 5x30 ) nickel bolts and nuts ( in case I fail one if these :D ) ( 0.4 lv. )

If your magnet is already glued perfectly and it provides a good antenna base, you can skip this step.

In my case the magnet's old glue was very nasty and the magnet was moving inside the metal casing. Therefore I had to replace the glue with a new one, which can glue metal to ceramic ( case to magnet ).
I left it in the whole afternoon to dry out at 32 degrees Celsius on my desk, pressed by the two weights every one 5kg on top trough the electrical tape ( You may have something better ... ) and secured using the end of the zipper

Just wrap the electrical tape around the thing. There is nothing special about it :D

This step is very important, because otherwise you can short out the antenna and the radio will not work !

Get a random CD. Even DVDs and BlueRay-s work :D. You only need the plastic cover over the data layer. Peel that out and using a scissors you have to cut out a plastic washer to insulate the base and the rod using it.

Place the filed nickel bolt in the whole of the volvo antenna, put the cable on the side of the volvo antenna plastic cap ( a hole can be drilled using an electric drill ). Wrap the rod pin around the nickel bolt a couple of times. Take the ground/hill pin and make it go trough the RED cutting of the plumbing cap. Wrap the ground/hull wire around the isolated part of the nickel bolt and put the washer created earlier, securing with one of the 5mm nuts using pliers. Be careful not to short out the nickel bolt and the ground/hill wire while you're tightening the nut.

Time to check everything using a multi/ohm meter. The connection must have the following status:

PRESENT - There is a resistance ( present ) between the pins selected ( 0 - 100 Ohm )
NOT PRESENT - The resistance is "infinite" ( not present )

Nickel bolt/nut to the center pin of the antenna wire - PRESENT
Magnet base to the ground pin of the antenna wire - PRESENT
Nickel bolt/nut to magnet base - NOT PRESENT
Center pin of the antenna wire to ground pin of the antenna wire - NOT PRESENT

Recommended is securing the cable using hot silicone glue to make it more durable after checking !!!

The must do is wrap the magnet with duct-tape, because otherwise the ceramic magnet will scratch the paint of your car !!!

You can now buy an extender cable and extend the length of the antenna. This is done, so you can carefully put your antenna in the car trunk ( Unseen by a vandal's eye ! ). When you are on the road, simply get the antenna from the trunk and stick it to the outside surface of the trunk.

Congratulations! You now have a soccer/football vandal proof car antenna !!