I mentioned in a previous post here that I had found a good use for my crappy "XD Gear" holster: I mounted it under my dash as a secure place to store my gun while driving.
IMORTANT UPDATE: Please make sure that carrying in your car in this manner is legal in your state or locality. I've been told that Texas requires all guns in automobiles to be concealed. I don't know if that is true or not, but the bottom line is that it is up to you to know the law where you live and travel.
By secure I mean it won't fall on the floor if I have to stop suddenly. I do not mean that I would leave it there when parking the car, of course. That is what the small car safe is for. I can, however, more easily draw the weapon from this holster should I ever need to defend myself from behind the wheel of my Mazda 6.
Some folks asked if I could provide some more information on how I mounted it. A picture is worth a thousand words, so I've attached a few here. As for the installation technique, I'll try to describe it.
Link to photos
So anyway... First, I bought some rather small nuts and bolts at home depot along with those little grip tight washers that have the small prongs bent in opposite angles. When you buy the small bolts, make sure you get the length long enough to go through the belt loop, and through the dashboard, and still stick out enough on the back so that you can thread the washer and nut on. I had to find the spot on my dash I was going to mount it so that I would know how long the bolts needed to be.
The hardware I bought at Home Depot for a few bucks is as follows:
Nut and Bolt: 8-32 X 3/4 Combo Round W/Nut
Washers: #10 Int Tooth LW (whatever that means)
Next, I found the 4 locations on the back of the belt loop where I wanted the bolts to go through. I put four small divets in the back of the belt loop with a sharp nail so that I had a small indention to start my drill bit in. Otherwise the drill bit slips all over the back of the belt loop when you start to drill. I found that out the hard way.
Also, you obviously have to be careful selecting the place for the holes so that you don't hit a part of the holster that will cause a problem when you put this hole through, like the tension screw, for example.
Anyway, once I had identified where I wanted the holes to go, and made my divets, I placed the holster on the workbench with the back of the belt loop facing up and then drilled the 4 holes with a small drill bit (just large enough for the bolt to go through), all the way through the holster. Yes, I said I drilled all the way through the holster. This might seem counter intuitive to go all the way through the holster, but there is a method to my madness. Read on!
The reason I drilled all the way through the holster is that there is otherwise a problem at this point. The problem is that you don't have enough room to put the bolt into the holes because the belt loop is only as wide as a belt. There simply isn't enough room. One corner would go in, but the other three would not fit. (For the record, I only ended up using 3 screws, but I didn't figure that out until much later in the process.)
So at this point I have 4 small holes, just large enough for the threaded neck of the bolt, drilled all the way through my holster. Next I took the holster and turned it over so that the back of the belt loop was flat on the workbench. I then took a metal file and slid it through the belt loop. This is the tricky part that you can mess up, so read carefully before proceeding. See the note below..
Anyway, I changed the drill bit so that it was larger than the head of the bolt, positioned the file to protect the hole in the back of the belt loop, and then drilled down through the main holster until I hit the file. The file is there to make sure that the larger holes (big enough for the head of the bolts) would only go down through the holster and NOT through the back of the belt loop. This allows me to easily place the bolt into the hole by pushing it through the holes in the holster, but still keep the hole on the back of the belt loop small enough so that the head of the bolt won't go through it. I hope this makes more sense when you see the pictures below because I'm not sure I am describing it very clearly.
IMPORTANT NOTE: It is very easy for the file (or whatever flat metal object you use to protect the small holes) to slip out of the way and that will allow the momentum of the drill to force the bit down through the small holes in the back of the belt loop.
Be careful not to let that happen or you'll be screwed as the bolts will no longer hold the holster to your dashboard!
The last step of modifying the holster was to get a small, sharp knife and trim all the ragged edges off where I had drilled. This left me with a holster with 4 holes, ready to be easily bolted to my dash. The big holes in the holster were large enough to simply slide the bolts through, but the holes in the back of the belt loop, which I protected with the file while drilling, were still smaller and only large enough for the threaded part of the bolt to go through.
So next I had to drill the small holes in my dash. I held the holster up on the dash, feeling behind the dash and trying to imagine where the bolts should come out. When I got it positioned properly I used the same sharp nail placed through the drilled holes to make small divets in the dash, removed the holster, and drilled holes on the divet marks. After cleaning these out with the sharp knife as well, I was able to easily put the nuts, bolts and washers to good use and secure the holster under the dash. I used washers under the bolt head as well as under the nut. Over all I am very happpy with the results. It is remarkably solid and sturdy and it provides a great place to put my XD-9 SC while I'm driving.
I hope this was helpful and made sense. Please let me know if you guys have any questions.
Mojoski
PS - Don't worry! I put shoes on when I'm driving! I may be from the South, but not THAT far south!
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How I mounted my XD Gear holster in my car!
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