Best place to mount gauges?

[bzinn 1]

Ok to help understand how the side airbag is connected and what happens when it is inflated.....

The bag itself is attached from the C pillar mount point in the headliner edge and follows that path to the top of the door and then a anchor line goes to the A pillar under the cover.

The cover is held on at the top by what is known as the pillar clip,this clip is not the same clip as found on a non sideairbag car.....it is a one time removable/insertable clip that goes to a post on the A pillar.

It has the sole purpose that in the event of airbag deploying it holds the Apillar in place as not to fly off in to the passenger compartment and cause injury.

The clip is a pain to remove and 9 times out of 10 it has to be replaced once removed by a new clip,I would add a new clip if I got it out in one piece no matter what jsut to be safe......it can be gotten from Toyota for like $2.75 a clip and most dealerships can order and get it in 24 hours.

So gauges,can be added to the Apillar safely......basically the only thing you should not do with side airbags is make headliner out of solid material like CF or fiberglass as it will shatter into passenger compartment when bags go off,they have a lot of power and they are hard to impeed.

Now be sure to undo battery to car prior to working on any area that has airbags,wait like 5min....book says 90 seconds but just wait 5 min to be certain the thing is de-energised.....once you do that you can safely pull it all apart.I have done 3 interiors now with airbags in the side and never any issues with what was done interfering with how the bags deploy.....jsut use your comman sense.

Also the in the dash like Garm showed is a great way to mount them as well,easy to cut the holes and run the wires from too.