Cross posting @ Zapco.com & here....

Alright guys….

I have officially blown up the install in the G and am in the process of rebuilding her.

Better…Stronger…More sonic bliss than before.

I’ll add to this thread as things come along.

First… Here is the patient… 2005 Infiniti G35 Sedan 6MT:


And to give you a little flavor of the dash… Nothing is changing here. For now:



Here’s what the trunk looked like before:

I know there is a lot of eD bashing… personally, I loved the way these guys performed. Especially for the money. There was also a Zapco Studio 54 hidden away that pushed the tweeters.

Out with the old… and in with the new!

The catalyst for the rebuild are these:

Two DCREF 1000.4’s courtesy of Mr. Smith at Audio Designs of Atlanta.

So I decided to change things up a bit in the trunk. Here’s a pic of the mock-up. Yeah…. That’s poplar there. Hell of a lot easier to work with for mock-ups… no need to rip MDF etc..



Once I was satisfied with the fitment I ripped the MDF and started at it:





Here’s a peek at the new window:


That’s it for now. More to come.

Comments… flames… whatever welcome.

 

Update for this week.

FANTASTIC progress…and a minor setback.

First the progress.

Terminal blocks and new speaker cable ran from the rear of the vehicle.

Looks good!

The amp rack is fully wired. I’ve got to say… After installing a whole hell of a lot of amps in my day I just LOVE the flush set terminal blocks. Super clean looking and easy to use.

Amp “A” Wired up:






Relay fused and wired into place:


Amp “B” Wired up:





And power distribution is complete:





Ready to go put in the car:


So… here’s the setback… you know the number one rule of installing? You know.. the “Never drill into a panel unless you know what’s behind it.” Rule?

Yeah.. bit me in the ***. I was installing cable tie mounts on the transmission hump and the smell of petrol nearly knocked me over. I “knew” the gas tank was under the rear seat. I didn’t think there was any way it went up that high on the tranny hump. Well… it does. ) Thankfully it was MY car I was working on… AND comprehensive insurance covers stupidity. So… I go to pick her up tomorrow. $500 later.

Could have been worse. Just stupid, stupid, stupid rookie mistake. From someone who knows better. :-[:-[:-[

More pics to come….

 

Here's a small update for those playing along at home.

With the car in the shop, I decided to turn my attention to the sub-stage.

Driver: Elemental Designs 13.Ov3 D2:


Coil #1:


Coil #2:


Binding posts inside enclosure:


#6 McFeeley's Pan-Head combo drives:


Ready to get snug as a bug:



Spent some time tonight doing some small upholstery work, and getting the amps inside the car.

Yeah... I got it back today. The shop did the work in 2 days. Fast!

On tap for tomorrow:

Changer, H701, Signal connections, output to barrier strip connections, power cable cut to size and terminated, and ground to chassis. She may see power late in the day. Who knows with this kind of stuff though. Something always seems to creep up on ya.

Sunday:

Daughter's first birthday party. Made sure to get some stuff for the fellas:


Monday:

Definitely powered-up.

More pics to come...

 

OK… update time!

Made some great progress over the weekend. Got the amps in, wires cleaned up, and processor and changer mounted. No time spent tuning. But still sounds really good straight out of the box. The Lotus mids are just cranking out some serious midbass.

Picture time.

Passenger side rear terminal block mating amp output to speaker cable bundle:


Power cable entering trunk. I hate loom, but had to use it


Power cable and speaker bundle run:



Driver side rear terminal block:


Fuse block in rear seat pass-thru. Finish panel still to be made:


Look ma! No seats:


Optical changers FTW!!!!:



H701:



Symbilink:



Sub box termination:


Amps:



Still LOTS of work to do. Finish panes, carpeting the trunk, side lighting the window, etc….

More to come.

 

As promised, more pics.

Spent a bit of time in the battery compartment:

Looks pretty good. I just need to yank the stinger piece and go 1/0 with my grounds. Currently have 2 4 GA grounds to chassis. I'll be doing a 1/0 ground to chassis, and a 1/0 ground to the block. With a matching Streetwires terminal.

And back to the trunk. Like I mentioned a few days ago I made some serious progress here.

Side trim panel. CHECK!
Beauty board. CHECK!
Floor. CHECK!
Acrylic Panel. CHECK!



Still need to wire up the lighting. I have 4 white LEDS to side light the window, and have some amber LED strips to throw some orange glow onto the Amps.

As you can tell, I still need to lay carpet on the wheel wells. I'll do that when I have everything pulled out again.

And finally... A random shot of the sub enclosure.

So the thing with this enclosure was that it was made to be used with the factory trim pieces... which I am not using. So it doesn't integrate very well yet. I'll need to fab up some trim panels to flush it in better.

That's it for now.

Will be wiring over the next couple of nights and then heading to Jeff's shop on Saturday to play around with the Dyn 3 ways.

As you were!

 

Here's the fruits of last night's labor:



And MiloX said "Let there be light!"

And there was light.

And it was gooooooooooooooooooooood.

Trunk lid open.



Trunk lid closed.

I am not sure if I am totally feeling the led reflections. May need to cover them with some vellum to diffuse them a bit.

But I am digging the orange. Very menacing. Well, as menacing as lighting can be. Which I guess is not very menacing. But it ain't blue. Everyone does blue.

Plus it matches the dash lights.

That's it for today. Full update on front stage auditions tomorrow!

 

Ok faithful readers. Time for an update.

First off, I want to share a pic of the most delicious dinner my bride prepared for me last night.

Butterflied pork chops served with a glorious blueberry reduction. Un-freaking-real. Combined with a Nuke in a frosty mug... mmmm... made my night.



I was fortunate enough to spend 6 hours learning at the feet of the Jedi master today. And this young Padawan is most grateful.

On the docket was determining whether or not we could cram 8's into the front doors on the G. More on that in a bit. Secondly, I wanted to have Jeff review the rest of the install. And finally, if we had time, I wanted to listen to the Dyn's in the car.

So with those goals in mind... let's recap the days activities.

First of all, for those of you who have never worked in a shop... like me... just watching the activity was an eye-opening experience. It kinda went like so:

Start working on some item
*phone call*
Put down phone
Start walking back over to bench
*phone call*
Put down phone
Make it back over to bench
Start working again
*Customer walks up*
*phone call*
*person on phone calls you by some random name that is not even remotely close to yours*
What was I working on again?
*New guy shows up with his gear*
Right... I was working on THAT thing.

Rinse-Repeat ad nauseum. Amazing.

So while *Greg* was busy working away I started to tear into the G. Man...snap-on tools are NICE. Anyway, got the door cards off, popped the kicks, and pulled the sills.

As a reference, here's what the stock doors look like:

Tiny-little 6.5 driver. No. Seriously. These things are lucky if they measure 6" across.

And here is what they look like with a Seas Lotus RW165:

Much beefier, but really starting to push the limits of what we can put in there.

So with those images in mind we commence project shoehorn.

And by "we" I mean Jeff. I decided to make myself handy with the shop broom while he started milling the baffles. A lot of time was spent measuring and testing with a basket and a little while later we end up with this:


Yep. We are not going to get the desired displacement without permanent modifications... That's a big honking sharpie too!

Here's a closer look at the fat that must be trimmed:

Yikes! But you know what? You only live once.

And trim *we* did.... lol... the *we* stuff kills me:


Air saws are the ish.

And here's what we are left with:

A hole!

So. Wanna see what a Dynaudio MW172 looks like in the door of a G?

You know you do!



Oh yeah. It fits, but it is tight. Popped the door card back on. No rubbing! Excursion won't be a problem either! w00t!

So both doors now have proper holes cut in them, and I am the owner of 2 hand-machined Jeff Smith custom baffles. Hi Randy!!! (inside joke @ zapco.com)

With that work done, Jeff was able to look at the rest of the install. The Jedi Master was pleased, I think. He also gave me some great tips on going the extra mile on the finish work. Most excellent, indeed.

We also got to spend some time on the kicks. It'll be tight, but I think we will be able to get the 3" domes in there without any custom work.

Unfortunately, I did not get to hear the drivers in the car. I am sure Jeff would have stayed longer if I asked him to, but it was nearing 8PM. No way I was going to keep him from his family any longer than I already did.

Order for the drivers will be placed on Monday. Should have them by Wednesday.

All-in-all... Very good day. A LOT of progress. Yay!

 

Wow, you did all this yourself?

 

Ok... Sunday's update.

Pretty much took the day off. Unfortunately my wife got some type of stomach bug yesterday so I was on ppint for watching our 1 y/o.

Anyway... I did get a few things done.

I got a 1/0 crimp ring on a length of cable.

And did a couple of things to the car.

First of all... Some Team Audio Designs lovin...




And I got the trunk lid panel recovered.


So... there ya have it.

Sunday.

 

And that my friends should bring you up to speed.

Here's the punch list of what is left:

• Get new front stage POST HASTE. Dyn System 362 DONE
• Install new front stage.
• Fabricate trunk floor. DONE
• Upholster trunk floor. DONE
• Upholster finish panels. DONE
• Upholster remaining areas of trunk.
• Finish up lighting for trunk panel. DONE
• Finish photos for install book.
• Finish negative battery terminal.
• Have Jeff's golden ears do their thing.
• Figure out what is going on with the H701.
• Make changes to beauty panel to incorporate some of Jeff's suggestions
• Get my *** handed to me at my first show.

 

All of it except for the work except for the door cutting and baffle milling... Yes.

I tan easy, but don't get as dark as Jeff!

 

Lovely play-by-play. Thanks for all the pics.

Can't wait to see it finished.

 

Great job and very impressive. Thanks for the writeup. It makes me wonder if 8's will fit in the coupe's doors as well.

Keep us updated.

 

I don't know about that. You have a really kick *** install going on. I had the same thoughts about the system in my coupe, but I ended up placing first in the IASCA rookie division at Spring break nationals this year. A question for you, where do you get your wire covers, the black mesh stuff and also the labeled and heat shrunk ends?

 

God this install makes mine look like a f'ing hack job. WAY TO JUDGE ME AND NOT EVEN MEAN TO Seriously, where do you get all of your accessories (shrink tube, etc)? My OCD is going nuts right now.