Hello all,
I am a new member here, retired from 42 years of being a Nissan/Infiniti tech and Shop Foreman. Also includes 6 years at an independent import shop working on anything from Fiats to Yugos, lots of European/German/Asian and anything else in between. Very little domestic experience except for about a year at another independent domestic only shop in the late 70's. I made Master/Gold status as a tech with Nissan/Infiniti/Porsche/Mercedes/Rolls Royce. Additional training and work experience with Maserati/Alfa Romeo/Land Rover. I competed in NISTEC in 1997 and 1999, making it to the finals in Japan both times, first with Nissan and then with Infiniti. STILL can't quench my thirst for cars and technology, constantly researching things on the internet, and watching "Car Stuff" on tv.
My wife owns a 2003 Coupe, 18" wheels, AT. I am about to try installing a Dual DCPA81W 8" floating screen head unit in it, keeping the Bose amp and speakers. This head unit can be mounted in a single or double DIN opening, by using an included bracket mounted above or below the head unit as a spacer in a double DIN opening, or without the bracket in a single DIN opening. My potential plan is to use a Metra or Scosche dash kit, mount the head unit in the upper half of the double DIN opening, and move the AC controls below the head unit, modifying the dash kit as needed. I do have the parts coming, should all be here by Monday, 7/22/24. this includes a JDM AC control panel with the "Dual" button ( for the later G's).
Has anyone attempted this type of mod before? Does the later G AC panel work in the early G as a plug-in? I do have access to the factory ESM's for both cars, and I'm sure I can check the wiring diagrams and compare to answer that question, but thought I would ask. Questions, comments, and anything else helpful would be greatly appreciated.
Any other Nissan/Infiniti techs out there??

 

You'll want to digest @Wrathernaut guide (sticky) in the sub-sub forum: Tech Area - G35 ==> Audio, Video & Electronics.

 

Just to be clear, you do have 03-04 JDM climate controls, right? 05+ are not compatible if that's what you got. The physical plug is the same, but the signals are not.

A screen like that sticking out is possibly going to interfere with the shifter, and even if it doesn't will put your navigation screen in a terrible place to reference while driving. If you extend the wires between the screen and the control box, you can mount the screen to the cubby above the radio instead. The screen there will be significantly more useful than throwing random items in the cubby could be.

That will also let you mount the JDM controls to the factory finisher, which the new headunit's control box can be mounted behind. Then you won't need the metra/scosche dash kit, saving significant $$$.

 

Thanks for that input, noted. This install won't be for me, but the wife. She values the cubby greatly. Her eyesight is not the greatest, and she wants CarPlay and Siri voice control wirelessly. I found a thread by "Kowalskithegrea" that stated the pinout via numbers on the circuit boards are the same on the early and late AC controls, so it seems the later panel could be used in my car. I did pick up a used Scosche '03-'04 dash kit with the controls intact on eBay (waiting on delivery), but the vent ears are broken off. I have one of those hot staple plastic repair guns, and think I can reattach the ears successfully. Assuming I can move the head unit up say an inch, I'm pretty sure the shifter will clear just fine, and then leave plenty of room to move the AC controls down below the screen and still have easy access to them. I understand this might not be ideal from your standpoint, and appreciate your wealth of knowledge and time spent on this audio system (for such an old car as it is). Nothing is set in stone as of yet, just trying to work it all out as much as I can in advance to reduce the trail/error phase if I can. The screen actually has a pretty nice quick disconnect socket that might be easily removed from the front of the head unit, so your suggestion there would make a lot of sense. I'll take some pics later this week and post them to show what I am working with.

 

The pinouts from 03-04 and 05+ are the same, but the signals send across the data lines are different. If the dash kit includes controls, you can use those.

Do you have access to a 3D printer? I'd just make a combination single-din cubby and mount for the controls to fill in the DDin opening, then do the mount for the screen above. You can still get to the cubby storage behind the screen. The dual unit would mount behind the relocated climate controls.

Here's a terrible photoshop of it:

 

I sure do have a 3D printer. Ender 3 V3. Any chance you could share the STL? If you have printed it already, what filament did you use? Thanks for continuing to contribute to my crazy endeavor.
Sorry, misread that, thought you said "made", not "make". Big difference......

 

I don't have access to a 03-04 dash kit to do any measurements from, but if you inset the controls just a bit, you wouldn't need to even try and match the curvature. If you don't have any CAD skills, I can help some. So long as you have some decent measuring tools, it shouldn't be too hard to get something functional.

 

Once again thanks for your help and interest. I do have a Metra kit in hand, waiting on Scosche kit (with controls) to arrive from eBay. I was planning to remove radio and set in place one of the dash kits bare to check for clearance in all directions. I have some limited TinkerCad experience, but that's it. My current intention is to cut out the AC controls section of the dash finisher, and use hot staples/plastic welding to relocate it to the bottom half of the double DIN opening (or slightly lower). Then I would like to move the radio bracket DIN cage up (modifying as needed) just enough to give good shifter clearance for the screen. I would prefer to use the OE bracket if I can for a real secure head unit mounting. If that looks like it will work out, I can likely plastic weld the seams and sand/shape/body filler/paint to get an OE look. On another note, can you expand on the different control signals? I compared early and late schematics from the ESM's (I have PDFs from ASIST that I copied before I retired), and there are 2 wires TX & RX for what appears to be serial communications with the Auto AC Amp, all other wire functions appear to identical as well, just different terminal numbers. There are even oscilloscope reference patterns in the ESM's, and they look the same between early/late. I have a Picoscope, and have moderate experience with it. Seems like the later controls should work if wired properly from what I can see.

 

Yes, TX and RX are the same wires. The ranges are the same, but the signals sent in that range are different. Same humans talking, possibly even the same language, but different dialects can make it completely different.

I've plugged a 03-04 climate control into my 05. You get lights. You don't get control of the climate.

TinkerCAD is going to be woefully suboptimal of doing what you need if you want to match curves, but for simple flat plates should be ok if you want to use it.

You may have to drill new mounting holes in the factory radio mounting cage, but otherwise it sounds like you'll be doing some bodywork to get things right.