zcspec

iTrader: (2)

Hello fellow Z stereo enthusiast! I finally had a chance to tear apart the Z to remove the OEM stereo, speakers, etc. (Thanks in advanced to all the enthusiast who put together DIYs as a guide. I found them extremely useful.)
My plan is to replace the headunit with a Sony Navi system, install Polk Audio speakers in all four corners of the car, a 10” sub, an Alpine 5-channel amp, rear view camera, and to top all that off, sound deaden the car.

DAY 1:

Day one (COMPLETED) consisted of:
- Polk Audio component DB 6.5 in the front
- Sound deaden the doors (sorry, I didn’t plan to document this process until I completed the front doors)
- 16gauge speaker wires through the OEM door plugs
- disassembled all the rear panels

I've always been a huge fan of Polk Audio


Center dash removed


Dampening of the trunk


DAY 2

Day two (work in progress) consisted of:
- removal of the final panels to access the rear glove box area
- removal of the sub
- installing the rear Polk Audio speakers
- sound deaden the entire trunk and rear glove/sub box areas
This by far, was the most complex part of the install thus far. It involved cutting, laying, and pressing of the FatMat material. My intent was not to cover every part of the trunk as this would have consumed twice as much time. Plus, the main challenge was trying to “cut” out every little hole which was covered and not knowing which opening was actually used for the panel bolts/screws.

Glove/Sub area panels removed


Huge amount of space in this area


Sound dampened the glove box area:


Final dampening of both areas and Polks Audio "rear-fill" coxials


I'll be installing the head unit later today after the Redskins - Seahawks game. (GO HAWKS!)

Check back for more photos as I am expecting this project to take at least another day.

Qtip350z

Looking good so far, in for more pics

goracerx

Props, that's nice work. I can't beleive how off thenter the door speaker hole is to the mounted speaker. Too bad no one ever made an agled speaker mount (like a pod) since it looks like there is plenty of space. Please update on how you like the rears since I have a 5 channel amp I might use but I don't want rear tweeters though.

beezee

iTrader: (19)

good jod so far. would have been better to put this in the "audio builds" section. a little advice on the sound deadening. it is a do it right or don't issue. the areas you are doing now are very crucial and good to do but make sure you are not leaving gaps here and there. I did my entire car (i was bored and wanted to prolong my install to always get me something to do lol). in between i was driving the car with the inerior panels off. what i found out was the road noice was being redirected from the covered areas to the areas that were not done. after doing the driver side compartment where the sub was, i happened to drive the car. the noice was very pronounced coming from the passenger side which was not done. make sure to heat the material well and roll them down for better bond. at the end of my project, the road noise was very reduced from the rear area but then there seemed to be more noice from the front tires. so i did the floors and that made a world of difference.

zcspec

iTrader: (2)

Day 2 continues... (Great win by the Hawks!)

just finished FatMatting the car (well, as much as I wanted to). ***Thanks for the advice beezee*** my original intent was to quite down the interior of road noise. Hopefully this will help and not redirect noise to areas I was too lazy to cover.

As of now, I successfully removed the stock radio and wired power to the amp through the firewall. The issue that I am working on now, is trying to figure out the schematics of the stock Bose headunit's wiring harness. I need:

- constant power
- ign-power
- ground
- remote power
- illum

Does anyone know which color does what in this photo?

beezee

iTrader: (19)

Hope this helps
http://crutchfield.custhelp.com/app/...aWNqKjRJZmw%3D

what harness are you using. it is easier to identify wires from the harness since they come with clear instructions on which wire is what. you are installing a new headunit right?. you need a harness that plugs into the bose plugs you show in the pic (you can use metra or scosche). the other end is exposed wires with instructions on what each wire is. your headunit comes with a harness which plugs to the back of the headuint and the other ends exposed which then connect to corresponding exposed wires from the harness. so you do not need to decode all the bose wiring. hope i am clear. what ever the case, do not tap your ground from the bose ground. find a spot to connect to chassis.
there are lots of places in there. when you took out the radio you saw these bunch of wires at the top left near the plug for the gage cluster bolted to chassis. those are stock ground wires. do not disturb those. on the right side there is a similar bolt with no wires. use that. just sand the surface for better contact. apart from that there are other places in there. just make sure to sand to expose bare metal
if you have steering wheel controls (radio control) you lose them unless you install a seperate component like axxess aswc. one of the plugs on the bose headunit is for that.

morphiusrt

iTrader: (7)

There is a nice ground up behind the cubby at least on the 06+. If you plan on doing any other mods like steering wheels controls relay for parking brake over ride you will need a good ground. I just ran a nice 10awg wire up the that ground and put a small lug at the other end for all my grounds.

I can't wait to find out if it was all worth it. I have been thinking about doing this as well. Looks like a fun project.

zcspec

iTrader: (2)

@ beezee, I was up till about midnight trying to figure out the wiring hareness and finally found ONE (1) webpage that gave me enough info. What you provided me CONFIRMS what I found. Thank you so much....I was terrified of frying my Sony Navi.

@ morphiusrt, I'll be honest...it's a lot of work! Im into day 3 now and just figured out the wiring harness issue. My hands and fingers are beat up and in pain....BUT, the moment I fire all the components up to confirm functionality, it will all be worth it.

zcspec

iTrader: (2)

End of Day Three

I finally finished everything except reinstalling the rear trunk/RSB panels.

- Sony XNV-770bt installed
- rear camera installed
- Alpine V12 MRV-F357 5-channel amp

Once everything was put together, I fired up the system. The sound quality is now what I am accustomed to hearing from Polk Audio. Mid bass and highs are crystal clear with no distortion. The Sony XNV has a built in signal processor so I set the front seats as the sound stage with the rear Polks as “rear-fill” only and on occasions, you can hear the reverb like you’re at a concert. It’s very cool. For lows, an 8” Bazooka that I threw in the back for demonstration purposes sounded surprisingly well. It was able to reproduce solid, tight bass. I’m still undecided whether I’ll upgrade to a 10” or keep the 8” since it’s so compact. All in all, I’m very happy with the project. I won’t mislead anyone…it was a substantial amount of work that took me the better half of 3 days to complete. Granted, I gutted the interior and pretty much rebuild the system from the ground on up.

Gave the floor a good vacuum before installing the seats


Since storage space is a premium inside the Z, I keep full access to the passenger glove box


Sony XNV-770bt head unit


Rear view camera in action


Final image with the seats back in


PM me if you have any questions about the project.

goracerx

Your amp fit inside the passenger cubby? Are you going to do a free air sub in the stock box?

zcspec

iTrader: (2)

The amp resides where the OEM Bose sub use to be. For a sub, I decided to keep the Bazooka bass tube in the rear end. It's actually a 6" sub and provides PLENTY of bass for my application. Plus, it's very small so I do not lose very much trunk space at all.