Check out my install!!
03-29-2004, 10:31 PM
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Check out my install!!
Well, hope you like my install. The gist of it's been done since January, but I finally got my PS2 & screen put in, so I figured I post up some pics of everthing. Plus, I just gave the car a 2-hour bath today, and I didn't want pics of it 'til it was presentable!
First off, here's a pic of the back in stealth mode (well, as stealth as you can get with 2 subs in the corners):
Then you take off the trunk mat, and voila:
The entire floor is custom built & wrapped in vinyl, as are the stock enclosures. I chose a leather texture to stay with the look of the plastic surrounding trunk. I wanted to be able to see/show the amps, so they used 2 grills to keep everything visible. The center piece can actually be removed to show the amp rack & floor, which are carpeted in black. The center piece is supported by walls built up from the floor, also carpeted in black. Notice the 2 caps on either side of the top amp. Here's a close-up:
And here's the PS2 in the passenger compartment:
So as to minimize skipping, I had the installers soft-mount the PS2 (the bracket mounts are covered in foam padding). All I wanted was the PS2 in there, but they took some artistic license & came up with what you see here. To the top-left is a carpeted section with slots cut out to hold the IR reciever for the PS2 DVD remote, as well as the remote itself. Slides in & out with ease! Directly below that, is a 4 disc tray to hold extra games, DVD's, ****, etc. That carpeted piece beneath the PS2 is just a face plate to conceal the mounts & brackets. Below that thin place mat are my crossovers:
Look at the bottom-right of the PS2 and note the 12V cig adapter (taken from another car)! Why do I need ANOTHER 12V socket when the Z already has one you ask? Answer: the stock one is gone now to make room for something else!
CLOSED:
And OPENED:
What you can't see here is that when the lid is up, a switch is triggered that lights a bulb behind the controller ports, giving them a blue glow. I'm not a big fan of neon in cars, but I thought it looked pretty cool, especially at night. Besides, it's not REALLY neon anyway.
The screen I used was a Xenarc 7", but I opted for the non-VGA one, since I've no intentions of throwing in a car PC. The dot resolution is pretty high and the picture is quite good, despite running on RCA cables. It's no S-video or VGA but it'll do!
The IR eye for the remote was relocated to the top-right sector of the nav pocket opening (they had to drill a small hole). We threw the 150W Monster Cable inverter in the stock sub compartment:
The HU is a Sony WX-7700MDX. The dash kit around it is a JDM Nissan Double Din kit modified with Bondo, and texture painted.
And the outside of the car itself:
And that's the end of our story!
First off, here's a pic of the back in stealth mode (well, as stealth as you can get with 2 subs in the corners):
Then you take off the trunk mat, and voila:
The entire floor is custom built & wrapped in vinyl, as are the stock enclosures. I chose a leather texture to stay with the look of the plastic surrounding trunk. I wanted to be able to see/show the amps, so they used 2 grills to keep everything visible. The center piece can actually be removed to show the amp rack & floor, which are carpeted in black. The center piece is supported by walls built up from the floor, also carpeted in black. Notice the 2 caps on either side of the top amp. Here's a close-up:
And here's the PS2 in the passenger compartment:
So as to minimize skipping, I had the installers soft-mount the PS2 (the bracket mounts are covered in foam padding). All I wanted was the PS2 in there, but they took some artistic license & came up with what you see here. To the top-left is a carpeted section with slots cut out to hold the IR reciever for the PS2 DVD remote, as well as the remote itself. Slides in & out with ease! Directly below that, is a 4 disc tray to hold extra games, DVD's, ****, etc. That carpeted piece beneath the PS2 is just a face plate to conceal the mounts & brackets. Below that thin place mat are my crossovers:
Look at the bottom-right of the PS2 and note the 12V cig adapter (taken from another car)! Why do I need ANOTHER 12V socket when the Z already has one you ask? Answer: the stock one is gone now to make room for something else!
CLOSED:
And OPENED:
What you can't see here is that when the lid is up, a switch is triggered that lights a bulb behind the controller ports, giving them a blue glow. I'm not a big fan of neon in cars, but I thought it looked pretty cool, especially at night. Besides, it's not REALLY neon anyway.
The screen I used was a Xenarc 7", but I opted for the non-VGA one, since I've no intentions of throwing in a car PC. The dot resolution is pretty high and the picture is quite good, despite running on RCA cables. It's no S-video or VGA but it'll do!The IR eye for the remote was relocated to the top-right sector of the nav pocket opening (they had to drill a small hole). We threw the 150W Monster Cable inverter in the stock sub compartment:
The HU is a Sony WX-7700MDX. The dash kit around it is a JDM Nissan Double Din kit modified with Bondo, and texture painted.
And the outside of the car itself:
And that's the end of our story!
03-29-2004, 11:53 PM
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2004z, yeah it wasn't cheap. I'll be eatin' bags of Ramen noodles for the next few years. 
Rushguy & yobri, thanks! Not my shop tho', just the install bay @ Good Guys. I've been there every day that my car's been worked on, so I pretty much have my run of the place. Besides, for the $$$ I slapped down, I figured I'm entitled to hang out in the install bay!
Rushguy & yobri, thanks! Not my shop tho', just the install bay @ Good Guys. I've been there every day that my car's been worked on, so I pretty much have my run of the place. Besides, for the $$$ I slapped down, I figured I'm entitled to hang out in the install bay!
03-30-2004, 12:46 AM
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WOW!!!
I speach less. I sure have a lot of catching up to do. The things that i'm starting to experiment with aren't even close to what you have in your car. Nice. Very inspireing. Well i better get back to working!hehehe...
I speach less. I sure have a lot of catching up to do. The things that i'm starting to experiment with aren't even close to what you have in your car. Nice. Very inspireing. Well i better get back to working!hehehe...
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03-30-2004, 02:21 AM
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geez louise!!!
it's people like you that make my life so difficult.
I don't have the money right now, but roaming these forums and seeing set-up's like yours make me want to take out a loan to get the gear that I want for my car.
Let me just say that your set-up is very clean, nothing over the top.
mad props my friend.
AND you got it installed at Good Guys. I would have never thought that a Good Guys/Best Buy/Circuit City type of place had the guys with talent to do what they did to your Z.
Congrats and enjoy
it's people like you that make my life so difficult.
I don't have the money right now, but roaming these forums and seeing set-up's like yours make me want to take out a loan to get the gear that I want for my car.
Let me just say that your set-up is very clean, nothing over the top.
mad props my friend.
AND you got it installed at Good Guys. I would have never thought that a Good Guys/Best Buy/Circuit City type of place had the guys with talent to do what they did to your Z.
Congrats and enjoy
03-30-2004, 06:26 AM
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Wow! Your install looks awesome! I too didn't think Good Guys could do an install like that. How long did it take? Are all Good Guys capable of doing installs like this?
03-30-2004, 11:16 PM
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WARNING: SORRY, HERE COMES A LOOONG POST:
Thanks everyone! Your feedback makes the time & money I invested into this install worth it! Based on your comments, the install's achieved the effect what I wanted. I was trying to do something that would be HIDDEN and wasn't CRAZY, but at the same time would be presentable if I wanted to display it. The set-ups at car shows are nice and all, but I didn't want anything that wild, especially in a daily driver. I told this to the installer at Good Guys and just with that theme in mind, he came up up with what you see. I wanted everything to look as factory as possible, and the custom sub enclosures were as "flashy" as I wanted to get, but I'm very pleased with how they turned out. Anyone that had questions, here some answers:
35oZephyR, it sounds...nice. Yeah, the bass from the back's great. I've got a ton of Dynamat in there, but at very high levels there's still very faint rattling that I'm still trying to pinpoint. Maybe it's just my teeth. 
drsifu, Bertg, & arvin: Yeah, who would've thought Good Guys of all places, huh? I was the biggest skeptic, but my first concern was that I wanted JL Audio and the WARRANTY that came with the product. The warranty's only good if you get it through an authorized dealer & an authorized INSTALLER as well. The stuff I got, you can get online at half the prices and I was quoted much lower on labor costs at other shops. Problem is, every shop I went to wasn't an AUTHORIZED installer.
Honestly, I still don't think most Good Guys/Best Buy/Circuit City stores would or could do an install like this (normally). I just happened to get the right INSTALLER. I've been told there're 2 Good Guys stores in So Cal that have the guys with enough talent to do custom installs: Laguna & Tustin. The Laguna store is more known for elaborate installs (they had a Good Guys RSX in Car Audio last year) but the Tustin store has worked on over 20 350Z's (lucky for me). Mine was the "craziest" they ever got with a Z, as prior ones just had a pre-molded sub box fitted underneath the strut bar. I considered that option, but my whole issue was stealth & CARGO SPACE! And since I couldn't use a 17" spare with 20" wheels anyway... Mine was done at Tustin and took about 3 weeks on and off. It's about a week's worth of work, but this was a one-man install done during X-Mas season, so they were quite busy. Apparently, people like to shop & buy stuff at X-Mas time or something. Bertg, I doubt other Good Guys stores can do very elaborate set-ups, but that could just be my misconception. After all, I didn't think "my" Good Guys could do what they did, and look what they churned out. Anyone local who wants their car done @ Good Guys, PM me and I'll give you the name of the installer!
drsifu, teh215, gt3, D@ActiveTuning, & drdisco, thanks! That's exactly what I was shooting for: clean & not in-your-face! And stealthy! Throw on the mat, close the hatch and thanks to limo tint, you can't see nothing! I originally wanted to put the controller ports in the coin box, but pulling out the controllers would've been messy unless we permanently affixed the coin box to the center console.
ditnhau99 & mofoz, due to the non-cheap nature of JL Audio products & countless feet of Monster Cable wiring, let's just say the STEREO install was a number between 1 and 10, with 3 zeroes behind it.
pearl430, sorry I can't make you a set, but I can tell you where to go to get your doors done! PM for info!
An here's a pic of the controller ports actually IN the car:
Notice that the plate surrounding the ports were texture painted to create a "grainy" feel:
Thanks everyone! Your feedback makes the time & money I invested into this install worth it! Based on your comments, the install's achieved the effect what I wanted. I was trying to do something that would be HIDDEN and wasn't CRAZY, but at the same time would be presentable if I wanted to display it. The set-ups at car shows are nice and all, but I didn't want anything that wild, especially in a daily driver. I told this to the installer at Good Guys and just with that theme in mind, he came up up with what you see. I wanted everything to look as factory as possible, and the custom sub enclosures were as "flashy" as I wanted to get, but I'm very pleased with how they turned out. Anyone that had questions, here some answers:
35oZephyR, it sounds...nice.
Yeah, the bass from the back's great. I've got a ton of Dynamat in there, but at very high levels there's still very faint rattling that I'm still trying to pinpoint. Maybe it's just my teeth. drsifu, Bertg, & arvin: Yeah, who would've thought Good Guys of all places, huh? I was the biggest skeptic, but my first concern was that I wanted JL Audio and the WARRANTY that came with the product. The warranty's only good if you get it through an authorized dealer & an authorized INSTALLER as well. The stuff I got, you can get online at half the prices and I was quoted much lower on labor costs at other shops. Problem is, every shop I went to wasn't an AUTHORIZED installer.
Honestly, I still don't think most Good Guys/Best Buy/Circuit City stores would or could do an install like this (normally). I just happened to get the right INSTALLER. I've been told there're 2 Good Guys stores in So Cal that have the guys with enough talent to do custom installs: Laguna & Tustin. The Laguna store is more known for elaborate installs (they had a Good Guys RSX in Car Audio last year) but the Tustin store has worked on over 20 350Z's (lucky for me). Mine was the "craziest" they ever got with a Z, as prior ones just had a pre-molded sub box fitted underneath the strut bar. I considered that option, but my whole issue was stealth & CARGO SPACE! And since I couldn't use a 17" spare with 20" wheels anyway... Mine was done at Tustin and took about 3 weeks on and off. It's about a week's worth of work, but this was a one-man install done during X-Mas season, so they were quite busy. Apparently, people like to shop & buy stuff at X-Mas time or something.
Bertg, I doubt other Good Guys stores can do very elaborate set-ups, but that could just be my misconception. After all, I didn't think "my" Good Guys could do what they did, and look what they churned out. Anyone local who wants their car done @ Good Guys, PM me and I'll give you the name of the installer!drsifu, teh215, gt3, D@ActiveTuning, & drdisco, thanks! That's exactly what I was shooting for: clean & not in-your-face! And stealthy! Throw on the mat, close the hatch and thanks to limo tint, you can't see nothing! I originally wanted to put the controller ports in the coin box, but pulling out the controllers would've been messy unless we permanently affixed the coin box to the center console.
ditnhau99 & mofoz, due to the non-cheap nature of JL Audio products & countless feet of Monster Cable wiring, let's just say the STEREO install was a number between 1 and 10, with 3 zeroes behind it.
pearl430, sorry I can't make you a set, but I can tell you where to go to get your doors done!
PM for info!An here's a pic of the controller ports actually IN the car:
Notice that the plate surrounding the ports were texture painted to create a "grainy" feel:
03-30-2004, 11:16 PM
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That install is so clean, very nice! What site did you order the deck from? Did you have to do anything to it to make it work out here?
Last edited by guru_ck; 03-30-2004 at 11:20 PM.