ikarus

np. I hooked up my speakers yesterday and got the door cards back on, everything is working spot on

Very impressive work this. I've seen some modified cars in my time and it's all too easy to lose track of the theme and end up with a scitsofrenic car where things just dont gell. This one is spot on fella, top marks

Ok, so here's my mini guide.. Open your door and you'll see the rubber gaitor and plastic clip, pull down the grey lever to release it. Tip, pull the door back (close) just slightly and you actually get a little more room. Pull the assembly down under the toor stop bracket. Now with the clip in its open position you can remove the grey lever with a a little help from a flat blade screwdriver. Now the black plastic cover also comes off by releasing the clip, you should just have a rubber gaitor now. Roll back the rubber gaitor to reveal the wires. If you fish about inside the car just above the kick panel location (kick panel removed) you will find the other half of the assembly, unclip this from the bodyshell and pull it free and into the footwell where you can work on it. *This is the tricky bit! You need to create a hole in each of the plastic wire connectors for your new speaker cable to go through. Use some unused space away from most of the used pins. I used a knife, then a drill (about 3mm i think), then finally i used a soldering iron - there is no easy way to do this - you just need to be patient and take your time. If you mess up the neighbouring wired pins its all over - BE CAREFULL!! *HINT - if it's cold (it was) run up your engine and put the heater on, it blows out straight onto your head while you work. Once you have enough clearance for your new wire, clean up the connector and then it's on to the other half. Do the same to the other half of the connector (now in the footwell). Make sure your new holes will align when you clip them back together - this is very important. Next start to feed the new speaker cable through, i started inside the car and worked outward. Fee the cable through the plug and up through the hole in the body panel for the clip. Next feed it though the outer clip ready to go through the rubber gaitor. Next i pushed out the rubber gaitor from where it seats in the door. Then made a small slit in the part that sits inside the door so i could push through a large cable tie to act as a guide pull. Now attach the speaker cable to the cable tie with a little gaffa tape (to too much - you dont want to make it too thick). *HINT - spray a little silicon lube or 3in1 oil on you finger tips and coat the gaffa tape and cable - it will slide through easily now (it wont if you don't believe me!). Now pull/push the cable through the rubber gaitor. Once you have the cable through, feed it into the door with enough to reach your speakers, then reseat the gaitor into the door side. Now re-assemble the clip in reverse order. Next re-seat the inner clip above the kick panel in the body panel, you need to feed the top part in first and then pivot the bottom part in untill it locates. Next align the outer clip with the grey lever full down (not as photographed - i realised this after i took the photo) into position (again move the door slightly inward to give you the room to do this). THIS IS IMPORTANT - from the inside simultaniously pull any speaker cable slack back into the car to avoid any bunching inside the clip assembly. Next just move the grey lever back into it's locked position and there you go. Before putting the door card back on, plug in the electric window control panel and just check everything is working ok. *CAUTION - the two clips are male pins and a female socket, if you disturb any of the male pins significantly you could damage them when you try to re-assembly everything - they have to align on both sides. *PS my car has been re-sprayed and there is some overspray on the clips, i could see how this might be confusing on some of the above images. It worked for me, i now have decent cable running to the door speakers Hope this helps . ikarus.

I just did mine, it's definately a very fiddly job. Well worth starting on the passenger side though as the driver side kick panel is stuffed full of fuses and wiring which are right in the way - that might just be a jdm thing though as mine is an import. Also, i used a soldering iron to melt the holes through the plastic pieces, worked a treat Takes about 45mins to an hour per side. I took some pics while i did the passenger side. I can upload them if anyone wants to see them. The guide on the other site actually is not that good i found.

I dont think there is an issue with mounting depth in the rear location, just the doors. If you dont mind cutting a simple mdf ring for mounting in the doors then you can pretty much fit sny 6.5in speakers.

I'll be attempting this over the next few days. It sounds like you have to cut some new holes in the plugs for the new cable to pass through - could be a mare..

pm'd

+1 Best bang for the buck - a nice set of comps up front. If funds available, powered through a good quality amp. Zed doors have a large volume too which means you can get decent midbase from good components

Hi Amy and welcome, I was looking through some old jap car mags today from this year while pretending to work, i saw your car, and again - and then again! You got some good coverage, and well deserved by the looks of it, nice FTO - i'm not normally a fan of them. I'm interested to see what you have in mind with the zed - when can you share? ikarus

Another cheapo replica to my eye .

first dibs, pm'd

dibs on coil overs? pm'd.

.. and i thought it was just me suffering all this crap everyday! Its like an office stress support group up in here! I actually work on the same site as a gtr owner so we have a mini meet most lunch times. It's proved to be a worthwile break from office politicas every day.

OK this thread got me thinking, i work in an open plan office so here goes.. 1. People who don't realise that a phone transmits there voice accross wires - THERE'S NO NEED TO FRIGGIN SHOUT! (over 100dB! - i measured it) 2. People who insist on bringing a cup of tea or coffee back from the kitchen, with a spoon, AND THEN stirring it for 5 minutes - QUIET DUDE - TRYING TO WORK! 3. People who just assume you must be doing nothing all day except waiting for them to want something. So they just turn around and start asking you questions on the spot - A. I'm doing something - it's rude. B. I wrote a god damn manual for this - RTFM - it's on your desk - i can see it! 4. The 5.00pm stampede for the door. Maybe i could join this one day IF I COULD GET SOME WORK DONE IN WORKING HOURS! 5. A boss who 'doesn't condone flexitime' and jumps on you if you're a minute late back from lunch - Yet he arrives half an hour late EVERY DAY because he has to drop his kid off! 6. People who make out they are experts at everything. Then when thier lack of knowledge lets them down they blame everything and start shouting about how crap it is - NO IT ISN'T - LEARN TO USE IT - EVERYONE ELSE DID! (by repeatedly disturbing me while i was clearly doing nothing else - refer to 3) .. and breathe, that actually felt a little thereputic

i think this site might help you out with some of the info you're after .. http://www.350z-tech.com/zwiki/Nissan_350Z

What sound proofing have you ordered, this can be an expensive and time consuming mistake if not done right and with the right products. PS, +1 on what CS said. My K1 sat on the cross brace for a while but i had it adjusted and it's fine now. It's still loud but there is a noticable volume improvement in the cabin. You need to make sure its not contacting with any of the underbody otherwise it sets up very loud vibrations and the whole cabin resonates. Regarding build quality, they are not great, but then they are very good value. My exhaust just needed an extra pair of hands and a little patience and it fits just fine. I drive with bungs in and i have no issues with it's volume, i'm totally used to it, and i love the pitch at high revs - now bungs out is a different matter

Hi and welcome, I have an mr2 also. I made the same transition. I have had my 350 for since the summer and now completely prefer the zed - even though my mr2 is faster . The zed handles better and is far more comfortable, a much nicer drivers car. nice 2 by the the way .. a pic of mine, which will be for sale next year .. i would post a pic of the zed but its in the body shop currently being painted .

..ahhh, now we need 3 more! Any takers??

Sorry to revive an old thread, but i need to source some UK battery terminals for my jdm 350. The possitive appears to have fuses built into it which is a little akward. I have purchased a UK battery and want to get it fitted with minimal pain. Anyone any idea where to get these from and whether they include the fuse arrangement on the possitive side? thanks..

With good comps and good speaker placement, as the other posts have said, you can get good staging and hence not need rears. With good staging it would sound anything but flat, infact, quite the oposite. In the ideal world we would plug in our speakers and get a great stage. In reality it is extremly difficult to stage a car correctly - it varies a lot between cars and is different for different speakers. Some people go to extreme lengths ro achieve this (myself included). As we don't live in an ideal world, and if you are using the stock speaker locations you might gain from a little from the rear, but at very low levels (faded almost completely to the front). This will help a poorly staged system balance the sound. I wouldn't rule out rears, but i also wouldn't spend a fortune on them either. Put the money in the front speakers and replace the rears IF needed. I think front and rear sizes in the Zed are both 6.5's but i would check that. No, again quite the oposite. On hard surfaces (like glass and plastics) sound reflects, on softer surfaces (like seats, carpet, head cloth etc.) it may get absorbed. Where sound waves interact you may get sound cancellations if like frequencies meet in phase, and amplified sound if like frequencies out of phase creating horrible 'bright' reactions at certain frequencies. What you end up with is litteraly sound anarchy. Less is usually better. Car audio is a minefield, and there are a lot of people out there with an incredible amount of technical understanding and expience. Take a look over on the talkaudio forum if you aren't familiar with it, plenty of technical Q&A believe me! ikarus

Oooch. You should be able to get a much better quote than that! it's not that big a repair, the kit still looks perfectly straight - just needs re-glassing from the back and then blending at the front. It will need to come off for the repair though. Where abouts are you based as i know some good body shops in Staffs area? i paid half that last year for a front end, side skirts, rear spatts and rear spoiler fitted and painted for my mr2.

Dibs? can you send photo's through to confirm product / condition pls. Thanks.

I've not done this yet but intend to over the next month or so when i get my zed back from the paint shop . There is a good guide here: http://www.350z-tech.com/zwiki/Front_Speaker_Wire_Routing

^what he said.. well said that man. ikarus....you do realize that you too are on the infamous "slaplist" for calling nixy a man, lol. Yes, believe it or not, nixy is a woman... doh.. i once again proved my igorance . My appologies Nixy, should have been suspicious from the whole nemo thing really! With you on the whole fairlady thing though.. not sure if thats enough to gain removal from the slap list though..

^what he said.. well said that man. My fairlady (no pun intended) goes in for a full respray in a few weeks time, when it comes out it will have a shiny new fairlady badge.