King Pearl White 370z build thread custom CF

[King]

there are some tricks to the door plugs. YouTube is your friend. Also i disassembled the plugs, it helped a lot. I cut the sh** out of my hands on sharp metal edges under the dash.

At first I didn't drill the holes big enough in the drivers side plug causing it to pinch the wire and not allow the plug to engage fully. Couldn't tell until I fired everything up and my windows wouldn't work. I lost a night of sleep over that one. I was afraid I bent some of the pins in the plug. Replaced the wire and drilled the holes bigger Fixed it. I felt the plug engage fully, and i knew.

[King]

adapter plate for the tweeters was a little small... See assembled one on the right.



No Pilot Bit? No Problem.



Stock Vs New



Installed

[King]

Had a few clearance issues with the stock cover and the metal grill. For the life of me I couldn't get the metal off the tweeters. So i ground the plastic ridges off the plastic cover with the Dremel.

[King]

Front speakers wired and everything Reassembled. Head unit installed with everything wired together. First test, On Any Sunday on DVD of course.

[King]

Traced the carpet onto 3/4 MDF to make the faceplate. I've seen the other posts where people placed subs here and they say you cant do it in one piece, but you definitely can. you have to put it in at a funny angle but it works.



I did some preliminary volume calculations on the size of the box if I used the whole space, It was around 1.2 Cu FT. and I only needed about .8 for the Subs. Lucky, because I couldn't fit the 4" rear speakers in the location of the Stock 3" mounts. So I decided to trim the box down a little and place the 4" rear speakers in the wings of the Faceplate.




Also with the Size of my Subbs the magnet clearance was EXTREMELY tight. So I had to make sure my mounting locations were perfect. I did some AutoCAD drawings and a lot of measurements to make sure my sub locations were perfect. This is how you drill circle holes with high precision.

[King]

Faceplate formed.



I missed some Pics of the next steps. I painted the face plate black to make sure the wood color wouldn't show through that carbon fiber, only using a single layer. Then I skinned the Faceplate. Set a thin layer of resin on it, let it tack up. Apply Carbon Fiber Fabric, Thick layer of resin, allow to dry 24+ hours. Sand, Next Coat, allow to dry 24+ hours, sand, next coat, allow to dry 24+ hours, sand, next coat, allow to dry 24+ hours. sand polish. It took probably 2 weeks, between work and cold weather.

Finally once finished i could cut the holes out for the speakers.



This dremel bit cut through it like a hot knife through babies.



You can see here the ugly look of the edges. I'm not to worried about them, they won't be Visible.

4" Skar Speakers mocked up against face plate.

[King]

For anyone about to say "Staging" that's ridiculous. It sounds like garbage when your sound only comes from the front. There is a seriously empty sound in the rear. For all those that counter "well I'm a musician so..." Shut up. I'm a musician, and just no. Staging is for people too poor to afford rear speakers or to dumb to properly balance the sound.

[King]

Faceplate finished, next was to mold the actual box. There were some obstacles to this. Some Items located in the space I wanted my box. I haven't really seen much addressing these.
Mainly this Guy:



Which for the life of me I couldn't find information on. After google searching all the part number codes on it I found the website of the manufacturer. All in chinese. Google translate let me find out that is is the brain for the Voice control of the Handsfree system on the newer 370's, and also possibly the Antenna. I tried disconnecting it completely, Everything worked Fine, except the steering wheel controls. Damn. I guess it needs to stay. So i unbolted everything, glued in some foam padding, and wedged/zip tied it down as far in the corner as I could get it.

Also this Thing Labeled Siemens so I assume it is for the Security System. I relocated to the other side of the strut brace.



And the Manual Hatch release. which is in a really dumb spot from the factory, that you can barely reach without disassembling the whole interior. I relocated it to be accessible through the Car Seat Anchor hole in the carpet.

[King]

I built the mold shape in the space with all the cardboard boxes I had lying around from ordering all the pieces. There are a number of studs coming off the body poking up into my space I just stuck Rubber caps on. If you're really desperate for space or really brave i guess you could cut them off.



Notice the edge space I left for the Speakers.
Here you can see the hands free box I just mentioned and the wire I ran for the speakers, hanging out.




Then Masking. It is super nerve racking using a buttload of epoxy resin inside your baby. I lined the box with 3M drop Cloth and Packaging tape because in my preliminary tests Epoxy doesn't stick to them. Mold Release was not necessary, and seemed to put a film on the surface of the finished epoxy that was almost impossible to get off and prevented additional coats from sticking.



Next CARBON!!!!
Same process as the Faceplate. Lay down a thin coat, Let it tack. Lay Down Carbon Fiber Fabric, Soak with epoxy. Let dry.



I'm sure not using multiple sheets and a vacuum process on the initial lay you could say I'm not truely benefiting from the strength of carbon fiber. Whatever, I Gambled It worked. I spent the next month with the box adding additional layers of carbon and epoxy to thin spots and reinforcing things. Laying the box at one angle and working on one part at a time because epoxy runs as it dries. It really wasn't a pretty picture. But it was for weight not looks.

[King]

After a month or so of epoxy work I deemed her fit for service. Used the dremel to clean up all the edges and rough spots. Then measured the volume. Roughly 6.25 Gallons.



She was STOUT, when i was finished. but still weighed only ounces. If it's less than a pound my scale couldn't weigh it so IDK the real number.

Next was Bonding the two pieces together. I used an entire tube of clear silicone to bond them together. placed the subs and a gallon of water on them to make sure they sealed. I didn't get a good picture of this, but you can see it here, at the top. Also you can see the Amp Wiring better and the mounting of the Siemens device.




I guess thats about all, I've already posted the finished pic. I wired the subs at 4ohm 250 watts for a kind of break in cycle I suppose, Just being Cautious. Then rewired them for 1 ohm 1000 Watts. the pulled the sub box and lined the bottom of it with Weather Stripping as rattle stop. She's a killer.

[digitaltrance]

Exhaust sounds great man! Keep up the good work!

[P's_Z]

Congrats on the Z and the build!

[King]

Just an update on the Used Intake I was sold as new.
The Z Store reached out over the forum, and offered a $70 refund, received it yesterday. Better than nothing, still disappointed I had to put them on blast here to get it. The rep who reached out seems like a good guy, I think it might be the same one who seemed helpful once when I called. Thanks James.
Won't be a patron but hey.

[King]

Oh yeah, at one point I installed Z1 hood struts. I hate prop rods.

[King]

Been away for a long while.
I've installed test pipes and gotten an Email tune from Saul@NismoKnights

Made a couple exhaust videos.

Here is cold start and after warm up a two step