Rear Speaker Fitting

Whilst not claiming to be an expert on speakers, anything is better than the standard Nissan fitments! Remember she is an old girl and it's only in recent years that 'ICE' (In Car Entertainment) has become a real selling point on your average car.

So to work!

First problem is getting at the speakers. There are speaker covers, but they don't budge! No the only way into the speakers is by removing the actual rear shelf and the only way to do this is by removing... yep you guessed it... The seats.

Slide the passenger and drivers seats forwards as far as they will go, this will give you room to work.

Remove the two 12mm bolts from the lower rear seat. Once removed the seat needs to be pulled up and out. There are two pins/clips near where you just removed the bolts. Sit on the centre console with a hand each side and give it a sharp tug.

Bolt removal!

They soon pop free. Remember to feed the lap belt through the hole to remove though!

Up and out with her!

Now you can remove the back rest part of the seat. There are two 10mm bolts either side. The seat is held in position by being dropped down onto hooks, so simply lift backrest up and away.

The shelf...  OMG what a job but easy when you know how.

Lift shelf in the middle and 'pop' two trim studs out. Tug it towards you to release back clips or go into boot and flick them with a screwdriver.

You will now need to free the shelf from the pillar trim. On the bottom of the pillar trim there is a tongue that goes into a slot in the shelf.

The trim edge

I removed by pulling the trim away from the glass side, giving me just enough room to free the shelf and did one side at a time.
All will now be revealed!

Nasty old factory fit

Remove the speaker housings three 10mm bolts and remove the housing.



Old and new



6.5 component speakers will drop straight in.

Remember to keep the speaker cable connectors towards the front, as the wiring is not very long.

Speaker Connectors

Also remember to get the proper clips. No dodgy soldering please!

Fit everything back again. You can do it!

This completes the speakers. I can crank the stereo up to ear shattering levels and annoy the neighbours cat now.
Note although completed, stereo install coming soon! Bet my one reader can't wait!

Many thanks' to the legend Andy of Serious Performance Autos for pointing out what to smack with a hammer.

The Slot at the back edge of the shelf

Finished spoiler first look

Just check out my butt!
Well I have been stripping out the back seats and parcel shelf today. Whilst I was at it and there was still a small amount of light left in the sky (when will Winter end!). I took these shots of the rear spoiler.

The flash works wonders for making a car shine!

As you can see there are more lights on the back of Ms Skyline, than you would find in a 70's disco! There is also a rather lovely reflection of my forlorn VW Golf, the car that keeps me actually going and in money to feed the Skyline addiction. Sitting out in the rain, unloved....
Ironic that the end caps on the spoiler do really affect the aesthetic of the whole thing and this is why it was so crucial to get them as good looking as I could.


Side View including 'the dreaded end caps'



These were the carbon effect 'stickers'



Next are the removed and highly prized GT-R 'Nismo' badges (see my JDM post). These are ridiculously expensive new. So am selling them!

But as I say I would quite like a set with the word NISMO emblazoned across them, as in many ways I am also afflicted with the designer bug. Will it make the car go faster?

no....

Finished Fish!

Hurrah, after a medium amout of elbow grease the spoiler end cap is now finished and ready to go onto the car. In summary the best method for a flawless finish is to rub back the paint with 2000 grit wet and dry paper. Use a paint renovator, bring to shine with a good quality polish and then finish with wax.

Only problem I have is should I put the finished unit back onto the car or use it as a mirror? The only additional problem is that the finish is so good on this one, I may have to remove the other and repeat the process!

When I have a chance (daylight) will snap a shot and share with the world!

JDM is cool?

When I first started out searching for impossible to get parts, I kept coming across the term 'JDM'. Thinking at first that this was some mythical firm creating wonderful parts, all became painfully apparent in the end!

 

Bet your excited now?

JDM actually stands for Japanese Domestic Market. The "domestic" there means that it is Japanese parts made for the Japanese market (some Americans seem to be confused and think that it means Japanese parts made for the US market.)

That's parts that have to be ordered from Japan, because they were never intended for any market other than Japan. Not every Japanese part is JDM. Most people who toss the term "JDM" around are using it wrong.

*DM applies to parts from and for ANY country. So you've got USDM, KDM, and...well, I guess with the EU, it would be EDM rather than individual countries, or maybe not, I'm not sure on that one. Perhaps one day I will be enlightened.

 

However, this has now been also "made" into an "auto style" if you'd want to call in that. In other words, "JDM-styled" cars can be just about any Japanese-made vehicle (even mini-vans and micro-compacts) that's been modified to reflect the different parts that can be added to reflect the car culture or following for that particular brand in Japan. Using the term JDM can also enhance coolness when inserted into any conversation about Jap cars (also see below).

 

Also like many pattern parts trades like to stick the JDM badge on parts made, well just about anywhere for anywhere, so in addition to all of the above JDM can = Crap!

Boot Trim

I was casually chatting to another owner, when to my surprise on them opening the boot of their car, I saw that there was trim! I have no trim! I need trim!
That's the trouble with an old car that no one has any paperwork on, there is no reference other than looking at someone else's. The only other problem here in the UK is that most other peoples Skylines are such old dogs, that bits missing on one, may well be missing on another!

That's better!
04/10/2010

So off I went on another parts mission and was blessed with luck finding the boot trim. I even managed to grab all of the securing clips to go with it. A two minute job that makes all the difference!

Painting Fish!

Well the end cap is putting up a valiant fight I must say. Having sprayed it once and deciding that I could 'just' make out the GT-R logo. I thought what a good idea to 'get it perfect' and then found that the paint had a bit of a reaction with the new gloss below it. So had no option but to rub it back to the start.

Spent long enough looking at this lump of plastic to start calling it a 'dead fish' as it lays there, mocking me with its 'eye' looking at me.

Finally a shine does appear!

Naturally I was getting a bit bored painting this 'fish'. I mean how hard can it be! Well about as hard as I can make it, so it would seem! Not being delighted with the colour match, I decided to switch brands for the off the shelf paint, although both were Acrylic paint brands, there must have been something in the mix that was odd, as I had a different reaction this time and smooth as glass it was not!

However I do not watch all the motoring shows on TV without learning one or two ideas. So flattened the face with some 2000 grit wet and dry paper until looking smooth and then switching to polishing.
So although not relaxing on the beach yet, I can at least see the shore (long swim though, am waving not drowning!). Will I get the glass finish? or will I polish through to the plastic? Brrr, exciting!

GT-R style spoiler and the sheer effort of it all!

Well now, a GTS-25T actually comes with a pretty good and stylish spoiler. So why change it? I'm not sure really and suspect that peer pressure had a lot to do with it. Although it was one of those things that also just presented itself to me and said 'take me, I'm yours'. So not being one to argue I said, sure, fine!

What are the differences between a GT-R and GTST spoiler? Well basically a GT-R spoiler has an adjustable blade, whereas the GTS Style does not.
This changes how it actually fits to the car, as the GT-R style needs to 'support' the adjustable blade, it actually runs with a lip over the back edge of the boot, all the way along the boots width.

Standard GTS-25T as fitted at factory

Here we have a picture of something similar to what I have fitted (is easier to get a stock image in white as black does not show any detail!). Although this photo is of a nasty GRP (Glass R-enforced Plastic or fibreglass to you and me!) You can tell these when fitted to a car as they have the two screws on the end caps and where they are made by some China man in a shed from a worn out mold. The flat surfaces are usually a bit.. wobbly. There is also no high level brake light on this (which is just rubbish!).



Cheap and nasty GT-R replica to give an idea



The other problem with GRP parts is that they take a lot of finishing to do well. For instance the surface usually must be lovingly primed sanded and beautified. Or you will end up with a shiney version of the crap that is already there! Additionally many paint shops use heat to cure their paint, this can cause the gel coating to lift and bubble up, which would be a disaster. Always good to tell the paint shop in advance not to do this as you will not accept a bad finish! Put's the ball in their court then!

I did get one of the better 'copy' spoilers, but soon abandoned the idea as a bad one, thinking I wouldn't get the finish I wanted. However as soon as I thought this (you will see this happen a lot in my blog) a nice genuine one appeared and was offered to me for a whopping £300 (351 EUR or $484 USD).

So I grabbed it whilst the going was good!

Fitting.



Fitting the thing to the car is a bit of a pain. Although the legs that stick out are the same as the original fitted as standard, there are more bolts along the 'joining part' of the spoiler in the middle section. This means that to fit it well, you should really be prepared to drill the boot lid. If I were to do this again, I think for the same kind of money I could have purchased a spoiler with a boot attached from a GTR. This would then have been a direct and simple fit in place of my own.

Not fancying fitting or painting myself, I found a body shop in West Sussex called M-Tech and although they are about a two hour drive from me, they do an excellent job. The actual cost of which only set me back £100 (about  117 EUR or161 USD)

Although this was very much a 'mates rate' and I would think that it would easily cost you £250 usually (plus taxes!)

Okay so that went smooth didn't it?

The easy answer is no! The spoiler came with GT-R carbon end caps that cover the adjusting brackets. Alas the painter thought these rather good and left them on. However personally I can't stand carbon on a car, it may cost much, but in my opinion looks cheap, nasty and a bit common!

Carbon Effect end caps

These end caps are quite simply stuck into place and it wasn't too hard to remove them with a hair dryer. As these are uber rare items, I put them on ebay and at the time of writing they seem to be doing well! 

After removing the Carbon 'sticker' I found underneath that the cover has the logo of GT-R embossed in the plastic. So a little job here for me and I filled the letters in with car filler. What you see in the picture is my second attempt, this is because I could just make out slightly 'ghosted' letters on the first. It was a judgement call I wish I never made as getting all of the old paint off was a pain in the butt and a waste of time!  



Carbon removed and logo filled



Although not yet finished this is how the car looked with carbon on it. If I ever get any followers on here maybe they can compare and say if carbon was better to the painted versions!







The look - This is how I first picked up the car with the carbon end caps in place.