Ultimate GU Stereo Installation - Lots of pics

[Flex]

I love my music and the patrol's factory stereo system wasn't doing it any justice. So I decided to upgrade it, which ended up replacing everything!!!

Prep & Wiring: I started with wiring an Aeropro adapter (for the patrol's factory stereo connector) to my new head units harness so I could simply plug it in. I planed to install an amplifier to power all the speakers however I found the factory speaker wire to be super thin (~0.3mm2). Then I found out that Nissan had used connectors on all the door grommet which made it impossible to pass speaker wires through them. I inspected on connector and found that there was empty cavities in it, so I tracked down the original terminals and added in new speaker wires into all the grommets. I obtain a bunch of connectors from the wreckers, however to remove the old wire from the terminals wasn't easy as the wires where professional crimped which is basically cold welded. So I had to cut the wires out with the dremel, see below pictures. Then I crimped & soldered the terminals onto my new speaker wire. I ended up using around 20m of speaker wire after I had installed all the wires for my tweeter split, sub woofer feed in the rear and all the door speakers.

Here I decided to dyna mat all my doors as I wanted the doors to have good mid bass. I bought a package of dyna mat and completely covered the inside of my doors. Then I noticed that the plastic waterproof liner that protected the door trim from water had been damage by the people who installed the window tints. So I thought why not replace it with dyna mat and turn my doors into speaker boxes. After another box of dyna mat I have completely covered the inside and trim side of my doors, see bellow for pictures. I still had to retain the speaker sheilds from the plastic liner as these are needed to protect the speakers from water coming through the window seals
It also made the doors sound like a European car when I shut them.

Amplifier
Where to installed the amp was another issues, I've seen people on the forum put it under the seat, but there's the possibility that it would get soaked during a water crossing, also in the back cabin area was another option but then you have to run speaker wires & RCAs all the way back then forward. I went hunting and found a 50mm space under the center console, this place was perfect, high, close to the head unit and center of all the speakers I went searching for an amplifier that would fit there and I came across a JL 5 channel amp which was really good as I would only need one amplifier. The only thing I had to do was to sand the injection molding peg under neath the center console bin. To mount the amplifier I used male Velcro to attached it to the carpet and foam on the bottom of the center console bin to apply pressure down once re-installed. (Hasn't moved a mm)

I couldn't find any RCA the size I needed so I made my own. I used Neutrik RCA connectors and Canare cable and red and white heatshrink added strain relief to the cables, see pictures

Speakers
For the rear doors I used Apline 6.5" Type R Coaxials. For the front I was going to used Apline Type R Slits, but after listen to the JL C5 splits I was sold. Much better mid to high end sound quality.

For the split's tweeters I wanted to use the Ti's factory A pillar mounts. I couldn't find any wreckers with a wrecked Ti GU 4+ so I had to buy the A pillar trims brand new. I machined down the JL tweeter mounts and mounted the tweeters with automotive grade double side tape, (see pictures) this stuff was like super glue.

The crossovers for the splits were another challenge as I didn't want to mount them too far from the speakers, I found a spot just be hide the bottom kick panels (under the auto computer on the passenger side and under my CB radio on the drivers side). I made some foam pockets for them to sit in so they wouldn't rattle.

I didn't go overboard with the subwoofer as I still wanted my cargo aera, I found this Pioneer 12" ported unit which wedged in just behide the 2nd row seats.

Headunit
I used an Apline single DIN head unit as I didn't want a touch screen unit. I bought a Aeropro Nissan pocket to fill the other DIN space, it didn't fit..... As much as I tried couldn't get it to mount correctly. I went to Nissan and they source me the pocket from the DX model pocket from my year and to my surprise it fit perfectly.
The whole stereo (head unit and amplifier) is powered off my second battery so I can't kill my start.
As I didn't need two cigarette lighter plugs I removed one and installed a USB socket with 3.5mm AUX in, see head unit picture.

Sound
So how does it sound, as it took me 3 months to install, absolutely fantastic!!! I don't even have to run any EQ!! Bass, treble all flat. Plus the dyna mat has made the car sound like it has a stock stereo from outside.

Wow that was alot of words, haven't written anything that long since university. Hope you guys can learn from this post.