(the below I wrote BEFORE I discovered many of the problems I discovered as I describe in the post linked above).
So I'm done writing the next Project 33 post for Speedhunters, where I talk about picking up my car from Worx where I had the dashboard installed. And I explain, in a nice way, why the work took so long. But due to the year end rush there are apparently a couple dozen posts ahead of mine, and since some of you can't wait until next week, I've decided to, for my last blog post of the year, go ahead and publish here some of the photos which didn't make it into the Speedhunters story.
Even though I wanted to publish some of these photos, in the end I decided not to either because they did not match the story, or more likely the quality of the photos was extremely low. Most photos in fact were sent to me by Nakamura-san at Worx AutoAlarm.
I'm grouping then in different themes and not necessarily the order they were sent to me, to make this all easier to understand. I think you will see that the mess Nakamura-san had to fix, was quite extensive. Although, I am not convinced that it all NEEDED to be fixed, except as noted below.
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| Photo of the leather covered dash |
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| Can't believe how good this looks! |
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| The rear seat insulation was apparently degraded too much for his liking |
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| Looked fine to me, but... |
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| new custom rear seat insulation - both for heat and sound |
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| Made from this stuff, which appears to be a closed cell polyethylene foam product. Perhaps from the same StP company that did the door panel dampening material |
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| Showing progress in taking the interior apart |
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| Yikes! See that rust on the steel support bar? Should I be worried? |
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| The mess from the old Navi |
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| Showing how it's done |
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| And he uses this special shrink wrap covering |
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| more shrink wrapped wiring |
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| This is how it looked before |
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| all cleaned up |
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| DTMII Wiring |
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| Cleaned up the DTMII wiring |
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| An example of my horrible DIY work. |
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| Some more he found. Some of this is for the motorized exhaust valve, the large black on the left is the OEM harness |
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| OK yes not very neat. |
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| Pretty sure this is something I did as well, in an effort to try to tidy up. |
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| Custom made bracket |
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| Wrapped in Alcantara |
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| For the old Blitz SBC boost controller. |
The custom bracket for the SBC boost controller was a good idea, EXCEPT he decided to bolt it to the inside of the glovebox. Which resulted in two holes in the Alcantara lining, AND two visible bumps on the outside of the glovebox. NOT HAPPY. I'll post about this soon in a forthcoming post.
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| So basically replaced the snap-locks for proper male/female connectors |
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| Custom fuse box arrangement for new stereo and navi |
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| Mounted on this metal plate |
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| Right next to the battery in the trunk area |
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| A new battery. |
I was not happy with this. He threw out my old yellow top Optima, claiming it wasn't very good and replacing with this battery which he claims is the cold climate spec one for the BNR34. WITHOUT asking me. I guess I will just have to see if this holds up...
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| Ok so I'm an amateur at this too. Thought it did a decent job actually though. |
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| Problem was, the servo motor used to remote lock this side was broken. So it had to all come off anyway. |
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| Removing the insulation revealed more sloppy DIY. |
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| Which he decided to fix. (I say, if it ain't broke...) |
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| New servo installed |
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| and my interior courtesy light LED wiring was cleaned up! |
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| On this side as well! |
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| And then he laid on the StP and some foam, and rehooked up the LED |
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| Have to admit this was AWESOME. By using the OEM door/frame connectors, the wiring between the body and doors is now |
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| I now have a remote trunk opener! |
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| And can recharge my battery without opening the trunk lid! |
Oh, and here are parts I absolutely dislike:
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| Why this color? Doesn't match the OEM piece, which matches the B and C pillars which are BLACK |
Also, to my ear, the tweeters appear to be aimed improperly. At least the angle. This is a topic for another post but I've spent time trying to adjust the delay and such but my conclusion is that the tweeters are simply aimed improperly, in FRONT of the head of the driver. I don't understand how that builds a proper soundstage.
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| My old gauge surround panel. |
I'm glad I rescued this when I picked up my car. Again another topic for another post but let's just say it was in better shape than the secondhand one he installed in my car.
And there are other photos of interesting things, one which in particular I ended up rejecting but I will discuss in a following post.
I guess, I am grateful to Nakamura-san for all the rewiring he did, but I am not happy with his arbitrary decisions which resulted in a non-matching A-pillar, tweeters that don't seem to be aimed properly, a damaged glovebox door which I will have to get redone in both leather and Alcantara, the car having lost the Optima for a battery which I know nothing about, and a gauge surround panel which as it is old and scratched up clashes with the newly leather lined dashboard.
If you read the Speedhunters article, you will see that the car also now has a 2-DIN stereo/Navi unit, and to be honest I'm a bit split on that as well. I'll discuss the audio set up in a follow on post as well, but suffice to say the new Morel speakers DO sound warmer but they are clearly not as sensitive as the Pioneer separate I had before.
Anyway, stay tuned for a full review of the stereo as well as a discussion on what I rejected, as well as what I had to fix. Promise it will be interesting!
