One More Item Back to Normal

In this case, I am talking about the control module for the Defi heads up display (no longer available, sadly).

I originally installed this gadget because I had initially kept the original speedometer, which only displays up to 180kph, per the old Japanese rules (and I think I did so when I first got the car, even before I started this blog!), rather than swapping out for a Nismo 320kph one. But I was literally seeing the needle go past the 180 mark and almost complete a full revolution every time I took the car to a track day at Fuji speedway. However, I didn't want the bother of swapping out the speedometer cluster because of the hassle in having it all re-registered with the new mileage (assuming you do it legally here in Japan).

As long as long time readers know, I eventually swapped out to a Mine's 320kph speedometer cluster I found, for which I had the mileage readjusted to be accurate to the car's accurate mileage.  And since I doubt I'll be selling the car to an unknown buyer later, paperwork to record that didn't seem that essential. Plus the photos on this blog serve as proof anyway. 

In this previous post, I found that Nakamura the owner of Worx Auto Alarm (stay away!) had HIDDEN the Defi control module OUT OF SIGHT so it could not be operated. In the kickpanel, people! Obviously another example of brain fart.

What an IDIOT.

At that time, because the dashboard was completely leather, and I didn't want to damage the leather, I found a makeshift way to mount the Defi control module back in the spot where it was originally mounted when first installed. 

The gigantic rubber band method, basically.

This time around, I had found my original fuse box cover, and I have now decided I can live without the leather covered fuse box cover, in order to securely attach the Defi module.

I am holding the leather covered one, and the OEM plastic one in the background.

Did I mention that my old plastic one (right) ALSO has the newer looking fuse diagram too? Bonus!

So the question was, how to mount the Defi module back on.  The module had the softer side of velcro attached to it. So instead of peeling it off, I went out and bought some velcro tape, then cleaned the fuse box cover to ensure the velcro tape would stick.

Dirtier than I expected!

Unfortunately, when I tried to mount it...

Way too much gap

Not only was there too much of a gap, it felt like the first big bump in the road and this would fall off.  It was then I remembered that Worx Nakamura had used velcro to mount to the INSIDE of the kick panel. Oh yeah...

So it was back to tried and true double stick tape. The 3M-Scotch kind, made for external automotive use. 

I took this photo to show how the plastic looks versus the leather:

Weird how the plastic has the "leather" lines but real doesn't, huh.

Anyway, here is how the Defi module looks attached with the double stick tape.

Good enough!

After that, it was a matter of hooking up these wires to the back of the unit.

And then making sure the heads up display was working properly and aimed onto the little dark plastic screen attached to the backside of the windshield.

This was actually the toughest part, to make sure it was EXACTLY right in my line of sight

Sharp eyed readers may have also spotted this:

Yep, back to OEM plastic

That's right - I also decided I could live without the leather covered kick panel!

Look how dirty it gets!

And you can see the temporary solution to hold the Defi controller in place

Luckily it's mostly just surface dirt, easily removed.

For car shows only?

I mean, it is very beautiful, but to keep it that way I decided to take it off. Because it was bothering me that everytime I drove my right foot would bump into it, and for sure during heel and toe application my heel would kick into it.  Not enough to damage but enough to get it dirty or maybe slightly scratched.

So, I'll keep it handy for car shows where people might have an excuse to climb into the car.  Or take photos.  Most of the time however I think I will leave the OEM plastic in...one less thing to worry about!

So I'm not sure if this is my last post for 2020, it will depend on my energy level the last week of December during the holidays...if so Happy Holidays everyone...

New Front Speakers (for now)

So as I alluded to in a prior post, in addition to replacing the OEM radio/cassette deck with one that actually could still play cassette tapes, I removed the Morel Tempo Ultra 602 mid-range component speakers that had been installed in the doors. They are great speakers, but do not sound as good as they could without their tweeter components, which had been installed into the A-pillars (covered in the wrong colored Alcantara) by Worx but in the wrong location and aimed improperly, resulting in a terrible soundstage.

Even with that super advanced Pioneer CyberNavi head unit, the whole set up never really sounded good, even when playing CDs. Such a shame given Morel's stellar reputation.  And of course, I want to get rid of anything in the car that reminds me of Worx.

Strangely... that foam surround felt...moist...

The problem of course with now finding, deciding on and then buying speakers (especially online) is that it is very difficult to describe the sound objectively and much of the listening criteria is subjective.  So in many ways you have to see what others say (and hope they know what they are talking about), look for brands you like, and hope for the best. Basically a gamble.

In the past I had bought off the shelf Pioneer car speakers for all 4 corners from my local Autobacs store, and been impressed. Then again, anything is better than the OEM speakers, but the Pioneers seemed to be very efficient power-wise and also very good at reproducing high frequencies, along with very good soundstage abilities.  In fact, to me they were much better than the Morels that Worx installed, although I think that objectively on paper the Morels Tempo Ultra 602s are a better speaker (and subjectively, some people will say they have "warmth" etc.).  A lot of it again was on how the separate tweeters were aimed, as well as the overly complicated CyberNavi stereo that got installed. 

In any case, my thinking this time was, replace the Morels with something JDM - modernize as if the car left the factory last week.  Granted, I know that Nissan's premium sound system in the current Skyline is a Bose system, but for all other cars sold in Japan they use head units and speakers from Japanese suppliers. Plus I'm not so sure about Bose systems that aren't bespoke to a particular car.

Since I didn't want to go with Pioneer again, the JDM brand I focused on this time was Alpine. I was very impressed with the Alpine shallow mount subwoofer (SWR-T10) as well as the Alpine amp powering it in the trunk box that I had custom made, but unfortunately got thrown out by Worx. 

For 6.5 inch Alpines, I quickly learned they sold 3 model lines overseas (Type S, Type R, and Type X) (strangely, the specs for their JDM products aren't very good....) and so I gravitated towards the premium Type X series, especially after reading about how this guy thought the Alpine X-S65 coaxials were "bloody brilliant" and how he also thought the 6.5 inch components were "bloody awesome"   He also has some videos, here is one:

Since he looks like someone who is REALLY REALLY into car audio, I think I'll take his word for it... Finally, I found that Crutchfield had an online speaker listening comparison tool  (SpeakerCompare) and while it sounded to me that the Morels had better low end sound, the coaxial (non-component) Alpine X series speakers sounded better to me on the higher frequency end.  A subwoofer would solve most of the lower frequency issues anyway...

In any case, I ordered the speakers from sonicelectronix.com - not only were these on sale, but they were offering to package them together with these silicon speaker baffles from NVX for free:

from: https://nvx.com/nvx-xbaf65-speaker-baffle-ring-kit.html

A week later they were at my door - a few days before I got the car back from Nismo, actually!

Most people will notice immediately that I ended up getting the coaxials, and not the components - because these were cheaper and IF they are good, the plan would be to move them to the back shelf and put the component versions up front.  If they disappoint me, well I didn't lose that much money and they will do for now...

Made in China means not as clean soldering as  I would expect of a Made In Japan model...

So to replace the speakers, the door cards came off - very easy especially as I treated myself to this awesome Vessel motorized screwdriver. Highly recommended, don't know how I survived so long without this little gem.

Rechargable via mini USB, like everything else these days.
It also has a spotlight so you can see what you're unscrewing in darker spots!

It came with the yellow screwdriver bits on the left but I went ahead and got some more assorted bits just in case

The right side is always a bit more work due to the driver controls but I was pleased to see that this side looked ok as well.

And yes, I will give credit - I have chosen to keep the wooden speaker surround (which actually I supplied to Worx after I painted them black) as well as the StP sound deadening material Worx installed. Why not?

Once the cards were off, I first had to peel off (yes, it was glued on) the steel rings that had the foam mounted around it.

Then I unscrewed the speakers, only to find...

Why are there two leads going into each of the terminals?

 Here is a closer look after I snipped the wires.

I had to snip the wires because they were soldered onto the speaker's leads (green arrow).
Note also the speaker magnet was wrapped in Tesa Tape (purple).

I have no idea why you would have 2 positive leads and 2 negative leads going into a mid range component speaker.  Initially, I thought this might be due to some weird crossover set up, although when I looked inside the doors as well as under the dash, could not find anything resembling a crossover.

But then I learned from Ochiai-san that when Uchida-san at Nismo Omori removed the tweeters and their wiring, he did not find any crossovers. Turns out, that the CyberNavi had its own internal high frequency crossover and it was possible to wire the tweeters directly.

So likely this was the set up.  Then when I opened up the center console and looked behind the OEM deck, I found this:

Green points to tweeter wiring that's now been removed and sealed off.
Red arrows show how one positive (red) and one negative (black) from the head unit expands into two leads each.
And yeah - not happy about how the leather is all banged up here...

This photo also shows that for the mid-range the OEM deck is putting out two wires for each channel (positive and negative) but then Worx Nakamura used these connectors to start running two wires from one? Why not simply use larger gauge wire from the beginning? Does anyone know if this is some kind of advanced speaker wiring technique?

Anyway, I then had to solder on proper leads to the ends of the wires I cut so that I could attach them to the Alpines (or any other aftermarket speaker):

I think my soldering is better than Nakamura's but...

While the speaker cutouts were empty, I took a look inside. I then found out that Nakamura had installed this squishy foam (it feels moist, like the foam surrounds did).  I was also pleasantly surprised to see that, despite his criticism of my sound deadening attempt, he hadn't bothered to remove the sound suppression material I had installed the doors many years ago.

Green arrow is the weird foam.  Pink arrows are the sound suppression material I put in a long time ago.

I removed this wet feeling grey foam and replaced with the rippled black foam that came with the NVX baffles:

Here they are side by side:

Anyone know exactly what this grey foam is? Moist/sticky to the touch...

This looks better I think. At least it feels dry to the touch.

And here is how the silicon baffles go in:

Again I do give credit - the way the speaker wire is coated in that foam is a nice sound deadening touch.

After they go in (the door is wide enough I didn't have to cut the silicon) I simply hooked up the Alpines and then bolted them in.

And the sound?

Yeah I know, it's 80s pop, but a classic song, and it's on tape too - but you have to admit the bass response on these is unexpectedly good, and the clarity of the instruments and vocals is superb! I will have to experiment with other music (presuming I can find other old tapes that still work) and yes for some tapes there is a severe degradation in sound quality (for those I listened to too much). But on rarely played tapes like this one... wow!  Even the tape hiss doesn't bother me.  What's really interesting is that even though these are coaxial, the sound stage and imaging is absolutely spectacular! And I'm not even using a proper amplifier or DSP - just the head unit's 2x15W! Not sure how Alpine engineered that but they did...

Now, I'm really tempted to see how these speakers sound from a digital source... hold on as I figured out a very interesting way to do so!

More Bad News from NISMO... But Progress...

Uchida-san still working to finish the interior this last week... note the temporary wheels the car is on...
More details (I hope) on why in an upcoming post!

So early Sunday morning, another text from Ochiai-san, with some "regretful" news.  It turns out that the wiring coming off the main body wiring harness for the cigarette lighter socket is gone!

Yep, another Worx decision apparently.  I asked why, seeing that in this photo I was sent the day before I was told the red wiring was ACC wiring, could they not simply tap into that?

The answer is simple - the red wiring is ACC wiring for audio items (and now repaired and ready to go to accept future accessories), but on the OEM harness the lighter socket wiring is on a separate circuit due to the current drain. So, we have two choices - we can run a lead to the battery (or fuse box) directly for the lighter socket, or we can try to find a new harness (what NISMO Omori Factory REALLY wants to do...).

Bad news #2 was, in investigating whether we could replace any of the wiring harnesses on the car in order to cleanly remove the alarm, Ochiai-san found out that all harnesses for my model year car were out of stock or out of production, meaning that even if I wanted to order new ones that would not be possible. I've been searching for used ones but two problems there - it doesn't guarantee modification hasn't occurred, and I'm now a bit cautious on ordering something that might work on Series 1 or 2 (zenki) cars but potentially not on Series 3 (kohki) cars.  This being Nismo, we have to get the parts numbers right! Maybe just wait for the Heritage Program?

In conclusion, for the time being and for this round of work, we will leave the alarm in (and hope it doesn't die),  and I won't be able to use the lighter socket to power any accessories like my cell phone. Oh well. Meanwhile, I will be discussing with Ochiai-san my options going forward to fix these problems. Sounds like I'll be bringing the car back to Nismo Omori Factory in the future for some more work...

On the other hand, good news the interior re-do is nearly done!

The other day Ochiai-san had sent me this video showing how they were installing vibration reducing panels (I guess like Dynamat) to the roof. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had read up on their CRS cars getting this treatment and I also wanted this on my car as part of the modernization aspect of the work.

In addition to these vibration suppressing panels, they are also using 3M Thinsulate between the roof and the headliner for sound and heat insulation.  

Installed, the interior roof now looks like this...thanks to Robson Leather again for the quick turnaround!

I need to find a black spotlamp and center lamp but otherwise this looks pretty good!

And the dashpanel looks like this.

WOW! Yeah, just need the ashtray now!
(And yes the shift boot is real leather, having swapped out the cheap plastic OEM one
for the custom one I had made by Cesar)

And so basically, while Nismo Omori Factory wasn't able to restore the interior to 100% OEM condition just yet, they were able to remove all the crap that Worx's Nakamura had installed and repair some of the damage he had caused.  As for the alarm removal, Ochiai-san is now working on finding an alarm shop that can assist in the removal.

So what next? Well, remember the temporary wheels on the car.... Stay tuned for details on that!

Trip To Robson Leather - Two New Projects!

So it's been over 8 years since I last visited Robson Leather at their shop in Edogawa-ku, Tokyo, but from what I recall, things haven't changed much - the same high quality leather and carbon interior parts, for all types of cars - even the shop's interior looks the same...except of course for Masa Nakamura's son Daihi, fluent in English, is now around to deal with their international clients (if you message them on FB in English, you will get a proper response in English!).

I had been communicating on and off with them both since last year's Nismo Festival, when Masa proudly informed me that, after several months of negotiations and having passed Nissan's stringent requirements, Robson had finally been given a license to use Nissan's trademarks on its products.   As far as I know, they are the only shop in the aftermarket interior space with such a license.  For those of you unfamiliar with what this means, having a license means that the owner of the intellectual property (such as a patent or trademark) has entrusted certain individuals/companies the right to use such intellectual property, under certain conditions.  In most cases, licenses are given only to those who pass certain criteria, such as quality, reputation, etc.  - not anyone can get the license. Those who do use the Nissan trademark without permission are technically, stealing Nissan's property.

In any case, I had some ideas for my GT-R's interior, and despite the voluntary lockdown they agreed I could swing by for a short visit.  So last Saturday I arranged to drop in (with the Lexus) and as soon as I parked and stepped out of the car, both came out masked but with grins underneath to greet me.

I had a few things to show Masa so I unloaded the box in the rear seat and he immediately set about opening it up.

Meanwhile Daihi invited me to check out a prototype R32 GT-R office chair (it was a super used and cheap seat they bought on Yahoo Auctions - hence you can see it's actually bent!)

Still, a very comfy office chair. Hmm.... time to ditch my Herman Miller Aeron office chair?

Of course being a senior member of Nissan's legal department, I asked where the Nissan "official licensed product" tag was - while it wasn't on this chair, they did show me an actual product with the label - in this case a R32 GT-R seat headrest cover.

This means that Nissan has given permission to Robson to use the GT-R logo. 

They also showed me an R35 seat office chair - but it clearly wasn't as comfortable as the R32 seat.

After discussing my potential projects with them, this being my first visit in 8 years, I asked if I could go upstairs to check out their office. It hadn't changed much in that time, that's for sure!

So here is where customers can sit down and choose various options for their leather/alcantara/carbon fiber orders

Here you can see some of the different colored leather samples they have. On the table a craftsman was working on adding some Alcanatara to a car dashboard...

Pink steering wheel? Or light green? Gold too. No problem!

Finally, if you happen to drop in but aren't ready to place an order, you can at least walk out with SOMETHING by Robson - check out their stock of seatbelt covers, shift boots, and seat headrests...

So if you drop in and absolutely HAVE to buy something...

Clearly these guys are GT-R centric, even though when you check out their website you see lots of BMWs and Benz's (and other JDM cars, of course) with their work.

More importantly and for the purposes of my car - I can tell you that we have two projects going. One is relatively straightforward and I hope to reveal in the next few weeks. The other - I may have to bring my car in for them to take precise measurements. If we do move forward on this I will be the world's first, but it will take a few months to complete. Stay tuned!