Fixing the Interior, Part 2 (A Pillar Covers)

So after I cleaned up the shift surround and dashboard panel, I decided to see if I could fix the glovebox as well as the A-pillars.

The glovebox was easy. Once Cesar heard about what had happened, he immediately contacted me and offered to fix it... for FREE! What a TRUE GENTLEMAN. I will have a separate post on these repairs coming up in a follow up post.

This post is about how I tackled the A-pillars.  To review, despite my telling Nakamura-san at WORX Auto Alarm that I did NOT like the whitish/light grey A pillars - because the OEM plastic ones are BLACK and so I knew that anything other than that would clash - he went ahead and ordered A pillar covers in the light grey Alcantara. I get the feeling he had little say in the matter, OR, that I was sold a recycled part.  It doesn't matter at this point anymore...

Here is how the interior looked BEFORE I embarked on the fix.


Actually, here is an even better photo, showing the clash of the white A pillar cover with the black of the B pillar as well as the now leather covered passenger grip handle.

I'm sorry, but that LOOKS LIKE SHIT. Did I mention how much I hate what Nakamura did?

This fix was relatively easy, because I stumbled upon an interesting spray paint that is designed to work on fabrics such as denim and suede, called Somay-Q.  ("Somay" in Japanese means "to dye"). According to the video below, application is easy and straight forward. So of course I had to try it.

First, I removed the A pillar covers being careful not to scratch the Alcantara and damage the speaker wiring while disconnecting.  Note how the light grey is already showing dirt.  Real genius, that guy Nakamura, using such a light color in a place where there is bound to be lots of touching (due to the hand grip there)


Then, following the instructions exactly, I cleaned the A pillar covers and then sprayed them with "Grey Black" Somay-Q spray.  I figured I didn't want the normal "black" which might be too dark. Plus, the black Alcantara cloth I have stocked in order to finish the rest of the interior didn't look solid black.

So I prepped the pillar covers by covering up the speaker grills in masking tape.


I then cleaned the surface and prepared the Somay-Q spray.


Then started spraying.

I think this is when I began to suspect the paint wasn't dark enough...

And even when I finished spraying, I knew something was wrong. The color just didn't seem dark enough.  Here is the Grey Black.


And sure enough, when I compared agains the Alcantara cloth used in the glove box and center console:

Camera flash making both look lighter..

Obviously the pillar needs to be much darker.  So, I ran back to the hardware store but the regular Black colored Somay-Q was sold out.  That, and rainy weather over the following weekend, meant I had to wait two weeks to finish the job.  But eventually there was a sunny day and I finished with the full black spray.

Came out pretty good, don't you think?

Of course, it doesn't feel like the super soft Alcantara as it was originally - to be honest it feels like painted cloth.  But from a distance it looks fine and gives me a preview of what the interior will look like when the B and C pillars are upgraded and covered in proper black Alcantara, this time by a real professional.

For that project, I am currently searching for interior shops in Japan...but meanwhile I still have to fix a few other things... Once I do so then I will put up a photo of the fixed up interior so you can see the difference just a bit of care makes...

First Visit to WORX Auto Alarm

(June 2018) - UPDATE - STAY AWAY FROM WORX AUTO ALARM!!  COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY AND FURTHER UNNECESSARY WORK DONE!

(The below I wrote when I first visited and didn't see this guy for who is he really is.)

So last weekend, my friend Dino and I decided to visit with Nakamura-san, owner of a very interesting and special shop, Worx Auto Alarm, located in Chiba near beaches famous with the surfing crowd.  It was a nice day for a drive, so despite my having known Dino for more than 10 years,  I decided to let him drive my car for the first time.  I figured a man who has driven more cars than I can count, who's not getting paid to drive it, can give me his objective impressions on my car.  And yes he did!  So I'll post those up in an upcoming post.

We arrived mid-afternoon on a cloudy day - sunlight hit it just right I think!

Anyway, Nakamura-san is famous in Japan due to his love for the RB26 GT-Rs (he is especially a big fan of the R33, he told me!) and his work, especially, as his shop name states, on car alarms for them (even in Japan these cars have a high theft rate).  He also does car stereo and other electrical stuff so for basically anything electrical, he's THE guy.

He's done the installs for the cars owned by and featured in GT-R Magazine and the like, so he's widely known in the GT-R community here in Japan.  Here are some examples of what he does for GT-Rs. Most importantly for us R33 owners who want a modern 2DIN stereo head unit, is perhaps this:

Check out how cleanly the HVAC is installed there!
From: http://www.worxautoalarm.co.jp/specialcontent/gtr/

Recently, Dino had some work done on his BNR34 (installing some switchback LEDs from VLEDS) and featured it on Speedhunters. What impressed me the most, as well as I'm sure many people, was the level of attention to detail Nakamura-san takes in making sure the wiring is neat and clean:



So as not to get the jumbled mess of spaghetti found in my car:

I'm blaming SuperAutobacs for this... when I got my Pioneer Navi installed by them back in 2006!

In addition to being a rabid 2nd generation GT-R fan (he's got one of every model), he also has some other interesting cars in his collection. One being this Fiat thing which apparently he bought because he loved what the print ads said at the time "In Pursuit of Ferrari" or something like that...

It does have an Abarth badge...

Anyway, he's got some other vehicles like this very American one.  For me, however, is the excitement of finally meeting someone who is just as, if not more, OCD than me and who is willing and able to help me on the one part of the R33 that oozes 90s Nissan cheapness, the interior.

Alas, after the 3 of us talked excitedly non-stop for 2 hours, Dino and I decided to pack up and head back... but not before we cruised by the beach near the ocean, where I took this photo.

I think this is the limit of my iPhone's camera (and my photography skills!)...

Stay tuned, the rest of 2016 is going to be full of goodness, I just know!

Quick Update: Kenwood Sound Cruising System, Pre-Wired!

A while back, I had done a blog post on the optional Kenwood Sound Cruising System that Nissan offered on several models of the R33, including the GT-R.

The brochure has passing reference to the Kenwood system as an option (red box)

One question I had, however, upon solving the mystery of the blanks on the interior A-pillars, however, was whether Nissan provided a specialized wiring harness for cars with this option.

what you get with the Kenwood system for the tweeters

My finger pointing to the cutout

I had previously looked very closely at wiring diagrams for the BCNR33, and they suggested that the wiring harness for ALL cars, indeed had leads going up into the A pillars, whether or not the car was equipped with the Kenwood system. My car did NOT come with this option.

The easy thing to do, of course, would be to pop open the A pillar cover and check for myself, but I was always too lazy to do so - until last weekend, when I was at Nissan Prince Shinagawa on another quest to find more parts for my car.

Once talking to the technicians there as to the Kenwood system, and inquiring whether that location was indeed the best place to place tweeters at, they immediately called over one of the mechanics who popped open the A pillar cover, and we found this (red arrow) terminal clip on both sides of the car:

Ignore the other wiring, that's for the aftermarket Navi... I think...

In my excitement I forgot to take a photo, but the BACKSIDE of the A pillar had a large "X" marking the spot behind the cut-out.

So, this is exciting - it suggests that ALL BCNR33s (and possibly other R33s) are pre-wired for tweeters in the A pillars.  Now I know the purists will say that, such OEM wiring is subpar and needs to be replaced with the latest hi-end oxygen free wire yada yada, but 1) this is a car, a very NOISY car, and 2) so long as the wires can carry a signal, why bother with extra cost when the wiring is already there??

Oh and also, many people will claim that it's not the brand of the wire, but the thickness of the copper gauge of the wire. In which case, I will have to choose my tweeters carefully I guess...the problem is that here in Japan, there aren't many shops that have speakers on hand to listen to, other than the name brand "average" aftermarket speakers like Pioneer, Sony, Kenwood, etc...  Anyone have any recommendations? Would prefer separate components that can be heard over the drone of the exhaust (and yes I plan to get a separate amp for the front speakers too).

Trivia and a Mystery Solved: the Kenwood Sound Cruising System

So I was looking for something on the internet, R33 GT-R related of course, and found this:

from: http://homepage2.nifty.com/superio/mygtr.htm

Huh? Well upon reading the description at this person's blog, I found out that these were the tweeters for the optional "Kenwood Sound Cruising System" which was a factory option for R33 GT-Rs (note: it was the only stereo system offered on the limited edition Autech 4 door R33 GT-R).  Of course I had seen passing reference to this in the catalog, but c'mon, the best sound in a GT-R is the RB26DETT, right? So I hadn't paid much attention until now.

Intrigued, I searched a bit more, and found this photo of the amp for this Kenwood system.  The description claimed that this amp was apparently situated "on top of" where the fuel pump is - in other words, in the trunk, on the right side of where the battery is located.

Here it is, removed.
From: http://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid/1210574/car/913848/1593325/note.aspx

The head unit though, didn't appear to be anything too special, an AM/FM/CD with CD changer controls:

From: http://www.gtr-world.net/gt-r/bcnr33/bcnr33-skyline-gtr-4door-autech.html
Check out the photo of the interior front and you can see the tweeters in the A-pillars too.

Anyway, this solved a long standing mystery for me. You see, a while back I had spotted some faint markings on the inside of the A-pillars:

It's very faint, and not indented... just a suggested cut-out template?

Initially, I thought this was used to access something on the inside of the pillars...I was going to investigate but then promptly forgot about doing so.  But now, I finally know what these were supposed to be used for!

Very natural and OEM looking, I wonder if it’s possible to order just these tweeter covers? Of course it’s probably better to retro fit with better aftermarket tweeters, but the covers are cool.

But here is my question to all of you audio experts out there - if Kenwood and Nissan decided to put the tweeters here, does this mean that this exact location is the best location for tweeters? Say if I was to, sometime in the future, upgrade the Pioneer tweeters I put next to the door mirror covers, would moving tweeters to the A-pillar result in an improvement in sound (assuming all other variables remain the same)?

Looking forward to some input! Thanks and stay tuned, should have some more updates soon!

Surprise and some Re-Wiring

Recently I've begun to think that my car's dampers - Nismo S-Tunes, while perfectly adequate for the road, would eventually require replacement with something more track worthy. At least, higher spec and adjustable - some higher grade coilovers.

Imagine my surpise when this weekend, just after I had spoken with Honda-san and Prince Nissan Shinagawa about an eventual upgrade, I logged onto Yahoo Auctions and found a set of Ohlins DFVs for an unbelievable low price - the first used ones I had ever seen.

The selling owner said he used to have an R33 GTR, and had outfitted the DFVs, only to find the ride harder than he thought. He swapped out, only to discover that the DFVs were better all around, and was about to swap them back when his car got stolen! So, with only about 5000kms, these units were in pretty good shape. After conferring with my friend and suspension expert Sumi-san, I decided to take a chance - after all the price was less than half of buying them new. If they turned out to be duds, then I could always have them rebuilt for about 20,000 yen each. And still pay less than a new set!

So when I got home today, this is what I found waiting for me!


Ohlins does not produce a model for the BCNR33 specifically - however the BNR34 units can be used without issue (I think there is an adapter, I have to check).


After verifying all the pieces appeared to have arrived, I set upon continuing my other project - rewiring the tweeter wiring. When I got the stereo/navi installed when I first bought the car, they had installed the tweeters on double stick tape, on the dashboard. After deciding that the tweeters would look better if I mounted them on the door, I took the door apart, only to discover that the wiring for the tweeters ran on a separate line to the center of the dash.

So doing some research on the Pioneer car stereo website, I found that there SHOULD be a crossover amp somewhere. So today, I decided to delve into the mess of wires behind the stereo, to find them. Appears they didn't bother shortening the wiring, just stuck it all there behind the stereo. What a mess.


After some careful digging, I did find the crossovers - here in clear plastic, with the red capacitors.

What a mess.... yikes...

Once I figured out the wiring that led out from the head unit and connected to the crossover's "amp" input, I disconnected these and connected them to the speaker wires leading to the right door. I then opened up the door, removed the speaker, and connected the crossover to the existing wire harness. Like so:


Tomorrow, I will work on the left side, and then figure out how to securely mount the crossovers inside the doors. Then reassemble the stereo and the wiring (one day I will remove the excess, but not this time around...to keep the larger RCA type cables clean, will have to purchase shorter cables), and put the center stack back together.

Last, I will affix the tweeters to their new location. But this will probably be during the week next week, as this weekend I am determined to do a few things to get ready for the upcoming SSCT track day on the 25th!