New stereo...

[Bertman]

Lee...

Cheers for that...much appreciated...

Im giving it a go next weekend...stereo and harness adaptor havent arrived yet...

Have you done the same thing on yours??...

[GTR Cook]

Hi,

Yeah changed the radio for Alpine IDA X100, previous owner decided to push the radio in from the front. Naturally it didnt fit properly.

I didnt need any wireing harness/looms, though i did need to re terminate the ground wire with bullet connectors to suite the Alpine unit.

What radio does yours have? What are you changing to? Should be a case of plugging your connector to the harness. Are you going double din as you mentioned facia plates.

One thing i will add is i couldnt fit the frame (you know the clip on suround that comes with the radio) as the gap in the standard facia is too small.

I assume the car has been in the country a while? If so can you tune UK radio stations? If you can, should be a case of just plugging the new connector in and away you go.

Cant tell for sure till you get the exsisting radio out.

I am no expert but fitted mine without any problems.

Lee

[GTR Cook]

Oh yeah,

Try Car audio direct (Car Audio Direct for car stereo, navigation and audiovisual electronics.) for prices as mine was far cheaper incl delivery than Halfrauds.

Lee

[Bertman]

I have the standard factory fitted radio at the moment...and some kind of japanese satnav cd/radio set up which i guess might have been some sort of optional extra??...the control panel for that is seperate from the radio though so shouldnt be any problem...

i fitted the wave band expander a while ago and its a sony radio so should just be a case of fitting the harness adaptor...the fascia is one of those wait and see things as you say...

[Bertman]

Its done...thanks for peoples advcie...

Took me and a mate a couple of hours to do and went pretty smoothly...

Sounds much better and the gap around the stereo is a lot smaller than i thoughtit would be...i wont do anything about it until i do something with the dash...

I was going to post a pic but i noticed down the bottom of the page in the posting rules it says "you may not post attachments"...do you need a certain amount of posts to do thisor am i missing something obvious??...

[Robbie 733]

Well done that man.

As for posting pictures, not sure but you could try sending a PM to any Mod's to see if they need to flick a switch somewhere ?

[kornmonkey]

Put your pics on photobucket or similar - then you can just post a link instead.

[SPEED MERCHANT]

Superb job by the sounds of it, well done

[bass_line88]

Originally Posted by GTR Cook

Bertman

Not sure if its too late and you have done it but basically:

1 - First pull out the ashtray and undo the screw behind it.
2 - Pull up the gear stick surround and undo the 2 silver screws at the bottom left/right of the storage bin. Best to pull from underneath the hand brake.
3 - Using a thin flat blade screwdriver (put a cloth round the blade so you dont mark the plastic) on the left side, prise out the 2 vents at the top of the console and disconnect the unit.
4 - Undo the 2 silver screw at the top of the heater controls.
5 - Pull out the heater controls, radio & stage bin (all in a cage together).
6 - Remove the radio from the cage (2 screws each side) and fit your radio.

Refit going from step 5

Hope this helps

Lee

Have tried to follow these steps but step 2 just wont happen! can undo the surround, but the left hand side near the cigarette lighter will not come off, is there something holding the lighter down or something?

[GTR Cook]

Originally Posted by bass_line88

Have tried to follow these steps but step 2 just wont happen! can undo the surround, but the left hand side near the cigarette lighter will not come off, is there something holding the lighter down or something?

There are two tabs above the cigarette lighter but if you lift the trim up by the gear gaiter ( so closest to the arm rest lifts up ) then it should unclip and you can move it to the side.

Hope it works.

[turboslippers]

This should be fun as I'm going to attempt this shortly on dads R34GTR. Thing is it's a UK model which has got a Kenwood tape and multichangers fitted (it's truly awful). I guess this means any adpator won't be needed as it should already have had antanne and ISO loom adaptors fitted?

I was going to fit an alpine as well but that plastic surround deffo won't fit? Hmm, if the gap is small enough it might not look too bad but when one broke off in another car it looked cack and annoyed me on a daily basis

Cheers for the advice though, looks invaluable!

[GTR Cook]

The gap is ok without the surround on. You dont really notice it as it's slightly recessed.

Here is mine, sorry pic quality isnt better:

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

I did try to close the gap with the tray but couldn't do it.

[turboslippers]

Cheers for that
That's looking straight on as well so when you are sitting and looking down at an angle I guess it doesn't show so much? I see what you mean though...not a hope of getting the surround in is there?

Regarding the bottom bit, I reckon if you bonded a strip of black 2-3mm plastic strip to the top of the cubby hole/storage surround you could fill that gap. Any trimming would make the edges look rubbish but I can probably get rapid prototyping at work to laser cut a perfect one of a simple IGES file that the better half or one of me mates could do me.

The look of it got me thinking so I've just gone and double checked the nasty kenwood 'mask' unit that I'm pretty sure was standard fit as part of the UK 'conversion'. It looks like the upper bit of the stereo is actually behind the surround. Looks like you can get away with this on the fully flip fascia units because the actual panel that moves is a good bit smaller than then the whole DIN surround
Maybe this unit was chosen purely for this reason...they certainly didn't choose it for the simple to use controls and audiophile sound quality....

[Sub Boy]

Regarding the gap.

Nissans run a slightly bigger than "ISO DIN" sized hole, with the factory radios, so you need a thin trim spacer to get rid of the gap. In NZ the part we buy is a 361dp, Just pop into your local Specialist car audio shop (not a chain store....they won't know what you are on about) and ask for a Nissan ISO DIN trim, it should clip on to the radio behind the dash panel, much like the big one you had to remove from your new radio before you fitted it....but it will be much smaller an thinner.