# Nissan 350Z install from Australia - Rainbow, ID and Pioneer



## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

A friend contacted me for a sound system build in his 2003 350Z Touring.










He was looking for clean SQ and clean showy looks that could be covered up, luggage space was essential as was stealth when the car was parked in public.
He tracked down the gear he wanted in the car and the list is as follows:

Pioneer P4780DVD Touchscreen double-DIN DVD & Divx headunit
Sony LCD video screens mounted in sun visors (existing)
Rainbow W-165 X plain 6.5" shallow mount 2-way splits
12" IDQ v3 Dual 2 ohm wired parallel to 1 ohm, in 1 cu ft
Rainbow Ipaul 4.300 4 channel running 4x 90 watts @ 4 ohms
Rainbow Ipaul DM2000 monoblock running 1000 watts @ 1 ohm
Aerpro 4 gauge power cable
My own RCA leads built to length 

The install took place over 3 days (but it was during holidays so they were short days.)

The Pioneer headunit is fitted with a Scosche dash kit and is a brilliant fit. The screen misses the gear level by millimetres when ejecting, which is probably more luck than anything. Keen eyes will notice other goodies in the install, like the Ipaul gain and phase remote in the upper cubby hole. The car is also fitted with Greddy electronic adjustable coilovers.









The fabulously thin X plain midwoofers are fitted in the factory locations with dynamatted doors and the tweeters are on custom A pillars. After reading up on 350Z installs I chose to face them nearly at each other (actually at the wing mirror on the opposite side.) The pillars are covered in fabric from the Australian Ford FG Falcon XR6, and the tweeters are flush mounted without mounting rings for a clean look.
The speakers are run active from the Rainbow amplifier, which has brilliant high, low and band pass options. In-situ they are brilliantly snappy midbass performers and the tweeters in their config are delicate and very detailed. For shallow midwoofers they are very deceptive; in properly prepared doors they hit quite hard.


















We chose to ditch the spare and use the capacious under-boot section for the subwoofer and amplifiers... This doesn't use an inch of boot space and the factory carpet still fits.









The factory boot carpet lifts off to reveal the IDQ 12" taking pride of place in the middle, backed by colour-coded vinyl. Yes, we managed to fit a full size 12" subwoofer in a flushmount boot install 









And then two carpeted sections lift to reveal the huge Ipaul amplifiers. The flash makes it look a little crummy, the fit in real life is better.









The location of the subwoofer along with the significant headroom from the DM2000 means it's nice and accurate but capable of rattling teeth with the remote gain wound up at high volume.

More build pics to follow


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## cccullen (Apr 16, 2008)

looks awesome. very nice install. very clean!


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## honza440 (Aug 22, 2009)

Nice work, I like stealth installs like this one.


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## pnn23 (Jun 7, 2008)

Jesus, that's very impressive to fit all that into the under trunk section. I have a G35, and I can barely fit my two amps in that wheel well.

Great stuff OP!


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## fatboyracing (Oct 8, 2008)

I think it looks clean


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## chadillac3 (Feb 3, 2006)

Am I crazy, or can I see the wiring around the amps?


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

nice, how did you manage to fit what looks like an idq12 in the flat floor? if i were to guess, it would involve a fiberglass bottom or top or both? i didnt think there was enough depths to do a normal mdf box hehehe


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

chadillac3 said:


> Am I crazy, or can I see the wiring around the amps?


Yes, in that photo you can see wires... mainly because of my crappy camera and flash. They're not visible in daylight.

The owner has taken some better photos:

































... And here are some of my crappy photos of the build
Timber everywhere, quite dusty








Pillars prepped, wrapped and glassed:








Sanded, bogged and sanded








And trimmed.








Hard to trim, the fabric wasn't stretchy!








And yes, the full-depth IDQ 12" hehehe... lucky it doesn't have a rear pole piece vent, there is less than 1/2" clearance behind the magnet.


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## jorona1 (Dec 6, 2008)

Beautiful simply beautiful!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Some more build photos.
Subwoofer box fitment. The box is all MDF, 18mm, with a small step under the front of the box to get around some metalwork.









The box is almost a friction fit, quite lucky since it was built without the car on hand, and this is the primary anchor point (factory spare wheel bracket):









A small bracket, bolt, glue and screws and this sucker ain't going anywhere.









Some dynamat on the boot panels to try and keep vibration under control, more importantly all contact areas had off-cut carpet glued to them to stop metal-plastic or plastic-plastic contact (and vibration.)









During the wiring phase, and the sub box had been gasketed and stuffed with polyester. The subwoofer in this box is very very well sealed.









The IDQv3 arrived with a nasty scratching sound. In this case, the field servicable soft parts were a saviour, and the unenclosed magnet - spider gap an absolute curse. I removed all the metal swarf from the second hand subwoofer's VC gap with scraps of carpet and some metal rods. I wasn't particularly turned on by the IDQ's plastic basket... but I suppose it works.









And completed wiring with the subwoofer installed.









The lovely X-plain pro splits.


















The factory bose [crap] had integrated plastic spacers, so the X plain splits were mounted on 18mm MDF ones and comprehensively sealed to the door panel. Incidentally clearance was only 3mm too close to the window to negate using a spacer completely! Those familiar with 350Z doors will know this isn't a mean feat!
The doors were already conveniently sealed and solid; dynamat was added to the outer skin to add mass, and some to the inner panel. The door trim copped some dynamat to add mass too.


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## sydmonster (Oct 5, 2009)

Cool BigV!! Did you make custom RCA's for this car?



> My own RCA leads built to length


Never mind.... you answered that.


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## REVNU (Oct 8, 2009)

I'm going to have to show this thread a friend of mine who owns a 350zed.

Very clean install. Thanks for sharing!


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