# 2001 Nissan Exalta - Work in progress



## agentk98 (Oct 31, 2006)

I have finally been bitten the bug and am going full-active. (Yes, that first part of that sentence i got from reading CA&E in my earlier days). 
I have started disposing of my old system and just aquired some new ones. Here are the details:

HU - Not yet sure. Might be the stock HU and i'll go with a 3sixty.2 or ditch the stock HU and get a P880PRS
-------- decided to go stock and bought a 3sixty.2
Front - Seas CA18RNX and 27TFFNC/G
Amp - PPi a300.2 & a404
Sub - Adire Shiva Mark III (Sealed)
Amp - Lanzar SL150 OptiDRIVE

Here is the car. A 2001 Nissan Exalta STA









View from the back with the Blue & Chrome SEAS logo sticker above the third brake light.









A view of the interior. Still debating whether to use the stock sail panels or mount the tweets in the a-pillar.









*March 17, 2007*
Stripped the doors to deaden it.









Inner shell done









Outer shell partly done









Covered the gaps with boards. I ran out of deadening material but the boards are fully matted now. just haven't uploaded the pictures yet.










Here now is my problem: after reinstalling the inner panel, the clearance shows something shy of 1". Not enough to fit the CA18RNX. Plus, it only exposes half the speaker.









*March 21, 2007*
I have just bought some fiberglass stuff but have not uploaded the pictures yet. Me and my bro Jon will be glassing that area to raise the clearance a bit and fully expose the speaker towards the cabin.

More on that this weekend...


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## niceguy (Mar 12, 2006)

Looks like a US spec I30.....interior has same 2 tone color scheme as my '93 Altima....I used the sail panels on my Altima to add RE comp tweets but need to adjust the driver side some (whenever my wife parks the car long enough )

Compared to yours and mine, I hate most of Nissan's newer interior colors/materials....

Jeremy


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## rekd0514 (Sep 24, 2006)

Have fun and make sure to post up some pics once you are done glassing.


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## ocuriel (Oct 7, 2005)

Good start you have going there.


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## less (Nov 30, 2006)

Looking good! The car has a nice looking interior and it will appreciate the fine sound system you are dropping in! 

Good luck with the fiberglass - in theory, it doesn't seem too dificult anyhow. I am going to get my first shot at glassing in a month or two I guess, so pass along any pointers! 

Ok - time for me to get off my butt - its off to finish raammatting my floor and doors too! I am not sure why, but I am having serious motivation issues with finishing that job up... my poor 06 civic coupe has had the seats carpet and 90% of interior trim pieces out for about three weeks now as I toddle along lol.

Thanks for posting!
Less


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## agentk98 (Oct 31, 2006)

Thanks for the encouragement guys! Just finished glassing today and updated the install pix. My back aches and i have some resin still stuck under my nails so sorry if my update sounds quite rushed. 
Oh man, back to the office again tomorrow... can't wait till Saturday..

By the way, i need all your suggestions on where to stick the tweets.. 
1. My buddy would go for Kicks and i would do just that just so i can fiberglass some more... but i'm worried some muddy shoe might get in the car (this being a tropical country and all...) and that would be a hard thing to clean up. 
2. Sail Panels - Easy, straight forward, and a little glassing too. Only thing is it looks a little too common as the stock Exaltas have them.
3. A-Pillar - Nice to look at, would love to glass this part. Only draw back is the inherent disadvantages of having the mids and tweets that far.

Decisions... decisions...

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*March 25, 2007*
Anyway, I had to do some office work last saturday so we only had sunday to start glassing.
This is my first time to glass by the way and it's a good thing my buddy has been doing this a little longer.

The materials: Resin, Hardener, Release Wax, Fiberglass Mat, Tape, Lacquer Thinner, Paint Brushes, Rags etc









Covered the area up with tape and an initial layer of resin for the fiberglass mat to stick to









Tearing up some fiberglass mat to go with the resin.









What it looks like after the 4th Layer of glassing

















Here are both of them all done. If you'll notice at the corners, we chose to use screws to secure this to the door panel. More durable, Better fit and lesser chance of someone's shoe snaggin on one of the edges and snapping it.
During the 2nd or 3rd layer, we drilled holes in the corners ---> inserted the screws ---> then glassed over it. 
The protrusion left by the screws will be blended in with some body filler.









After some body filler and A LOT of sanding! By the way, watch out as this thing can get hot! While i was mixing some filler with the hardener, some dripped on my foot which i didn't really mind until it started heating up. Just like prolonged melted candle wax.









Starting to look good for the initial test fit









Nice! I actually found fiberglassing quite easy!  
I can see how this can be addicting! Now i'm starting to look for other parts in the car that could use some glassing. Hehe!









Well, the day finally ended (as you may have noticed from the pictures. Since me and my buddy are weekend warriors, it will have to wait till next saturday again. By then we'll be doing a little more sanding, and test fitting the actual speakers so we can finalize the hole to be cut and then the grill cloth.

I'm also starting to debate where i should mount the tweeters: sail, a-panel or kicks.

*Finished panels on page 2!*


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## pontiacbird (Dec 29, 2006)

nice work, thats exactly what i plan on doing with my car this summer, but mine's a lil bit more complex, since i got to take a window crank into account and maybe angle the drivers within the door

but your project definitely sheds some light for me...Thanks!!!!


as for the tweets, experiment with different locations....thats the best thing anyone will tell you, then move on from there.....


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## agentk98 (Oct 31, 2006)

Great! Glad to know this install thread is helping y'all! 

It's my first crack at fiberglassing so i'm not really sure if I did things the right way. I guess the most important tip i could give is: COVER EVERYTHING UP WELL. While glassing and sanding and installing and uninstalling...... a scratch or drip on the panel is bound to happen. Good thing nothing was permanent in my case but i guess i should have prevented that in the first place by shielding it with newsprint.

Thanks for the tip pontiacbird. I guess there's no escaping that, eh? Hehe! I'm leaning on a-pillars right now. Visualy pleasing and protected from accidental foot prints.


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## DearS (May 14, 2005)

Nissan Exalta, also know as Infinity I30 (in the U.S.)


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## jearhart (Jul 28, 2006)

if you have time alignment seperating the tweeter and the mid is not a problem. and in that case i would definately go with the apillars.


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

Love your subwoofer choice.


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## caohyde (Sep 27, 2005)

great job! keep it up!


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## agentk98 (Oct 31, 2006)

I'm really preffering a-pillars. This car has a deeper dash than my previous one and i'd like to take advantage of that.
Very satisfied with the Shiva. B) 
Thanks caohyde! Sure helped that i had someone who's done this before teach me.


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## agentk98 (Oct 31, 2006)

*March 31, 2007*

Well, today we did a bit more sanding and bondo to smooth things further.
O-rings were then cut to fit the CA18s and see how we would be cutting the door panel:









Installed them in the doors for a test fit









Marked and then proceeded to cut the panels


















Reinforcing the underside of the grill with more fiberglass mat and resin to add more strength. 









Shot it with a 12ga shotgun:









Then painted everything black









Covered it up with the acoustically transparent grill cloth









Final product!









A quick view of the before and after pictures. I am very very very pleased with the way these babies turned out. They work well with the stock look i was going for.









Well that's done!! Still have to wait for the 3sixty.2 or P880PRS so I can play with tweeter placement first before commiting them to either the sail, a-panel or kicks. That will be sometime mid-april when my aunt arrives from the states (trying to save on courier costs).
That also gives us enough time to play with the sub-box next.  Special thanks to Jon96 (aka Mad Cow)!


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## Rbsarve (Aug 26, 2005)

Better then stock. Awesome!!


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## zfactor (Oct 19, 2005)

very nice looks great


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## Mike Troll (Dec 14, 2006)

I am interested to hear your opinions on that particular mid/tweet combo. I am conidering those for my first active setup and would like your feedback/opinions on them.


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## agentk98 (Oct 31, 2006)

Yep, will post feedback once i get everything installed. The CA18s sound like crap driven off the headunit at the moment.


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## rekd0514 (Sep 24, 2006)

I love the OEM look of the doors! Great job.


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## agentk98 (Oct 31, 2006)

Thanks for the kind words guys!
Just got a 3sixty.2 off eBay! Hope it get's here quick!


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## yermolovd (Oct 10, 2005)

agentk98
great job on the doors, love it!




DearS said:


> Nissan Exalta, also know as Infinity I30 (in the U.S.)


ahem... that looks like a cross between the front of I30 and the back like a older Sentra we have here. 
does it say Exalta (below) Sentra on the trunk?

This is the first time I see this car. 
I feel like US doesn't get all the good stuff. Look at that sweet interior!


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## agentk98 (Oct 31, 2006)

Thanks! I love the interior as well thats why im really going for the stock look. Try not to change anything as much as possible 
That's also the reason why i finally decided on the 3sixty.2 instead of a p880prs because the HU and Climate control share the same look.

Here's a quick view of the finished panels from the inside and a clearer picture of the HU-Aircon

























*yermolovd:* That's right. It's Sentra's top line called Exalta here. As we never had the I30, i had no idea until i took a closer look at pictures on the net. And the I30 there is called a Nissan Cefiro here.

*Found this on the net from someone else's install. Glad i went with the 3Sixty.2 as i don't think it works well.*


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## ryan s (Dec 19, 2006)

cefiro= our i30 and exalta=our g20 

those doors panels look amazing! im still debating whether to make kick panels or just enlarge the door like you did. i dont want to deaden the doors but i like my foot space. so many decisions


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## DearS (May 14, 2005)

ryan s said:


> cefiro= our i30 and exalta=our g20



oops!, thats right G20 = Exalta. difficult time telling the difference. Thanks for the correction.


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## agentk98 (Oct 31, 2006)

An uncle from Cali just dropped by and he says its a Sentra????


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## GlasSman (Nov 14, 2006)

Nice job. And for your first fiberglass project theres nothing anyone could say to critisize your work. Excellent job!


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## ryan s (Dec 19, 2006)

agentk98 said:


> An uncle from Cali just dropped by and he says its a Sentra????


yeah, hes right because its a sentra chassis with infiniti body panels. its just like how our maxima is turned into an infiniti i30. same car, different body and interior  your car shares its body panels with our infiniti g20


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## agentk98 (Oct 31, 2006)

Oh wow. So that's why Wikipedia wasn't much help!
Thanks for the info and GlasSman for the kind words! Can't wait to start on the tweeters myself!


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## agentk98 (Oct 31, 2006)

Hi guys. Need your opinions on what to do next.

I now have three amps but quite lost on how to mount them in my trunk, make it look stealth and still have decent space left over. Here are the equipments









The Lanzar will be replaced by a classD amp soon but i've got to live with it for the moment. The box it is attached to is the sealed 1.5 cu sub box with the Adire Shiva. 

I've thought about placing the three amigos in the floor of the trunk but my concerns are the added weight from all the extra wood and the addition of a neccessary ventilation system since the amps will be enclosed somewhat. 

I'm leaning towards a fiberglass box on the left of the trunk, integrate the sub amp with it... then mount the two Art Series' to the rear wall.
Of course, your suggestions (and pictures!) will be highly appreciated.

Thanks.


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## pianist (Mar 10, 2006)

love the door pods!

you should just stack them vertically, two in the back, one in the front and call it a day  you can also try bolting them to the seats if you want the extra saved inches in your trunk. only reason why i had so much space to work with mine is cause the sub box couldn't be pushed any further back.


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## agentk98 (Oct 31, 2006)

Yeah, thanks to your pics I'm finally starting to get ideas on how to mount mine! Time to do some measuring...


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## agentk98 (Oct 31, 2006)

Well, did some little work after a while. Finally found an excuse to drag my ass and get some done last Sunday. (Visited the parents and my dog got sick).
Anyway, they have a big garage which is what I needed being the rainy season here again.

Here's the work area.









Gutted the car just enough to raise the carpet and route the wires through. Man, is this car hard to wire. I had to uninstall the the plastic thing in the fender over the wheel to route the four cables from the battery. Now the set-up is wires at the left, signals at the right. I kept convincing myself that I deaden the floor as well, but finally talked myself out of it. Suddenly got lazy on the day itself to do more work. 

















Thanks to Pianist's advise and install, I finally decided to make one just like his. Float the third amp on top of the two PPI Art series'. Only thing is, I used metal.

























And that's all was able to do. I might be installing all amps this coming weekend and carpet the thing. 
Still torn whether to make a wedged sub box behind the amps or a fiberglass sub enclosure on the left side. 
Any suggestions? Advice?

I guess i'll have two more weeks to think about that. Hopefully the 3sixty will be flown in by end of June. By which i'll be playing with the tweeter placement.


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## thazy2 (Feb 10, 2007)

nice and clean..........I like it!


how did u attached it to the door panel?


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## Boostedrex (Apr 4, 2007)

The fiberglass work you did on those door panels looks 100 times better than the doors did stock. And for your first fiberglass project I'd say that you did an INCREDIBLE job. Very nice choice of amps with those old school art series PPI's. I would kill to get my hands on a few of the black colored ones from the same time frame.

Zach


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## agentk98 (Oct 31, 2006)

thazy2: We embedded around 7 screws in the glass. All corners and two in the middle. Probably on the 5th layer then glassed and bondo'd over it. The holes were then pre-drilled on the panel and bolted at the back.

tip: when embedding screws, cover the treads on the screws with tape while finishing it. Having some resin drip on the treads is a PITA.

Boosterdex: Thanks for the kind words man! I agree, the Art Series' are now 12 years and running! Was tempted to get a 600.2 but decided to go modern on this one and get an efficient class D later on. Stuck with zed made Lanzar at the moment.


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