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Making the Best Better



It may seem to some that owners of luxury cars have no need to enhance what they already have. Take the Infiniti G35. For everyone, it is a luxury car. It is made to supply comfort. But anything can be made better.



That is what was done with this 2005 Infiniti G35. The factory navigation system was replaced with an aftermarket version that allows the addition of a number of video sources. Moreover, the Bose audio system was upgraded to include 12 speakers and to power these speakers three aftermarket amplifiers were included. And all of this was achieved while retaining the factory radio.



Mike Ford,former technician with the Broad Street store of the two-store car audio specialty retailer Audio One in Richmond, Virginia, did the work. Ford is not a johnny come lately to the skills of creating an audio-video system for a car. He has been an installer since 1998. He first learned the trade when he attended Ritop Tech School in Boston, Massachusetts. A resident of Dallas, Texas, Ford returned home after completing school and worked for several car audio specialty shops in the Dallas area. He progressed in his skills from doing lower end installations into more custom work that included elaborate subwoofer enclosures and a heavy use of fiberglass and plexiglass. He continued to enhance his skills until he was doing special high end installations which included wheels, paint work, and fiberglass on systems valued at $40,000 to $50,000. Moreover, Ford owned his own shop which allowed him to service customers by appointment only for about two years. He then went on to sublet space to do his work at a performance race shop. When the owner of that shop closed down the business, Ford moved to Richmond, Virginia and has been doing installations for Audio One until very recently.



Cars that he worked on have been featured in Car Audio & Electronics, CarSound, Autosound & Security, Truckin’, Super Street, and some international magazines published in Germany and Australia.



Ford explained that the creation of the system in this G35 was a two stage process. The owner just wanted to enhance the bass of the Bose audio system. After that work was done and the owner was able to see what else Ford had done, he decided to enhance things still more by adding video.



Product Selection Helps

It was determined that the owner of the car wanted to include a DVD player, a Playstation 2, and a back up camera. Considering the products that the store had to offer, it was discovered that if the factory navigation system was replaced with a Pioneer 620T navigation system then all of the items on the wish list could be easily included. The Pioneer navigation system includes the proper inputs for a DVD player and Playstation 2 add ons and also includes a back up camera auxiliary input as well.



So one challenge for Ford was to incorporate the monitor that comes with the Pioneer 620T navigation system.



In order to find an ideal location for the monitor of the navigation system, Ford eyeballed the interior of the car. He noticed that there was a factory pocket or housing on the top center portion of the dashboard. In previous installations he had used similar housings to contain a TV monitor. But he learned that when using the plastic factory housing as the mount for a monitor that wood and fiberglass he would use in the construction of the mount would separate from the factory plastic cover over time causing gaps between the factory cover and the rest of the custom made portion of the mount. He has learned that it is better to use the factory cover, pocket, or housing (whatever you want to call it) as a base for a fiberglass mold which then becomes the cover for the custom made piece. He noted that bondo and wood never break free from fiberglass resin and the result is a solid looking piece that won’t crack or separate.



He removed the factory housing or pocket careful to retain the brackets to which the housing was attached, masked it with tape and used it as a base to make a mold by layering fiberglass mat and painting fiberglass resin over it. He then cut out five panels from the 1/4-inch medium density fiberboard. He trimmed away the excess fiberglass from the structure and then he carefully attached the 1/4-inch medium density fiberboard panels using the model car glue to the inside bottom, sides, and back of the fiberglass structure and used bondo along the seams of the structure to eliminate gaps and around the exterior to give the cover a round-like shape. He then sanded the structure to get out imperfections and to make it smooth then primered it and then texture-painted it and airbrushed it to match the dashboard.



Holes were drilled into the back of the structure so that wires could be fed into the box and the “brain” of the monitor was mounted with brackets to the dashboard behind the factory radio. The power source lead was attached to a capacitor in the trunk of the car and a wire connection was made to the ignition wire in the steering wheel column for the turn on. The wires were connected to the appropriate inputs of the monitor and then the monitor was slid into the structure through the front opening. Double-sided tape was put on the back of the monitor so that it would secure to the back wall or panel of the structure.



Taking the factory brackets he had saved that were part of the original factory pocket, Ford used the brackets to snap or secure the housing on to the dash in the same location where the factory pocket had been.



The Pioneer 620T navigation system includes two DVD map discs which covers the US and Canada, a database of 12 million points of interest, 248 point of interest categories, a detailed city map, built-in voice recognition and steering wheel remote control. It includes a 6.5-inch widescreen TFT Active Matrix LCD Color Display with touch panel control and built in speaker with volume control.



Next, Ford kept the factory radio and added an AudioControl LC6 six channel line out converter which could feed low level signals to the three amplifiers he would be including. The LC6 will accept two, four, or six channels of speaker level signal from an amplifier or source unit and convert it to a high-quality, low-noise pre-amp signal. It includes speaker level inputs, signal sensing inputs, level matching controls, 12 volt trigger output, and an input for an optional subwoofer level control.



Out With the Old, In With the New

The Bose factory speaker system was removed. According to Ford, the removal of the Bose speakers was not as much of a hassle as it would have been in other cars. In this G35, each Bose speaker does not have its own amplifier. Instead, one amplifier powers the speaker system. So Ford was able to remove the speakers and amplifier with less trepidation.

He replaced the factory speakers in the doors with a Boston Acoustics 6-inch component set. The 6-inch speaker was placed in the factory cavities in each door and the tweeter was mounted to the inside surface of the side-view mirror mounts.



As he was pulling out the Bose speakers, Ford discovered that there were four locations for speakers in the rear of the car -- in a quarter panel next to each seat and in the rear deck. He had to modify the openings in the quarter panels to accommodate the 6-inch Boston Acoustic speaker. He did that by cutting the panels to create a little bit bigger hole. As for the tweeter, this particular model of speaker includes a bridge that permits the installation of the tweeter in a coaxial configuration. The 6-inch speakers with the coaxial configuration for the tweeters were also put in the factory openings on the rear deck. 12 gauge speaker wire is used to carry the power from the amplifiers to the speakers.



A Sony DVX-11A DVD player was mounted into the glove box. Ford constructed an aluminum base to secure the player and flush it in position.



A Commander XM Satellite radio was mounted into the factory ashtray under the factory radio and an FM modulator was included so that the audio from the various components -- Satellite Radio, DVD player, and Playstation 2 -- could play through the system.



Three Boston Acoustics amplifiers are used to power the speakers. The GT28 amplifier is working the subwoofers; the GT24 two channel amplifier is playing the speakers in the front of the car; and the GT42 four channel amplifier powers the speakers in the rear.



The GT28 two channel amplifier has a power rating of 200 watts per channel into 4 ohms and 350 watts per channel into 2 ohms. It can be configured into a bridged mono mode to deliver 700 watts into 4 ohms and 1000 watts into 2 ohms. The GT24 two channel amplifier delivers 120 watts per channel into 4 ohms and 200 watts per channel into 2 ohms. It can also run bridged mono to supply 440 watts into 4 ohms and 650 watts into 2 ohms. The GT42 four channel amplifier has a power rating of 75 watts per channel into 4 ohms and 120 watts per channel into 2 ohms. It can run dual mono (two channel) and offers 250 watts per channel  into 4 ohms and 350 watts per channel into 2 ohms in this mode. All the amplifiers include a variable electronic crossover and an optional remote subwoofer level is available which works with all three amps.



The amplifiers were mounted to the floor of the trunk. The passive crossovers for each speaker component set has been mounted next to the amps. A center panel made of plexiglass sports an Infiniti logo and covers the amps and passive crossovers and the area is trimmed with vinyl.



There are actually two subwoofer enclosures. Each enclosure is located in the front of the trunk behind the taillights. Each enclosure is sealed and made of fiberglass and contains one Boston Acoustics GS10 10-inch subwoofer. The driver is firing toward the rear of the vehicle and slightly up. Since each driver is receiving a large amount of power, Ford thought it was necessary to fortify the enclosures. So the interior of each box has been lined with a resin/fiber mix called Dynaglass. “It dries like concrete,” said Ford. “It is very dense.” The construction of each box was a project in itself, said Ford. He did it in two stages -- the back of the enclosure is constructed of fleece which has been stretched over a frame and then painted with fiberglass resin. The front of the box is made of wood which has been fiberglassed. He constructed the boxes then cut a hole out of the back of each box to gain access into the interior and he applied the Dynaglass and then he plugged up the hole and sealed it.



The Playstation 2 is mounted in what appears to be the center armrest on the back seat. Ford actually used the factory piece as a mold like he did in the construction of the mount for the monitor. He covered the factory structure with masking tape and then covered it with a combination of fiberglass resin and fiberglass mat to make a mold. An opening to accommodate the Playstation console was then cut out of the piece and the new structure was sanded. Bondo was used to cover imperfections and give it shape and then the piece was sanded again. Then it was wrapped in vinyl and the Playstation 2 console was mounted in.



To add a little more sizzle, LEDs were mounted to the undercarriage and the front and rear bumper valences. The bulbs cannot be seen but the light from them spreads out under and around the car. 140-inches of neon is also used to highlight portions of the car. Neon appears under each seat and fires light forward and behind and neon also has been placed under the knee panels on the side of each front seat. So the whole floor is washed in colored light.



In the trunk, neon shines down from the bottom of the rear deck and highlights the plexiglass with the infiniti logo that covers the amplifiers and passive crossovers. Neon also highlights the amplifiers.



A back up camera has been flush mounted next to the license plate in the rear of the car. A back up camera input on the navigation system allows for the image from the camera to appear on the navigation system monitor.



The factory battery powers the system. 0 gauge cable runs from the battery to a distribution block and Alumapro capacitor, 4 gauge cable carries power from the block to the subwoofer amplifier and dual 8 gauge cable runs to the other two amplifiers. All the installation accessories -- wires, cables, RCA cables, distribution block, etc. -- are from Stinger.