Terron's Altima Mashup

[terron]

I posted these on another forum but felt like posting them here as I would consider my work to my Altima to be the best I've done to date.

I ripped out the Bose radio in my 08 Altima but left my Bose amp. I replaced it with a Pioneer AVIC F700BT. While I was at it, I added in the Peripherals steering wheel module, a seperate DVD player and a pair of LCD headrest monitors. In the back, I have my Sirius interface to my AVIC and a US Acoustics USX 600D sub amp powering two Clarion 10s.

The amp rack and sub box were built and carpetted by me; this was my first experience in carpetting. The LCD monitors were also installed by me and that too was a first.

Now, on with the pix

I started with building my amp/media rack



Carpetted it



And put all the components into it. I left it larger than what I actually needed because eventually I'll install the HD Radio module and I left room for the tie-in for my backup camera.. currently on order waiting for delivery



This was the origional sub box I built for this car:



Unfortunately the MTX Thunder 8104 was too big for the US Acoustics amp, so I pulled it and its box out and earmarked them for a home theater project later on.



Everything fits quite nice:







I never took the time to take pictures while building the box for my Clarions, but I will take the time to say that it took half a day, two tubes of caulk and all the carpet I had left. This box turned out a lot nicer than the origional box for my MTX sub.

Just some soldering here for the steering wheel control module



Onto the deck..



Since Nissan doesn't make a dash face that has a perfect double din size with automatic climate controls, I had to make my own with a piece of textured trim.. it came out nicely I think





I never took any photos of the seperate DVD player, but its in my center console and has a seperate IR sensor in the cabin so we don't have to open the console every 20 seconds. The video goes to both LCD monitors and the AV/1 input in the AVIC; the audio goes to the headphone jacks in the monitors so my wife and I don't have to listen to Dora.

And some pics of the headrest work









This next photo is where I drilled a hole in the tubing to run the power/audio/video for the monitor. No I didn't use a torch, just a lot of metal slag.



I put a piece of plywood backing for sturdiness



And instead of using the thick-*** A/V/Power cable for the monitors, I just soldered on some Cat5e instead; thinner and easier to work with.



And, the final product



Final costs.. Notwithstanding all the trips to Radio Shack and my local hardware store, or the carpet and plywood I had cached, I spent 1200. Best guess estimate total would be 1500 or so.

Final thoughts; I had fun doing this; it didn't kill my bank too bad since this is what my wife and I decided to spend out stimulus check on. We are, however, not entirely pleased with the F series and are considering getting the Kenwood DNX 8120. It supports zoning so I could rip out the seperate DVD player, but the jury is still out.

[terron]

Tools I used, for the curious:

Ridgid 3/8" Cordless Drill

Bosch Top-Handle Variable Speed Jigsaw

Dewalt 5" Orbital Hand Sander

Hitachi 10" Portable Table Saw

Ridgid 10" Miter Saw (Chop Saw)

Kreg Pocket Hole Kit

[Rolling Estonian]

Nice work, I like. Very clean. where did you run the cable for the headrest monitors to the floor

[rjdmmfl1]

if you're going with the headrest monitor look.. IMO... blond or woodgrain headrest shrouds/brackets would look alot cleaner than the black ones used there....

[bina12834]

i hope you plan on tinting the sh1t out of your windows to keep people from seeing your setup

[rjdmmfl1]

now that I have 5% all around, its much harder to notice my two dvd players up front... my rear quarter panel monitors are 100% invisible... but that's black on black,,, these black monitors on a blond seat are much easier to see... but headrest covers like these should provide a nice cloaking device!!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWDVW

[LongBeachCoupe]

NICE WORK!

[Colton92]

I got the avic-f700bt as well. how do you like it? you got the new firmware update?

[terron]

Sorry it took so long on the replies, I took my wife for a few days at the IP in Biloxi

I got the avic-f700bt as well. how do you like it? you got the new firmware update?

I am generally dissatisfied in the F series even after the 2.0 update. I still can't get the new TTS to load Samantha and bluetooth is OBNOXIOUSLY loud with no way to bring the volume any lower without muting the unit. The unit needs work before I will be happy.

Nice work, I like. Very clean. where did you run the cable for the headrest monitors to the floor

I pulled off the seat-back (this was actually very tricky, the plastic breaks easy) and down the side closest to the center console, under the seat track and then did all my tie-ins under the console.. which was actually pretty much a pain in the butt so I tried to make all my harnasses in the shop and plug everything in at the car

i hope you plan on tinting the sh1t out of your windows to keep people from seeing your setup

I do plan on it, but $227 (local cost here) wasn't in my budget, so I am putting back a little money every other week for tinting later on, hopefully before the end of the year

if you're going with the headrest monitor look.. IMO... blond or woodgrain headrest shrouds/brackets would look alot cleaner than the black ones used there....

now that I have 5% all around, its much harder to notice my two dvd players up front... my rear quarter panel monitors are 100% invisible... but that's black on black,,, these black monitors on a blond seat are much easier to see... but headrest covers like these should provide a nice cloaking device!!!

You have NO IDEA how non-existant blonde/not black shrouds are when it comes to LCDs that will fit in an Altima headrest. I actually took more time researching headrests than all my other pieces combined. My options were either spending $1000+ and getting a headrest/dvd that would be almost wider than the seat itself or just not doing it at all. In the end I just decided black would have to suit everyone. I do agree a brown/tan plastic would have been so much nicer

As for the headrest covers, my wife is a seamstress and asked me if I would let her make some to cover the headrests; I turned her down because I know myself and her well enough to know we'd never bother putting them on