This is how I want my "ish" build thread 1997 NSX

Subject: Berlina Black / tan 1997 NSX-T


There's very little wrong with my NSX right now (depending on how you look at it). It does have some "must fix/repair" issues.

This will be my "build" thread as I replace some existing components, repair some nasty boo boos, and make some major changes as well.



Items currently in progress:
CCU repair by BrianK
sound system back to normal, and then some
Kenwood DDX512 (may either replace or buy the BT and NAV components), zeToolman v3 box, 10" Earthquake slim & more

Items next on the list:
repair or replace cracked rear lower valance
fix targa top plastic rattle
replace targa weather gasket (not leaking but might help with wind noise)
replace the drop in HID kit with OEM ballasts, ignitors, and bulbs

Items down the road
possibly replace the Taitec LW, at least straigten it out
possibly some Stacy sides w/DF CF side splitters
possibly DF CF side intakes
new side mirrors
17/18 or 18/19 Advan Model 5's (or 1 of 4 other sets of wheels I'm looking at)
Futura Brakes BBK
DF CF front lip
Difflow rear splitter
Tan to Red interior conversion :biggrin:
Different seats
NavPod w/transflective screen

and more.... tune in.

Subscribed

myw said:

Subscribed

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+1 :thumbup:

yes!!! I was hoping you were gonna do I build thread, Sub'd

You're in trouble, now there's a record :wink:

Subscribed!!
I may be interested in your 02+ side skirts and rear lip (if you replace it)

In for the build thread!

Brian

I received a white bedpan in the mail last week while I was away for business. Today I decided to see how well it fit with my Earthquake slim sub. Maybe I could use this in the passenger foot well as the speaker enclosure and woofer. :biggrin:

Thanks zetoolman for the v3 enclosure and suggestion on the woofer for your enclosure, and I'm just kidding about the bed pan.

Unfortunately the enclosure wasn't as plug and play as I would have liked. It does come with some instruction to file away this and thin out that in order to get the provided bolts to work with the woofer. Lacking in many of the non everyday tool variety, this puts a slight cramp in my plans. Maybe I can borrow my friends dremel tool.


It does look good though test mounted. The next step is to obviously mount the sub to the enclosure, then go clean out the old oem sub/enclosure from the car. Quite a bit of rearranging will be involved according to the install instructions zetoolman provided. Not sure at this point if I should wait to purchase the amp before throwing in the sub, or if I should go ahead and connect the sub to the existing double DIN Kenwood and do the amp next.

Subscribed. Looks like you have a good plan. Let me know if I can help. What wheels are you looking at?

what are the other wheels you are looking at?

Hey guys, still looking to swap wheels with Chris...Advan Mod5's

the massive 18/19s eh ?

Teej said:

Hey guys, still looking to swap wheels with Chris...Advan Mod5's

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Any interest in trading for my mercury silver 17/18 ce28n's? :biggrin:

This past Saturday I decided to mount my sub into the zetoolman v3 enclosure. Instructions though fractured, appeared simple enough and it should only take maybe 30 minutes or so.

Anyway, two hours into the project I started to lose patience. Ever try to hold a slippery bedpan shaped object between your legs while drilling on the garage floor? :redface: You have to file down the fiberglass inner lip so that the clips enclosed in the packaging could fit over the fiberglass inner lip. Well, I do not have a rotary tool so after I drilled the holes, I had to figure something else out. I ended up using the drill bit tip to whittle away the areas to mount the clips. This was VERY tedious and time consuming. So i get them all clipped on, and go to put the sub in place only to find that 6 of the holes were off and needed to be redrilled or adjusted. No problem...except more whittle time. I would have paid an extra $50 to have the edges filed so all I had to do was line up the holes and drill, then be done with it. On top of that, I purchased the suggested Earthquake slim for this specific zetoolman box (suggested by zetoolman himself) but the included screws were way too short. An embarrassing 5 or so hours later and a trip to Home Depot for screws that were long enough, I had the sub mounted. :smile:

Of course, this probably would have taken some of you all of 30 minutes. It probably would have taken me an hour if I had the right tools on hand. :biggrin:

On Sunday before the last Bakers cruise of the season, I decided to start ripping out the factory sub in the passenger floor and clearing away that entire area. This was like ordering the big fat burger on the sign and getting something the size of a slider. Not exactly as fun and easy as advertised is what I'm getting at. My goal was to at least get it secured in the floor before going on the cruise. Well, two hours later and it was time to close up shop and finish later. The entire sub mounting, and box clearing was a lot harder than I ever dreamed.

Heres a few photos from the gutting project...




After all the work, I decided to not install the sub yet as I still need my 4-channel amp that I have yet to purchase. I pulled out my head unit though to see what I have to work with. This thing is wired for sound already... I know the blue wires are for the door speakers as you can clearly see those every time I open the door. The purple wires...well... I am GUESSING they are supposed to go to the amp whenever I find them and buy the amp.
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you are correct teej

blues should be the speaker cables (you can easily double check by double checking which harness was used and/or just lookin up the manual for your specific deck)

and the purple rca outs goto your amp. what i dont get is why there are 2 sets of rca outs. i figure it should be one set (L+R) and i thought another set would be sub out (single coaxial)... unless i am incorrect and this design is for home stereos only. if im wrong then perhaps the second set of cables also goes into your 4 channel amp, after which your 4 channel amp bridges this second set of L+R together with LPF which outputs to the sub?

where are these rca cables routed to????

also is it not possbile to route the speak cable cleanly through the factory grommet of the door? that blue speaker cable everytime you open and close the door i imagine would be a major eye sore.

Teej said:

This past Saturday I decided to mount my sub into the zetoolman v3 enclosure. Instructions though fractured, appeared simple enough and it should only take maybe 30 minutes or so.

Anyway, two hours into the project I started to lose patience. Ever try to hold a slippery bedpan shaped object between your legs while drilling on the garage floor? :redface: You have to file down the fiberglass inner lip so that the clips enclosed in the packaging could fit over the fiberglass inner lip. Well, I do not have a rotary tool so after I drilled the holes, I had to figure something else out. I ended up using the drill bit tip to whittle away the areas to mount the clips. This was VERY tedious and time consuming. So i get them all clipped on, and go to put the sub in place only to find that 6 of the holes were off and needed to be redrilled or adjusted. No problem...except more whittle time. I would have paid an extra $50 to have the edges filed so all I had to do was line up the holes and drill, then be done with it. On top of that, I purchased the suggested Earthquake slim for this specific zetoolman box (suggested by zetoolman himself) but the included screws were way too short. An embarrassing 5 or so hours later and a trip to Home Depot for screws that were long enough, I had the sub mounted. :smile:

Of course, this probably would have taken some of you all of 30 minutes. It probably would have taken me an hour if I had the right tools on hand. :biggrin:

On Sunday before the last Bakers cruise of the season, I decided to start ripping out the factory sub in the passenger floor and clearing away that entire area. This was like ordering the big fat burger on the sign and getting something the size of a slider. Not exactly as fun and easy as advertised is what I'm getting at. My goal was to at least get it secured in the floor before going on the cruise. Well, two hours later and it was time to close up shop and finish later. The entire sub mounting, and box clearing was a lot harder than I ever dreamed.

Heres a few photos from the gutting project...




After all the work, I decided to not install the sub yet as I still need my 4-channel amp that I have yet to purchase. I pulled out my head unit though to see what I have to work with. This thing is wired for sound already... I know the blue wires are for the door speakers as you can clearly see those every time I open the door. The purple wires...well... I am GUESSING they are supposed to go to the amp whenever I find them and buy the amp.
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myw, it is an eye sore but it does look possible. Looks like completely removing the dash might be the reason why the previous owner opted to just have them visible as the oem wires are pretty far back in the black sleeve. I'll probably have to remove the dash when i do the interior swap so I will make sure I take care of the blue cables at that time, if they are not gone before then.

With regard to the double set of purple, perhaps it was for a two amp system...

i dont think think you have to remove the dash, but for sure the door panel first then see how much room there is in the grommet (may have to drill empty area in the door grommet then fish the speaker wire through with a coat hanger).

the purple cables, one end is connected to teh deck, where did the previous own route the other end of the cable (the trunk, under passenger seat, or did he just leave it all behind the deck)

Teej said:

myw, it is an eye sore but it does look possible. Looks like completely removing the dash might be the reason why the previous owner opted to just have them visible as the oem wires are pretty far back in the black sleeve. I'll probably have to remove the dash when i do the interior swap so I will make sure I take care of the blue cables at that time, if they are not gone before then.

With regard to the double set of purple, perhaps it was for a two amp system...

Click to expand...

It almost looks like the purple wires were connected to the harness, Was your factory subwoofer working? The factory subwoofer is self amplified and these RCA cables could have been connected to the factory harness to provide a low level input. If true, you can simply remove the RCA cables. I purchased a long RCA cable which goes from the front all the way to the tool kit area in the trunk where my amplifier is located.

You will not need to remove the dash unless you are planning on changing the dash for your color change. The panels over the tunnel are attached to the dash. Another option though is using vinyl dye, not paint, and you can dye the side panels black.

The factory sub was connected to its wiring but was not producing any sound. Another reason I stopped the install was because I needed to find the actual intended sub wires from that rats nest. I then plan to install the sub by attaching those wires and then running them to most likely the trunk area where they will wait for the amp.

There is an amp fuse around the battery area so maybe I should find all of those applicable wires and also run them back so they can wait for the amp.

Teej said:

The factory sub was connected to its wiring but was not producing any sound. Another reason I stopped the install was because I needed to find the actual intended sub wires from that rats nest. I then plan to install the sub by attaching those wires and then running them to most likely the trunk area where they will wait for the amp.

There is an amp fuse around the battery area so maybe I should find all of those applicable wires and also run them back so they can wait for the amp.

Click to expand...

Run the RCA cables (RCA cables for the left front, right front and subwoofer) from the head unit to the trunk area, 3 sets of speaker cables and a single 16 or 18 guage wire for the remote turn on for the amplifier.

Power for the amplifier is available from the fusebox in the engine compartment. If I remember correctly, the SWS-12 is a single coil subwoofer, ie it has only set set of speaker connections so you only need to have speaker wire for the right front, right left and subwoofer. The RCA cables should be connected to the subwoofer output, and the left front and right outputs of the head unit and this will allow you to use the electronic crossover built into the head unit.

I feel like my build thread is pretty lame compared to most others... but anyway...:tongue:

Last week I received my DIFFLOW diffuser. Thanks again TURBO2GO.



After watching the 2 minute YouTube instruction video, I thought "piece of frickin cake". I backed the NSX up onto two Rhino ramps, then threw the jacks under each side for extra support with fat bricks in front of the front tires. Yes, I did use a level... I can be that anal at times. :redface:



Installation was not as easy as I had hoped. The base of the diffuser did not want to fit over the lower bar as the video suggested it should do easily. My only guess is that the lower bar I have is possibly not stock as it is thicker than the allowed groove on the diffuser. No problem, (enter breaker bar). Used the breaker bar to pry open the area of the diffuser so it would slide over the lower rear bar on the NSX. This worked well, but the front of the diffuser did not want to slide over the inner lip of the rear valance. The valence from previous damage was pretty wavy which did not help things at all. But after about an hour and a lot of bad words, I had the diffuser on.



Afterwards, I was on my way to a friends house a couple of backroad miles away and after hitting a bump, I heard a KKRRRRRRRRRRR!!! Oh f__k me. I knew what had happened. I pulled over and the back fo the diffuser popped loose from the rear valance and was dragging on the pavement. I dragged it probably 200 feet or so before I could pull over into a dead end drive to investigate.



Now DIFFLOW did suggest you screw the diffuser to the actual valance, but here's the thing. You wouldnt have to if they made the two wide adjustable lips 3.5" inches long instead of 1.5" inches so that when the middle flexes over a bump, it wont pop off. It's current design has it grabbing the lip maybe 1/5 inch at the most.

Anyway my friend showed up and we used his cargo net from his Mini to secure the diffuser by hooking it on various points. He followed me home and together we mounted the diffuser back to where it was before. Then I took four bolts and secured the back. It's not going anywhere now :biggrin:

Car and diffuser look great!! You now have the back end all sorted out and IMO the best rear combo available over all!!

Sucks that the diffuser fell off... I actually had the same fitment issue up front with mine initially and doing it by myself sucked as well. From the start I drilled my diffuser on each side and put the 2 factory 10mm bolts through that hold the bottom of my valance to ensure it would be rock solid. Glad to see you got it sorted!!!

Also, I wouldn't be worried if the bottom is scraped... These diffusers are super low so expect to get some rub during driving as well. I actually took a small wizz-wheel sander and polished all of the back edges of my diffuser so it's polished looking. Gives it a cool look and evens out any scrapes etc.

"I feel like my build thread is pretty lame compared to most others... but anyway..."


No man, no! Good things take time. You just purchased your car you will get there.

nsxot1c said:

Also, I wouldn't be worried if the bottom is scraped... These diffusers are super low so expect to get some rub during driving as well. I actually took a small wizz-wheel sander and polished all of the back edges of my diffuser so it's polished looking. Gives it a cool look and evens out any scrapes etc.

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I actually used a 4" putty knife to scrape each diffuser blade that mushroomed out from the dragging. Came off no problem. Thought about touching them up with black but you are right, it looks good that way and its not like anyone is going to be under the car to see it.

Looking mean jhae!