First off I am new to the forums. Hi. I am 20 years old, I am in the United States Air Force. I own a 1979 280ZX 2+2 N/A, 5 speed.

Now before someone shoots me in the face with a shotgun for opening another thread on car stereo installation/options, please understand that even though my question may have some parts of the other posts contained in it. It is not the same thing. Bare with me, thank you.

I love this car. It's a classic although most of you know that. Here goes, I DO NOT want to rip out my stock radio. I want to make it so it still lights up when the dashlights are on so it looks like it is on, but its really not controlling anything. What I want to do is install a CD player in the GLOVEBOX and rewire the speakers in the car. While scouting out my options and taking my car to may after market car installion places that either tell me its to hard and just wont flat out do it I am stumped. I look at the wiring on the back of the stock radio, i confuses me. So I look at another hurdle, what size speakers am I going to put in the back next to the back seats. Well crutchfield seems to think its either anywhere from a 5 1/2 to a 6 1/2. I have tried to pull the pieces off without breaking them but I get frustrated because I do not want to RUIN the look or the interior pieces. So what are the STOCK speaker sizes? From what I have read I guess there is no need to try and remove the stock speakers in the dash, so I wont. What I want to know is can I install the speakers in the doors without anyone noticing. I WANT TO KEEP THE STOCK APPEARANCE. But not the stock sound. Now it seems to me most of the people on this board are older (I am not poking fun) so I figure most of you do not car about sound systems and frankly I do not want subs or anything of that sort I just want good quality music and not some crap from 26 year old speakers. So I guess what I am looking is:

1. advice on how to install a CD player in the glove box
2. pictures or drawings of how speakers are installed in the doors
3. the size of the speakers located next to the back seats
4. anyother sound (no pun intended) advice you guys can give me.

Thank you for your help. I hope you understand my babbling ^ .

 

#1.... install it just like any other car stereo (or wire it up how ever ya want). There's no set "guidelines."

#2.... search the web

#3.... Rear speakers are 5.25" or 5.5" one of the two... you can measure them w/ a tape measure

#4.... Advice: buy a service manual.... it saves lots o time & headaches.

 

As far as the stock radio lighting up just keep it wired to it's original power up wiring and disconnect the speakers and antenna from it. That way it'll just turn on like regular but won't actually be emitting any noise. You'll even still be able to mess with the stations and stuff (but again with no sound). For the glovebox install I would go to Lowe's or Home Depot and get some Fiberboard or something like it and carve out something that'll fit snug into the glove box with an opening to house your new head unit. You can use adhesive to hold it in place and just drill a hole in the back of the glove box to run the wiring. Run all fresh wiring for the new headunit as the old stuff shouldn't be used even if you removed the stock stereo. It's just bad. Run a new power and ground and run all new speaker wire (if changing the speakers). And a good idea would be to mount a small amp under one of the seats to get optimal sound quality (unless you get a really good headunit). That way it's out of sight so you can keep with the stock theme. As far as putting speakers in the door goes, haven't tried it yet so I couldn't help you. I think someone said if you've got manual windows then it shouldn't be a problem but on power windows the motor or something gets in the way of a speaker. So you might be out of luck there unless you want the speakers protruding from the door, which would be noticeable.

Good luck with everything though.

 

Thanks for the advice, I have manual doors so the motor won't be a problem.

 

if the factory radio works, go with an FM modulated disk changer. i have a 10 disk changer that fit like it was made to be put there.
if you want the head unit in the glove box, run new wiring. had a 50 chevy coupe with the stereo in the glove box(did;nt want to cut up the dash). i used 3/8 ' fiber board, some odds and ends from the hardware store. covered it to match the interior and it turned out well.

just my $ .02, BJ

 

Just so you know, even though I'm an old fart, I was running a 2300 watt RMS stereo in my Z back in 1986. It was great at the lake. I would back the Z up to the beach, open the rear hatch and it would funnel all the sound from my Alpine 6 CASSETTE changer out to the lake. I had a high amp battery in the stock location in the front and a deep cycle battery in the spare tire well. We'd rock out for hours until both batteries were drained.

Now, back to your question...

J was correct. You should use all new wiring for the new stereo. Leave the old stereo installed and connected with no speakers attached.

If you want a really good lookin' install that retains the 'classic' look of the Z's interior, you'll need access to a TAP Plastics and a dremel tool.

Don't put speakers in your doors. IMHO it looks like crap and if you don't run the wires properly, they'll hang out, bunch up, get crimped and short out possibly shorting out your nice new head unit.

Get a Haynes manual and a Factory Service Manual and follow Rod's example by putting new high quality speakers in the stock dash locations.

If this doesn't get you what you want, or it looks like too much work, I've seen a guy that built and mounted speakers in the kick panels and still had use of the dead pedal on the driver's side. You just have to work around the fuse box on the passenger side.

The rear hatch speaker box from MSA does a pretty good job of keeping the stock look too.

You're best friends will be a #2 philips head screw driver and a 10mm socket w/ wrench.

Aside from new seats, 5 point harness, shift ****, rear strut tower brace and a custom roll bar, the interior of my 280ZX Turbo is completely stock with original working radio. I was planning to do a 'stealth' stereo upgrade on it just like you and I'll be replacing the dash speakers, adding speakers to the kick panels, replacing the 'behind the seats' speakers and adding a 'stealth' enclosure to the rear hatch and possibly using the spare tire well for a small to medium sized woofer all driven by twin amps installed in the cargo boxes behind the seats.

But that'll be next year...

 

Unfortunately, FM modulators don't work so well in densely populated areas with high frequency saturation like San Fran, LA, etc.

Mine worked great on the I-5 between the two, but pretty much became useless after we went through the pass.

If you're going to be adding speakers and amps and all that jazz anyway, it probably isn't necessary. You can get a head unit with CD input and DEFINITELY get one with an easily accessible 1/8" AUX input!

After I got my first MP3 player and had horrible experience with several FM modulators, I put head units with AUX inputs in all my cars. Direct wired into the head unit and you get crystal clear sound with none of the fuzzyness that comes with an FM signal. The AUX jack for the head unit in my Durango and my wife's Subaru are mounted in the ash tray for that stealth look and the one in my Civic has the input jack on the head unit so it just plugs in like a set of head phones.

 

I just did to my 2+2 what you are talking about. I bought a stereo casing from ebay (I think for RVs), secured that to inside the glove box, cut out the back of the glove box and it fit nice and secured. I replaced the back seat clarion speakers with 5.5s and mounted 6X9s to the spare cover and left side panel. I reinforced the mount with sheets of black panel plastic (same material for dashes). All of the equipment and supplies came from ebay. As far as the technical, you'll need a voltmeter to find where the "hot wires" are in the old stereo. Test the wires with the car off. When the meter reads around 12, thats your continuous power. Hook up the wire from your new stereo that says "to battery" to this wire. Then, turn the ignition to "ACC", test the wires again, find the wire that reads around 12, then turn the ignition off. The meter should read "0". Test it again to make sure that the power is only reading "12" when you turn the ignition to "ACC". Hook up the "ACC" wire on your new unit to the wire you verified as the ACC wire on your old stereo. Cut the rest of the wires (be careful not to cut the wires going to your lighter and cover them with electrical tape. Run new speaker wires to your new unit to your new speakers. GOOD LUCK!

 

One additional suggestion...

Don't use the existing 'battery' wire. This is the primary power source for your stereo system and should be run with all new wire. Depending on how much current your final system will draw, I would also use larger gauge wire, and run it all the way to the positive battery terminal.

12 gauge minimum and 10 gauge is a good medium but I prefer 8 guage for high current amps.

You can thread the new wire through one of the existing firewall grommets relatively easily if you exercise a little patience.

Good luck.