Complete Installation Guide

Covering Removal of:
GearKnob & Surround Trim
Center Console Trim
Head Unit
Carpet, Rear Seat & Lower seatbelt mounting bracket
Boot  trim back panel

Making an Amplifier board
Fitting an Amplifier to the board
Wiring locating
& Refreshments 

I.C.E Installation

Here I will start at the front, working to the rear of the car, keeping door and shelf speakers running from the head unit, alternatively you can "amp up" the rear speakers if desired.

1. Make sure you have any alarm / immobiliser codes at hand.
2. Disconnect battery negative terminal from inside the boot
3. Remove ashtray and unscrew x2 screws
4. Unscrew gear knob by turning counter clockwise – this may be very tight in some cases
5. From the 2 corners of the gear stick surround console, prise upward until all the clips have disconnected. Disconnect cigarette lighter plugs and remove the trim piece.
6. Unscrew 3 screws from lower area of the center console
7. Tricky bit – working from the bottom right corner, gently prise the console away, do this evenly side per side. It’s a bit tricky the first few times. The plastic surround may be brittle so don’t be too heavy handed.
8. Once you have a decent amount of clearance, disconnect the 5 plug sockets from the back of the center surround & part dash, and the air pipe / tube.
9. Lift the console  & tilt it until the heater vents are cleared out, store this safely out of harms way.
10. Unscrew the bottom right screw, followed by top right screw / bolt. A 7mm socket (1/4” drive ideally) may be used to remove if it doesn’t budge to begin with.
11. Pull out the head unit & lower stow cabin.
12. Spaghetti Junction lays ahead – a mass of wires. Unclip the head unit harness (standard white sockets, a “ready to go” loom may of already been fitted)
13. Disconnect aerial wire from the back of the head unit
14. Unscrew the 8 screws that fix the head unit to the cage / cradle.
15. Remove the head unit.

If your only doing a head unit change then this is as far as you need to read – if your installing Amps, RCA’s etc then read on.

16. Unscrew the plastic nut by the passenger side kick panel, and remove the panel.
17.  Prise the “Skyline” doorsill panel upwards to remove and lift the carpet up so you can run the RCA leads & remote lead under it.
18. Unbolt the 12mm bolt from the lower part of the rear seat at either side, and prise the seat upwards, a lever bar may be needed at this point for some “persuasion”
19. Unscrew the seat belt lower mount bolts (14mm) and make a note of the order the washers came off in.
20. Working from the boot, feed an opened coat hangar through the left hand side of the battery. You might have to turn the shape of the head from a “ ? “ shape to a “V” shape.
21. Feed all your wires from the back of the head unit area, under the carpet making sure there are no areas where wire may be caught or pulled tight by other components or passengers!
22. Using the coat hangar, attach the RCA & remote lead with some insulating tape, and pull the coat hangar from the boot area until all the slack has been taken out of the wire. This will give you an idea of where to fit the amp, what limitations you have.
23. You can now re fit the seat, bolts, carpet all the way through, seat belt lower mounting bracket, and the doorsill. And then head unit to cradle, cradle to console and so on until your back to the beginning.
24. Make yourself a cup of tea, or coffee, take a break. Breaks are just as important.

Constructing a backboard to mount the amplifier on to

You will need a Jig Saw, a work bench of some sort, 5’x 4’ piece of MDF board, 13mm Thickness is fine, and a Drill with a 10mm & 13mm wood bits, marker pen. x2 bolts (8mm thread thickness) x 2 nuts, and 4 washers.

1. Lay the MDF on the workbench
2. Lay the original back board on top of the MDF, and trace the outline with a marker pen
3. Plug the Jig Saw into the mains, carefully start around near an edge and follow the trace marks, remember to stop from time to time and make sure your not about to go into the workbench.
4. Once you’ve cut it out, see how it fits, and alter as necessary.
5. There are 2 holes in the top right and left corners, match up as best as possible where to drill holes in the MDF
6. Measure up the amount of cable needed to power the amplifier, and the earth wire as well; in accordance to where on the board you will fit the amplifier.
   Make sure none of the screws used to fit the amp are making contact with metal, shorter screws may be necessary or originals cut down to size.
7. Drill holes into the board using the wood bits, for amp to speaker cables, RCA & Remote cables, and also power or earth leads.

Now back to where I left off

8. Fit the amp to speaker cables, RCA & Remote leads, Power and negative straps, fitting the fuse in the power line in last, unless its not accessible when in step 9.
9. Finally, put a washer on the bolts, and feed them through the top holes made in step 5, add another washer to each bolt on the outside (facing you) and then finally the nut, to hold it all together.
10. Have another brew.

Now to the next chapter – Setting up the System