Gtr33 Remove Rear Seat And Parcel Shelf And Fit 6.5 Alpine R's

[grey pearl]

I am offering this tutorial as a diy specific to GTR33 owners who wish to avoid damage to their car and do the job properly where others who do it for money cannot spend the extra time to do it properly because it is too time consuming and fiddly, and because when I searched for info on this topic I couldn't find all the info in one place and spent hrs searching.

Tools required: phillipshead screwdriver,longish flat head screwdriver,ratchet with small extention and an 8mm and 10mm socket,a small jemmy bar or lever,a good soldering iron and solder preferably flux cored,and 250mm of 4mm shrinkwrap for electrical wiring,two people preferably, but one can do it with a lot of patience.

Time for two; Approx 2hrs - One Approx 4hrs.

Right, firstly put the 8mm socket on your ratchet and undo the bolts that are visible on the front steel tabs of the bottom part of the rear seat,there's 2, one on each side,then gently prise up the under side of the seat with your lever as close to the hooks that hold the seat in as possible,theres 2 of them about 2oomm in from each end of the seat,you can feel for the hooks first then lever close to them,these hooks are secured in a white plastic mounting which may come out with the hook but may not,it doesn't matter,they will go back in fine either way,once the hooks are completely clear of their mounting pull the seat towards you in a seesaw motion gently but firmly as it is a tight fit,until it comes out being careful not to scratch the car on the way out the door with the steel tabs and hooks.There is one more steel loop in the middle of the seat on the under side but this just pulls forward and shouldn't hook on anything on the way out at least mine didn't just be gentle until you get it out.

Next put your 10mm socket on the ratchet and remove the 2 bolts holding in the vertical part of the seat,you will find them at the bottom near the corners one each end,gently ease the seat back up about 100mm to let it clear the 3 hooks that hold it in at the back make sure the seat belt locks go down though the slots they are in as you do this and the seat should come out ,again be gentle as the seat is a tight fit ,put the seat outside the car and you are ready to take out the parcel shelf.

The speaker grills are connected only to the carpeted shelf you are about to remove so don't try to get them off separately they come out attached to the shelf.Firsty go to the boot and put your hand up under the shelf at the furthermost back edge of the parcel shelf and run your hand gently along,you will find that there are three small tab locks made of thin steel,one in the middle and one each end,these pivot sideways to unlock the shelf from the mounting,these can be very difficult to turn so it's easier to get someone else to push down the back edge of the parcel shelf on the inside of the car while you turn the 2 outermost tabs 90 degrees,leave the middle one as it will pull out with the shelf,next go back inside the car and gently slide your hand under the parcel shelf and you will find 2 door card push button plastic clips about a third in from each end holding the shelf to the car bodywork,it's hard but you need to gently prise these out with a long skinny flat head screwdriver,be patient as this is one of the harder parts of the job,you may have a look in the boot to see if you can push them up from the bottom which would be easier if there's enough room getting past amps etc,if you're rough with them you will break them out of the parcel shelf and won't get them to hold it down on the reinstall.

Now you can gently wiggle the shelf toward the front of the car and remove it but be aware that it is also locked in on the edges somewhat but it will come out with patience,you can bend it a little to ease it out just be gentle as the shelf can be brittle,now you can remove the existing speakers,again you will need your ratchet and the 10mm socket without the extention,there are 3 screws on each speaker holding the plastic pods in,lift each speaker out pod and all and cut the wires as close to the factory connector as possible where they go into the speakers as the wires are very short and you need all the length you can get for later,now remove the speakers from the plastic pods making sure you know which one belongs on which side as they are left and right hand pods,cut 4 pieces of electrical wire 120mm long and strip both ends about 8mm, solder them to the new speaker terminals on both speakers,I used slightly thicker wire for this, 3mm as opposed to the factory 1.5mm and will explain why later,now cut 8 pieces of the shrinkwrap about 35mm long and slide them onto the extention wires you soldered on the speakers,slide two of the shinkwrap pieces up as far as you can onto any exposed wire where you soldered onto the speaker terminals and shrink them on using either a cigarette lighter or a match waving flame quickly along the length of the shrinkwrap which shrinks very quickly so don't overdo it then place the new 6.5 Alpine R's into the pods complete with their extention wires fed out the bottom of the plastic pods and the two remaining pieces of shrinkwrap for the last two connections to the factory wires,do not screw the speakers into the pods yet,work on one at a time and place the speaker within the pod on the metal of the parcel shelf,gently strip the very thin wires of the factory wires about 8mm being careful not to take any wire strands with the plastic as there are precious few of them in the factory wire and you need them all or the sound will be compromised,on the thicker extention wire peel back 2 or 3 strands of the copper then push the factory wire into the extention wire end on to intermingle the two wires whilst keeping the diameter as small as possible to enable the shrinkwrap to slide over later when the soldering is done,then wrap the strands you peeled back around and around the join to hold it in place while you solder it, solder each wire making sure you put the two solid wire colours together as the solid coloured wires are the positive and the striped negative,don't worry about the colours,the positive on the Alpines are the widest terminal.Now slide the shinkwrap over the joints and shrink them on,then place the pod into it's original position in the shelf,it has locators in 2 positions and feed the wires into the boot area and place the new speaker into position in the pod,do not bolt anything in yet,you will notice that the Alpines have capacitor coils on their underside and the cutout in the parcel shelf has one flat side to avoid the shocker tower mount,and that if you put the speaker terminals in the front where the factory wires come off the parcel shelf like the original speakers were, the capacitors will foul on the flat side of the cutout this is why we had to put the extention wires on, so now we have to rotate the speaker until the screw holes into the pod line up and the capacitors no longer foul on the body work,once you have established the correct positioning of the speaker to the pod lift them out of the hole and screw the speaker into the pod using the same screws that came out of the factory speakers, then the pod into it locators and bolt the 3- 10mm screws into the bodywork being careful not to catch any wires under it and not to overtighten so much as to break the plastic but firmly enough to avoid vibration.

Now you are ready to reverse the procedure you followed to get everything out,but with a small mod to make it easier than taking it out,get the parcel shelf and inspect it to make sure all the foam and spongy packers are intact and where they should be and glue them with contact adhesive if necessary,it is a good idea to inspect it when you get it out to give the glue time to set ready to reinstall,put a small amount of vaseline on the two push button plastic clips in case you ever want to get the shelf out again and also put some on the 2 metal tabs that are at 90 degrees this makes them much easier to put back,ease the shelf over the speakers to avoid tweeter damage and put it back making sure you don't fold any foam packers on the way over the shelf supports and line up the middle tab at the back of the shelf with it's corresponding hole, go to the boot yourself or get your helper to rotate the clips onto the steel edge in the boot whilst making sure the rear of the shelf is straight all along the back of the rear windscreen,once you are happy with that push the push button clips into their holes ,you will find they go in easily with the vaseline on,and you can put the seats back in in the reverse order,I think if you follow this guide to the letter that you will have success with this job as I know how difficult it was for me not knowing the clip points and how many there were,good luck and enjoy the great sound your GTR now has.Grey Pearl.