2009 Nissan Maxima: Nexus 7 in Dash, Pioneer, Alpine, LEDs

[choicewhitemeat]

Long time viewer of the website and first time thread starter.

My dad never drives a car more that 100k so he went out and bought a brand new 2013 Maxima right at the end of the year. I've worked my ass off my whole life and have never had a nice car so I went ahead and shot him a price. Here is my build log for my new Maxima.

2009 Nissan Maxima SV

Plans:

My whole goal of this car is to leave everything completely stock and touch none of the wiring or plastic. It is still under a good amount of factory warranty (my dad bought the extended). I really like the stock feel of this car and would hate to mess anything up. Parts aren't too bad to replace but I'm literally trying to spend as little money as possible. Everything I do I want to be completely reversible. This project will be a slow development but I promise to keep updates coming.

Parts:

Pioneer DEH9400-BH (Done)

PAC-PS Steering Wheel Controls (Done)

Beltronics v955 Hardwired (Old but good Radar) (Done)

Galaxy Nexus 7 tablet Fiberglassed in place of Monochrome Orange Display

Fiberglassed AC/Heat Display below Head Unit

Subs - Alpine Type E 10's

Amp- Alpine MRP-M500

Big 3 Knu Konceptz 4 Ga CCA (left over from old car)

Non Audio:

Stock Spoiler

Stock Splash Guards

Retint the back window (whoever did it before needs to be slapped.....bubbles everywhere)

Clay bar and wax

Engine Detail

Got the old radio out. Pretty much that same amount of work as my old Maxima.

New radio wired up and getting ready to go in. The Metra kit is kinda garbage but it's the only one available and I will make it work. Anybody know where to get carbon fiber vinyl that matches the cd player please let me know.

Got the Head Unit in and the radar hardwired. The Bose speakers sound a little clearer and less Boomy. The problem with using the Bose..... the wiring harness takes up my RCA's instead of using standard low level inputs.

I looked for rear view mirror mounts and the price was outrageous. Ended up going to my guy at the Bicycle Hospital here in Indianapolis and built my own based on a reflector mount from a standard bike. Only costed me about $5. If you want to see it in closer detail I would be happy to post a better picture. I ran everything to the fuse box underneath the steering wheel and started a new fuse.

As you can see when removing the stock head unit, the monochrome top screen become useless. A lot of people have just leave it but I cannot do it. It bothers me too much. So I'm going to move the HVAC screen down below the head unit using fiberglass. I ordered another Metra Kit ($10) so I can keep the head unit in while I mold and work on the screen. This is probably going to be more time consuming then expected.

The top screen in above and the bottom screen is below taken completely out. I'm lucky enough they come apart and Nissan gave me enough wiring to run it below. Have to try and keep everything in tact when fiberglassing as this part is about $150 if I ever go to sell the car. This is going to take some planning. Excuse the crappy T taps, they were from something different. I only use those for my steering wheel control module. Somebody told me it will add resistance and mess things up but I've used them for 5 years and never had a problem.

Started cutting and trimming the second Metra kit. Fiberglass here we come.

[bigmizzle99]

You can't tease like that! I need to see more!

[choicewhitemeat]

All I have right now. I"ll get a dirty car pic when I get home. I'm working on the fiberglassing when I get home until I got to the gym around 7:30 possible earlier. I'll make some decent progress and be sure to snap some pics tonight.

[choicewhitemeat]

Here is a rain shot of the car. Needs cleaning and some accessories.

Got the fiberglassing done. I made sort of a tray to slide the HVAC information center into. That way I won't have to ruin it in case I need to go back to stock.

Gotta knock it down a little more then make a cutout. Then it's time for some filler. Still deciding how to make the cutout perfect and how I'm going to match the carbon fiber dash piece. I'm wondering if some printing shops have the ability to scan patterns from plastic and reproduce them on vinyl.

[Brandonrcm]

Thats a nice looking car man. What percent tint you got on there? 5%?

[choicewhitemeat]

Thanks man. Actually it's only 20%. It came with the car when my dad bought it new (weird right). I think what happened is somebody bought it and paid extra for window tinting and when they came to pick up the car, their financing didn't go through. My dad was actually pulled over in the car for having illegal tints (if you are ever in Hamilton County, IN, the cops are the biggest dicks in the world). IN law is 35% in the front, 35% on the rear, and whatever you want on the rear side. The rear window needs to be redone because it has small bubbles all around.

[choicewhitemeat]

Got is all knocked down and found dead center and prepared for the cutout

After about a hour of Dremel work, cutting, and sanding, I finally got the opening I want....Time to figure out some rear mounting options. What I really am thinking is find some very mini angle brackets and use the housing holes already on the board to screw into it. Time to start brainstorming.

I also went and tried to find the fake carbon fiber print on the piece below the dash and it was a no go. So I'm just going to vinyl wrap the radio trim and the piece below flat black and see how it goes. If I don't like it, vinyl is cheap and I can always try again.

[tarasco702]

nice work bro keep it up. i had a quick question my brother has an 09 maxima as well and want to do something simular and relocate the temp display, so my question is was it hard to take apart? any special steps required or pretty self explanitory when you take the assembly apart?

[scooter99]

I also went and tried to find the fake carbon fiber print on the piece below the dash and it was a no go. So I'm just going to vinyl wrap the radio trim and the piece below flat black and see how it goes. If I don't like it, vinyl is cheap and I can always try again.

CA Glue some threaded inserts on the back of the panel and use those screw holes already in the screen. Shouldn't be too difficult to do. Judging by your skill set, should be pretty easy.

Looking good!

[choicewhitemeat]

nice work bro keep it up. i had a quick question my brother has an 09 maxima as well and want to do something simular and relocate the temp display, so my question is was it hard to take apart? any special steps required or pretty self explanitory when you take the assembly apart?

Taking the screen out is not that hard at all. Buy yourself some cheap plastic panel removal tools off Ebay and pop the surround around the monochrome screen off. I would not try to use a metal screwdriver. It takes a little bit of force and you will probably end up scratching something. Here is a tutorial below.

http://www.vqpower.com/images/howto/09bypass/2009%20Maxima%20Navigation%20Bypass%20Tutorial.pdf

One thing I recommend is disconnecting the negative battery terminal. Or don't unplug the passenger airbag warning on the right hand side. The whole unit itself can pop out pretty easily. Just get to the back of it. If you accidentally turn on your car with that unplugged, you will trip the airbag warning light in the instrument panel. There is a procedure to get rid of it, but it is a pain in the ass and requires like 5 minutes. Learned that the hard way. Also you do not need to remove the four screws holding the protective plastic over the screen to remove the HVAC and information screen. You just have to remove the three screws ( 1 above and 2 below) that screw in the metal bracket. DO NOT DROP THESE SCREWS. I learned that the hard way too and ended up having to fish one out with a magnetic rod. Once you have the unit out, then you unscrew the 4 screws holding the plastic guard over the unit. You will see how they come apart once that is done. The unit itself is a lot bigger than just the screen. It's probably 3 inches deep and 3 inches tall and 6.5 inches wide. That was has caused me so many issues is getting it to fit properly. I ended up having to take the HVAC unit apart completely and just using the white plastic and chipset/screen (you will see what I am talking about once you do it). Hopefully that helped, because I see absolutely nothing about how to's on this topic. A lot of people just extend the wiring and move it to glove box. I need to be able to see the temp especially when I have the lady in the car.