Brent Mills isn't joking around. The Manitoba, Canada-based do-it-yourselfer hasn't left well enough alone since he first purchased his 2003 Infiniti G35. Although initially bought as a daily driver, the amount of modifications and additions has become such that the car only comes out in the summer. The Infiniti is already on its fourth system, all done by Mills himself, and in the time it took for us to take the pictures and write this piece, enough parts had changed that Mills had to send us a two-page list detailing the latest modifications! Either there isn't a whole lot to do in Manitoba or this man is really serious about his car.
A Dash Of This...The heart of the G35's audio system is the head unit, a Pioneer AVIC-Z1 installed in the center console of the dashboard. "Installed" makes it all sound so easy, but ask any G35 owner with a yen for audio about that and he'll assure you it's anything but. Infiniti inconveniently combines the G35's factory head unit with the A/C unit, making for one big mess if you want to do anything other than roll with what they gave you. The solution lies in a replacement JDM dash, which thankfully keeps audio and climate control separate (it's not chocolate and peanut butter, people). An AudioControl DQS 6-band digital EQ, which allows for the changing of preset EQ curves, was molded into the center console compartment using a little of the old Duramix 4040 and 4058, moldable plastic epoxy that hardens in just minutes. Most recently, a PlayStation 2 was installed in the dash behind two monitors, but more on them later.
Front And CenterSupplying waves to the front soundstage are two sets of Focal 165 K3P systems, each consisting of two midbass drivers and two tweeters. To make sure there were no bad vibrations, Mills first applied a couple layers of Brown Bread sound dampening material into the door (in fact, the entire car was taken apart and 200ft2 of Brown Bread were applied). Speaker enclosures, fabricated from wooden rings, cotton and resin, and reinforced with resin and activated silica thickener, were slid through previously installed door panels and bolted to the door frame itself. Then, the Focal 165 K3P midbass drivers were attached, keeping everything nice and tight. Lastly, the enclosures were painted red. The tweeters were mounted in the sail panels, painted to match the enclosures, with a little (OK, a lot) of help from Duramix 4040 and 4058.
Certainly the most eye-catching feature of the dash is the center channel, placed as it is right on top of the dash and incorporating the climate-control display. A 4" Focal 100 KP driver sits exposed just in front of the display, firing upwards towards the windshield. Observant readers will know that when the G35 rolled off the lot, it had an analog clock there. Mills removed it, deciding that space could be better used for a center channel. At the top of the dash display is the tweeter. This was all fabricated using Duramix 4040 and 4058, and the grille accompanying the driver. The plastic was lastly painted red.