Thanks Chris, Your timing is impeccable. Only today I ordered a mechless unit (Pioneer, but can change to Alpine) to separate and wire in this fashion. I had intended to solder directly to the face plate as had been unable to find the connectors. I have been looking unsuccessfully on the Pacparts site you mentioned. Do you have a part number or description for the head connectors. Do our cars have an Amp or do they use the inbuilt Sony Ideally I am after a very plain looking head unit if anyone has any suggestions- Everything looks very gawdy, would have preffered something similar looking to early Nakamichi or even Bosch, VDO or Becker but struggling to find Many Thanks for your efforts - I will be ordering your plastic adaptor. Cheers Scott
001 ALP-09-18716Z01 Connector (Face Assy) $3.57 002 ALP-09-18738Z01 Connector $3.80 Their search function doesn't work well by part number, search by model: UTE62BT I bought 2 of each (just in case) I may have them that I can send you. There is a 2 channel amp in the trunk that powers the rear 4 speakers, and the head unit powers the 4 fronts. Run rear out from the Alpine via RCA with the existing cable, then you have to make the connection for the fronts. I tried to find a Molex that would work, but ended up having to cut wires to solder connections to the head unit. The entire thing is on a pig tail, so if you want to go back to stock, buy an extra one to keep with the original unit. Note, there are 2 power (yellow,) 2 remote (blue and blue/white,) and 2 ground cables (black) that go to the factory head. You only need 1 of those for the Alpine.
how easy is to get a new cable through from the rear trunk to the new head unit - did you follow the lines of the original cables - past the field tank and under the seats I presume ?
Paint I used on the ash tray and A/C surround - looks identical colour to everything else to me when its on (picture here looks a little dark, but I did take the original ash tray into the car shop where I bought the paint to match it up) Image Unavailable, Please Login
The rear seats have to come out, as does the center console. There are two grommets in the rear driver's wheel well that lead to the trunk. On the trunk side, the carpet is attached with velcro and can be pulled back after the taillight cover and stereo cover are removed. I'll update with pictures once my interior comes back.
Interested in pics & price range as well. My 95 456 GT is holding up, but definitely would like a go-to source for interior leather when the time comes in next few years to refresh the interior. John
you may want to think about adding daytona stripes in the middle sections. A local shop near me, wanted £4k to add them to my car.
remove carpet and panel at rear of boot (trunk), to reveal cables going over wheel arch (photo 1) remove seat bottom, two bolts at bottom with allen heads hidden under carpet remove seat back - one bolt in centre, and one at side remove side panel - 2 bolts at bottom plus small screw at front bottom, then pull towards front of door. pull back felt which is glued on with tacky adhesive, to reveal 2 cable holes: (photo 2 and 3) Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
tried it in the boot (trunk), worked fine, until I closed the lid - then it becomes a faraday cage, so no signals get out. So it needs mounting in the passenger compartment somewhere - hence finding the cabling route above. I'm presuming mounting it behind one of the interior panels (fibreglass with leather), it would still work ok - any experience ?
Its an audio receiver - basically allows you phone to play music through your stereo audio input example.. Bluetooth Audio Music Receiver Adapter 3.5mm Wireless For iPod iPhone Speaker B | eBay
I have no experience, have a few ideas: It looks like you could run it to the third brake light, which is where I'm running my satellite antenna. Perhaps under the rear center console, there's plenty of space there. When I pulled my interior apart, there was a tracking device installed in the center console to the side of the gear shift which also seems like a viable option. If you want the least interior work, you could also run a cable under the driver's door sill to the front and then install near the hood release, or under the side kick panel on the driver's side.
Hi Chris, as the cables go over the rear wheel and appear behind the door, the place I think I will mount them is behind the door panel (which is fibreglass and leather), and after a little research bluetooth seems to work through fibreglass according to a lot of boat owner sites I've been on today. Putting it here, shortens the cable lengths to the boot (trunk) where the main hifi unit is. The rear shelf looks close, but I think follows the same root from the boot (trunk). gear shift on my RHD is more central in the console than on a LHD, so I'm tempted to put my tracker near the bluetooth unit in the rear side panel behind the door again - assuming I can find permanent power in the boot - I've found ignition switched power for the bluetooth unit on the amplifier. Alternatively I could take the power off the rear cigarette lighter which is unused.
Chris, are you having the same issue as Mr Mazzonette, or does your phone talk to the radio via Bluetooth OK? Or do you also suffer from the Gaussian cage issue. I am collecting a radio today and intend to fit in boot, although BT phone connectivity is desirable. Is your installation complete and operational? Is the unit fully functional with the long ribbon cable and were you able to run the ribbon cable with the connectors attached? Cheers Scott
Mine is working and tested for control and sound only at this point. I can pretty easily check bluetooth in the next couple of days.
So OCD got the better of me, and while I was in there I decided to take out my entire interior and get rid of the 20+ years of accumulated smell and grime. I sent the carpets to Topsonline and they are going to make the bound carpets for me while I am working on the cut and glued parts. We found that the German velour carpets seem to be a closer match than Wilton wool, but he can get either. Most of the carpets are just glued to fiberglass and then screwed into place. Because there is no manufacturer of accurate floor mats, I worked with Vic to get the correct pattern including "common sense" fasteners in the correct locations. Pics to follow when I get all the parts back
It would be great if Topsonline would then add "456 Carpet Set" to their website. Would seem like after working through the measurements and production for the first set, fulfilling future orders would be easy. Probably many others that would like to "get rid of the 20+ years of accumulated smell and grime".
I suspect Topsonline is planning on it. I'm giving them all of my parts for an extended period of time so they can make patterns. (not the greatest sacrifice as I'm waiting for Delta Vee.) Besides the smell in the carpet (my car had a leaky tank at one point) my carpets were starting to break down. The wool gets brittle and because many of the parts have no backing they start to disintegrate.
How did the carpet turn out? Unfortunately, I never did see "456 Carpet Set" added to their website. Maybe I just call over there and hope to get connected with the right person.
The carpet set is very good and he has a pattern for original floor mats. We made a couple of templates for mats, so you should confirm with Vic that he has the latest pattern in his shop. Because there is no moulded carpet for the 456, there's a lot of work on your end to glue down, trim, cut and install the pieces. Getting it right and the screws in the factory holes takes patience.
Hi, Ok. I see you already took that route, which of course is doable, but just like others have pointed out: 1. yes, there is an amp in the trunk, and no matter what you decide to do, you should open and get familiar with what you have in there and what you will want to use or replace. But the amp only runs the rear channels going to four speakers. The four front speakers are fed by the radio unit amp only, and that typically fails in these cars after 10-15 years. It's easy to replace the rear amp and the CD unit etc myt it is not so easy to replace the radio/front unit and amp. Of course everything is possible, but may not be so easy and again IMO the original setup is really good once everything has been fixed. Ok, bluetooth, Sirius, satellite, GPS etc stuff wold then either have to be added through the XA-300 with audio only or Unilink compatible controls or then you need a completely different setup. IMO it was easiest to use Sony or at least Unilink. compatible stuff. I left all the wiring original, added the Sony XA-300 and had the original units reconditioned at marginal cost. I also added a thermally operated set of two computer fans, as I believe the trunk gets pretty hot when driving hard and the original setup has absolutely no ventilation whatsoever, so the caps and other electronic components get fried anyways. On warm days I have noticed a small humm from the LH rear quarter which tells me that the fans are running in the trunk. 2. If you decide to use different non-compatible equipment then you will need to rewire almost everything, Ferrari and Sony did not really document this nicely, but fortunately it has been documented well here on fchat. you can get connectors that fit the original audio harness and make your own cable to attach, of course. I would not go through the trouble of completely replacing all wires, it could get messy s the tweeters are in the dash, the front speakers in the doors and the you have rear speaker both under the rear seat and in the rear window shelf/c pillars. Cheers!
