Interior revamping project (various mods and accessories)

I am in the middle of my own project to revamp my Jimny 3's interior, made in 2012.

Intended final situation:
Upgraded interior primarily for "on road comfort" (a.k.a. "Pavement princess" vehicle) but with some useful all-terrain additions. This means keeping all four seats inside for normal passenger use.


The current situation:
- all seats removed;
- floor carpet removed;
- plastic sill covers on side door openings removed;
- surrounding plastic casings around hand brake and gear lever removed;
- all door trim removed, including moisture barrier nylon foil inside the doors;
- all lower side trim in the cabin removed;
- main wiring bundles released from body;
- all factory speakers removed;
- entire front dash board still in place;
- all upper side trim in the cabin still in place;
- roof trim still in place;


Planned modifications and upgrades:
1. Application of two-stage sound deadening insulation throughout the cabin and in the doors (stage 1 "alubutyl" on body panels and stage 2 "foams" on plastic trims and below the carpet).
2. Application of cavity wax in all interior cavities (doors, sills under the door openings, behind rear vertical lamps, below rear side windows, behind rear speakers ...)
3. Installation of a pair of front Hertz DCX 100.3 speakers (10 cm)
4. Installation of a pair of rear Hertz DCX 130.3 speakers (13 cm)
5. Installation of rear cabin lamp P.N. 36210-74F02-6GS including wiring
6. Installation of additional wiring (more USB charging stations front and rear, wiring for front and rear dash cam, wiring for concealed GPS tracker ...)
7. Enabling 2WD-L transmission mode by fiddling with some wires to the electric transfer box or to the 4WD controller;
8. Possibly the replacement of the factory 2-DIN Clarion radio with something better;


My first question is:
Are there any additional ideas on what to do apart from all this? I must have forgotten something useful!


Dilemmas regarding job 1:

There is a lot of factory applied molten bitumen on the floor.
It does not appear to be well adhered to the metal on "ribbed" areas. I am contemplating whether to invest time and effort (and risks of scratching the panels below) on removing it with the aid of hot air gun, or just to heat it up with it and press it firmly and hope that it sticks this time. If I remove if, I will replace it with proper high quality alubutyl sheets which will certainly adhere well, but they are quite expensive and should be therefore applied sparingly.
Would it be cost effective to to this? Has anyone removed the factory molten bitumen from the floor below the front and rear seats in a Jimny and how did it go?

I will certainly discard the factory cotton mill scrap which is glued onto the floor carpet (and already partly rotten due to molds after just five years of service) and replace it with proper closed cell sound insulating foam.

I am jut not certain whether to risk removing the roof trim in order to apply alubutyl and foams onto the roof, because I could crease the roof trim. Would it make sense to drive the car as-is- to a professional roof trim craftsman and have them remove the roof trim and take the risk? They are all used to removing already ruined roof trims so they usually do not care if they damage it during removal.



Dilemmas regarding job 2:

Is there any benefit in hose spray washing the sill cavities below all the door openings with water, and letting them dry before applying wax inside? If I decide on that, I would have to wait at least until June for the weather to heat up, and even then I suppose it would take at least a week to dry out!
Is there any issue if I just apply the wax inside those cavities now, over the existing dust and dirt inside?


Dilemmas regarding job 4:

Any experiences about cramming in 13 cm speakers into rear speaker position holes? There is enough depth, but I will have to widen the holes, but I have not figured the best method on how to do that.



Dilemmas regarding job 6:
Any specific ideas on what type of wiring to install (which type of cables) and also for which purposes?



Dilemmas regarding job 7:
How the heck to accomplish this with an electric transfer box and push button controls?


Dilemmas regarding job 8:

I am contemplating on the idea of adding a subwoofer, but I suppose it would mean replacing the radio, and not using the Hertz DCX 2-way speakers? What are the experiences of having a subwoofer in a Jimny, and where is the best placement? Which kind of front and rear speakers should be used with it?
In order to use a subwoofer, could I keep the Clarion radio and the Hertz speakers, and just add an amplifier into the system?

Job 1: the bitumen crap is horrible to remove, and only worth the bother where is covers a seam or join in the sheet metal. These are the weak points so effort to dig out and replace should be directed here.
The roof trim is easy to remove, you just need a large, flat & wide scraping tool on a stick to get it off. the glue is zig-zagged rather than spread out so its pretty easy to poke at it with the scraping tool. I used a wall plaster repair tool and taped it to a stick. worked well twice worth having it off as there is nothing in there to deaden sound.

Job 4: Be careful cutting any body shell around the holes for the rear speakers, this is just below the seat belt. some sort of spacers or relocation might be a safer option. There is room in the rear door for shallow speakers.

Job 7: Fit an inline switch to the vac hub solenoid (the white wires at under the battery everyone shorts out when the fit manual hubs. Wire your switch so it shorts out the wires when on).
Switch it on before using the usual procedure to get to low box. The 4wd controller will assume the hubs have done their job, then shift the ratios accordingly, but without the front wheel hubs engaged. reverse procedure to get back out.

I know hertz are good but Fit decent composite speakers to the front much better sound

Thank you both for the comments, especially to Riccy.

I noticed that the bitumen layer did not adhere (was not touching) to the metal below in the bottoms of many ribbed areas of the floor. I had to heat it up and press it in by hand. Even after that I do not know if it is stuck or just barely touching the metal. It has to be well stuck to the metal if it is going to do any vibration damping job.

However I am still reluctant to actually try to remove it. I tried removing a thinner section from the transmission tunnel. It took me about 10 minutes to remove most of it and about an hour more to clean up many small pieces which had left behind and which I had to painstakingly scrape off (and scratch the paint below).

Thank you for the solution for the 2WD-L transmission mode in a push button operated Jimny. I added your solution into the wiki (article 2WD-L transmission mode).


Does anyone know if it is safe to demount the front seat belts? There are ample warnings on them in a style that they are dangerous devices which are part of the air bag system and that special procedures are required for (de)mounting them etc.


Daniel30,
do you have a link to a case (a forum topic or so) where someone actually installed component speakers in a Jimny?

Bosanek wrote: I am in the middle of my own project to revamp my Jimny 3's interior, made in 2012.

Planned modifications and upgrades:
1. Application of two-stage sound deadening insulation throughout the cabin and in the doors (stage 1 "alubutyl" on body panels and stage 2 "foams" on plastic trims and below the carpet).
2. Application of cavity wax in all interior cavities (doors, sills under the door openings, behind rear vertical lamps, below rear side windows, behind rear speakers ...)
3. Installation of a pair of front Hertz DCX 100.3 speakers (10 cm)
4. Installation of a pair of rear Hertz DCX 130.3 speakers (13 cm)
5. Installation of rear cabin lamp P.N. 36210-74F02-6GS including wiring
6. Installation of additional wiring (more USB charging stations front and rear, wiring for front and rear dash cam, wiring for concealed GPS tracker ...)
7. Enabling 2WD-L transmission mode by fiddling with some wires to the electric transfer box or to the 4WD controller;
8. Possibly the replacement of the factory 2-DIN Clarion radio with something better;

1 and 2.- I have done like this more or less in the rear with bitumen sheets as I think that is where most of the noise comes from. Had a great effect. For the floor I would leave the original ones but where there is gaps under i would either remove or spray under with anti rust something. My old cars have had rust under there. For the sillis I would just blow out the dust with compressed air or use a vacuum cleaner if it was dry allready. I had a car for twenty years and had filled the sills with oil without washing first, and when it was discarded the sills where the only thing not rusted on it.

3 - I have had 10cm speakers front and rear mostly bad quality ones as they did not last long before they started to sound awful. I now plan to put a 16cm good quality front set with separate tweeters in the front doors. Removing the pocket in the front door cards and put a fiber board there with room for the new speakers lined up at the hole in the door metal. The door will get bitumen mats and the plastic sheet behind the door card will be replaced with bitumen sheets. The original front mounting place will be left empty.
4- I would not remove metal so close to the seat belt mounts as the rear speakers holes is placed. but with rings or spacers it should be possible to mount some 13cm front and rear if the magnet is small enough. Will look into it at a later stage.

8. Loose the Clarion. that is the best investment you can do. I have bought used pioneer AVH 2din units for my three cars now. Pleased with them. Adapters for the dashboard fascia and wiring on ebay. I am hoping that with using the larger front set and doing a nice job with installing them that the bass will be ok. I have no room for a subwoofer inside. I have tried several active subs to put under the seat but they do not last long and are not ideal anyways. to get it properly you will need a volume behind the speaker.

Remove battery before fiddling with the airbag and seatbelt pyro-stuff and it is OK. Had mine out and washed them to try to get them to return better but did not last long before they where slow again...

Bosanek wrote: Does anyone know if it is safe to demount the front seat belts? There are ample warnings on them in a style that they are dangerous devices which are part of the air bag system and that special procedures are required for (de)mounting them etc.

No problem. If you start the car with them out and unplugged you will get the airbag light on the dash, this goes when they are plugged back in. No problems afterwards.

They wont go bang in your hands, but it would be wise to disconnect the battery and leave for a while to fully discharge (as you would for an airbag).

Composite speakers are easy to fit, I used a plastic spacer that had to be sacrificed to get the larger speaker in the footwell then run the wire up the door pillar and mount tweeter on the dash, then tuck the cross over up under the dash and secure.

If you do strip the sound deadening, don't use heat.... It will be a sticky nightmare....

Use dry ice and freeze it, then it shatters and comes away easily, well worth the trouble of getting the dry ice.

sniper

Thank you all for your suggestions and inputs.


1.
I strongly recommend using the more expensive alubutyl instead of bitumen for anyone who contemplates on installing additional sound deadening. I wrote about all the advantages of alubutyl in the new wiki article on sound insulation (in modifications section).


2.
I applied Car System KS-200 cavity wax into the:

• bottoms of all the doors
  
• all the sills below the side doors
  
• bottoms of the holes behind the rear speakers
  
• bottoms of holes behind rear vertical lamps (there was considerable rust there after only 5 years and it was painstaking to remove)
  
• inner joints between the rear wheel arches and side body panels below rear side windows.

I also intend apply the same wax in all the chassis rails and behind the front head lamps.
Can anyone think of any other area of application?


8.
I suppose that I would need an ISO-Suzuki el. connector adapter if using an aftermarket radio to replace the Clarion unit?
As much as I would like to replace the Clarion radio with a modern fancy unit, I am reluctant to do so due to high risk of theft in my region. Not only that you lose the fancy radio, but you get damaged door lock / frame and/or windows as a bonus. They also like to scratch leather seats with knives if the vehicle has them, just as a "Zorro" signature nod.
Does anyone have experience if it would be easy or time-effective for a thief to steal a radio from Jimny 3's facelift console?



My additional questions:

9.
I am trying to remove worn and rotten factory cotton felt heat/sound insulation which is factory glued on the underside of the carpet. I used a knife to easily cut it away, but a thin layer of the cotton felt scrap has remained glued to the underside of the carpet.
I tried WD40, brake cleaning fluid, baby oil, paint remover, saliva, shit and piss and nothing helps at all to remove this final thin layer of cotton fibers from the underside of the carpet. Does anyone have a solution? I can not glue my replacement heat/sound insulation foam onto these remains, it has to be a clean solid surface.


10.
Those holes in the body below the rear side windows are quite large, and could theoretically serve as a very useful additional storage area. Has anyone made any practical use of them?

Single din in the glove box? The Mechless ones have a small depth to them now if space is tight, and re route cables from original radio would be you only option, I would imagine if crime is high in you area.

About 7: I really need this to help my old clutch. I'm just little worried about shorting solenoid outputs? Is this really a good solution?
With pinballs this would burn the IO card transistors quickly because solenoids have some resistance compared to short circuit.

muto wrote: About 7: I really need this to help my old clutch. I'm just little worried about shorting solenoid outputs? Is this really a good solution?
With pinballs this would burn the IO card transistors quickly because solenoids have some resistance compared to short circuit.

Mines been shorted out like that for a few years now (although with a stick t-box admittedly). I have done this to fool my vvt car into thinking the t-box and hubs are all still there and working. The stick t-box 4wd switch is wired to the 4x4 dash light through the existing wiring and ecu, hence needing to short out the vac hub connection (and a connection on the original push-button t-box wiring is shorted out also to make the ecu think its still standard).

hope that makes sense!