| Tired of wasting time and money fixing your stock power antenna that's just bound to break again? Looking for something cheap, easy-to-install, and that works? Well, read on... When I bought my Z, the power antenna was broken, but at least it was stuck in the "up" position. After driving with it like that for a long time, I was in Advance Auto Parts one day and happened to stumble across a glass-mount amplified antenna for $15 or $20. I figured for that price, I'd give it a shot on the Z – if it worked, it'd be a nice way to ditch the broken stock one. After months of sitting in a box in the garage, I finally installed it. And let me tell you – the install was easy, the reception is great, and best of all that piece of crap stock antenna is gone, gone, gone. Here's the skinny: I'm sure there's lots of these types of antennas out there. The one I got is made by Metra (AutoWorks) and is model number AT-UA200. Just make sure you get one that is powered/amplified – I heard the passive ones suck pretty bad. Just check your local auto parts stores. Here's how you do the install: 1. Move rearview mirror, visors, a-pillar covers, and headliner. A trick for removing the rearview mirror screw cover is illustrated in the image below. There are two tabs on the long sides that hold it to the mirror base assembly. Pushing where the red arrows are pointing tends to bow those long sides outwards and allows you to remove the cover. Try it with both hands while pulling down on and wiggling the cover. If this doesn't work, try doing just one side while prying down with a small screwdriver on that same side. 
This is what it should look like when you're done with step 1: 
2. Clean the inside of the windshield and mark outside for placement. Use a good glass cleaner or isopropyl alcohol. I used some white thread and tape to make a nice centerline on the outside of the windshield (using the tiny little black triangle at the top center of the windshield and the center joint of the defroster vents to establish points for the centerline). Taping a white piece of paper to the windshield also helps you see where the blue section is (I ended up putting my antenna half way down the blue section): 
3. Making sure the windshield and your hands are nice and clean, peel the backing off the tape on the antenna and stick it where you want it (at least 1/2" away from any frame metal). 4. Ground the ground lead. There was a stock screw in close proximity, so I made use of that: 
5. Run power and signal wires across passenger side roof and down passenger a-pillar. Keep wires flat and use 1/2" strips of aluminum tape to hold it every few inches. Make sure you run it behind the metal strip that the top inner windshield trim piece presses onto (the one held on by all the little screws). See above pic for reference. 6. Using a larger-gauge semi-stiff piece of wire, fish the power and signal wires from the dash opening at the base of the a-pillar into the area behind the glove box (see pic below). Then, run the wires behind the glovebox latch assembly and other dash support brackets and into radio area. 
7. Connect power wire from antenna to a switched power source that is +12V in the ACC and RUN key positions (I just tapped into the one going to the radio). Insert antenna plug into back of radio.
8. Put everything back together, being sure to mark and trim out a small section of the top inside windshield trim piece to allow the wires to go through (wire cutters worked nicely). If you look at the strip from the nice side, the only part that you need to notch out is the bent-over dorsal fin on the opposite side. In the picture below, the upper left edge is one that is towards the windshield. 
9. When finished, the antenna is nice and out-of-the-way behind the rearview mirror, not to mention almost invisible from outside the car since it's in the blue strip: 
 "The more "F" and the less "m" you have, the more "a" you can get." -- Brian Beckman, The Physics of Racing |
replace your stock antenna with an amplfied glass mount... - 
