Well, after dumping all my money into the drivetrain and making a quick car, painting the car and basically restoring it, its getting time to move onto the inside of the car. Here is my current setup. I am a noob when it comes to systems, although my brother is big into it, so forgive my stupidity.

-Stock speakers, 2 blown.
-8-10 year old Alpine CD Player, broken CD Player and a 6 disc changer
-Lightning Audio 300W amp
-8 Gauge wire
-2 10" MTX subs.
-Misc Monster cables, which I am going to replace.

On long trips, the amp will turn off, killing the music. I am pretty sure its overheating. Probably due to the fact I am in Florida and it gets REALLY hot back where its installed. Someone else told me the wire is too small, causing it to heat up. When I restart the car, it turns back on like nothing happened....So, switching to a 4 gauge worth it?

Monster Cables going back in.

What Speakers should I use? I listen to Rock mostly, so I want EXCELLENT tone quality. I like my subs, I just wish I can reduce the power to them since they overpower the music alot of times. Of course, if I had 4 working speakers, I might not need to do anything. I am a JL Audio fanboy, so those are perferred.

I also think the connections on the amp are going bad, suggestions? I am open to all models. I dont think I need anythign bigger than 500W. I also need a cap, since I tend to kill alternators and batterys. I just recently upgraded to a Optima Red-Top.

I also shaved the radio antenna. I heard I can get a film to go on the rear hatch? I also heard a Pontiac minivan had antennas in the headliners I can fabricate into my headliner. Thoughts?

I am not going to upgrade the head-unit/cd-changer because I will be out of money by then.

Thanks for your time and opinions.

 

With a 300 watt amp, 8awg is fine. My bet is 1) your amp is overheating because 2) those two MTX subs are too powerful for hte amp. My POS 6-8 year old MTXs are 400 watts max, so i cant imagine yours are too far off. are you bridging them? if they're 4ohm like mine, and your amp isnt 2phm stable bridged, that would do it too.
As for speakers, id go for infinity Kappa 4x6 plates in front and 6.5" components for the rears.

 

Subs being to big isn't causing this. My bet is the sub are wired in parallel and then the amp is bridged. What are the gains set to? Does the amp have good ventilation? Small wire can cause problems, but like jovial86 said, 8ga should be fine for an lightning Audio 300W amp.

 

Yes, they are bridged. I didnt wire it, my brother did.