I spent this weekend upgrading a friend's stereo. I put the original one in when I was in high school. I just stood there and cringed at my horrible installation. A punch 40 and a Teac amp, each with cheap 12 gauge power wire. The wire was pinched under the panels, and the teac was in the rear storage compartment, and full of rust. The terminals on the crossover were full of rust too. I'm amazed that this stereo worked at all, nevermind for 5 years. That was actually the second install I did on his car. The first wasn't even fused

Just to illustrate the difference, it cost him almost $200 just for wiring/distribution/accessories for this round. 4 gauge to a distribution block, and 8 gauge to each amp. Ditto for the ground.

His new stereo is considerably better now, but I'm still not happy with how it came out. I finished it in a huge rush (world series was on) and with wood in my eye (that's another story) so I didn't get the flush mount plate to fit worth a crap. It fit before I carpeted it, but I didn't leave enough room for the carpet. Oh well. He's happy as a clam. I should have pics tonight.

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The IROC Homepage
<A HREF="http://www.rit.edu/~jli4307/camaro" TARGET=_blank>
View the restoration of an 85 IROC</A>
"I didn't know a bored out Ford could go so slow" -Shenandoah

 

Does an Orion XTR in a 1/2" partical board truck box thrown loosely in the hatch well count as a bad install?

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-Justin-
T-Top '86 5.0L LG4 700R4 WS6 Now Bilstein equipped!
T-Top '92 5.0L TBI 700R4
My '86 Firebird Homepage
The F-body Model Kit Pictoral Archive (updated 9/18/00)

There can be only one!!

 

Or how about a 12" orion in a busted up home cabinet and a radio shack 10" sub in the other one? EVERYTHING ran with speaker wire,including the power and ground! I think I was about 14,maybe 15, when i did that to one of my older friend's Mustang.Now that I do this for a living, I really feel stupid even telling anyone

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"So,tell me Mr. Stang. How's life like living in the exhaust of a Chevy V-8?"
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'91 RS 5.0 TBI
New paint-solid black
ROH Snyper wheels-17x9 wrapped in 275/40/17
Eibach sportline springs
Flowmaster cat-back
TBI mods
355 implantation soon to come.

[This message has been edited by RSpeed (edited October 23, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by RSpeed (edited October 23, 2000).]

 

I have a Realistic Tape deck only installed using electical cord and duct tape...
the speaker is a Kraco (I talked my neighbor out of his single 6x9 dual...the tweeter on it is out)

 

My first install was really quite impressive, it was a pair of 12's (Brand changed a couple times, but ended up being Kicker Freeair's) up to the back seat (Infinite baffle) sealed really well from the front, a pair of C-6's in boxes in the rear deck (PITA to install where 4x10' came originally!) R5's in the doors along with GRD20X tweeters (Yuk, hard domes!) then a pair of R4's in the dash (4x6's were original) amps were a Punch 45 HD for subs, 230 SD, and 260 SD. Wiring was right, and amps were mounted in a neat door that closed off the back of the subs to make a sort of enclosure. I had good sound quality, and it was sort of loud.
The biggest mistake was the car it was in, a 1982 Olds Omega. What a POS, but it was mine and it was reliable.
I have gone through the regular truck box syndrome, bad wiring mess, and all the other crap, but in other peoples cars.
My current "other car" has pretty poor installation, but I don't want to put too much labor into something that I may not have all that long before it falls apart!
My Camaro is probably the best yet, and I plan to make it much better!

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Working on:
'84 Z28 LG4 305
Added dual elec fans.
145 MPH IROC Speedo
Building 430 HP 350
using primarily GMPP parts.
Block is in shop!

Starting to look like the Kicker poster child!

 

How about a Carver M-240 with 18" Cerwin-Vega Bridged full-range?
Box was nicely built though, 3/4" plywood with three 3" ports.
Same amp ran 2 M&M Tweeters with caps, mounted in the sun visors(!) and covered with interior-matched socks (yes, the kind that goes on your feet).
Head unit was realistic walkman without door, rubber band to hold the tapes in.
All loaded into a 1979 Subaru station wagon that was turd brown with riveted rust patches. Later upgraded to a Sony Disc-man.

Or how about a 10" Vega mounted onto 1/2" plywood, then siliconed into the spare tire well of a '79 Accord?

Beat that...

 

I saw one install that confused the heck outta me...

My friend was loaned a car by his friend, who was leaving the state for a month. The kid blew his amp, and left my friend with a replacement, and said he could hook it up. My friend asked me to do it..

The kid had wires going every which way but correct! He even ran the power wires from the sub's amp terminals to the interior amp's terminals! The ground wires were in a similar loop. I have no idea why there were three turn on leads, either. The inside speakers did some kind of "crossing" to each other, then back to the amp. His front left speaker was blown, and I mentioned "hey that might've shorted out his original amp"- considering I had no idea what the ohmage was for the inside speakers. The back of his "new" amp said nothing about being one-ohm stable, either.

I wound up just wiring the back speakers to the new amp. The kid got back in town, and told my friend, "Man, that guy did a bad job! He wired everything wrong."

I wired it wrong? What a joke. And this kid was supposed to be an electrical whiz? His engine blew a few months later, something about no oil, so I guess he wasn't that smart after all.


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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
---Think your car could be pic of the week? Visit http://www.f-body.net for details!

 

Haha, I still remember my first install...
All these people had told me "Yeah well help you do it, we'll get you set up, it'll be sweet." THEN, when the day came around, and I had my shiny new MTX amp, and mismatched crap subs...no one was there. No one would help me at all, so I rolled up my sleeves (mind you this is before i knew ANYTHING about electronice, or cars for that matter), and went to work. I had some 8 strand farm and fleet 8 gauge wire, no fuse, and a box that I made from 1/4 inch plywood. Well towards the end of the install (if you could call it that), I ran out of power wire. My friend who was helping me (he had never messed with it before either) runs in the house and grabs an old cord from a hairdryer. We snip it off and use that to run it!!! Well, that didnt work, so I went back to farm and fleet and bought more crappy wire and finished it off. Well it barely hit and I had been so excited, I didnt even think about how I ran the power wire...across the top of the radiator. Yeah, about 30 minutes of cruising and the coating melts off of the wire and everything dims down, and we all smell smoke...whoops. Well, I reran everything and actually kept re running things, and rebuilding the system as I learned. It ended up being one of the most beautiful set up's I've ever built, with a mirror with "And out come the wolves..." acid etched into it, and relays running neons and cooling fans, and a hand painted wolf's head on each side of the punch 200 mounted in the middle...it was sweet. Then it got stolen. hehe, its funny to think how things were and are...
Now I'm running systems about every week, reading and learning every little thing I can, and preparing the GTA for a possible run at Iasca...

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'87 GTA
Automatic 350 TPI
2 3/4" Flowmasters
K&N filtercharger
4 3/4" Glasstech Cowl induction hood
TPI intake air foil

System:
Panasonic DFX-99
2 12" RF DVC's
RF 250.2 (Custom
RF 200.4 Painted)
Sony 10 disc changer
Clarion Pro Audio 4x6's

 

i remember my first crappy install. It was last month. i had a cd changer installed at best buy... i have Blaupunkt's all around. This is where it gets crappy.. i got a wiring kit at cicuit city (everything i need) for $25. I got this PowerAcoustics 680w amp for free.. and two 8" JBL subs off a friend for $100. the box they;re in must not be the right airspace but it sounds ok. I dont have a head unit either, just me and my swiveling berlinetta radio. its ok for my first system, and only paying $125 (cd changer was a gift, Blaupunkts were from my brothers old car)... pretty shabby, eh?

 

My 1st install... ...1991, blaupunk stereo - wire harness, mounting kit - what's that! duct tape and electrical tape was my friend!! RCA who?? NO! - of course I used the high input lines!! I think it was a Radio Shack amp - impressed yet, wait it gets better. Radio Shack 12" subs, 1/4" plywood with hinges for easy access to my radio shack midrange crossover (yes I said midrange)- obviously it was sealed good... ... uuumm - no, but hey - I used insulation!
Jerry

 

The ultimate cheese system.

Years ago.....Just got a FREE car from the family....no money though... The car came with a damn am radio(no tape) and 2 front crapy speakers. What did we do. We stuck a single(1) radio shack 6x9 in the back window of the car and let it slide from left to right.....talk about balance. You don't even want to know what the radio was replaced with.LOL..... Live and Learn.....then make fun of everyone that doesn't.

I guess we do anything for sound. !!!LMFAO!!!

 

This isn't one of my installs,but one of a customer who came into the shop the other day to have an alarm installed. When I popped the hood to begin the alarm install,I noticed that his fuse holder was hot glued to the top of the radiator,with a blown fuse.BUT, instead of replacing the fuse,he wrapped a piece of wire around one end of the fuse to the other! I became curious to see how the rest of the install looked like,so I started looking around. The power wire at the battery was wrapped around the terminal,and it was nothing but speaker wire!The "power" wire was routed underneath the car to a hole that was drilled under the floorpan.No wireties,loom or anything.The front speaker wires were 500 ft. too long,so he just wrapped it up and taped it to the floor. Instead of pulling off the cover for the front dash 4x6's, he just screwed the new speakers onto the top of the grilles! But get this; all the equipment was good stuff. Kicker subs,Kicker mids and highs,Kicker amps and x-over,and a Clarion Pro-Audio deck.Some people.

[This message has been edited by RSpeed (edited November 26, 2000).]

 

My first gettho-install...i was 14 and had a Peugeot 505 sedan...i recieved a Power Akoustic amp and a pair of Spark-o-matic 6x9's on a trade and decided id try to install the stuff...the install looked real good. i installed the amp to the side of the trunk, ran all the wiring with ties and behind the trunk panels, then i went up to an audio shop so they could look at it. Power wire was way too small, had the high-level inputs wired wrong. Fixed that and then everything self-destructed a few weeks later voice coils fused, amp shorted, duno why.

Then i got my firebird....with jensen amp and 12" sealed box made of old countertop wood . actually sounded good, just looked like sheit hehe.

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~Sp33d~
(sold)1989 2.8l 5-speed RedBird w/ flowmaster, cold air intake, TRW cam. Audio system includes-Cadence component plate 4x6's/Cadence 3way 6x9's,300watt amp to front speakers/400watt to Blaupunkt DVC 12" sub.