[brianlanning]

I had a terrible time installing a stereo this weekend in my 89 camry.
I had all sorts of problems.

First, it was ridiculously difficult getting the 4 gauge wire through
the firewall. My old 86 mustang had all sorts of extra grommeted holes
in the firewall. But this one didn't have a single unused hole.

Then I couldn't seem to get the wire run down the side without making
it interfere with the seatbelt. I finally straightened that out.

Then I discovered that one of my two old amps was toast. There was a
lot of corrosion on the RCAs, and there was a lot of scratchy static
when moving the pots on the crossover. They must have been corroded on
the inside also. It lasted about 10 minutes, then gave me a diagnostic
light. My other amp (same brand) looks almost new and they both were
stored in the same location. Go figure. So I had to use the deck to
drive the corner speakers. (yuk) I guess I'm shopping for a 4 channel
amp now.

Luckily the other amp, a 2x100, hooked up to the 2 rockford 10s nicely.
They hit hard.

I had to totally disassemble the dashboard to get at the speaker
locations in the front. They were 3.5" speakers. They had this cool
enclosure, but finding 3.5" speakers was a pain. And they're only 25
watts rms. That may not be too bad with some extra tweeters and
midbass drivers and a proper crossover.

I found some cool 6.5" kicker coax speakers that sounded great. To bad
they were really 6" speakers. The dork at circuit city tried to tell
me that when the coax speakers say 6 1/2", they really mean a 6" woofer
and a 1/2" tweeter, so they're all 6". I laughed, then left, then
bought some 6.5" coax bostons at tweeter on clearance. They sound
better than the kickers did, but have a lower power rating. Still, if
I filter out the lows below 120hz, I bet I can over-drive them.

When I hooked up the back speakers, they would work until I bolted them
down at which point the amp in the head unit would shut down. Turns
out they were shorting to the sheet metal. :-P One problem after
another. The old speakers were round with a square basket! And the
speaker covers fit this square basket, not the new round bostons. This
car has been one ridiculous design after another. I was able to get
them to stick back on but a real enclosure would go a long way toward
improving things, air can leak around them a little now.

Now it turns out that the bezel int he dash around the head unit is a
little too tight. I can't get the face to flip down without working at
it. I guess I'll have to grind off the bezel a little.

Did I mention that none of the wire colors in a toyota make any sense?
Blue with a yellow stripe is +12 volts, grey was the switched wire. At
least ground was blackish.

So now I'm shopping for:

a 60gig ipod
An eq I can put in the dash
a 4 channel amp
a pair of tweeters
an outboard crossover
midbass drivers with enclosures
and another amp for the midbass drivers

better work overtime. :-)

brian

[Tony F]

Sounds like you're learning a bunch!! I've been there before. Good luck!

Tony


--
2001 Nissan Maxima SE Anniversary Edition
Clarion DRZ9255 Head Unit, Phoenix Gold ZX475ti, ZX450 and Xenon X1200.1
Amplifiers, Dynaudio System 360 Tri-Amped In Front and Focal 130HCs For Rear
Fill, Image Dynamics IDMAX10 D4 v.3 Sub

2001 Chevy S10 ZR2
Pioneer DEH-P9600MP Head Unit, Phoenix Gold Ti500.4 Amp, Focal 165HC
Speakers & Image Dynamics ID8 D4 v.3 Sub

2006 Mustang GT Coupe
Alpine IVA-D310 DVD Head Unit, Alpine MRA-550 Digital 5.1 Amp, Boston
Acoustics Z-Series Speakers, Alpine SBS-05DC Center Channel Speaker,
Amplified MTX Thunderform Sub