[Matt Ion]

Matt Ion wrote:
GS wrote:
thanks thats good info - I had a look at the harness and it looked to
me like there was a ton of bare ends, which to me meant lots of
splicing to the old wiring, not just a plug-n-play. As for buying a
harness and dash kit from ebay, good idea but do you know where I can
find out which models of each I need?

The loose ends on the harness are for wiring to your new deck, and both
deck and harness should have the same color codes (typically, red =
switched power, yellow = constant power, black = ground, white =
left-front, grey = right-front, green = left-rear, purple = right-rear).
The harness you'd get is the one intended for your truck, and should
simply plug into the factory connectors - no need to hard-splice the
truck's wiring.

This is an example of the dash kit:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Ford-Truck-F150-F...QQcmdZViewItem


This would be your wiring kit:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Scosche-FDK9B-For...QQcmdZViewItem


NOTE: I'm not specifically recommending either, only offering them as
examples; they may not be the specific products for your truck. If you
get both from the same vendor, you can probably save on shipping, or if
you have another stereo shop closer than the BestBuy, you can probably
just buy both there.

Most of these kits you'll find are made by Scosche - you can alway just
check their website at www.scosche.com, or even contact Schosche and
make sure you get the proper ones for your vehicle (from looking at
this, there are several different wiring harnesses available, depending
on the various factory system options).

Actually, it gets even easier... if you click the "Autosound
Encyclopedia" link on the main Scosche page, or better yet just go
directly to www.scosche-cars.com, you can select the make, model, and
year of your truck, and it will list the appropriate dash kit and wiring
harness. You can then either order directly from Scosche, or use that
info to search eBay.

ck is right, the proper dash kit and wiring harness should make DIY
installation pretty straightforward for you.