white924s

installed the most hack job stereo I've ever seen. Allegedly, it was done by a Tweeters in MA, and the rear speakers look pretty cleanly installed (except they're sorta just drilled into the trunk carpet, over those side cubbies, so they're sorta attached by plastic brackets and insulating foam), but the head unit and front speakers are downright atrocious....I mean granted, I'm not expecting a show car stereo install, but the fronts are wedged between the door and the door card and the PO hacked up the factory harness to install his POS cassette player....


rrrg....ok enough ranting and back to cleaning this up and putting my new eclipse head in....Pics to come...

testarossa_td

PO and Stereo's/alarms/carkits....what a bunch of Maroons.....

FRporscheman

Tell me about it. It took me hours to remove all the BS wiring for the alarm (which was so poorly installed, the alarm brain was dangling and hitting my left foot while driving). Don't get me started on radio hack jobs. I feel your pain.

75ohm

Been there... done that. Spent my time cleaning out the alarm debacle, hack job of a relay system for the fan (original stuff works just fine) and a resplice of the factor harness to bring it back to the way it should be... you guys have to remember that there were no harness adapters back then, a majority of the installations were done this way on a lot of cars...

fezz

had to redo most of the PO "professional" installation - and gave life to AM/boosted reception in the process.

JimV8

Now calm down.

steve g

Who sells the harness side radio connectors the and DIN2 speaker connectors for the factory Blaupunkt radios (like the SQR 46) when the POS cut those connectors off the harness ?

white924s

rock, werd son....

ahh...just finished the install...managed to burn the **** out of my middle finger on my right hand (so i guess i'll have to be a little more civil for a while) and had a bitch of a time getting all the hack wiring to fit behind the new unit, but its done and i'm gonna go blast some tunes haha

pics on the way

Chris_924s

Dammit. I have to change my sig line again with another one of Rock's "Instant Classics"

I wont buy a car with an aftermarket stereo.

Rock

The stereo isnt the problem. Its the wiring.

The yellow car didnt have a stereo, but it sure did have a dick net of wires.

Installing a stereo wrong is like installing a toilet wrong. Eventually **** (wires) will get everywhere .

phil74501

Had a friend once that installed a cb in his truck. He had it wired into the battery leads. The radio was under the dash in the center. He ran the wire up over the radio and ac/heater controls. Taped it down to hold it in place. Up over the dash over the steering wheel. Out the door, across the pillar on the outside and under the hood. Everytime he shut the door it crimped the wire. Eventually it broke in half.

white924s

Here are the pics....



This is what i first found after I took the stereo out...not too bad right? well, looking farther down that nicely clipped harness, I found a bunch of spliced wires and a general mess...



This is one of the "custom installed speakers" that came with the car...doesn't sound bad, but doesn't really fit either...I'm not sure if i'm going to try to make an adapter to bolt it into the door, just live with it, or buy a proper 4x6" speaker...at least its an eclipse so it sounds ok...



Finally, after a couple hours of relaxed work, enthusiastic cursing of the PO's install (which i guess completely prevented the use of the harness crutchfield was kind enough to send me...that's an up side i suppose...) I got it all wired up and fired the radio up for the first time. Sounds brilliant

and lastly, the finished product -



I can't say enough about this unit...its eclipse's CD1000, and despite being their cheapest unit, the sound is really clear. Its a million times better than the old kenwood cassette deck that was in there, and its also a lot easier to use. Granted, I never bought the 924S to be a great car audio platform (it'll never come close to my audi in that regard), but it is nice to have a cd player and a good radio in the car. Up next, fixing those front speakers and an interior makeover

jjjr944

IIRC Rock, the yellow car barely had something that could be called a dashboard much less a stereo.

It did take with it my donated sunroof seal, so a piece of me did died with that car. But I'm over it now. Kinda.

Jerry

"Reminds me of a Chinese friend who insisted that the Chinese always say the most disgusting part of something is lucky, "Oh! you ate gall bladder! You have such good luck now!"

Rock

No no no silly that was the blacky

AR10

I wish my PO wiring was as easy as your`s! He removed the rear speakers and plopped a pair of Pioneers on the floor in the back, loose to just slide around! The wiring at the radio was a complete disaster! The antenna amp. was not hooked up (a common problem) and he apparently had no idea how to hook up anything else as the wires had been cut and spliced numerous times and when he was done only the rears worked and only in mono! What a F$%king moron.