I'm going to attempt some kind of audio upgrade in the 80 now that it's finally back on the road (more on that later).

Not 100% sure what the plan is, I've got a lot of old car audio equipment collecting dust to pick from. Whatever I choose I'll need to run patch cables from the head unit to the spare tire area.

What's the best / easiest path for such cables?

 

Well I have just been back and forth in the interior of my car fixing cables and such. My car is a left hand drive euro. I will advise to use a cablecover/protection all the way to the back.
From the back of the stereo:
There's an outcut in the sounddampening with cableholders, under the carpet, downward on the transtunnel to the passengerwell, in front of the passenger seat. From there, either choose to go in the right steeltunnel/bracket that supports the seat-rail. It's open and exits under the carpet in the passenger footwell. You can also go on the outerside of the rail, under the sidecarpet and back. Or go by the inside rail if you like.
Backseat:
Route your way on the right side of the passenger seat by the cover to the seatbelt. If you follow the edge of this cover you can lay the cables under this edge. At the top, route the cables pass the seatback hinge mechanism. It will lay secure under the sidecover edge if you do this right.
Trunkspace:
When you are here you just follow the original cablestem round to the sparetirewell. Done...

 

 

Hello,

I just did this, I have a dead head unit Alpine CDA 7949 and I ran these 5 channel 12 foot cables on the inside of the center tunnel (pulled the carpeted piece away) ran them under the rear carpet and up the inside of the rear seat over to the amplifier.

I'm lucky all the speaker wire was already run and I tucked the front crossovers.

The system sounds phenomenal by the way!

Sorry for all the pictures!

 

For the stereo and electronics I added to the 928 Spyder, I ran 2 heavy gauge wires from the battery and 1 heavy gauge ground. I ran one 12v+ (one red and one blue) up each side of the car, the ground (black) up the middle, and consolidated multi speaker wire (white) up the driver's aide to the rear center console where I mounted the 1,000 watt amp.

Avoid running the power and driundnnext to each other to prevent interference.

 

For me, I run the wires in front of the passenger seat. Then I remove the passenger door sill, amplifier cover, seatbelt bolt, rear passenger seat and the seatbelt holder. This makes for a nice, clean pathway that follows the stock wires to the rear. Thick RCA wires to shield out unwanted electrical noise. Don't forget to run your remote wire as well. Good luck!

 

Good night, but people do some incredible work here.

Thanks for sharing, all.

Cheers

 

I've wired up a number of cars over the years, many of them pulled all the carpet etc... for a full install. There always seems to be a "best way" to run wires so they don't show or poke out anywhere. I figured some of you were down this road already LOL

I ordered some of those patch cables, they look nice and thin. I have more patch cables than I'll ever know what to do with, some costing a pretty penny back when I believed paying stupid money for such things actually made a difference. So here I go ordering some more!!

 

I've paid big bucks for cables too, read good reviews on these, very thin and easy to tuck, they fit flat alongside the tunnel and rear seat, no audio interference either, you'll be happy.