I think in order to help a person with a stereo install they better have an example of their work to show you and not just back everything with words. It's a really good skill to acquire and can save you thousands over a lifetime.

Back in high school I used to do installs, but only for friends who already knew what kind of work I did. I had one friend that insisted he do it himself, since he was the type that never wanted to admit I was better than him at certain things....long story short, two week later I had to rewire his amp, subs and get the damn power wires out the door jam.

The only time my car gets worked on by someone else is when the job is serously out of my league, like valve work or something like that. But then it just goes to a pro

in other news, I'm excited I've got 2 12's and a 1000w amp coming in the mail

 

For anyone interested in checking out what the trunk currently looks like, check out my cardomain page at http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2959759. I just took a break to come in here and update and think about my next move, as I still have to re-ground the battery, and splice some speaker wires so they'll reach a cross over. I'll take more pictures when I finish, as I'm confident it'll look pretty sweet.

 

^looking pretty good man, i wanna see it when it's done though, btw you shoulda ran your wires behind the panels beside the rear seats, it looks way cleaner, and there is tons of space in there.
And as far as all the comments bout other ppl working on your car, i've had nothing but good experiences, my buddy who helped me to install my system also installed my alarm (mostly because i have no idea how to do either of these things). But he did a great job, and he was more worried bout my car than me. His work was meticulous, we spent almost 20 hours on the system, and we didn't even make anything, that was just the wiring and the dynamat. And on my alarm i think he spent about 8 hours doing that. The only thing he screwed up on my car was he nicked the tint on my driver's side window when he was screwing in one of my crossovers, i think he cared more bout it than i did. All in all aslong as the person doing the work on your car has pride in what they do, it should all work out great in the end.

Oh and btw blackack, my engine bay is now clean

 

Again spent all day (once we got power back) working on the car, this time wiring up the amp rack... It's finally done and pics can be found here: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2959759

Mitch, how are you able to access the area behind those panels? I'd love to do that, but I didn't know how to get back there... Is it possible without pulling your rear seat out? I ran the speaker wire at a different time than the RCA's plus I didn't really think to do that at the time...

 

Trunk looks real good man, much better

 

Thanks dude, and now I can actually use my trunk again...

 

Thank god, I can't wait to redo mine

 

yeah, i still need to re-do the box, as it's supposed to slide into the spot to the right of my amp rack, but it's about 1/2" to an inch too big... I'm not looking forward to having to change that, but once I do, I'll be able to put the nice trim panel on the front, and hit it up with some neons or LED's or something to replace the dull stock trunk light. That'll probably have to wait a couple of weekends, as Ike's winds just came through this area today, so I get to clean up all of the mess that it created for the next week or so...

 

i like the setup mattastick. had a friend who took his car to the ghetto shop and they did something like that. looked good for about 2 weeks before it fell apart. apparently they dont understand the use of screws and braces when it comes to builiding boxes. shop went out of business after about 2 years, go figure.

went to the bucs game today, from what i understand we won. i really need to take it easy i guess...

 

Revival, but I have more questions.

This will sound dumb, but are RCA's just like speaker wire, but for a sub? And how does one hook up the speakers to the amp without running new speaker wire?

 

RCA's are signal wire. They take signal from the HU to the amp, which the amp converts into usable signal that it sends to the sub (or speakers).

In order to not run new speaker wire, you're going to have to tap into the factory wire somewhere... This means you'll probably have to run new wire to somewhere (all the wires are at the back of the HU) so you could run all new speaker wire from your amp to the back of the HU then attach the new wire to the corresponding factory wire there... For all that work, you might as well just run all new to the speakers...

 

^how could you hook up subs to the stock headunit without pre-amp RCA inputs?

 

Use a LOC (Line Output Converter). It's the cheap and easy (read: not the best, but it works) way to add subs without replacing your factory HU. You splice it into your speaker wires (before any factory amp) and it will give you a place to plug in RCA cables to take to an amp.

 

Thanks man. Getting as much know-how as I can for summer when I get my subs.

 

I am sure there are many of us here that can answer any question you need too. I'm an installer by day myself.

 

Thanks. That is what I love about you guys. This is why I joined this forum.

Woa....totaly glad I just stopped myself from typing out a ghey speach on how much I love you guys again...

But seriously, thanks for your guys help. You and G22_Powered_YA1 taught me the sub basics last year on the audio fourm when I first got my car and was a complete n00b. I'll definitly hit you guys up this summer though so beware! lol

 

I think there's going to be quite a bit of stereo re-vamping this summer... I plan on re-doing my trunk (it's disgusting right now), I'm pretty sure Chris has a big project he's working on, I've talked many times with Mitch about his system (dunno how much he's going to re-do, but at least he should finish the false floor), just PM'ed on1wheel about him re-doing his... And those are just the ones I know of... Should be a fun summer...

 

to be honest bro, and i dont know if someone already said this im to lazy to read it all, but i wouldnt put ur sub on the same amp as your speakers, because if you underpower it your gonna blow it. id put two amps in, ur 6 channel, and a mono-block for your sub, buy like everyone probably said, you just wanna run the pos and neg from you HU to your amp, and then from your amp to the speakers, but you have to have a REALLY good ground. just my

PS: if anyone here can help me out here, i need a good pot for a ground, my subs go in and out on those big bass notes.

 

im actually gonna get 2 boston acoustic G3's, then im buildin a custom box with a port in the back so that i can port it through my skii passage, and then have my subs facing forward for looks and so they have more air.

 

Alright dude, there's a couple things wrong with your post... You can be alright with a sub on the same amp as your speakers... Either 1. there has to be a dedicated sub channel (like Mitch's Rockford Fosgate Power 1000 25 to Life) or 2. you bridge two channels to power the sub. the second method would work with either a 4 or 6 channel amp, depending on how many channels you need to power your speakers. For example, a buddy of mine wanted a system that didn't take a lot of power, nor did it take up a bunch of space. So what I was going to do was put together a system for him using a single 4 channel amp, a good set of components and an 8" subwoofer. Yes, that's right, an 8. It's all about the install. Enough on that, back to your post.

Your comment about blowing subs while underpowering them is only a generally true. It is possible to underpower a driver, and not blow it. The way that most people blow speakers when underpowering them is to turn up volumes/gains and this causes a dirty signal to go to the speaker. This, or they clip the amp, which will destroy a speaker... Incorrect settings are what blow speakers, not necessarily underpowering...

Wiring an amp is quite a bit different than you're thinking. The + on the amp is a wire that is fused coming from the battery. The size of the wire is dependent on the power that your amp will need. The more current your amp draws, the larger wire you'll need. The - (ground) for your amp is just a ground to the chassis of the car. You need a good clean metal spot to ground to. Then you take speaker wire from your speaker channels on the amp to your sub. Make sure your impedance is right. If you show your amp an impedance lower than what it's designed to run at, you're going to fry the thing effectively instantly...

As for finding a good ground, you should be able to clean paint off any spot in the trunk, and just put a bolt/screw through there... It should work just fine... Sounds like your problem isn't your ground, but rather something else in your system...

 

Watch doing a ported box, because if it's not designed right, you can really mess up your subs. The less resistance to the excursion of your sub (air pressure in your box) the more likely you're going to bottom out the sub. Bottoming out your sub is not a good thing, and will lead to your sub going boom before you want it to...

 

^bolts on the floor for the rear seatbelts, well depending on where your amp/cap is gonna be, but for mine that is basically the closest thing. And my buddy says he always tries to put them on the seatbelt bolts cuz you know those bolts are not gonna be ripped out or be moved by anything.

 

I used the fuel pump ground for awhile... Worked great. It's on the passenger's side of the trunk towards the back seat...

 

Use one of the bolts on your rear shock tower, best ground I've found in the trunk, and I've tried like 8-9 places

 

thanks man...

but yea thanks for all the info, i never said that underpowering you subs were the only way to blow em, just said that it is a way to blow em, and for the whole multi-channel amp powering a sub, i just heard my buddy who does installs for audio express that it was not a good idea, because when you need 500RMS to 2 subs, its hard to get out of a multi-channel amp, but thanks for the car audio lesson...

 

^again with that mutichannel talk. it is a good idea if
A. your sub/subs don't require a lot of power, or
B. if you get a mutichannel with a dedicated sub channel (like i have)
and if you or your friend think it's hard to get wattage out of a mutichannel amp with a dedicated sub channel, then you/him are mistaken. My amp puts out over 900W RMS @ 1 ohm on just the sub channel. For a regular mono amp those are even pretty good numbers especially the fact that it's 1 ohm stable. Mine easily pushes two 12" W3v3's and is only at 2 ohms currently and about 700W RMS.
matt kinda already explained this, but i just wanted to expand on this part so you can learn a little more, and..........................that concludes your lesson for now

 

well thanks... needed that lesson

 

no problem.
btw it's a better idea to get 2 amps, incase you wanna get more powerfull subs or speakers and require more power than the multichannel can give, so you'd only have to replace one amp, and not a whole mutlichannel with a bigger mutichannel or two other amps.
i learned that the hard way, but i guess it's saved me from upgrading a lot and saves me a ton of money