Anyone installed the new kenwood yet? How much experience is needed for this installation? I'm thinking about giving it a shot in my C6!!!!! Anything would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

I did mine last week. Got it pre-wired from Dennis at DD. Great purchasing experience and support. Took the dash apart one evening, installed the radio and wiring the next evening, then reassembled the console the next evening. Total time, maybe 5 hours with a bit of goofing off. At first glance it looks like there is going to be no way to get all the wiring stuffed into that dash, but surprisingly there is lots more room than you think. Just plan ahead as to what you are installing and the best way to route wires that get them out of the way in order to save room for other wiring.

I had the Sirius adapter included so I stuffed the Sirius unit to the right of the radio, between the radio and the glove box. Then routed the antenna away from radio area and up onto the A/C ducting up near the XM antenna location. Then routed the GPS antenna the same way to ensure plenty of room for the rest of the wiring coming out of the back of the radio. I also installed a rear camera so I had all that wiring to run as well as installing an on/off switch thus eliminating the need to tap into the reverse circuitry.

I routed the USB, Ipod, and audio/video in wiring over and into the glove box for concealed yet accessible storage. Then started stuffing all the rest of the wiring and the radio in.

So far so good. Great radio and satellite reception on both the Sirius and the Garmin. Everything works great. Very nice picture quality on the DVD. We'll be leaving Friday, driving cross country to attend the C5/C6 Bash, so it will get a good workout.

 

Mines coming in from Dennis probably tomorrow, was wondering, where did you end up mounting your Sirius and GPS antennas?

 

I haven't gotten that far yet, read the previous post on this thread. That guy states where he put his satellite and gps equipment

 

I mounted both the Sirius and the GPS antennas on top of the center a/c heat ducting. There is plenty of room between the top surface of the duct and the underside of the dash. I just double sided taped it to the ducting then routed the wiring to where it needed to go.

Once you get the dash apart, you'll find plenty of hiding places for the antennas and the wiring as well as the Sirius unit itself. The mounting of the antennas on top of the ducting seems to be pretty common (found this out with lots of forum searches) besides that is where the XM antenna is located. I even left the XM antenna in place in case if I want to return the car back to stock.

 

When you mounted the GPS antenna to the AC duct did you take the dash cover off? Or did you reach up under the dash pad and stick it to the duct?

I'm installing my 9980 tomorrow.

Thanks,
Bob

 

In C6 the top of the vent is exposed when you remove the center console.