I listened to some Alpines, Infinities, Boston Acoustics, and Pioneers and I decided to go with the Pioneers. I got the TS-D160R's (6") and TS-690R's (6x9). They had some Kenwood Exelon's but they weren't hooked up. I got to hear the Pioneers with no amp and they were doing pretty good on only the head unit. I could have went with 8" subs in the back with some tweeters but I decided not to do that because there's only so much bass I'd need. I also picked up an Alpine MRV-F340 amp. My only question about the amp is, where could I put it? Only places I could think of is in the back or behind the driver seat. Are there any other places to put it? I like keep the original look of the car as much as possible.

It took me long enough to find a good place around this town because I spent all day looking for places and finally had a friend tell me about this place. I remember seeing it a long time ago but I forgot it was there. Anyhow, they're gonna install everything for like $5 in about 3hrs this weekend. By look of their store (it was a lot more professional than the other places I went) and their knowledge about the vettes, I think they'll do a good job installing it.

When I was talking with them, they said that I didn't even need to get those adapters if I wanted to use just the head unit because they can bypass the amps in the bose system. Is this true?

 

I donno where to put the amp in a vert... is there room behind the top???

 

Well I can place it right in front of the RL speaker but I like having as much space back there as possible. I was hoping that I would be able to put it under a seat but there's like no room under there at all. I'm fairly certain its too big for the passenger side compartment, too.

 

luv the color of yr car :thumbs: :thumbs:

 

What about behind the seats? You can move the passenger seat forward a bit and place the amp there, that's where I'll be placing my amps, cause I have no kinda room for them anywhere else.

:cheers:

 

12 hrs of installation and its still not done. :eek: I brought it in this morning at 8 and took a taxi home waiting for them to call me when its done. They originally said it would take like 3-4 hrs but they had to do some custom stuff. I told them I wanted to keep as much of the original look of the car as I could and they had to do some cutting to get the 6x9's in place and have the grill over them. It looks really good in the back and you'd never know that there wasn't Bose speakers back there. They couldn't do the same for the fronts but they did have to do some cutting and create some space to work with so that the 6" could fit. The speakers, wires, and amp are all in but they were just putting in the head unit when I left tonight.

They called me up saying that when they tried to disconnect the red terminal off the battery, it just fell off because of all the corrosion and because it was stripped. :eek: I'm suprised that didn't come out before just driving around because when they showed to me, there wasn't hardly anything holding it in place. So I had to run a battery out to them and was taking a look at the installation. One thing that pissed me off is the part of the body fender where the battery is, they didn't disconnect a bottom screw and broke the fiberglass! :cuss My jaw dropped when the guy did it right in front of me, too. I've been ultracool with them and they know it, so they said that if I wanted to, I'll just let'em know what it would cost to fix it and they'll cover it. They wanted to drop even more money off the system because I was waiting so long but I had already paid for it all and I figure they could just put it towards the body panel.

Least they gave me a ride home tonight considering I don't have a car. I got a few more favors out of them, too, for just BS'ing with them. I could probably get a deal for someone in the Phoenix area if they're interested. :cheers:

When the system is done tomorrow, I'll get some photos for you guys to show the installation and what they did to the body of it.


[Modified by Lord Odin, 8:53 PM 1/25/2003]

 

we like photos :D

 

SOB!! :cuss :mad :banghead: They were working on it today and found out that the head unit isn't getting any power. Power is getting to it but it just won't power up. So now I have to get ahold of etronics, send them the unit, and wait for the new one to come in. That's about a week without a radio.

I'm a little ticked at the job they did with the installation because they didn't even vacuum up the interior with all the wire shavings, wire plastic, etc. Its dirty as hell and I even found some screws and stuff falling out of the console above AC! :eek: They sure are messy. On top of that, they didn't align the shifter indicator right and it wasn't working. I fixed that and got those other screws and stuff out but it pissed me off.

Here are the photos:






I like what they put in beneath the head unit. I can put like 2 CD's in there or anything else. Finally a place to put stuff other than my cup holders. :D Probably the only bad thing about it is the trim isn't flush anymore. I'll have to trim whatever they put in down so I can have it flush again. You'll know what I mean by looking at the right side of the air conditioning controls.

Since the front two speakers are exposed, I'm thinking about doing the same with the rears just so they match better. The two in the front would look out of place as they currently are.


[Modified by Lord Odin, 2:51 PM 1/26/2003]

 

Three things I'd do.
One, build a box lid that fits over the amp and is carpeted. This will let you carry things and not hurt it. Make sure it can release heat, maybe out the rear.
Two, make sure they get the dash flush. Hopefully, the deck will work, and its not the wiring they did. Also, hopefully the dash is just loose and they will correct it when they install the deck. If not, it could be bottomed out in the back which means you don't have the depth and you may need to live with it or cut some vent plastic back there.
Three, cover the front speakers with black speaker cloth so they aren't so noticable. http://www.partsexpress.com has it available cheap.
Good luck :lurk:

 

I should see what kind of power I can run to the box because I might be able to make a carpeted box but put some computer fans to suck and blow out air for good ventilation. I'll have to see how I can hook that up correctly later tonight. :smash:

 

Where can I get carpeting that is the exact same as in my car? I don't want anything to look out of place.