Can you remember?

[sumone 10+ year member]

The first system/installation you ever put in/installed? How did it go? Don't wanna start another biggest audio mistake type thread, but what was your biggest problem that made the installation harder than it really was? This shop's gonna fiberglass my kick panels in for $65 and said he could install the amp for $100...I wanna try to do the amp myself...otherwise...I'm turning to him. But the first system you did/worked on, what are your memories of how it went?

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[BooLeaN 10+ year member]

The biggest error I had in my first install was not knowing that the RCA cable shouldn't go beside power wires. I had a noisy install until i corrected the issue.

Also, make sure you have good connections, I was a bit skimpy on my first try.

I would like to think I'm getting better seeing as how i'm on my 7th full install. Things are looking a bit cleaner.

Good luck

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

First HU install I had no clue what a wiring harness was so I was sitting in the car with a circuit tester, soldering iron and a bunch of heat shrink. Took me about 5 trys to get all the wires going to the right places. Didn't have a dash kit either so I made a trim ring out of painted wood (the factory radio bracket worked really well to hold the radio but the dash hole was too big). Looked like h3ll. Finally found a trim ring at one of the local shops and epoxied it to the factory panel and it looked really good. I didn't feel like looking too hard for a empty or oversized hole already in the firewall, so my power wire was a bit hack. I ran the wire between the inner and outer fender and then cut a slit in the middle of the rubber boot that routed all the wires into the door and used that as a grommet. There was no way the wire could get pinched, I checked for that, but it looked like butt and I wouldn't do it again.

Other than that, I had learned the basics:

1)Fuse the main power cable as close to the battery as possible, mine was within 8".

2)Run power and signal cable seperately.

3)Sand your amp ground point.

4)Be patient.

I went through more sub enclosures with that system than I care to think about before I got sick of building new ones. My first system was really simple and low powered (less power than yours) and consisted of a Panasonic CD player, an Orion CO230 amp (2x30, 120 bridged; these had just come out), a pair of Orion XTR5 mids, a pair of Orion XTR1 tweets, a pair of Boston crossovers that I got from one of the local shops for next to nothing (these weren't the optimal crossovers for the speakers but they ended up working really well), and originally a RF Series 1 10 that I later replaced with a JL 10W1 (these had just come out). Everything was run off the two channel amp and got more then loud enough for most anyone. Actually, those tweets were REALLY loud (even though they were 8 ohm and only getting 15 watts RMS) and would drive you out of the car.

Everyone starts somewhere and you have the advantage of being able to ask us on this board if you have any problems. I had to mess it up and figure out a way to fix it myself.

 

[missionpilot 10+ year member]

i bought a big 500 ft spool of wire at home depot, so all my wirin was the same color(blue). Some where between the hu and the amp, i switched the remote turn on, and a speaker wire, added a couple hours to figure it out. lol. you can only imagine how stupid i felt.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

That's about how mine went with the stupid HU and no wiring harness. I had the power lead running off the Illum. dimmer so I would turn on the headlights and the radio would shut off. Then I had all the speakers mixed up (before I installed the comps and amp) so the balance and fader was really screwy (think diagonal here).

"I got betuh." My last few have looked pretty good. I have been lucky (I'd be lying if I said it was anything else) and have yet to alt/engine noise in any install I've done that I couldn't fix in just a few min. We'll see how the SRT comes out. It's in pieces in the garage waiting for me to come home and finish it up.

 

[ronjon228 10+ year member]

I remember my first install... well at least it was supposed to be an install... haha. My cousin had a couple of OLD school Pioneer IMPP's in his car and said he would let me borrow them. So Im like, hey sounds good! I then got a second hand amp from my co-worker at the mall. It was actually one of my favorite peices of car audio. It was a Kicker 1250xi. Absolutely amazing amp for its time and I think I only paid 50 bucks for it. Then I got some wire.... MAYBE 8 gauge if I was lucky. HAHA. Of course instead of going through the firewall, I went through the door. Then, for the remote on the amp, I just wired a switch. I think my radio was also an OLD school pioneer single cd. After I got it all hooked up and turned it on it sounded good for my first install. But... that didn't last. My power wire had constant failings, and even fires a couple of times. My amp would shut off from time to time because I didnt know how to wire other than parallel. My head unit would turn on and off because I did a crappy tape job on the wires. Oh and of course my remote switch would always be acting up. It was a mess, but when it worked, it was nice and loud. Thats why I went through alot of alternators, batteries, and wire too //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif Anyways, to give you advice just follow a few rules.

1) DO RESEARCH!!! Its always better to have an idea what your doing BEFORE you start.

2) Plan ahead... get all the wiring, cables, etc. you need before you start working on the install.

3) Get the correct components (wires, cables, etc.) Make sure you know what you need and with your research buy quality parts, they don't neccisarily have to be expensive or the "best". Just make sure they will do what you want, when you want.

4) Ask for help. You have great forums (like this one) and your friends, etc. Don't be a boner and try to go it alone.

5) Dont be afraid to fail. You always will have some problems, even the best still have them.

6) Go for it! For god sakes, just do it. Dont whine about not knowing how or some crap... if you've done these things above you'll be ok.

7) Learn from your mistakes and move ahead. Once you got all the wrinkles ironed out and your happy, look for ways to improve. Every person with a car audio setup knows this step all too well //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

Basically thats my guidelines. If you prepare yourself well, by the time you actually start you will be ready for the job. Its a learning process like anything else. Just dont skip on the research, it'll help you so much and get your more bang for your buck. I've found this to be true in nearly every project I've undertaken. Anyways, Im done now. I hope that helps out!

Lates

Ron Jon