im working up a system right now myself. the stuff isnt even delivered to me yet.
i just bought CTaudio 4" rounds for the dash - i have a single 4x10(probably) center dash mount speaker spot (68 fury) - will rig up a bracket out of mending plates and mount 2 qty 4" round speakers into that spot.
i got CTaudio 5.25" rounds + corssovers + tweets for my center console that is still in progress.
i have pioneer 6-way 400w 6x9s in the rear deck stock locations - they were in the car when i got it i dont even know if they work yet.
um, power. critical subject here. i say leave the stock wiring alone and totally add new wiring for this.
1st thing - always fuse. always as close to the batty/ power source as possible.
you have to decide if you want it all to come on via key, or toggle switch, etc. depending on that answer depends on how you feed your power to it.
all teh devices will have a 5V trigger on/off wire aux or remote wire, in addition to the main 12v feed.
personally - this is how ive done it on other cars, and will do so again:
4ga fused (got 100A on this one right now) power from batty to a 10-circuit fuse block i add under dash.
under the dash somewhere, on good body or frame metal, add you a home depot rope cleat or something - drill and tap a bunch of holes in the face of the cleat and put phillips screws in all the holes. this is gonna be your neutral buss bar. terminate all POWER negs here. NOT speaker negs. just power. this bar can be used for any NEG termination now, doesnt have to be radio related.
so now you have brought new, unmolested, clean power up to the dash area.
again - depending on what you are planning on powering (4000w monoblock amp??) - you either bite off the 4ga wire feeding the fuse block, or use a fused position on the new block to power your devices. in my case i will extend the 4ga from this new fuse block, down the driver side doorwell/footwell (there is a wire track there already) and back to the trunk where the business is.
if you ARE running monoblock amps and caps and all that, run a clean 0/4 power all the way from teh battery to the trunk. dont bite off the fuse block you just added.
im looking at 600x4 or 600x6, then a mono amp for the bass, so im not trying to blow my windows out... you may be
i have not picked my amps, woofs, or deck yet. looking at the 1DIN pioneer with 7" display. looking at CTaudio and lanzar 4/6 channel amps. my kid says the square isobarics are the best woofs you can get.
good timing on this post
lets spend money!
- saylor
Looks like you have a really professional car audio install. I'm not really into having a fancy setup just something to listen music with good quality and power, for example I'm planning to run one single amplifier (Kenwood Excelon X801) for subwoofer and rear speakers
What you did for stereo speakers holes? I'm planning to drill my panel
I knew someone who installed a 160 watt amplifier in his '78 Cutlass and found that if he listened to the stereo, even at moderate volume, for 10 or 15 minutes with the engine off, he couldn't start his car. These amplifiers can pull a lot of current and current is one thing that the old Mopar charging systems don't like. No matter how you wire the audio system in, that power has to come from the charging system. So, if you're considering more than one amplifier you may want to upgrade your charging system, especially if all the current in your car passes through the bulkhead connector..
As for the stereo itself, you can power the AM/FM unit directly from the power source to the factory radio, so that it will still turn on and off with the key. The new head unit will have a switched trigger wire that may be labelled "Power Antenna"or "Amplifier On" or something similar. This wire doesn't power the amplifier, it only tells it to turn on. The amplifier(s) are wired to get power directly from the battery. You will also need an unswitched power source, from the fuse box if possible, for the clock and station memory functions of your new AM/FM head unit.
Don't ground any of your speaker wires to the car.
I'm planning to run a single amplifier, a Kenwood Excelon X801 and I think his has a peak power of 1600 W (I think something like 700W RMS), my charging system is already upgrade, I'm running a CS130D 85 Amps alternator with a wire directly to battery (ammeter bypassed)
About the wiring I'm thinking about wiring the car stereo to the factory stereo wiring but the amplifier wired directly to a relay that will be wired to battery and activated only with the ignition key in "run" position, by this way I can control the amplifier is only getting power when the stereo should have power and if the radio is off but the key is in run position the amplifier power consumption should be something near to 0W, maybe 40 W or less