Stereo and Speaker Upgrades

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thanks 74, I have to admit I think they were worth every penny.... I used to have a nice setup of JL Audio like that in my Ramcharger till I blew one of the subs....


Then I decided it was time to go bigger, better, louder and dumber.... LOL

I work nights so after work one morning I am putting the new sub wires and everything through the firewall, had the stereo sitting on the passenger seat and I was starting to get tired so I decided to go to sleep for a few hours. At the time I only lived 4 blocks from work so I always walked to work. Next day I get home, decide its time to starting working on the install again. So I get all the wires run through ready to put the stereo back in dash and as I pick it up water drips out of it............

I had left the passenger window open and it had rained all night... I didn't even notice the window being down when I locked up the truck

I can laugh about it now, but that was a costly mistake cause the deck was only 6 months old, and I wasn't planning on upgrading it any time soon..... for some reason they wouldn't cover it under warranty

 

as I pick it up water drips out of it............

You can usually dry them out, replace any damaged rubber parts and they're good to go again. I used to work in a stereo repair shop and we would get boaters and truck drivers who removed their stereos at night and dropped them in lakes, puddles, mud, you name it. The only one we didn't attempt was the one a cat pi$$ed in!

 

Hey Squall, That is definitely something I would do. I learned alot about stereo by making stupid mistakes. When I first started I decided I didnt like my Kenwood headunit anymore so I bought an Alpine. I managed to take the head unit out which was an achievement to me at that time. I looked at the Kenwood wiring harness and thought wow this looks like it will fit right in to the Alpine, cool. Stupid me, Plugged it in and POP! Blew the damn thing up. That was the last time I did that, then I started getting books on wiring cars and getting an understanding. 74Maverick, Thom

 

thats gotta hurt the ole pocket book

 

hey thom.... when I first got into stereo's I had no idea they sold wiring harness for your vechicle so I cut all the wires and installed it myself... then I found out they sell harnesses to fit your vechicle


my buddies just ended up laughing at me they all thought it was funny....... I didn't think it was funny I had to go two hole weeks without tunes..... I tried drying it out but even the face plate I couldn't get dry.... it had all that moisture in there.

My best story doesn't involve a vechicle though.....

Back in 2000 we had a party at a friends place and i brought the componets from my house stereo. Pioneer Receiver and CD Player and my front speakers.....left the surround sound system at home. Another friend of mine was supposed to show up with another set of speakers so I had the speaker wire all set up waiting for him to show.... well he doesn't show up till midnight when some of us are half in the bag...... so I show him where I had the wires ready to go and he hooks up the first one..... music gets louder

:bananaman about to hook up the second one..... BOOM air goes quiet look to my reciever to as small poof of smoke comes out of it :confused: turns out he accidently touched the wires together and the overload doesn't protect the stereo when its cranked..... its funny though, it does at low volume settings

So that little accident cost me $158 bucks to fix my stereo reciever
If I remember correctly we blew 3 transistors, 2 resistors, the fuse and something else

Jason

 

hey bmc, did you find the equalizer really changed the music for the better.... I think it really does add something to it.... besides more freedom. I would like to install a full stereo in the Mav, plus my guages but I don't want to cut up my dash to much...

I like your dash though, its different. Did you install it over the old one and just cut holes in it for the installed equipment?

Jason

 

Hey Squall, If you want a really good equalizer and dont want to cut your dash go w/ an Audio Control EQL its a trunk mount. It also has more bands of equalization than most dash mounts. The Audio Control components are of very good quality too. Check em out. Thom

 

I used to have an eq in there, loved it, but it crapped out. The thing with the four knobs under the dash in the picture is the nitrous controller. The dash is covered with oak veneer I got from Lowes. A couple coats of stain and couple coats of polyurethane to protect it.

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS

 

Yeah Boy, Balloons.........ooops wrong

 

In my 74 Mav the hole where BMC has those three gauages right next to eachother currently houses a Craig AM/FM tapedeck that is not mounted and has no knobs. The speaker wires are just laying on top of the carpet until they dive under the back seat into the trunk. My stock dash speaker is blown but someone installed a pair of bad A$$ sony thumps that pull too much power out of my crap deck and cause the face plate to go out before I reach even 1/16 of full vloume. So I disconected those mean 90watt speakers and am running just the blown stock dash speaker until I get ambisious and decide to take my dash apart to install some gauges and fix the all the duct work for my HVAC system.
As for right now I only have the Speedo and the fuel gauge. Anyone have any links to info on how to install all the rest of the gauges?

 

Hey MINE IS GREEN....why don't you just install a slide in mount on the bottom side of the dash or tray, so you can slide your sterio or CD player in and out at will. Just slide it in the mount, plug it in and you're good to go. When your done slide it out and lock it in the trunk. They sell set-ups like that ya know.......later..D

 

have to check that eq out..... I really want to put a decent stereo in my Mav, nothing that says STEAL ME but I have a slight problem with doing this. I have had my Mav for a few years now and to be honest I don't want to cut the dash..... I had a really old Pioneer tape deck that is only half a din that fit perfectly into the spot where the AM radio sat.

I keep thinking I want to have it professionally installed, but I don't want to spend that kinda money on an install, what I really need is a beater mav to work on so I don't screw up and damage my Mav. I had a chance about 2 years ago to get a straight six mav that was sitting in a field about an hour from where I live that was rusted all to hell and all I had to do was pull it out..... boy I wish I hadn't lost the directions to that place.

Looking at all the mods you guys have done to your Mavericks is really starting to inspire me. I really would love to put my tach where my idiot lights are, and put some tunes in the Mav.... so any cool ideas would be appriecated

Thanks
Jason