Hey everyone I want to install a stereo that plays cd's on my '74 maverick but im not sure how. Can anyone help?
I can give you some quick instructions....... Find a custom Audio shop LOL Bestbuy and Circuit city won't do it in my area... Actually I just got done putting one in mine.. Here's what I used and how I did it Used. 1 Stereo -- Jensen MPA6611X 1 set of Jensen 6 x 9 4 way speakers for the back (should have went with Pioneer) 1 set of 5.25 round speakers (Pioneer) to install in Kick panels for front speakers 2-- 30 foot rolls of 18 guage (could have used 16guage) speaker wire. couple packs of crimp on butt splices or solder sleeves or just use soldering iron and shrink tubing.. but need something to couple the wires together other that tist and tape method.. I used Crimp on but slices on most of mine, I was going to use spade terminals (male and female) so I could just unplug the wires if I needed to but I bought the uninsulated ones and need the insulated type. 1-- crimp tool or soldering Iron and or heat gun. I used my Dremel tool to cut out (enlarge) the hole in the original Radion bezel so the new radio and sleeve that holds the radio in would fit. Also had to do a little metal trimming to get the 5-1/4 speaker to fit in the square hole behind the kick panels. I started with mounting the speakers. 6 x 9's in the rear window dash. Note there is already a cutout in the metal in the rear window dash, visible fromt he trunk but you do have to cut the partical board that sits over the metal, unles you have the rear window dask that already have the holes in it for speakers. Also the cutouts in the metal are there and the passenger side has the holes for the screw/bolts to hold the speaker in but on the 70,71 and 72 Mavericks May be on all of them but I don't know for sure, the Driver's side does NOT have the pre-stamped holes for the mounting screw/bolts. As far as the wire is concerned I ran the wire behind the rear seat and under the carpet, then removed the door jam plates and ran the wires under there and then under the carpet in the front and brought it out up under the dash. Front speakers I removed the kick panels and used a dremel tool and a cutoff wheel and trimmed the metal behind the kick panels and mounted the 5-1/4 round speakers, ran the wire out the top of the kick panel and up behind the dash.... Then I took the original Bezel and opened it up with the dremel so the new radio and the instalation sleeve fit monted those in the bezel and started wiring. You need to have a digital Multimeter and figure out wich of the factory radio wires is the hot to ignition (only hot with the key on or turned to accessory) you then need to run a ground wire, (I normally use a single side of speaker wire and hook it to one of the bolts that hold the dash tray on.) You may or may not need to run a "constant" hot (wire that has 12 volts at all times even when car is off) If you don't have a constant hot, a goot place to get one is the back of the cigarette lighter... Ford wires their older cars' cig lighter to always be hot... once you have all these wires and know which is which just set the stereo on the tranny hump and start soldering/Crimpng wires... do yourself a favor and if you use crimp connectors, get the right crimper and get a decent crimper so the wires don't get loose in the dash and short something out...or the aren't loose inside the connector and cause you to draw too much juice and heat your wires up too hot. That's the low down version...If you need to know anything else PM me, just do it soon... my memory isn't very good these days and once it isn't fresh in my mind anymore I'll forget the important parts...LOL See I forgot something already.... you can cut the big hole in the kick panels and mount the speakers to the outside of the plastic or you can do what I did and install the speakers in the metal behind the plastic kick panels and then drill your own speaker holes in the plastic with something like an 1/8 or 1/4 drill bit and drill a bunch of holes in a pattern for the sound to come through...I did it that way so I wasn't always beating the speakers and the speaker grills to death with my big feet
