well it's been a long day

Ate lunch, then set out to start work. I called up Tom and Nick, and got my bro away from the computer to help me install the amp and sub. The first thing we did was try to find a hole in the car's firewall to stick the power cable through. That turned out to be the longest part of the operation. We tried hecka things, looking everywhere for a hole. We looked under the petals, around in the engine, even under the car, all to no avail. I went over to Kenny's house cuz he was home and asked him to help us out, since he knew this kinda stuff. Pretty soon he found out how to follow the hood release wire through the firewall. Then we had to figure out how to get the cable from the firewall to the battery. Turns out we had to take apart the whole wheel well apart and take the cable through there to the battery. We had had to put the wheel well back on, which proved challenging.

We then wired the power cable through the passenger comparment to the trunk. Next came the wiring. I had to unplug the wire harness of the stock amp and start tapping into wires for the rear speakers and the amp turn-on, for a total of 5 wires. What labor. I then connected the hi-low converter to the harness wires, and connected the power, ground, and remote wire to the amp. I spent a lot of time in the trunk. Also, it took quite some time to find a suitable bolt to ground the system, which I'm still not satisfied. I need to find a bolt closer to the back of the trunk so it makes everything nicer looking. Eventually we turned the key... booya the amp had power.

Next step was to wire the sub. First we attached together the connectors inside the box to the back of the sub using speaker cable, then mounted the sub itself onto the box. After that was done, we connected the bux to the amp with some patch wires. Stand back, turn the key, booya. She bangs! After a crap load of wiring and lead adjustments, everything was pretty much set to go. It's still a pretty messy job; I basically shoved all the wires under the carpet in the trunk, and it sticks up enough so that if I stand the sub up I know it'll fall over if I hit a corner hard enough. So right now it's laying down. I don't know how it'll run for loud volumes, but when I did have it running the amp was getting a little warm. So far everything seems to be working. It wasn't easy, though.

Most of us are all dirty, and maybe a little sore. I myself have some black grease or something on my right arm and left hand. My fingers are sore from alll the wiring, my hands and wrists from the stripping, and my back is killing me. Total time spent on project: 6.5 hrs, with the last one and a half by himself. All good. I need a guinea pig to test the sybian now. Thanks to Tom, Kevin, Nick, and Kenny for helping me out.