Just an "Old Hippie"...lol

[sjb15316]

Guess it's the teenager in me coming out, but I had to upgrade the sound in "Cris". As with most of these cars, the stereo is pretty "roached" and the tape deck quit working last century, so right after I bought the car, I put an aftermarket Pioneer "SuperTuner" unit in it and drove it until the restoration. After I got it back from the shop, the only thing that wouldn't work was the radio. Come to find out the 1st "Jack@ss" I hired for the restoration (he wound up taking it apart, throwing all the bolts, screws, clips, taps, washers, etc, in a bucket, then calls me up and tells me "Come get it, I'm not doing it") got liquid in the radio and fried it. Anyway, I went to "Wally-world" and bought a Pioneer DEH-15UB. I realize this is not a great radio, but I was in a hurry, and the one I really wanted was out of stock, so I settled. Anyway, it's a decent radio with CD, AUX, and USB... I thought "cool". Long story short, it was decent, but you had to turn it up to "25" on the volume to hear it if you had the window down. I thought, I'll remedy that! Years ago, during my "Jensen 6X9 CoAxial" days... the thing to have for power was an Amplifier/Equalizer... (anyone old as me remember those???). I found one (I couldn't believe it) new in the package. 40 x 40 watt Audiovox. Now for the speakers... I thought of building a box that would fit across the back of the car and buying a couple of speakers to put in it. I then remembered a buddy of mine that had a pickup in college that had installed a couple of Radio Shack "Minimus 7" speakers. I did a little research and found the "Japanese" ones were the ones to have, so once again, I found a couple with the brackets on eBay and bought them.

After gathering all my purchases, I spent most of the day Saturday on the install. I wound up removing the shock tower covers and mounted my brackets on the bolts there. I can actually put the covers on, but decided not to in fear of "rubbing" them. Yes, there was bending and cutting of the brackets (took the longest time to fit those) and secured them with the 2 front shock bolts.

Wired up everything and slapped in the "Doobie Brothers Greatist Hits" cd and I was back in the "70's".

All is perfect... until...

That evening I got in my Z to take it for a spin and listen to some tunes. As I turned the key... my amp kicked on approximately 2-4 seconds before the radio did and what a "RACKET"! Just so happens, that the Pioneer units (not sure about other units) have a built-in delay when you turn on the key (the amp doesn't), so you have all this power/harmonics/noise hitting the speakers and in addition to the sound, it can't be good for the speakers. So I wound up putting a lighted toggle switch in the filler plate to switch it off when I get out of the car. Now if I can only remember to hit the switch when I get out, but it's a easier reach than in the glove box when I forget.

Additional notes: The amp was 4 channel, so I was able to wire the original rear speakers to the front of the amp and the rear to the "7's". Left the front ones alone since they're really not designed to take that kind of power. I realize it's probably not the greatest setup in the world, but I love having my old tunes blowing as I go down the road. Rear seats are still functional and I can remove the brackets and put the caps back on in about 15 minutes if I need it "original looking".

Anyway, I realize this is a lengthy post, but I thought some of my fellow "bell-bottom, long-haired, 70's" brethren, might like to see my set-up.

Edited August 21, 2013 by sjb15316
spelling

[siteunseen]

Wired up everything and slapped in the "Doobie Brothers Greatist Hits" cd and I was back in the "70's".

All is perfect... until...

Dang them Doobie Brothers and they China Grove!

[sjb15316]

UPDATE: Everything sounds great and for all purposes, I'm very pleased with the performance. It did take me a while to adjust all the EQ on the radio and the amp to get the sound I was wanting. The ONLY problem (other than forgetting to turn my toggle switch off prior to cranking the car) is that now I've got that "speaker noise" that is generated from my cell phone. Went to my local electronics store and told my friend about it and he said..."Good luck with trying to fix that!". It only occurs when a call is coming in or I'm dialing out, but I have to "flip the switch" to turn the amp off to hear my phone anyway... So I just chalk it up to "My car is now notifying me that I have an in-coming call. If I could only get the "lady" to say "You have a call" instead of "Your lights are on", it would be a perfect world! Later guys!

Edited September 7, 2013 by sjb15316