3/12/08

Ok, I have to get through the stereo installation story because the Chickenhawk and Barbecue Bob plans are in a state of flux and need to be discussed. In case I don’t get to it, we’re thinking V8 in the Chickenhawk and supercharged VG-33 in Barbecue Bob as a “Mad Max” black interceptor homage. Stew on that for a bit. Ok, Sunday morning I was supposed to call John and go to his house to install the stereo in Fifi. I rolled out of bed around 1000 h because my body still thought it was 0900 h due to (tee hee, I said doo-doo!) Dumbass Sparing Time. As an aside, does anyone like DST? I have yet to encounter a supporter. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, I have asked hates it. Ok, one person said it was nice to have an extra hour of daylight in the evening after work to do stuff in the summer. But that is as close to support for the concept as I've ever heard. But I digress already. I decided to go ahead and wait for mom to come home from church before heading out. I watched TV and waited. At 1245 h, I declared to no one, since I was alone at the time, “I am leaving at one o’clock.” At 1255 h she shows up with a lady from the church in tow. Said lady is moving into an apartment, since her twin sister is throwing her out or something, and mom is giving her a bunch of kitchen stuff. They looked at the stuff and we all went to Mimi’s for lunch. When I dropped them off, I transferred to Fifi and headed to the shop. I knew I wouldn’t have the butt splices, strippers, or crimper if I went to John’s house so I decided to just do the job at the shop. I suppose I could have grabbed the tools and headed for John’s but we’d have still been screwed when it came time to remove the door panels. I'll get there in a minute. I started by unpacking the stereo and installation kits. I removed the stock stereo, after fingering out I had to pull the surround from the dash. It popped off easily with a little prying. The stereo fought me but finally came out. Once it was out I could see what I was doing wrong. I had the tools pushed too far in the holes, a common problem with me. I test fit the installation kit without the new stereo and it looked like it would be satisfactory. Next, I moved inside and started hooking up wires. There is a type of crimp-on butt splice called a Dolphin which isn't really a butt splice at all. It is more like a wire nut in that both wires go in from the same side and are crimped in a fairly water-tight connection. I decided to do all my splices “Dolphin style” for some reason. As I often do. When I had all of the connections made, I taped off the superfluous wires then taped all of the butt splices together into a bundle. I popped the stereo into the installation kit and headed back to the truck. I plugged the harness in to the truck and the stereo then popped the installation kit into the dash. It took a few tries to get it in good and solid but it did finally lock in. I turned the key to what I thought was the accessory position, and it would have been the accessory position in a Japanese car, and the system didn’t work. I went ahead and turned the key to the run position and tested it out. After it worked and I shut it down I realized where the accessory position is on an American car. I tried it again and it did work I got to work on the speaker installation. I had a look at the driver’s door panel. There were no exposed screws so I assumed it would pop off. I removed the trim around the release handle and did find a screw behind that. I removed it. I had a look at the window crank. Before I ham-fisted it though, I examined it closely. It looked like there was a cover over the main body of the handle. There was and it popped off easily. Behind that was a Torx screw. Here is where we would have been screwed had I gone to John’s to do this. I found the right Torx driver and removed the handle. With nothing else obviously holding the panel on, I began to pry. It wouldn’t budge. I looked some more and still saw nothing holding it in place. I pried harder. It still wouldn’t budge. It pissed me off so I really hunkered down on the pry bar. CUH-RACK! The panel broke. Once I had some room to see how it was held in, I could tell that it was supposed to just slide upwards out of the clips. I tried to lift it. It wouldn’t budge. When I returned with the rubber hammer I was about to use to bash the thing upward, I noticed another trim piece above the lock behind the window. I popped it off and found the other retaining screw. With that out, the panel slid right up and off. Oops. I removed the stock whizzer-cone speaker and had a look at the wiring in the door. I clipped off the factory plug and Dolphinized the speaker pigtails on. I hooked up the speaker and bolted it in place. I grabbed the keys and gave it a test. It worked so I installed the door panel. Next I moved on to the driver’s rear speaker. Hoo boy, was that a pain in the ass! I slid the seat up and had a look at the attaching points. It had several little Christmas tree clip thingies with the little locking center tabs. I'm really beginning to hate those things. I managed to pry one locking tab out and get the clip free then I figured out that it is easier to push the lock thing through to the back side. Of course you lose the lock half the time that way. I got most of the panels out of the way and removed the speaker. I “Dolphin’d” the pigtail to the factory harness and screwed the new speaker in. Another test of the system and it worked fine. I moved on to the passenger side. About the time I got the door panel out, it started to rain. I sat inside and waited it out. When it stopped I swapped speakers and gave this one a listen. Sounded good. The rear on this side was no easier than the driver’s side except that I knew what I was up against this time. With that speaker installed and all of the panels back in place, albeit missing some clips and having a huge crack in the driver’s door, I set to configuring the thing. I programmed in the two radio stations I listen to and set the clock. Ok, it’s configured. I “cleaned up,” which we all know means put the tools in the milk crate I was sitting on and set them inside the shop, locked up, and started for home. I remembered the bag of cans I promised the lady here at work and went back. With the cans in the bed of the truck, I did finally go home. I played with the EQ a little and think I'm happiest with the “Jazz” setting. I drove it to work Monday to hand off the cans and it sounded pretty good. Like I told John when I asked if he could get me some replacement door panels and then had to ‘splain the ham fistedness of my removal, “It is a $99.00 stereo in a pickup cab. It isn't going to be Carnegie Hall.” It does sound pretty good though. I'm happy. Well, I've said plenty for today, I'll go into the whole Chickenhawk and Barbecue Bob thing tomorrow.