Finally got my stereo installed. Took many more hours than I planed, but here it is. I'd like to thank the people who posted pics of removing door panels and dash parts, that really helped.
Parts list
1 SCOSCHE MA1547B INSTALL RADIO DASH KIT
1 METRA 70-7903 MAZDA CAR STEREO HARNESS
1 Metra 40-HD10 Antenna (Honda 2005+)
1 Kenwood KDC-BT948HD
1 ALPINE MRP-F300 CAR AUDIO STEREO 4 channel
1 ALPINE MRP-M600 CAR AUDIO STEREO 1 channel for sub
4 Pioneer TS-A1674R 6-1/2" 3-Way A-Series Coaxial 6.5" Car Speakers
A bunch of speaker wire
A bunch of other wires (power, ground, remote etc)
Beer (try not to spill in the car while installing like I did
)
Elbow grease
Patience
Alright, first off, I decided on a single DIN unit that was only $230 because I didn't want to dump too much money into this project. I started off with just wanting to add a Line Output Converter and sub, so you see how it's easy to get carried away! Def worth it though, that stock system is for the birds...
First task to conquer was where to put all this stuff. Not much room in this car to work with. I started with building an amp rack (of sorts.) None of this is done to "Show quality" since I really don't care about that.
Took out the liner to trace and cut plywood. You can see I was going to try for the full cut out, but the wood wouldn't fit back in so I loped off the part by the rear seat. Then cover with some carpet and add some legs to raise it up,
My kid insisted in grabbing his tools too. Also added some carpet to the legs here (not seen yet)
Finished rack (whew that took all day!) I cleaned up the wires etc too the next day.
All better
This is kind of out of order of what I did, but this is how I got power to the trunk.
Through the firewall, nice plug up high near the driver side
And all done up
Now to the speaker situation. The stockers are garbage hands down. We're talking ~28 Oz Vs ~2 Oz
Pull a panel off, unscrew 3 screws holing in the speaker and disconnect. Now, speakers usually come with screws and metal clips, so all I did here was drill 4 holes, plus one more for the speakers wire to come out from behind
Next we have to route the speaker cable. The first door took me hours while the other 3 literally took me minutes. On the first one, I wasted a bunch of time trying to route the wire in without taking that rubber grommet/plastic clip off the door to do it. Trust me, just take it off the door frame and save some time. If you pull the weather strip off the two nubbins close to that area, it provides easier access.
OK, not pictured is how I got the speaker cable from the door to the car. I was in a zone and didn’t take pictures, but if you look at the pic above, you will see the only rubber grommet thingy that is your option. Using a plastic paint scraper (or tape covered skinny flathead) there are two plastic tabs on top and bottom**. Use your instrument to click those in and the whole plastic unit and grommet will come out (with some effort).
**Quick note – For the front doors there are 2 tabs on top and bottom of the same thingy.
Once that is popped out, you can unhook the harness. I used a drill bit to drill out part of the harness that no wires were going through, effectively drilling a hole through the whole apparatus for the speaker wire. Once that was drilled and the wire pulled, I snapped back the harness no problem, secured the grommet back over the harness, then snapped it back into place on the car. Like I said, first door took 4 hours, the other 3 took 1 hour total once I knew what I was doing.
Anyway, once that’s done to all 4 doors, pull your cables and zip-tie them.
And viola!
Parts list
1 SCOSCHE MA1547B INSTALL RADIO DASH KIT
1 METRA 70-7903 MAZDA CAR STEREO HARNESS
1 Metra 40-HD10 Antenna (Honda 2005+)
1 Kenwood KDC-BT948HD
1 ALPINE MRP-F300 CAR AUDIO STEREO 4 channel
1 ALPINE MRP-M600 CAR AUDIO STEREO 1 channel for sub
4 Pioneer TS-A1674R 6-1/2" 3-Way A-Series Coaxial 6.5" Car Speakers
A bunch of speaker wire
A bunch of other wires (power, ground, remote etc)
Beer (try not to spill in the car while installing like I did
)Elbow grease
Patience
Alright, first off, I decided on a single DIN unit that was only $230 because I didn't want to dump too much money into this project. I started off with just wanting to add a Line Output Converter and sub, so you see how it's easy to get carried away! Def worth it though, that stock system is for the birds...
First task to conquer was where to put all this stuff. Not much room in this car to work with. I started with building an amp rack (of sorts.) None of this is done to "Show quality" since I really don't care about that.
Took out the liner to trace and cut plywood. You can see I was going to try for the full cut out, but the wood wouldn't fit back in so I loped off the part by the rear seat. Then cover with some carpet and add some legs to raise it up,
My kid insisted in grabbing his tools too
. Also added some carpet to the legs here (not seen yet)
Finished rack (whew that took all day!) I cleaned up the wires etc too the next day.
All better
This is kind of out of order of what I did, but this is how I got power to the trunk.
Through the firewall, nice plug up high near the driver side
And all done up
Now to the speaker situation. The stockers are garbage hands down. We're talking ~28 Oz Vs ~2 Oz
Pull a panel off, unscrew 3 screws holing in the speaker and disconnect. Now, speakers usually come with screws and metal clips, so all I did here was drill 4 holes, plus one more for the speakers wire to come out from behind
Next we have to route the speaker cable. The first door took me hours while the other 3 literally took me minutes. On the first one, I wasted a bunch of time trying to route the wire in without taking that rubber grommet/plastic clip off the door to do it. Trust me, just take it off the door frame and save some time. If you pull the weather strip off the two nubbins close to that area, it provides easier access.
OK, not pictured is how I got the speaker cable from the door to the car. I was in a zone and didn’t take pictures, but if you look at the pic above, you will see the only rubber grommet thingy that is your option. Using a plastic paint scraper (or tape covered skinny flathead) there are two plastic tabs on top and bottom**. Use your instrument to click those in and the whole plastic unit and grommet will come out (with some effort).
**Quick note – For the front doors there are 2 tabs on top and bottom of the same thingy.
Once that is popped out, you can unhook the harness. I used a drill bit to drill out part of the harness that no wires were going through, effectively drilling a hole through the whole apparatus for the speaker wire. Once that was drilled and the wire pulled, I snapped back the harness no problem, secured the grommet back over the harness, then snapped it back into place on the car. Like I said, first door took 4 hours, the other 3 took 1 hour total once I knew what I was doing
.Anyway, once that’s done to all 4 doors, pull your cables and zip-tie them.
And viola!
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