Dilatory

iTrader: (1)

I've more or less wrapped up the install on my truck and here's the long and the short of it for anyone who needs information for a future install or if they need something to reference. Even though it's unlikely I think it'd be a good article to have as this will pretty much cover 98-06 and 07 Classics; Although some of it will only pertain to Extended cabs and some of it will be useless in regards to Reg cabs/Full size.

I'm just going to start at the front and work my way back;

Optima Batteries are plug and play. Drop right in, they have adapters that fasten in to the battery tray as if it were straight from the factory.

Stinger or equivalent battery terminal adapters are tricky to install due to the fuse box being directly in front of the side terminals but with a bit of patience, wedging the fuse box out of the way and wiggling you can get them on.

Those aforementioned terminals were then used to run a 1/0 cable from the side terminals to the top terminals (Where the big three is done (on the top terminals that is)) to cure the internal terminal breaking issue that they've been having recently.

Running cable back is a bit tricky but you can go straight back to the void in the door jamb and in through the sheet metal near the kick panel as the hood and door have absurd amounts of clearance. If running 1/0 your floor trim will bulge slightly but its nothing that a bit of wiggling and good placement can't resolve.

You can also go through the firewall, perfectly feasible just a fair bit tedious as there's quite a bit of stuff mounted to the firewall from the factory, take care in this area.

Mounting amps, accessories and my good god, extra batteries behind the rear seat is totally feasible. You have three inches and not a pubic hair more of clearance directly behind the rear seats main lower bar (You'll know what I'm talking about when you pull it out)

I fit Two Rockford Fosgate T series amps, Two Kinetik HC600's (which are exactly 3" from front to back heh), two crossovers and all my wire distributors back there with room to spare. If you remove the factory wind guard and sound deadener you enable the openings back there to pass air directly over the amps if mounted correctly, you *WILL* have mild wind noise on the highway this way, but, if it's cooling your amps down while they're pushing 1500w of musical awesomeness, it's something I can live with, I don't know about you.

Now, here's my tips for fitting your head unit of choice; You're going to need to cut away the 45 degree area of the plastic directly behind the factory head unit, the aftermarket one will be longer and will hit it, With a dremel and a steady hand it cuts out nicely, mine, if I went to the effort of sanding it would look damn near factory.

Trim panels, here's a couple tips for things that gave me trouble. There's three hidden fasteners on the front doors; There's a bolt going UP on the BOTTOM, it's recessed, annoying to find. There's also two fasteners on each door that have a slight bump to them - The one closest to the door jamb simply pry the cover off and you'll find a Torx screw underneath, the one closest to the door hinge is just a plastic push-in fastener and all you can do is pry it out, get it started and then wedge a trim removal tool underneath the head and just heave on it like you would with a hammer and nail, the faster the better, damages it less. Please keep in mind this was MY vehicle, as I understand it even among the same generation of trucks these will vary slightly, 2006 Sierra SLE Ext Cab in this case.

Also; removing the rear trim closest to the back window held in with spring clips; START along the window, especially at the bottom corners surrounding the window, There's three clips only a couple inches in along the window and the trim will crack there easily, so get your trim removal tool and just slowly work them out, once those are out you can pretty much just treat it like anything else but definitely take care in that one spot.

Installing speakers in the front doors. 6.5" fit in perfectly and you have a good 3" of clearance between the grilled off area in the door skin and the actual sheet metal that said door skin fastens to, The sky is pretty much the limit here. I personally just ripped everything out, threw my 6.5's in covered the factory tweeter hole with vinyl and put my tweeters in about 8-10" higher than the factory spot where I mounted the 6.5s I'm not exactly an audiophile but I do like good sound and I really cant complain with how good it sounds for how easy this area of the install was. With a bit of creativity you could honestly probably fit 6.5" components and 5 1/4" shallow components in the extra space, however this would require extensive fabrication and measurements beyond what were necessary for myself.

The rear doors.. heh.. Okay. If you want plug and play, find the biggest baddest 4x6's you can find or do what I did and modify to allow 6.5's - you could fit components in here easily enough but mounting options for a tweeter definitely are limited so take that in to account, but for me I went with coaxial. Anyways, below where the factory grille is with the door skin on you have maybe tops 1/4" of clearance which forces you to carve as much of the door skin as you can, put the grille on and then carve that out too leaving only the flat area of the grille which gives you another 3/8" or so of clearance which is just enough including surround flex to allow normal operation.

It's really not that bad though; Just install the speaker and then install the door skin without the grille, take your measurements and cut out what you need, install the grille and carve that to match the door skin and throw it on and you're good to go. Also, keep in mind the area behind where the speaker mounts is quite shallow, you have maybe 3" once you've modified to allow a 6.5" but keep in mind that is assuming you've rounded out the extra 2" from the bottom of the factory 4x6 opening and not the top which gets even tighter the closer you get to the window. Use shallow OR Normal JBL P662's are quite shallow as it is and install just fine.

My review of Products;

BNR Auto Parts (They supply primarily alternators) - Mediocre. The alternators are a great price but their sales staff isn't exactly top notch, their voltage regulators are a bit shady and honestly just spend the extra coin and buy from a truly renowned (re)manufacturer. Saving $100 on an alternator is not worth the potential trouble that can arise due to a bad one melting all your beautiful new audio equipment.

Rockford Fosgate - Their amplifiers are a work of art. They're easy to install, easy to tune, grotesque amounts of power and they're just nice. Their speakers.. Honestly, for a professional installer this won't be an issue, but if you're not very careful the structural integrity really isn't that high. Also.. for the love of god and all that is holy their terminals are ****ing miscroscopic. It's infuriating, you run nice 12 gauge wire and you can't even use it, Unless you use the push-on terminals which I hate because they have a tendency to fall off after a few months. Really frustrating. However, if you can get them installed their T level components really do sound very nice and they have great power handling. I never got a chance to listen to my coaxials so I can't comment on those aside from the aforementioned issues I had with the components being the same.

JBL Coaxials - P662's to be precise. They're shallow, easy to install, sound beautiful, great power handling and image well even in a shitty space. I really love these already. I'll be using them in future installs over the Rockfords.

Kinetic and Optima - I really don't think anything needs to be said here. Top notch as everyone is already aware of. My Red top and 600's all sit at 12.88 at rest which means they pair up nicely. No conflicting voltages. I think this is a fluke but I'm not complaining.

Monster Cable RCA's, gotta love em, their thin red ones hang on to jacks like to a blanket and can be routed just about anywhere.

KnuKonceptz Power and Speaker wire. Be prepared here. Their wire is BIG and it WILL displace trim panels that don't have a lot of clearance, definitely something to take in to account. Buuuut, yeah, seriously thick cable and it's all wire, not 3/4 shielding.

Scosche wiring kit works 100% straight out of the box and the wiring diagram is well done. (Scosche GM09SR)

Pioneer Head Units and Subwoofers; Love them, but I think that one was to be expected.


Sorry this is a bit scattered; I might go back through and clean it up/organize it a bit but I doubt it; I think anyone needing specific information for this gen won't mind reading through a bit of muck for the meat and potatoes. If you have any questions feel free to PM Me or Email at vicariouslyfe@gmail.com

I hope this saves a person or two some time and money. Thanks for reading.