D.Sanchez

not hard but defiantely a pain in the *** and time consuming to do the sunfires and cavs of certain years properly...u must completly remove the dash including air bag covers and the lot to get at the stock HU, then if u use the relocation harness wire a ingnition wire into the colum and find some way to fit a big bundle of wire under small panels all the way to the back and mount the stock behind the carpet i can tell u its most installers favorite vehicle....oh did i mention sunfires and cavaliers use the strongest and highest quality pop panels and plastic mounts

zoomer

iTrader: (3)

Cavaliers where ok once you got them figured out, just a bunch of screws to remove. Worse on the list was a particular model of civic or civic SI where the OEM HU had a screw way behind the HU. A pain to get to.

Or any american car 25 years or more old:all the dash plastic gets so brittle that it becomes impossible to remove anything without breaking!

Some of the older GMs have the actual RF radio in a different location than the dial/front panel..Finding it and then unplugging the connectors and antenna, and getting the harness long enough was another pain. I just swore so often at american cars: the design was so much crap.

Or installing a radio in a car that has had an alarm system installed and all the wires and boxes are just shoved under the dash... Touch it and it all falls down and comes apart and you end up friggin redoing someone elses botch job.

The best are many japanese... pry off the trim plate, remove 4 screws and the OEM radio pops out. done in 5 minutes...and you charged em 50 bucks!! those make up for the 2 hour jobs. Nisan and Toyota come to mind...Mazda and Hyundai are similarly easy but you have to remove some of the heating mechanism pushrods first. If you install a new radio in a Hyunday that did not come with one, make sure you have some metric screws handy... 4 mm if I recal? Go to your local auto parts store, they have most metric screws in stock.


What fun... Glad I dont have to put up with that crap anymore!

cavy man14

iTrader: (1)

I give him 45 mins top on it to do a cavy HU install as hes new,its getting all the wires to sit nice thats the pain,because there isit alot of room back there and with all these HUs comming with 3 pre outs etc plus the harness.

But a nice hand held 3.6v screw driver with a 7mm socket is great,



Just remember when you do a 95-05 cavy and have disconected the neg terminal or pulled the air bag fuse to remove these two guys,I can't tell you how many people just pull on the dash pad cause they think they have the bolts/screws out


Its not hard at all and those sunfire are damn easy, open glove box remove the 2 two 7mm bolts and slide it towards the drivers door and remove the old hu.

D.Sanchez

yeah those sufires can be great, however when u see the "bad" dash u just wanna yell!, we dont tend to sell the interface for replacing the stock HU so its pretty much an amp install with 0 gauge wire to get the stock radio and its wires to the trunk. however i do prefer a more time consuming job where i know where all the screws are as apposed to a newer car with fragile pop panles that u really cant be sure if its pop or if theres a hidden screw somewhere man i hate that

Lord Huggington

iTrader: (1)

Sup, I started a few days ago at Hi-Fi, and its sweet, but I've still got a lot to learn so I'm reading everything that I need to know, thanks all for the advice, I've written it all down.

Haunz - how to operate a broom
I've done this a few times already, can't say it's any fun

cavy_man14 - Find where Tim Hortons is.
It's like 100 yards away

Zoomer - Also each time you do a car, take notes on:
How you took it apart... to add to the printouts above. What kind of speaker sizes fit... if you have time try different types. Then next time a customer ask if a speaker fits, you can easily say "Yes the Pioneer kevlars fit nice, but the Polk Momos are too big!" etc. Take pictures of your work... good to show other customers or build up your own portfolio. Make sure you know the speaker/power etc color codes. or have them handy. Also take notes on wire color codes if you have to do any special installs. It will save time on future work. When you install door speakers...lower the window to make sure there is clearance! and.. get a change of clothes... especially in winter.. Cars can be a real mess, with garbage and dirt on the floor. Have a DMM and know how to use it. Have a 9 volt battery and some aligator leads to find pos and negative of speakers. Have fun.

Thanks, that's a lot I didn't know man. I brought some sticky notes but, havn't written . There hasn't been too much goin' on, but I'm hoping that I can be installing soon.

mta - ...and always have e-tape in your pocket!
Thanks

zoomer - You have to work a little in life. Dont expect everything to be given to you on a silver platter!
What about a gold?


..jk, thanks for the advice, but I'm not getting into the habit of slacking I'll be as productive as I can.

Killer_klown187

iTrader: (20)

I think this is the greatest attitude to have! No slacking good job, and good luck with the job man