The reason is because nobody sees it and they can do it cheaper without paint. Why pay to paint something that needs no protection that nobody sees? (Unless you're an owner and don't mind spending $2 lol)

Sounds like a solid plan to me.

Love this thread.

 

Thanks man, no worries no rush the truck is parked in the back yard for now anyway while i undertake this whole project lol.

WickidPissa are you from Mass? I'm assuming since you used Wickid in your name lol

 

Speak for yourself.... It was 80F here on Sunday. As I type this, I am looking at snow coming down outside my work window...

Dash frame looks great!

You should put some white LED footwell lights in while you have this all apart. You could also build a little auxiliary electrical panel like 1975StroppeBaja did for his SD. Its the perfect time to make it and find it a good home in the dash. They you can have constant and ignition 12V easily available for any new toys

 

Way ahead of you man, I got a blue sea 12v fuse panel with 12 positive outs. All grounds can be made to the dash so I'm not worried about grounding things and its going to be hooked up to a relay that runs of the CAW so it's on with the ignition. That will run my switches, gps, steering wheel audio controls and ill have about 5 open slots to add things to. Also I will have another panel under the hood that has 12 positive outs and 12 grounds. This will be power staright off the battery because it will be the power source for my amp steps, fog lights driving lights light bar reverse lights etc. Everything is switched that runs off it so I should be good not running s relay to it. Everything else will have a relay and a switch.

The foot well lights are a good idea though! What would I hook those into the dome light?

It's going to snow here thursday as well. ..its 80 now here in Mass.

 

Ya. Dome light would be one place. Courtesy lights in the door would be another (if you have them). 1975stroppe (Jason I think) added puddle lights under his mirrors. If you look at his tech articles, it should show you where he tied in.

Good call on the fuse panel. I have contemplated one of those or building my own. I want to do one for each truck. Its on the todo list lol

 

I got this and I'm going to run an 8 AWG wire to it with a 75 AMp circuit breaker and a 75 amp relay and call it a day.


It's so handy to have, here is the one thats going under the hood. I also go Hella relay holders and some cases from Polycase.com to keep them dry.

BTW my next step is to get all this wiring in and prewired.

Here is what I'm going to do while mother nature halts my progress:
-Wire Switches
-Heated Mirrors
-Fog Lights
-Driving Lights
-Led Bar
-Reverse Lights
-Air Horn
-Reverse/Front Cam
-Mount and Wire Front Cam
-Mount and wire Rear Cam
-wire video switcher
-wire Relays
-wire fuse panels and label each circuit

I'm probably forgetting something but once that is all done I will be wiring in the remote starter which doesn't appear to be that hard since i know where the old one was attached.

Justin how do you wire a 4 way amp to the speakers? Since the dash is out i guess if I'm going to do it now is the time.

 

Well done! I've never seen a holder like the Hella one. That is awesome!

 

Indeed, i found it just before ordering the fuse panel, it was in Amazons recommended thing at the bottom of the page while viewing a product. I love that site lol.

 

Front and rear channel RCAs remote wire and power ground then its just a positive and negative to each speaker. Its SOO much easier if you have everything apart already

 

So its literally the same as wiring a sub-woofer only you run it to the speakers instead.

Do you negate the factory wiring and go strictly off the headunit preouts and amp?

my speakers can handle 80 watts RMS and Peak at 240 each does that mean i need an amp that puts out 80 watts per channel at 4 ohms (my speakers are 4 ohms) and peaks at 240 per channel?

I found this guy:
Soundstream P4.500 Picasso Series 500W 4-Channel Amplifier

It says 500W max so is that across all 4 channels meaning each channel will only max at 125W? soryr still never quite understood how to pick audio components out i can wire it but not pick it lol.



It seems pretty easy to install the led foot well strips, based on jason's article all it needs is to be tapped into a blue/black wire in the channel and grounded. I'm currently hunting for some nice white led strips that are about a foot long each. I was going to do two under the dash and two under the rear seats so the rear has some as well.

 

You could get the cut to length ones off amazon ebay. You just trim it to fit and it has 3M tape on it.

Or superbrightleds.com has these magnetic rigid ones: WLF series High Power LED Waterproof Light Bar Fixture | Aluminum Light Bar Fixtures | Rigid LED Light Bars | LED Light Strips & Light Bars | Super Bright LEDs

 

I actually found the flexable ones on super bright leds and I found a connector so you can get custom cut ones then attach s harness to run the light. Once I get home I can link it.

 

found a computer at school lol

Here is the strip
Custom Length High Power LED Flexible Light Strip | Top Emitting | Flexible LED Light Strips | LED Light Strips & Light Bars | Super Bright LEDs

Here is the connector
NFLS10-2CHCPS 10mm Flexible Light Strip CPS Adapter Cable Clamp | LED Light Strip & Bar Accessories | LED Light Strips & Light Bars | Super Bright LEDs
They also sell one that is just a harness with two wires but I cant find it right now.

 

These are the speakers I have http://www.kenwoodusa.com/Car_Entert...rs/KFC-C6894PS

80w RMS, powered by http://www.kenwoodusa.com/Car_Entert...fiers/KAC-8405

I'm going to be upgrading to http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PU...eries/GM-D8604

I was told by a few audio guys that you can run double the RMS value through a quality set of speakers safely. And that by underpowering the speakers you need to adjust the gain which causes the distortion which kills speakers.

I don't know the absolute validity of that, but I'm going to try it out.

 

Cool thanks Justin I have the same speakers just a model or two older so that amp would work for me. I think I'm going to mount it under the driver or passenger seat.