I am in the process of making my 79 a daily driver of sorts. With just two basic things left to make it road worthy, I am now wanting to look into making it a comfortable ride as well as reliable.

The stock sound system isn't going to cut it because of the lack of CD player. I have pretty much completely given up listening to the radio, so a CD player is nearly a requirement. Typically that is all I would do, but this is a truck I don't plan on ever getting rid of, so I am willing to invest a little more into it.

I don't really have any audio experience but I am fairly good with electronics. I don't go around booming music, especially since bluegrass doesn't really boom. I want something that sounds good and has a lot of bass. I have the sub in my house turned up all the way all of the time. Good subs is a true requirement.

I have done some basic reading from a google search on car audio basics to give me a good starting point. I know that the people here know a lot more than I do, some I am looking for recommendations based on what I want. If something isn't possible in my price range, then we can just skip it.

CD/MP3 with skip protection, and be able to fit in the dash

I want to replace to two speakers in the door (6.5" IIRC) and then probably install two more behind the seats. I really doubt I could fit any speaker in the kickpanel, but I know that is a common place to put some.

Have two 10" subs behind the seats. I am thinking of putting one on the far end of each side of the cab and then have my two other speakers more in the middle of the truck behind the seats inbetween the subs. As far as a sub enclosure, I will probably just end up using a sealed enclosure because that is the easiest and I will have to make one myself.

I want an amp for sure, but I don't really know what power amp I need. I figure I need one with the same RMS rating as the speakers and subs to be best.

I would need some kind of crossover, but I know about nothing on them.

As far as truck power goes, I plan on installing a 200 amp alternator. That should more than cover this sound system since it isn't anything real fancy and will be played at a low volume. I am going with a large alternator due to me converting to EFI (and the associated greater power draws with that), and my light bar.

Since the interior is completely stripped right now, I will probably install some kind of sound deadener in the cab.

I am basically just looking for recommendations on what to get. Thanks for your time.

PS: as a complete side note, is it (easily) possible to hook up a CB to play through the truck speakers instead of the internal speaker in the CB?

 

I'm looking at a little less ambitious setup to match the cd/mp3 head unit I got for christmas. I was thinking a pair of 6.5" two ways, one in each door and either two 8" behind the seat or a 10" subwoofer. This is all in a '77 regular cab.

I was wondering what the power requirements are for this setup alternator wise.
Also is anybody running a similar setup? If so what do you think of it?

 

Hey this weekend I just so happened to install a system into my neighbors 79 that he bought from my father. My dad picked this truck up at a farm auction about 3 months ago. 1979 2 wheel drive with a 460 and 44,000 miles for $750. He sold it to the my neighbor for $1000. Pretty nice for it's year. He used to give me crap for my V10 Excursion so now it's my turn for his 460 gas hog...lol His wife had me put a system in it for christmas.

What I did was install a Sony CDX-GT200 detachable CD/MP3 player. This radio comes with a remote and has a subwoofer output. I went with some high quality 6.5 speakers for his doors and just put a single 10" sub in a sealed truck enclosure behind the seat. I ran a 2 channed 120x2 amp bridged on the sub and used the radio for the speakers. Truck rocks. I was worried about sound considering the truck has a 460 in it but the guy loves it. I only went with the door speakers because the cab is so small. With speakers behind the seat you hardly hear thier quality anyways so I just went with the doors. Totally up to you. If you do choose for rear speakers you can get 6x9 wedge boxes for behind a truck seat. Rear fill is nice but in small cab it's not too much needed. I like the sound to be strong in the front. I always ask customers "when you go to a concert to do you turn your back on the band?"

Total cost installed a little over $600.00

As for the alternator don't worry about it. It's not like your trying to run multiple 1000 watt amps. Your alternator will work fine for anything.

 

hey, well i can tell you i have an extended cab f150 1999 flareside and i have a kicker amp (800w) for my 4 door pioner 6X8 spkrs 300w each and a sony amp (1000 watt) on it with two 10"s kicker subs enclosed under the bench seat in back and in between them i have a crossover. i like to control my mids highs and lows. make sure you wire your amp with a fuse in between and your power 12v on one side and ground and signal cables on the other side....make sure u get a good ground! good luck!

 

You just blew his $500.00 budget right out the window....lol Kicker is good stuff...suprised to see that Circuit City is now carrying it. Big Box Vendors now taking over with the specialized merchandise leaving us small guys wondering where to turn.

In 95-96 I ran a Kicker Sponsored demo vehicle until someone stole it. Ran 4 Kicker Competition 18's that Kicker gold plated the baskets for me. On each 18 we ran a 500ss 1000 watt amplifier. Also ran two 360ss amps on four sets of comp components. All stuffed into a custom 95 Mitsubishi Mirage. Loved that car till I came out one night from the nightclub I worked at and found it gone right off the corner in front of the club. Police seen a couple guys loading it up onto a roll back tow truck. It was soooo "in thier face" that they thought they were just towing it. With the hydrolics on it I would "lay frame" with with the wheels tucked up. They pretty much drug it up onto the truck so to witnesses it just looked like the car had a problem. Found it three weeks later by some old railroad tracks as a burnt out shell. State Farm took care of me though with the additional coverage I had on it.

Thanks deltasoft for bringing the pain back....lol

 

oh man am sorry for ya lol bro i dont know man but i find someone near my truck just touching it i get so pissed that they'd have a fist fight with me...i dont trust noone. i installed a clifford lcd alarm on it to protect it......and it sleeps next to my window.....but yah man sorry to say it but cops are stupid when u most need them they arent there or take 3 days to come!!!!!or at least some of them!

oh well what can we do....i dont run more amps on mines because is a truck but i wish i could have more power helll yah!!!!!!

 

I'm going to go the inexpensive route, then decide if I need to add on. 4 6.5" speakers 30 watts rms 160 watts max. My head unit should power them nicely, and if I decide I need a subwoofer(and the associated amp) they can handle more power.