Well I've got a few things left to do with the system, but I'm kind of hung up waiting on some things to arrive. I am waiting for the carpet to cover my box to come, and I am also waiting on my headunit to come in. Both are expected to arrive on Friday. In the mean time, I need to:

-Build my amp rack.
-Install my speakers (am considering having professional installation of the components).
-Install the amps
-Finish the box and install the subwoofer into the box.
-Finish putting the interior back together (means running to the Ford dealer to pick up some plugs to hold the panels together).

The weather may or may not be good enough to work outside on the amp rack tomorrow. I'm trying to decide how to prioritize my time until the rest of my stuff gets here. I'm thinking that tomorrow I will try to get to the interior finished and start the amp rack. Thursday I'll try to wire up the amps and the sub box. That will leave Friday to get the headunit installed and the sub box and amp rack covered, then Saturday i can take the speakers to get installed, or install them myself if I feel I can comfortably do it. Then, once they system is in and bumping strongly, I'll set up the carputer and get that running.

My question for y'all is... is there anything I'm missing? I've got my power cables and RCAs run underneath the carpet. I feel like I'm missing something or something could be done differently, but I can't put my finger on it. Any help, advice, or input you guys have would be very much appreciated! Thanks for reading, I realize this post got a little long-winded

Also, here's a picture of my wiring as it stands right now. Is it alright to have the power and ground cables, along with the RCAs and some other stuff all through that same place?

 

i thought you were going with a lcd screen or is that the headunit you speak of?

 

The plans changed a little bit. Using a headunit with aux. inputs will allow me to conceal my LCD screen from thieves. It will also allow me to have AM/FM radio, and will keep me from needing a high-end sound card for the carputer. The screen is still going in, but I want to get the audio up and running before I put the carputer in. If something does go wrong, it'll help my trouble-shooting out.

 

where are you planning on mounting the lcd screen now? i kinda liked your original idea.

 

I said just run off the first of your list. It all needs to be done...

 

wait till you see the price on those plugs of the panels LOL have fun with that **** lol

 

I did too, but having a screen sitting in my dash would just be asking for someone to steal it. So instead I'm going to have a removable faceplate for the stereo, and I'm going to put the screen on its stand inside the cupholder of my console. That way I can cover it with a notepad to make it look like a paper pad for taking notes. The touchscreen will also be in an ideal place for me to reach it. It'll be right in front of my hand when I rest my arm on the console.

Gil, I know it's all gotta get done, I'm just wondering if there are some things that should be done before others and that sort of thing. This is my first real experience with car audio so i wanna make sure I don't screw anything up too badly

 

if ya ran ur power cables away from the RCAs under the carpet and just brought them up thru the same hole in the carpet you should be fine. i brought my rcas thru the hole in the carpet where the SRS plug comes up under the pass. seat.

 

run all your speaker wires to where your amp rack will be, before you put the interior back in.

 

be ready for that engine whineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

You want to keep the RCA's and power cables away from each other, or like stealthedge said, you'll get engine whine through your speakers/subs. I learned this the hard way in my old car... only after everything was back together. My guess is the best policy would be to keep them as far apart as you can.

 

One guy I talked to at Tweeter said that the RCAs could go next to the power wire just fine. Since the entire chassis acts as a ground, there is just as much electrical interference flowing through the entire chassis as there is flowing through the power wire. Is that true? Should I run the RCAs on the other side of the transmission hump or anything?

I also don't have the speaker wire I want to use, that's why it hasn't been run under the carpet yet.

I also only broke 3 of the plugs, so I don't think it'll be too bad. The autozone plugs aren't even close to the same though, so I'll just suck it up and buy them from Ford. They can't be more than $10 anyways...

 

Keep your audio cables as far as possible from the power wire. The longer they are parallel and next to each other, the more likely you are to have noise problems.

 

i have no engine whine at all and my RCA's are ran with the power and groundthe whole way... it is just a sub though.

I know better now but I dont see a point in rerunning them if there's no problem now.

 

If the plugs your talking about are the speaker plugs, Circuit City has them... and yea thay are like ten bucks for a pair.