Install On A 1999 Dodge Intrepid

[Siedling16]

Keep in mind throughout this post that I am a beginner to car audio this was my first attempt at anything related to car audio and am only (Just Turned) 17.

My friend owns a 1999 Dodge Intrepid ES. It's a nice car for the most part, except, for one thing. They are a HUGE bitch to work on. I offered to help him(I did ALL the work) to install a new aftermarket stereo system with him. This particular trim of this car has a factory premium sound system made by Infinity including 7 speakers(Two rear 6x9's, Two front door 6.5'' mids, Two 2.5'' highs, and a center speaker in the dashboard) and a factory amp. We installed a JVC aftermarket deck with the custom mounting sleeve and wiring harness from Metra. I connected the wiring harness with butt connectors(because I SUCK at soldering and my soldering iron sucks) and wrapped where needed with electrical tape and zip tied for it to be clean. I then installed the deck which was easy except for the ground. This Dodge has a ground strap that is bolted into the back of the factory deck. I has to solder the wiring harness ground wire to that ground strap which was a bitch. I turned on the car and it lighted right up, sub worked, sub amp turned on... Just one problem... no sound to the mids or highs. I had no idea why this was so I took out the head unit again checked all connections and the sloppy ground. I tried it again and the problem persisted. Did some research at "Dodgeintrepid.org" and found out that there was a factory amp that I had to bypass to the head unit. I then had to find the amp, cut a shit load of wires, strip a bunch, and connect them all, again with butt connectors. Slowly but surely it started to come together. I placed 1'' tweeters in the sails where the 2.5'' highs where located. I had to do some custom work there. I then had to drill new holes for the 6.5'' mids to mount onto because the factory ones had a way wider mounting piece. One I got those installed I had to do the cross overs. I had to mount two crossovers on the passenger side and hide them with not much wire slack. I continued to wire in the crossovers(Power In + & -, Tweeters + & -, and Midwoofers + & -) I had to mount both driver and passenger speaker crossovers on the passenger side. I stuck one up in the side of the dash where a little piece uncliped and the wires ran right with the weather stripping making it completely hidden. The other I mounted behind the passenger kick panel where all the amplifier wiring and speaker wiring was at. Above the kick panel in the dash is where the factory amp is located. I barely managed to get that crossover to fit in that kick panel due to all the other wires(Factory Amp IN/OUT, and Deck wires leading to the amplifier) The kick panel does bulge out a little bit but is VERY, VERY unnoticeable. Another thing that was a hassle was that the factory amp was a 2 ohm stable amp and all the factory speakers were 2 ohm speakers. The aftermarket deck is a 4 ohm deck so I have to buy two 6x9's for the very back before I can have sound back there because otherwise those 2 ohm speakers will ruin the 4 ohm deck. So for now those are disconnected. Took me probably 15+ hours to do but it was my first time and I really didn't have the best tools for the job either.

I will add some pictures of what I have of the install later.

Edited August 21, 2012 by Siedling16