Dash Safe Stereo Install
You can read about this here on FordMuscle.com.
When I got my mustang the previous owner had put in a AM/FM cassette stereo and some kick panels with speakers. The stereo was not hooked up right and was killing the radio and the speakers sounded terrible. At that time I didn't care and had decided to pull that out and install a CD player in my dash. Since then I have learned a lot about mustangs and the rules that classic mustang owners live by. One rule is 'thy shall not cut thy dash' or something like that. Basically, many folks feel that cutting the dash is just plan old wrong. I feel you should do what you want with your car. So I have no problems with cutting your dash. Now with that said I have decided that at this time I will not cut my dash. Instead of cutting my dash I want to install a Shelby radio delete panel and put my stereo in a different place.
So where else can I put my stereo you ask? Well some folks have spent the money for after market units that are made to fit the stock dash. I feel those are way over priced. Other folks keep the stock radio and are happy with that. Then there are many other options, cd shuttles, mp3 players, stereos installed in the glove box, etc. If you are creative I am sure you can find something that will work for you. I went with the under the dash approach so for now, my stock radio location will not go under the knife.
Stereo
This is the cd player I have. It is a old stereo that I had in my old car before I sold it. I wish it player MP3s. That will come at a later time. 40w x 4 for power so it should be loud enough to enjoy when driving.
Kick Panels with Speakers
My kick panel speakers already installed in my kick panels. These were less than $30 and sound pretty good.
6x9s in the back
My 6x9s. I dropped these in from the top of the package tray. I have some custom work to do with the package tray. You will see more info on that later.
Under dash pod
This is the magic item. You can pick this up from Crutchfield for around $25. I got mine for $15 off of a forum friend. It has holes around the top rim that allow you to screw it in to place. So when this is done I will only have 3 small holes that are out of view at the bottom of my dash.
Installation
Installation of my stereo is pretty straight forward. I just installed a new rehabbed wire harness so I know where all my wire ends are. Because of that I have a battery power (clock power on harness), an ignition power (comes off the ignition), and a ground all ready to go.
I centered the Stereo pod in the middle the dash and marked the 3 points where I need to drill my holes. This was fairly easy because the rim of the pod has the holes already so you just have to pick the ones you need to use and use them. To secure the pod to the bottom of the dash I used 3 self tapping screws.
Now that the front is secure I wanted to also secure the back of the pod. I used some plumbers tape and attached one end to the back of the pod using one of the attaching holes and a self tapping screw. It should hold pretty well there but if it doesn't I will go back and use a small bolt. The top of the plumbers tape was attached to the stock attachment point where Ford attached the bracket that was used for the back of the AM radio. Looks good so far!
Now I ran my speaker wires with connections for the harness on the back of the stereo, put everything in place, slid the stereo into the pod, plugged in the wire harness into the back. Power and music! SWEET.
Cost = $55.00 (pod-$15, 5.25" speakers-$30, wire/clips-$10)
Speaker install
The speakers that I got with the car in the front kick panels were terrible. I wanted to upgrade that with this stereo project. Of course I keep it affordable and bought some $30 speakers. I had some problems getting these new 5.25" speakers to fit. I put them in the kick panels and tried to put them into place but the magnet on the back of the speakers are way to big to fit with out issue. So I decided the best way to deal with this was to make a spacer. I read about this on some sites and then spoke to my neighbor who is into stereo stuff and he also made the same suggestion. So I cut out some spacers and took my time to be sure they looked good. Painted them up and installed. This is so easy I won't post any other info on it. I did paint them black and they do look darker than the photos show. After that I added some insulation in behind the kick panel to both insulate and provide some cover/protection to the speakers. Looks good don't you think? All in all I am happy with the install.
Finished!!!
I am very happy with the finished results! The stereo sounds really good. I took my time and every thing went smooth. I do wish that I had a stereo that played mp 3s and also had a remote. Maybe later I can come up with that. The only down side right now is that one of my 6x9s has a pop so at some point I will replace the 6x9s as well. Maybe I will get a set that matches my front speakers.
