by Jon Mikelonis

Introduction
If you are like me, car stereo systems take a backseat to do-it-yourself
restoration efforts and performance upgrades. Really, who wants to spend a lot of dough on modern stereo electronics when that same money can be allocated towards a powder coater, electric fan, or modern tuning technologies, like a wideband air fuel meter. Furthermore, the thought of cutting into an original dashboard, door panel, or package tray, just to accomodate a modern head unit and speakers, is not all that motivating. For these reasons, many of my project cars, past and present, have gone without any kind of audio system. This doesn't mean I never considered how listening to Bad Company through a proper system would improve my Personal driving experience (yes, that's personal with a capital "P"). Going without car stereos all these years just meant I couldn't justify the price and necessary dash modifications for something as elective to me as music.

Sound system deletewas the case until my older brother recently showed me a versatile and deckless system he set up in his Torino. A system that capitalizes on the number of mobile sound devices that have hit the marketplace over the past five years. Sound devices that can store and play volumes of MP3's within palm-size casings. Sound devices that can be stowed away discretely or unplugged and placed in your pocket in under a second. And most importantly, sound devices that eliminate the need to modify your dash, remove your stock radio, or mount a standard CD head unit in the glovebox.

On the following pages, I'll show you how I wired up a stereo mini plug,
amp, and a modest pair of 6x9's within FordMuscle's Project MX, 1972
Mercury Montego. In the end you'll realize how versatile this simple
stereo system can be, offering connection to anything that accepts a
stereo mini-plug, such as a simple MP3 player, Ipod, or laptop computer.

Speaker and Amp Hook-Up
In a typical car stereo system that uses a head unit and an amplifier, the
amplifier is connected to constant 12V power. The head unit then serves
to "trigger" the amp as well as play music of course. This is why
amplifiers have both power and switch terminals. The power terminal is
wired directly to the battery and the switch terminal to your head unit.

Since the system I am about to show you does not use a normal car stereo to "trigger" the amplifier, some work-arounds had to be performed. In this section, I'll show you those along with my techniques for achieving good connections.

I got started by marking up a good location in the trunk to mount the Pioneer amp. The amp fit nicely to the sheetmetal just behind the rear seat.		It felt great to pull the original speakers out of the Montego. Set next to the new 6x9's, I knew I was in for a sound improvement when all was said and done.
No complaints here during step 3. The 6x9 mounting pattern has held true since only God knows when. The modern speakers bolted right into the existing mounting locations in the Mercury package tray.		Most speakers in this price range include thin 18 gauge wire. For sake of of consistency I made up some of my own 12 gauge speaker wires since I'd be wiring the amp with 12 gauge wire. I grabbed (3) 17ft packages of stranded wire in red, black, and white from Home Depot.
The speaker wires were easy to make up since the amp was now be situated no more than a couple feet from both speakers in the trunk. Here I am stripping off a 1/2" of shielding from the first of four wires.		I avoid using those colored terminal ends you see in every hardware and autopart store. The plastic used for those terminal ends is brittle and tends to crack after crimping. Besides, they just look cheap.
Here I am using a simple metal terminal end and some black shrink sleeving. Both are available at Radio Shack. This combo makes for a more professional looking install.		After cutting a 2 foot segment of wire, I got started on the "amp end" of the first speaker wire by stripping and dipping it into some soldering flux.
The "amp end" of each speaker wire was soldered to prevent any fraying under the terminal clamps on the amplifier. Each speaker wire was given a light twist and smooth run of solder. The pros call it "tinning".		Next, I paired up the wires to make two black and red wire sets. Each pair was wrapped in black electrical tape.

(Speaker and Amp Hook-Up continued)