Help with customising VX audio system

[theartofnecro]

Hey, im new here and not that great with cars. I have a 2002 VX equip Series II and it has a console with a cd and tape player. Its fairly big. I saw a guy with the console removed, and he had a nice head unit fitted in the top half of where the big console used to be and a storage area in the bottom half, so there wasnt a huge hole there. Can someone give me an insight as to how i'd go about doing that myself?
Also Id like to replace the speakers and put an amp/sub in the boot, because the speakers arent great quality. What specific models should I shoose to fit the existing 4 speaker mounts? And how should I go about it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks,
Mick

[acarmody]

Hey, im new here and not that great with cars. I have a 2002 VX equip Series II and it has a console with a cd and tape player. Its fairly big. I saw a guy with the console removed, and he had a nice head unit fitted in the top half of where the big console used to be and a storage area in the bottom half, so there wasnt a huge hole there. Can someone give me an insight as to how i'd go about doing that myself?
Also Id like to replace the speakers and put an amp/sub in the boot, because the speakers arent great quality. What specific models should I shoose to fit the existing 4 speaker mounts? And how should I go about it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks,
Mick

Mate the only thing you should do is hike yourself down to a car audio dealer (WOW, JB, Strathfield, any car audio specialist, ect.) tell them your budget and let them tell you. But shop around and see what different shops tell you.
You say you aren't great with cars, so I would definately get a professional install, you mess up wiring to amps or anything and you could blow up a lot of electronics.
What you have descibed with the other guys car is a standard setup, a single DIN headunit with a pocket to fill in the gap.
Regarding what models you can choose, mate there are plenty. All comes down to your budget and personal choice. Some common setups are 6" or 6.5" splits in the front doors, 6x9" in the back and a sub in the boot, with the splits and the sub running of a 4 channel amp. Or you can have the splits and te 6x9s running from a 4 channel amp and the sub running of a mono-block amp. Will produce better results but wil cost more for the second amp. As for the actual headunit itself, again budget and personal preference.

Hope this helps

-Adrian

[Stretchomatic]

dude, u can go professional install but you'll never learn how the gear works if u do.

get yourself a gregories manual or something similar at super cheap or where ever u buy car stuff, it'll show u how the whole car comes apart.

head to a few audio stores and look at the head units, like do u need ipod connection, mp3 connection, how many amps do u wanna run on it (pre outs on the back), dvd compatibiliy etc
have a listen to the speakers and see which sounds best for your budget, remember to spend more on the front speakers, cos thats where u sit.

when u choose or are choosing speakers remember to think about if u wanna amp them.
i have 4 of the same speaker in my car so i can tune them all similar and run the same power to each.
i run 4 speakers and a sub running from a 4 channel amp and a 2 channel amp.

you can easily get away with a 4 channel to run two front speakers and the other two channels bridged for a sub.
and please remember that u dont really need 6x9s if u have a sub, the sub sends most pressure through the factory holes in the parcel shelf so it will cancel out the 6x9s anyway

6 or 6 and a half inch speakers will easily fit into your doors, depending on magnet size u may need to cut the plastic pods in the doors, pretty easy easy with pliers and sidecutterrs.

any other questions, just send a message.

[acarmody]

By no means am I saying that you can't do the install yourself, I'm just pointing out that there are definate risks. I was just in Strathfield the other day getting a new headunit installed, and the car before had blown up his amplifier and subwoofer just because his ground cable from the amp wasn't connected properly.
I myself have a Gregory's manual and while it does cover a large amount of stuff, its not really that helpful with installing sound gear, sure it has wiring diagrams and stuff which are quite helpful, but it doesn't show you stuff like wiring up amps or decent headunits. And if you acidentally short out your car which isn't too hard to do, then your do a fair amount of damage, with the worst case scenario being killing your cars computer.
Personally I would pay the few hundred dollars and get a pro to install it with warranty on the work done. But if you car good with this sort of stuff then by all means do it yourself, its not really that hard.

-Adrian