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STEREO MODIFICATIONS
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Well after we made the exhaust so loud, we had to do something to the stereo. The first thing that had to happen was to give this muscle car a little bump. 

First some pics of it completed... then a bit of how it was done:

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FITTING SUBS AND AMP WITH A MACH 460 SYSTEM:

Well we had a few major hurdles to tackle...
1. The car is a daily driver, so we had to retain as much truck space as possible.
2. & 3. It came with the factory Mach 460 system....
Because of the mach system's own rear truck box, there was no aftermarket or readly available box that was a drop in.
This system is nothing like a standard plug and play stereo system. It has its own integrated amps and cabling instead or normal wires and RCAs.

So let the adventure begin...

I was able to use an old truck box I had around the house. It just cleared the mach's box and gave room for the amp to be mounted above. It was a crappy built ported box, so I sealed up the seams and eliminated all the holes.

Once in, it gave the much desired truck space and cleared everything as I had hoped...

Here you can see the amp mounted just clearing everything

Here was my trick to cushion the amp and easy the vibrations of a hard mount

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Adding subs to the dreaded Mach system
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Yes it can be done. Basically you have to tap into the signal wires before they get to the factory amps in the rear.

I have to find my original paperwork to get all the specifics down, but here is basically what I did.

Runing the power and ground

First I ran my power wire. From the battery of course. I used and inline fuse within one foot of the battery connection. I ran the line thru the fire wall and tucked it below paneling and carpet the length of the car. Ran it up the rear seat paneling and under the cushion to the truck.

The ground was simply attaching a like sized wire to a good grounded bolt in the rear of the car.

Then I had to run my remote power turn on lead for the amp. Do to the complicated mach system, I opted to tap into the fuse box at the radio fuse. That way the amp is turned on when the radio is.

This wire was also run to the rear with the power wire. As they are both power and not signal wires they can run side by side without causing any distortions.

Signal wires for the amp

Here was the hard part that was differnt from any normal car.

At the rear of the car coming off of the factory sub box you will find a grey weather pack. The end coming out of the box with have thicker red/white striped and black/white striped wires coming off of it.

The other end has black/green striped and black/white striped smaller diameter wires coming out of a harness.

I did not want to tap the existing system and mess it up, so I decided to make my own harness to go between the weather pack connection. I separated the weather pack to find that the wiring terminals were round. They would not work with standard butt style connectors, so I looked around the parts store. Sure enough I found a kit with Ford conector ends and it had the right female and male conectors. So I made my own harness to fit right in and tapped off it. I have to find my diagram to tell you what is what wire color is what (rt, left, positive, negative)

From there I used a signal step down that uses capacitors to clean the signal and switche the line to a RCA style perfect for the amp wiring.

Here they are together

From there the RCAs were run to the rear low pass connection on the amp and the speaker wires run from the amp the the box! Plug and play!  Nothing like Building your own wiring harness to keep the stock system intact. 

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Now we wanted to add a bit of dress up...

Three things came to mind: Covering up that nasty stock carpet, adding a bit of protection to the subs and adding some better looks to the box!

I first had to cover the stock carpet.  Rather then buy all new I decided to use the near perfect match I discovered when i made the Trunk lid pony... Speak box carpet:  I laid a piece in and simply cut it to fit and tcked the edges under the box and side lining.  Wow did that make a difference.  Its amazing how many people ask us how we kept it so nice.

Next I used to old stainless bumper insert letters that were removed for the repaint after the accident.  All the 3M tape adhesive had to be removed so w/o serious effort they would not look clean enough to go outside anymore, but would add that extra pop to the sub box.  I used a bit of the stiff side of the velcro on the backs and they clung to the box carpet perfect.

Now after some looking I found these grilles over at parts express.  Good price and a simple screw in install.  We decided on a slanted look for some added style.  now I dont have to worry so much if something is in the trunk.

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DIRECTORY FOR TINKERBELL_TOO SITE
01 Intro
02 Exhaust Mods
03 Rims
04 Lowering Springs
05 Exterior: Graphics
06 Exterior: Grilles
07 Exterior: Honeycomb Tailpanel & Rear Valance Insert
08 Exterior: Emblems & Stainless Bumper Letter Inserts
09 Exterior: Brakes
10 Exterior: Projection Headlights
11 Exterior: Accident
12 Exterior: Paint & Roush Nose 
13 Exterior: Tail Light Tint 
14 Interior: Billet Accents
15 Interior: Gauge Insert
16 Interior: Paint
17 Interior: Trunk Mat
18 Interior: Door Panel Inserts
19 Interior: Shift, E-Brake boots, and Console Cover
20 Interior: Miscellaneous 
21 Interior: Stereo <<<
22 Engine: Stainless Radiator Cover
23 Engine: JLT True Cold Air Intake 
24 Engine: Bright Work 
25 Engine: Hood Struts 
++ Seriously cool pics of my Stang
++ Show Results Page
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