This page is dedicated to showing pictures of my car as it has evolved to where it is today.  At the same time, I describe my current and future modifications in chronological order.

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Project Completed in January 2008 (For Sale )

To remove the radio, you need to take off the dash part in front of it.  First remove the slider knobs and A/C button and then pull the part off after disconnecting the wires.

Then, remove the radio by unscrewing the 4 screws and disconnecting the wires from the back.

You might need to take the brackets off of the sides of the radio to put on your new one.  That was pretty easy.  Looks like I was in the middle of several other projects lol.

See those 3 bumps poking off the metal?  Well, my new head unit had no place for those even though the screw holes lined up fine.  So, I had to remove them somehow.

Smashing it between a hammer and a hard place did the trick!  Now the pieces screw onto the new radio easily.

The next step to making the installation really easy was to get a Toyota wiring kit.  Walmart had this.  The kit is on the left; the wires that came with the radio are on the right.  This part was really tricky because the colors didn't match up.  I had to keep referencing the deck's manual and the wiring kit package.  Eventually I got it right.

This is what the new wiring looks like after the sub is hooked up (see below).  It's quite a mess, but now the radio can plug straight in.  The black antenna wire needs no adapter to fit into the new radio.

It works!  Make sure that all of your wires are correct; check your speakers to ensure that the polarity is correct.  I had trouble fitting the deck back in because the amp's RCA connectors hit the duct work.  My drill took care of that by making a nice hole in the duct.  At least it won't get too hot back there!

Put it all back together and you are done.

Project Completed in January 2008

I didn't get enough pictures of this, but it was pretty easy.  Remove the door panel.  To do this, pull off the armrest and remove the bolts, unscrew the door handle and slide it off, then pull the door panel off.  Then, remove the speaker by unscrewing it and unbolt the black plastic piece to which the speaker was mounted.  It will be in the way.  My 5.25 inch speaker fit perfectly snug in the opening on the door panel as shown.  I also screwed the speaker into the fiberboard with self-tapping metal screws.  They did not come out on the other side except for under the plastic where it is not visible.  Then, I connected the wires to the speaker and plugged it in.  Reinstall the door panel, but be careful that the speaker magnet does not get stuck to the door!  My speaker fit into the door without hitting anything, and the window operates just fine.

Project Completed in Janruary 2008

To wire the subwoofer, you must run a heavy-duty power wire from the trunk to the battery along with a smaller wire to run from the trunk to the head unit in the dash.  The big wire delivers the power to the amp while the smaller wire turns the amp on or off with the head unit.  Run these wires on the driver's side of the car.  Simply pull up the plastic there and slip the wires under the carpet.  The small wire will need to be run behind the steering wheel so remove the dash part below it.

You also need to run shielded RCA cables from the trunk to the head unit.  These wires must be run along the other side of the car to avoid interference and noise in the sub.  You should remove the glovebox so that the wires can go above it to the radio.

The heavy-duty amp power cable goes to the battery, so I ran it through the fender to under the hood the same way I wired my first DRL and first fog lights (the other wires).

Then, it simply screws onto the battery terminal.  The larger red wire is the amp, the smaller one is for the fog lights.

Here, you can see the amp switching wire (horizontal blue wire) connecting to the power antenna output on the radio.  The clear wires running into the back of the radio are the RCA cables.

Now, to the trunk.  The power and switch wires run around the seats and come through here (remove the carpet out of the way first).

The RCA cables run into the trunk on the other side.  You can see the opening in the trunk metal better in this picture.

The amp must be grounded really well to avoid interference and road noise.  Drill a hole in the trunk right next to the amp.  The shorter the ground wire, the better.  Then, scrape the paint off around the hole to expose the grounded metal.

Screw the heavy-duty ground wire tight to that.  The amp should let you know if it is properly grounded (usually a green LED).

Then, wire everything together.  The brown cables connect the left and right channels on the amp to the channels on the sub.  The subs are rated for twice the power of the amp, so I might upgrade the amp sometime.

Finish by making it look as nice as possible.  This is good enough for me since I don't have a show car.  the bungie cord straps the sub to the seat and there is Velcro under the sub to hold it in place.

That is all for now.  If you have any questions or comments, please let me know in my guestbook!  Don't forget to rate!