[pickupcentral]

Thought I would check out the speakers in the door. I don't think this is stock...

 

[Gubi]

ROFL

At least, for the horrific hack that it is, it looks *reasonably* well executed...

 

[pickupcentral]

I suppose since 5 1/4" speakers are so rare, he had to put in some 4's.

The actual stereo wiring is a sight to behold as well. A thing of beauty and wonder, but mostly wonder.

 

[aldo]

Weenie???, pleeeease

Fl_lcktard is better.

 

[dabigboy]

LOL!!!!! "mostly wonder".....haha I know that feeling. Can't be much worse than finding the horn lead going out to the engine bay and then looping right back into the under-dash area....then connected to a ground....then CUT (presumably to kill that mysterious racket...) instead of just being disconnected from the ground point like it was in the first place.........

I'm happy that the speaker/radio wiring on my S3 is pretty barebones and straightforward, not much for previous owner's to mess up. All I had to deal with was an add-on radio's harness being spliced into the car's wiring by twisting the leads together and wrapping them (sometimes...) with electrical tape. Agghhh...what are these people thinking.

 

[Tifosi]

Agghhh...what are these people thinking.

"I just spent 3 hours getting the dashboard apart for this friggin thing, and I'm not wasting another minute getting this BS job done"

Followed shortly afterwards by:

"Great, now the screws are different lengths and thread types to put it back together. Piss on it, I'll just slap in what I can, put sheet rock screws where I can't then throw all these extras in a baggie in the glovebox so I can get around to sorting it out in 8-10 years. Friggin' imports cars....."

 

[aralfa8589]

Actually that is a stock speaker installation...it's a little known Arkansas option. I have sheetrock screws in my Spider that came from the SF. Idiocy has no geographical constraints.

 

[Alfajay]

It is a previous owner's obligation to do dumb things like hold things together with sheetrock screws, and insulate wires with masking tape.

Believe me, when our cars pass on to their next owners, they too will scratch their heads over some of the things that we have done. It's all part of the game.

 

[Hooligan]

Knowing the spotty build quality applied to these cars when new, I wouldn't be surprised if it left the factory that way!

 

[john.harrill]

It's the rare "Norm Abrams" edition.

 

[pickupcentral]

The fun part is to try to get the new radio wired in. He actually didn't use the speaker outs from the old radio, he ran the preamp out to a power amp in the trunk, then BACK to the dashboard to connect to the door speaker wires.

In a word - Brilliant! His genius fills a much-needed void.

Thanks for all the comments.

-Phil

 

[pickupcentral]

Weenie???, pleeeease

Fl_lcktard is better.

I think calling him a weiner would have accorded too much respect.

I agree that f*cktard is probably more accurate, and DID cross my mind, but I posted before 8pm...

 

[144]

Pretty bad. To call that redneck engineering would be insulting to rednecks.

 

[kunzman]

Hack?

It is a previous owner's obligation to do dumb things like hold things together with sheetrock screws, and insulate wires with masking tape.

Believe me, when our cars pass on to their next owners, they too will scratch their heads over some of the things that we have done. It's all part of the game.

Now my NO (next owner) will say this:
When he first got the car, he quickly made copies of the original keys. Even went to the trouble of finding an orginal Afla blank for the ignition key for the copy. He found an orginal owners manual to replace the lost one ($60, ouch), even sprung for a CarDisc before starting any projects. Wow when he replaced the carpet and upholstery he put back every screw, bolt, washer, nut, etc. just where it came from. He also has the orginal steering wheel and shifter knob for me in case I want to put them back in place of the cool Nardi wood ones he installed. He bead blasted and powder coated the Campy rims. Also added an oil pan guard. When he repainted the car, he painstakingly removed all the chrome, etc. so as to not have any overspray show. He even replaced the outer door handles with new ones that weren't pitted all to hell. He also replaced the outside square mirrors with the old school Vitaloni chrome ones, but he kept the original mirrors and repainted the backs of them as well and hung on to them in case I wanted to put them back on. Lastly, he replaced many missing little parts like the hood light, cover for the screw on the convertible top handle, original speaker covers, etc. by perusing ebay and this board constantly. Oh and finally, he left me with every receipt for everything he bought and did to maintain it.

I can tell you this, the thing he won't say is that I was a hack!

 

[dabigboy]

In the words of a famous toy.....Oh GREAT now I have guilt! I haven't kept all my receipts.

Alfajay, yeah, ya know there are probably things we do or don't do, and don't think anything of, that future owners will be puzzled or appalled at. These thoughts come to my head at times like the other night when the radio I was installing had an "always on" power lead, plus a switched lead....and the Alfa only has an always-on lead to the radio harness. I thought seriously of splicing a new wire into a switched lead somewhere (no extra switched terminals on the fusebox), then thought better of it.

 

[aldo]

Now my NO (next owner) will say this:
When he first got the car, he quickly made copies of the original keys. Even went to the trouble of finding an orginal Afla blank for the ignition key for the copy. He found an orginal owners manual to replace the lost one ($60, ouch), even sprung for a CarDisc before starting any projects. Wow when he replaced the carpet and upholstery he put back every screw, bolt, washer, nut, etc. just where it came from. He also has the orginal steering wheel and shifter knob for me in case I want to put them back in place of the cool Nardi wood ones he installed. He bead blasted and powder coated the Campy rims. Also added an oil pan guard. When he repainted the car, he painstakingly removed all the chrome, etc. so as to not have any overspray show. He even replaced the outer door handles with new ones that weren't pitted all to hell. He also replaced the outside square mirrors with the old school Vitaloni chrome ones, but he kept the original mirrors and repainted the backs of them as well and hung on to them in case I wanted to put them back on. Lastly, he replaced many missing little parts like the hood light, cover for the screw on the convertible top handle, original speaker covers, etc. by perusing ebay and this board constantly. Oh and finally, he left me with every receipt for everything he bought and did to maintain it.

I can tell you this, the thing he won't say is that I was a hack!

Nah,
He'll run over to Pep Boys buy some nice hub caps, replace those stupid mirrors, add some neon to the back, strategically place some stickers and if he has any money left over buy a nice big fart can to make it sound cool.

 

[kunzman]

I'm in suspense. What did you do with the swithed lead wire? Usually they are used to turn on an amp or have the antenna raise when the radio is powered on. If you have neither an amp or an auto raise/lower antenna then you can just cap it off.
Sounds like you squarely fit into the "not a hack" category. I would not have cut into the existing wiring either. Sadly the only place on mine where it was done is the radio and that was by the freaking dealer when my father-in-law bought the car! They put in a standard harness plug in lieu of the one from Alfa and then hooked up the radio to that.

 

[kunzman]

PO stuff

Nah,
He'll run over to Pep Boys buy some nice hub caps, replace those stupid mirrors, add some neon to the back, strategically place some stickers and if he has any money left over buy a nice big fart can to make it sound cool.

You forgot the part about the carbon fiber.

 

[dabigboy]

kunzman, me? Actually I haven't finished the install yet, still have to run wiring for my two 6x9's and tidy up the harness (and fix a few more lingering hack jobs from whoever "repaired" the wiring the first time around....). The accessory line I'll probably just cap off to avoid shorts, since I have no amp and my Spider has the integrated windshield antenna (which seems to work rather well, actually).

Incidentally, if you have Facebook, I just threw some pics from the radio install on there today, though I don't know how helpful they'd be (just general progress pics).

 

[Tifosi]

(no extra switched terminals on the fusebox)

Sure there is, they're just on the back side of the fusebox proper.

Likely my next owner will simply say 'put it on that pile for the shredder come Monday' as I've no intent of selling unless it decides to rot totally into the ground or gets totalled by some greebo in a pickumup truck that's got more headlights than he's got teeth.