Box Panther package tray amplifier install DUW

[85crownHPP]

What better time to finally do this than now??
My current wiring was just a measly 8 gauge with everything just tucket next to the seat and fished into the trunk. Sloppy!
So I finially went for it and took out the seats... it makes things much easier!!!




just look at that mess...




much better!





the amps, cap, and 4 LED fans will go up on the shelf, and the spare has a new home next to the subs. definitly need a cover for that now...



tomorrow Im going to Lowes for some big brackets and long bolts. and wood. gotta have wood. I wish I had thought to get some carpet to put on it earlier, but too late now. I havent seen any for sale in any store around here... Ill probably just paint it black again.

I plan to wire this so the two mono amps are fed from the cap and 4gauge wire, and the 4ch amp is fed with the 8gauge wire. Since it was already there, figure I might as well take advantage of it!

[grandpaslincoln]

lookin good so far mang.

:rock:

[1987LTDmasta]

horrific

[85crownHPP]

lets see your trunk, bazooka-tube joe. lol

[gadget73]

The wiring I ran is fished under the seat like that, but there is a set of speaker wires for the rear shelf speakers the PO installed, and they are actually run around the edge of the seat and up across the edge of the rear shelf. I can see about 10" of wire and it bugs me. Someday I'll stop being lazy and rewire that shit.

Looks good. You're as much a perfectionist with stuff like that as I can be at times, but I'm just lazy.

I also like the spare placement. Thats one of my complaints about these cars. GM cars from the era like the Monte Carlo had the spare mounted vertically on the right side of the trunk so that package shelf was actually a useful thing. Having that bigass spare right in the middle kinda makes the shelf useless.

[Blaze86Vic]

Looks good Pete! That's how I ran all my wires, through that black rectagular plastic conduit. I ran all my signal and speaker wires through the passanger side, and the power through the diver side. Ran all of it under that hard black insulation in the back seat too.

[85crownHPP]

thanks people!

i definitly want to keep the wires clean on the interior - theres a nice space under that trim to route everything up the rear firewall and through a hole into the trunk shelf. There was even a strip of some crap that looked like tar-covered duct tape used to hold the factory wires and edge of the sound insulation in place, so I just peeled that back and ran them all under that.

and yes! i went against car audio practices and ran the 4gauge on the same side of the RCA's... Im not worried about this for a few reasons - good amps dont have problems with ground loop noise, the 4ga will only be running the subs through a low pass filter (noise wont get through to the amps) and its also going through a cap, which acts as a ground loop isolator as well.
Even though the noise that you get from power wire + not shielded well enough RCA's isnt ground loop noise, Im hoping the RCAs are good enough quality. if not, hopefully the low pass filter will catch it.


I think the spare will work well there, ultimatley it will go on the drivers side. I going to rig up some eye bolts or weld something so I can try and use the factory hold down parts, but that might not be done by scottfest. It seems to stay pretty well wedged by the subs box and a wheel chuck, for now.


Time to go to lowes!

[Blaze86Vic]

I couldn't bring myself to do that. I'm just too worried about quality to do that. I have shielded RCA's run to the amp with an extra noise filter at the amp. Plus I have ground loop noise suppresor on the power supply for the head unit. With the power wire run on the opposite side, it's a 100% clear.

[85crownHPP]

6x9's installed with both bolts and straps

[85crownHPP]

The one little bracket in the back didnt cut it - I switch it for two of the big brackets. Very secure!

Heres pics of the test fire in my room. Just picture these on the package shelf. Ill take full Installed pics when I straighten out the trunk finally - but it may be a while... I need a break. The week previous to scottfest was intense, lol.

[Southern_Pride]

Looks nice. A break is always good its just the getting started again that sux.

[Grand Marquis GT]

BTM, that setup looks and sounds excellent in person!!!

Makes "Magic Carpet Ride" sound good too

[85crownHPP]

thanks Tom!
I still have some wires to straigten up and a few things to work out. An RCA cable is dangling and there is a little bit of alternator noise...
Im going to try and find some shorter cable to reduce some dangles, and play around with moving the RCAs and power wire for the 4ch amp in relation to each other, and see if that helps the noise. The stereo easly drowns it out, but at low volume you can hear it. This should be interesting now that the back seat is in place - its a tight squeze back there!

[85crownHPP]

Box Panther package tray amplifier install DUW

I finally got everything in the trunk moslty squared away, heres more pics...

I ran the 4ga power wire through this grommet on the passenger side - I had to slice a chunk out of it with a knife, and you will need a friend to feed it down below the blower motor.

[85crownHPP]

the base for the amp rack is securely fastened to the trunk lid hinge support and the rear fire wall by 3 large 'L' brackets.
The small one you see in the pic at the fire wall got replaced with 2 big ones for extra stability.
The rear of the base is slightly elevated to allow the jack to be stored where it should and still fit.




The toolboxes are behind the spare, in the fender side cubby