Stereo Head Unit Install

New 11/8/05

What Charles did is rather slick, he got a replacement "football", the dash unit that combines the HVAC and stereo controls and did a very clean graft of a DIN slot and relocated all the electronics in a very clean fashion. It looks very nice and well executed. Look at the photos. - Buford

Hello all, my names Charles Ridinger. I am a new Gen III owner, and I have a problem. I am addicted to car audio. But with the Gen III it “slightly” difficult to install aftermarket head unit in our cars with out some major surgery. There isn’t a high enough demand for the aftermarket install kit manufacturers (schosche, metra) to build a dedicated kit for our cars. And if they did it would about an arm & a leg to buy. Heck have you bought a kit for the rotary controlled SLO’s? Then you know that those things are a bundle in them selves. So I decided to “fix” this problem and modify the factory head unit in my 1997 SHO to allow the clean installation of a aftermarket head unit.

First off I don’t want people to think this is a “step by step” guide to do this. From start to where I am now it has all been trial and error. Seeing if I can make this or that work. All I want to provide is a reference to what I had to overcome and what needs to be done to make this all work. And as of right now it still isn’t done but the amount of work needed to finish it quite small, but is the most tedious task so far.

A little about myself: I am 25 yrs old, live in a small city in NW Ohio, I am not a professional body man, or painter. I am a computer nerd, play rugby, and wrench on cars to make my living. I enjoy tinkering with anything to make it perform better than it was intended (isn’t that what hot-rodding is all about?). This project was taken on because I haven’t seen one person on the boards attempt it as of now (but many have contacted me about ones that they have done). There is one car stereo install shop in Toledo, oh that I have seen do an install on our cars. And they told me that it cost in the neighborhood of $400+ to reproduce. Sorry, a little rich my broke butt. I did this more to see if I could. And the encouragement from the V8 community has been more than encouraging. Thank you!

Here are several pictures of the build up so far. There are not in any particular order, but it will give you a reference point to start your own project. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me or even give me a shout on my Cell phone.

(to Tim: please link to http://photobucket.com/albums/b279/taurusshopics/ for the pictures of the build up. Don’t want to waste your space on your server. Also you may use the pics in anyway shape or form as you see fit. –Charlie)

Charles Ridinger
charlie@sprinttruck.com

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