Let me preface this. I know nothing about car audio, I'm not an expert here at all. What I'm doing in this thread is posting how I'm installing a radio, amp & subwoofer to my 1988 325IX. I go about it this way based on what I've read on the internet by 
. I'd like to thank all the time Luke and others have spent posting their knowledge to the community here; it helps audio dummies like me (hopefully) install a decent sounding system.
This is a work in progress. Please, if you're knowledgeable in this area, and you see I'm doing something completely retarded here, post up.
About the car:
1988 325IX. Craigslist. Previous owner took the stereo and speakers. It does have a fader switch in the dash.
The speakers:
I purchased premium sound speakers off the forums here and installed.
The head unit:
Originally I was going to use a Pioneer DEH44 since I've been pretty much using the "How to install a killer stereo..." thread as my audio bible. but after reading about the JVC KD-R720 here too, I decided to go that route.
The amp:
Jensen Power 5500 5 channel. Amazon
The sub:
Infinity Reference 1062W 10" DVC woofer. Amazon
Started at the front of the car. This is the mess the PO left me.
Removed the steering wheel, the bolts holding the column in place and the instrument cluster. Then cut out all the aftermarket wires that were there.
Capped off the head unit speaker wires & then connected the battery power, ignition power, dash lights fade wire, ground and capped off the fader control wires (mine was the 6 wire version)
Removed the OEM Amp. Put the diode pack back with the little bracket. Also removed my non functioning power antenna.
This is the plug for the amp. What I'm going to splice extension wires into in order to connect to the amp.
Next up I cut 4 pairs of 1 blue and 1 gray wires about 3' long each and labeled them. These are to splice onto the wires that were plugged into the OEM amp and are now going to be connected to the new more better amp.
Then it was time to take a break. So I did. Mmmm
Next up was the trunk tar. I'd really been not wanting to do this after hearing all the bad stories. I used a couple of flat pry bars and it came up in mostly large pieces. :nice: Holy cr** though, (yeah I'd read it) but dang this stuff is heavy. I weighed it with a fish scale, 60 lbs.
With that out, I began routing RCA cables. I started at the front. I know the bible says to start in the rear, but I thought it'd be easier to hide extra wire near the rear of the car, so that's what I did.
I removed the door sill thing and the seats and loosened the top bolt and removed the bottom bolt on the lower seat belt slider thing.
This is along the sill, I went under these wires.
Cut out the oval blanks (two, one for each RCA).
Zip tied in a few places, kept them not too tight per suggestions in other threads.
Then I made a ground connection. I sanded down to bare metal then used a 1/4" SS sheet metal screw to attach my cable with. For the cable I used 4ga with a solder on solid copper battery lug.
Installed the fuse holder.
Then ran them both in the OEM loom toward the front of the car.
Poked the power and ground cables out of the trunk liner about 10" rear of the firewall per directions in the bible. Hung my RCA and my amp extension wires for the speakers over the top of the other side trunk liner.
Next up the ski pass through hole. I just whacked it with a hammer and it came right out. Then I cut a little bit out of the bottom of it like Luke suggests with a tin snip and filed off the edges so I wouldn't cut myself later.
Lastly I tiddy'd up the wires in the dash. A keen eye will note 3 pairs of RCA. I had the RCA cables so I ran an extra pair in case I upgrade my deck in the future to one that has a dedicated sub output. For this install though, I will only be using 2 pair.
Luke, if you read this far, I need to hit you up for a box. Admittedly when I started I was going to make my own, but dang, this is taking too long and I'm too picky to spend all this time on this then bugger up a box. I hear you make something decent... ;)
To be continued:
. I'd like to thank all the time Luke and others have spent posting their knowledge to the community here; it helps audio dummies like me (hopefully) install a decent sounding system. This is a work in progress. Please, if you're knowledgeable in this area, and you see I'm doing something completely retarded here, post up.
About the car:
1988 325IX. Craigslist. Previous owner took the stereo and speakers. It does have a fader switch in the dash.
The speakers:
I purchased premium sound speakers off the forums here and installed.
The head unit:
Originally I was going to use a Pioneer DEH44 since I've been pretty much using the "How to install a killer stereo..." thread as my audio bible. but after reading about the JVC KD-R720 here too, I decided to go that route.
The amp:
Jensen Power 5500 5 channel. Amazon
The sub:
Infinity Reference 1062W 10" DVC woofer. Amazon
Started at the front of the car. This is the mess the PO left me.
Removed the steering wheel, the bolts holding the column in place and the instrument cluster. Then cut out all the aftermarket wires that were there.
Capped off the head unit speaker wires & then connected the battery power, ignition power, dash lights fade wire, ground and capped off the fader control wires (mine was the 6 wire version)
Removed the OEM Amp. Put the diode pack back with the little bracket. Also removed my non functioning power antenna.
This is the plug for the amp. What I'm going to splice extension wires into in order to connect to the amp.
Next up I cut 4 pairs of 1 blue and 1 gray wires about 3' long each and labeled them. These are to splice onto the wires that were plugged into the OEM amp and are now going to be connected to the new more better amp.
Then it was time to take a break. So I did. Mmmm
Next up was the trunk tar. I'd really been not wanting to do this after hearing all the bad stories. I used a couple of flat pry bars and it came up in mostly large pieces. :nice: Holy cr** though, (yeah I'd read it) but dang this stuff is heavy. I weighed it with a fish scale, 60 lbs.
With that out, I began routing RCA cables. I started at the front. I know the bible says to start in the rear, but I thought it'd be easier to hide extra wire near the rear of the car, so that's what I did.
I removed the door sill thing and the seats and loosened the top bolt and removed the bottom bolt on the lower seat belt slider thing.
This is along the sill, I went under these wires.
Cut out the oval blanks (two, one for each RCA).
Zip tied in a few places, kept them not too tight per suggestions in other threads.
Then I made a ground connection. I sanded down to bare metal then used a 1/4" SS sheet metal screw to attach my cable with. For the cable I used 4ga with a solder on solid copper battery lug.
Installed the fuse holder.
Then ran them both in the OEM loom toward the front of the car.
Poked the power and ground cables out of the trunk liner about 10" rear of the firewall per directions in the bible. Hung my RCA and my amp extension wires for the speakers over the top of the other side trunk liner.
Next up the ski pass through hole. I just whacked it with a hammer and it came right out. Then I cut a little bit out of the bottom of it like Luke suggests with a tin snip and filed off the edges so I wouldn't cut myself later.
Lastly I tiddy'd up the wires in the dash. A keen eye will note 3 pairs of RCA. I had the RCA cables so I ran an extra pair in case I upgrade my deck in the future to one that has a dedicated sub output. For this install though, I will only be using 2 pair.
Luke, if you read this far, I need to hit you up for a box. Admittedly when I started I was going to make my own, but dang, this is taking too long and I'm too picky to spend all this time on this then bugger up a box. I hear you make something decent... ;)
To be continued:
I think that's the right term, whatever. Anyways, I couldn't come up with a clean place to install it without it looking like .. well an after thought clooge, So I popped it open to see if I could make it smaller and install it behind one of the unused dash block offs. Sure enough, it's just a POT with an RJ11 wired to the back. I drilled one of my blank off plates then trimmed down the existing hosing for the subwoofer level control and used JB weld to glue it to the back of the blank off plate. 
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