[PikeBoy98]

Well, I finally got the time off of work, the wife is at work and the kids are in school. Time to bust into this new truck of mine. I already had most of an Alpine system from my '06 Charger that I traded in for my '06 Quad Cab, so I just needed to install it. The truck is similar to the Charger, and a little easier. Here are some pics.

Here is the stocker radio without the wood grain panel.

Here is pulling the radio out. Everything unplugs real easy, except the Antenna. I broke it of course.

Do not pull on the metal part of the antenna. The black piece that spins and spins needs to come out and will come out. Just keep pulling. Trust me. Do not pull on the right angle silver metal part. It will separate and cost you $25 at the dealer to fix it. Notice in the picture that the black piece separated from the angled metal piece, leaving the antenna wire sticking out.

Tapped into the Driver's side cigarette lighter for power and ground for the radio. Real easy to do.

Tapped into the Passenger side cigarette lighter for constant (always on) power for the radio.

Started wiring up the Alpine head unit and fishing wires down thru the back of the radio into the dash. Plenty of room back there. Taped the stock wiring looms to the far back of the dash for use later, if and when it comes time to sell the truck and return it to stock.

Here is what the unit looks like tonight with the Alpine head unit and the Crutchfield adapter kit to fill in the gaps around the radio.

 

[PikeBoy98]

Front Dash speakers and XM

Popping off the front dash cover, nearest the windshield was easy. I started in the right corner and carefully slid a flat screwdriver, into the front right corner and pried it up.

As you can see. along the side of the trim piece away from the windshield are vertical metal clips, that pop into square holes in the dashboard. Popping these straight up was easy. All of the clips nearest the windshield snapped into the dashboard by pushing forward, so pulling toward the interior of the cab freed these up. Start at one side and carefully pull until you get one clip at a time to pop free. Then when you want to remove the trim piece, you have to bend it slightly to clear the A-Pillar.

I wanted to install my 1" tweeters in the front holes (designed for 3 1/2" tweeters, so I simply cut a piece of cardboard (for now) to cover the large 3 1/2" hole and mounted my tweeters to it. They are just sitting there, under the reinstalled trim piece.

I also installed my XM Antenna under the center speaker mount, as I will not be needing this option. Another piece of cardboard for now, painted black to hide it. I will later use plexiglass or create a metal carrier that will allow the speakers to sit a little lower in the hole and not so close to the plastic trim piece. I mounted the Terk XM Radio adapters (for Alpine) behind and lower than the radio in the dash. The fit behind the storage tray you can see below the radio. Plenty of room.

 

[PikeBoy98]

Joe Fox Subwoofer Box

Next was the subwoofer box from Joe Fox. The install went pretty smoothly once I found a large enough socket (18mm) and a long enough driver to loosen the rear seat bolts. The front two were a bear, but the rear passenger was easy.

Rear cab with rear seat removed

Rear seat track with stud. Notice the stud that is integrated into the seat track. You have to lift the rear seat to clear this out of the sheet metal to get the seat to slide forward enough to get behind it.

The infamous rear seat bracket that if you flip this upside down, you can lay the back of the seat down, when you fold the rear of the seat upward. (8mm socket works here)

Joe Fox box laying in there with one of the Alpine Type R's (12 inch) to be installed.

MORE TO COME. I still have to crack into the doors to replace the speakers and wire up the 6 1/2" components, as well as run wires for the 2 amps to be placed on the rear wall.

 

[LeeR]

Looks like a killer set up! Let us know how it sounds!!!!

 

[DEATH METAL]

Looking very good!

 

[PikeBoy98]

Thanks guys!!! I am hoping to have it finished before the new year!!!

 

[Thor0405]

hey tell me more about the rear set flip thing..... just PM me... Thanks... Oh ya it looks great!!!! I'll be doing mine today and tomarrow.

 

[mezei]

looks like you know what your doing

 

[RB24]

nice man

 

[07HEMI]

Nice job bro,

 

[PikeBoy98]

looks like you know what your doing

Thanks. I do a lot of reading on this forum, and like I mentioned, I had already torn apart my 2006 Charger, so it is like familiar territory. I am trying to post some different pics so that it will help anyone that is unsure or not positive on how to enjoy their truck even more than in stock form.

I credit the guys in front of me who have modded their trucks and posted results. I am just giving another perspective on how to do it!!!

I love my Dodge!!!! :rck:

 

[quietpeen]

looking good. It really is a lot of work isn't it? Well worth it though.

 

[PikeBoy98]

Front Door Speakers

Well, I got a few more hours to work on the truck, so here is how far I have gotten.

Front Door Speakers:
For the front door speakers, I went with the 6.5" Alpine speaker. I used a 1/4" piece of wood as a spacer to cover the 6"x9" hole left by the crappy stock speaker. The speaker was so light, no wonder it couldn't produce any base!! I ran the wiring thru the stock harness running to the door. This was tough, but I managed to get the wires thru. Here is the story and pictures:

Remove the (2) screws at the bottom of the door, the screw in the triangular at the top near the mirror, the screw near the door handle and the screw that holds the door handle to the mechanism.

lift up and the door comes off. No Christmas tree plastic fasteners to worry about. All of the plastic brackets are plastic and facing down. Make sure to unclip the (2) wiring harnesses for the door locks and window controls. Here is the back of the door.

Actual inside the door.

(4) screws and a wiring harness and the door speaker can be removed.

Next I popped the door sill off, so that I could get to the wiring bundle going to the door. Easy off, just lift it up and metal clips pop right out.

Removing the boot that protects the wiring to the door was tough. Pushing in on each corner releases a part of the boot. Each corner had to be released. I used a flat head screw driver and fingers to push down on each corner. Start in the back (closer to the fender), since these are hard to release. Steady pressure seemed to work the best. Once I released all (4), I was able to pull the plastic piece back from the body and show the (2) wiring harness connectors for the door.

Release the wiring harness connectors and here is the boot away from the truck body side.

I then used a coat hanger with a curled over tip to push thru the wiring harness. I went from the door side, thru the speaker opening, pushed the coat hanger thru the rubber boot, slowly, feeling it as it went thru the boot, guiding it with my fingers, so that it wouldn't get hung up. AS you can see in the picture above, the grommet, came off the boot, and I was able to see the hanger come thru the boot. I then pushed it between the white and black connector. Pull the speaker wire (or DEI window wires) thru the same route, and bam, you are into the truck and DRY. This took probably two hours to accomplish, but worth it. Be Patient, it will work.

For the passenger side, I could not get to the body side of the rubber wiring bundle, because of the A/C blower, so I decided to go from the door grommet to the antenna grommet, located just below. I pulled the grommet into the door that holds the wires, pushed the coat hanger thru the grommet. I then pulled the antenna grommet out from the body side sheet metal.

For now, I just wrapped the speaker wire in electrical tape and pushed it into thru the antenna grommet. Later, I will go back and shrink wrap the wire. Here is the finished look.

Here is the final door speaker adapter installed on the door. I just made a few patterns from cardboard to fit the 6x9 speaker hole, and when I felt I had the right size, I cut it from 1/4" wood that I had laying around. I used the screws that attached the stock speaker to attach the wood to the door and the screws that came with the new speaker to attach the 6.5" to the wood. Simple. I used flat black spray paint to cover the wood, so that I would not get any glare thru the speaker panel on the door.

 

[PikeBoy98]

Wiring for Amps

I also worked on wiring the amps for power and signals. I decided to not go the same route of stuffing (3) sets of RCA's and power wires into my door sills, and hoping that I do not get any interference. I decided to go a little more drastic by removing all the seats and carpet to run the wires down the middle.

I ran the power wire thru the driver's side fire wall thru the small grommet that held what looks like the parking brake cable (not sure). It was small and easier to get at than the big wiring bundle located behind the parking brake assembly.

Inside the truck

Engine Compartment

I used the same coat hanger to push thru from the inside. Pulling the power wire thru was fairly easy, but I ended up using some Lithium grease to pull the length of wire thru the boot, so that I wouldn't damage the rubber boot.

Removing the seats was not easy, but straight forward. 18mm socket for the rear of the front seats. I had to use a long wrench to get the leverage to crack these bolts loose. 15mm socket for the front of the seat bolts. These weren't as tight. To remove the center fold down seat and the seat frames, I chose to take off all (6) nuts that are located under each seat (3 per side, one in front and two in the back). These nuts attach the seat cushion and back to the seat frame. Using a 1/2 speed wrench (13mm would have been more accurate) I removed each nut. A speed wrench is almost necessary, as you cannot get a deep socket in under the seat to get the nuts loose, and an open ended wrench would have taken a lot more time, as each nut can only be rotated 1/4 to 1/2 a rotation. It's tight in there, but possible. Once the (6) nuts were removed, the seat came right out of the truck. Make sure to unhook any wiring harnesses. I left the seat belts attached to the seat, and just set the seat on the ground next to the truck. I did not have a large enough Torx drive to remove the seats.

Here is the seat frame and center seat still in the truck.

Once the driver's and passenger seats are removed, I pulled the center seat out with both frames attached to it. Pretty easy, but I would recommend having another person help. It was difficult and sloppy to pick the entire assembly up and out of the truck, without scratching the dash or paint.

Once the seats were out, the carpet pulled up easy, out from under the pedals, out from under the B-Pillar and layed it all on the passenger side.

I layed out the wiring down the center of the truck, RCA's and Front door speaker wiring on the passenger side, and power wire down the driver's side. Once I layed it all out, and kept the wires from twisting over each other, I used duct tape to hold them down under the carpet. Here is the finished look.

All of the wires are coming from under neath the cupholders. SWEET!!!

Folding the carpet back down and reinstalling was a snap. Here is the finished look. I ran the wires thru some existing holes under the Rear seat and punched a hole in the carpet to get them to come out toward the center, away from the sub box.

Nest, I vacuumed the truck. Great time to get to all those places that normally get missed.

The hardest part of this project was contorting my hands under the seat to get all of the nuts loose for the seat removal. That took some time, even with a speed wrench. Reinstalling the driver's side seat wiring bracket was the worst. That thing would not go back over the studs for nothing. Then after about the 5th try, pop, it went, no idea how or why. Seemed easy. What the Heck!!!

 

[dailydriver]

is there a reason you did not go through the clutch wire plate. seeing as you have a automatic trans. it is a plastic cover. unibit it and put a grommet on it. bam. also i was curious if that is 1 8ga wire going to the battery for the 2 alpine amps. each amp uses 8ga if i remember correctly.

 

[siiturbo]

Fiberglass FTW! Use the cardboard as a template and glass it. U stripped out all the carpet and seats???? I ran all my wires through the plastic clutch cover piece down the channel of the plastic door scuff plates all the way to the back.
Can't see a single wire till it connects to the amp. A handy tool i used was a coat hanger since I don't know where my fishtape is . If I ever take out my interior then I'm going to Por-15 the floor. Also you want to keep in mind to keep the rca cables clear of any electrical that can cause interference, distorting the signal. Just some tips of the trade; I'm anal about that kind of stuff. I dont think you'll have anything to worry about, but if there is distortion u might want to move your RCA cables, but I do like the setup. Its going to sound great! I too ran my own speaker wire through my doors on my avenger. Was a pain!

 

[F150Boss86]

pish I taught him what he knows haha...nice pods for the 6.5"s...Its better to run the wires under the carpet in the middle of the cab because lots of cars and trucks will collect water in the the channels of the doors. This way theres no eletrical in with the water channels. Most alpines will support 8 guage wire...doesnt mean they need them. IF the stereo is turned to the max with the gains on both amps all the way up then yes it would need to have more of a power supply. However if I remember right the gain on the amp for your highs isnt up real far. If you do have any buzzing/interference in the speakers then ive got a unit to make it go away...good install man

 

[HEMI05RAM]

Nice pics.....Go LSU!!

 

[PikeBoy98]

is there a reason you did not go through the clutch wire plate. seeing as you have a automatic trans. it is a plastic cover. unibit it and put a grommet on it. bam. also i was curious if that is 1 8ga wire going to the battery for the 2 alpine amps. each amp uses 8ga if i remember correctly.

I was hoping to only run one power wire to the rar of the truck and then run a splitter off of that with two fuses, one for each amp. I hope that I didn't error. The reason I didn't run one more wire is that I did not have more. Poor excuse, but it's the truth. We shall see. When I had this set up in my Charger, I only had the gains up to half and it made everything rattle like hell. If I get it set up where I need the extra power, I will run another wire and dynomat the floor.

I saw the clutch grommet. I figured this was easy enough, and I didn't have another grommet to attach to the hole I would have drilled in the clutch grommet. Good idea though. When I install my Hella's and other goodies, I may just run everything thru there and set it up right.

 

[PikeBoy98]

Fiberglass FTW! Use the cardboard as a template and glass it. U stripped out all the carpet and seats???? I ran all my wires through the plastic clutch cover piece down the channel of the plastic door scuff plates all the way to the back.

It gets tiring when you run (3) RCA's and (2) speaker wires in that channel nd then power wires down the other. I also had water leaks in my Charger that got things a little wet in there too. I figured I would try something else out. It's the only way to really get to know your ride, is to disassemble it!!!!!

It is just behind the door panel, so wood is good. I have not tackled fiberglass as of yet, so I was going to start. Someday!!!!