Need Help With Stereo Overhaul

Looks like some pretty nice equipment. I wouldn't recommend trying to tackle this yourself if you have no experience. You're basically talking about installing a complete system (door speakers, amps, subs, rear speakers) - which can get very involved, very quickly. There are some really good write-ups over on allfordmustangs about how to get door panels off and things like that if you do want to tackle it though.

Best advice is to find a buddy with some experience, and have him help you along. That's how most of us learned. Also, do some searching on some forums, I'm sure there are plenty of FAQs out there for the basics.

Okay, I’ll start off slow too.

You have a pretty big mix of equipment. On the amplifier side, you’re going to have to build a mounting solution. This is a creativity exercise in my opinion. I installed my amps in a rack that I staggered and pushed back as far as possible to maximize trunk space. It’s mounted to the bottom of the package tray.



(Sorry about the cluttered picture - and I haven't yet cleaned up the wiring [it'll all be invisible when I finish] but as you can see, my trunk is still useable - and the battery is the the far right. The finish is temporary as I'm going to have the enclosure painted to match the body color [looks green but it's vapor metallic silver])

The subs will be your next exercise in creativity. You can go plain and boring with some pre-fab box or you can make your own fiberglass enclosure. The first is easy, but space inefficient and generally ugly! Of course fiberglass will be a new learning curve (unless you’ve owned boats, go carts or a dune buggy…<G>) but the payoff is pretty cool.


Roughed in design, immediately after removal from the trunk.


Unfinished enclosure.

Next, none of your speakers are going to fit. The S197s use 5x7 speakers in the doors and the package tray. Your 6X9s won’t fit without cutting your car. In the doors, you’ll need to fabricate adapters, like these.



You can mount your tweeters (the tiny speakers) in the 5x7 location in the doors using adapters like the top and mount your crossovers (should be boxes with 6 screw connectors for frequency management for your component speakers) on the back side of the top adapter. Then you can put the 5.25 speakers in the shaker 8” woofer location using an adapter like the round ones in the bottom of the picture above (I installed 6.5" mid-range speakers in the 8" location and retained the stock grilles - stealth).

Your 4 channel amp looks like a 60wX4 @ 4 ohms, while the other looks like a 100wX2 @ 4 ohms so the wiring you have should be adequate. I always go larger since I’ve seen too many car fires from overheated and improperly protected power wiring. I’d still go new as what I found indicates your Alpine amps have a few years of use (made in the ‘90s) and the wiring may or may not have had a hard life.

Getting wiring through the door jamb rubber hoses was terribly painful. It’s going to cost you sweat and blood.

To Cap (capacitors) or not is like Mac vs PC. It's like a religious argument for some folks. I’ve built systems with them and without them. Frankly you don’t need one. The system you have won’t require it. Additionally, you shouldn’t need a bigger alternator (there’s some math you can do to determine for sure, but I’ve pushed a lot more than you plan to push and did fine with a stock alternator in a ricer with a good deep cycle battery) – but I would recommend a better battery. An Optima Yellow top should serve you well - a deep cycle battery with better capacity and discharge rate. In way of a very simple explanation, your alternator just needs to feed your battery and prevent a condition in which you drain it faster than your alternator can charge it.

Right now that’s all I have time for. If you have questions, let me know.

I'd replace the stock wiring - your 4 year old stuff is still far better. How old are the speakers? There's a fantastic selection of reasonably priced speakers - from $69 for something quite nice like Polk DB 5X7 you could replace the rears with and I'd put those 5.25 drivers and tweeters in the doors. The 5.25 in place of the factory 8" (just fab up a plastic adapter plate) and the tweets in the door 5X7 location (on another plastic adapter plate). I didn't have access to any cool plastics so I just used a pair of old Rubbermaid storage container lids - worked quite well.

I'd dive into the fiberglass and make an enclosure for a 12". Pretty simple process;
- Cover the selected car space with blue painters tape (make sure everything is well taped up - resin doesn't come out of material and is a bear to free from plastic and metal panels)
- Brush "paint" the painters tape with fiberglass resin
- Lay in fiberglass
- Cover with more resin
- Repeat until you achieve the the thickness you want
- Carefully pry the "enclosure" from the interior - this is why you use painters tape; it comes free pretty easy

Once the unit is free from the car, trim edges to desired size, fab a ring for mounting your sub supporting it with a dowel structure forming the angle and position you want the sub to face.

Apply adhesive to edges of your "enclosure" and over the ring you fabbed, stretch felt or fleece (fleece is pretty thick while felt is easier to overstretch) over the face of the enclosure. Cut out the hole for the sub, then brush on more resin. Repeat the process of resin and fiberglass until the structure is sound.

Then the finishing work begins - sanding, bondo for smoothing and glaze/putty for minor imperfections. Like body work, tedious and it sucks but the results are rewarding.

You'll want a bunch of cheap brushes, an inexpensive respirator and stir sticks.

Anyway, that's it in a nutshell.

A clear acrylic amp rack would be very nice - accessorized with some nice aluminum hardware.'

Just my thoughts.