I have a 89 sunbird and I've never even considered any kind of sound system for it cause I'm more concerned with performance and handling cause I autocross and will soon be drag racing the car to, so I dont need any extra weight. But yesterday I was given a CD player so I figured I'd put it in along with these two tens I've had sitting around for a while.
Anyway's I went to put it in today and on the top of the CD player there's a sticker that tells you which wire goes were (ie: red = power, green = left front speaker + etc......) but I dont know what wires in my car are for what speaker, I checked the wiring diagrams in my Haynes manual and it showed the color of the wires and what speaker they go to, but being the POS manual that it is, it wont tell me what wire is + and what one is -. Does anyone know what wire goes into what? I would like to hook up my CD player to the plug the tape player plugs into, so I can keep my radio.
Any help greatly apreiciated, thanks

Also I dont know crap about sterios (as you can probobly tell) and I've got another Q: On the back of the CD player its got two plugs (red and white, I think) and a lebel above it that says "out" or something like that. What are those for? it also mentions something about a built in amp on the sticker on the top, is that what these plugs are for and should I hook my two tens into them?

I pretty much consider myself an audiophile and am very knowledgeable about wiring and specifically electronics an such. First of all, regardless of the fact that I installed my own stereo system in my car I can't tell you which wires are the negs and positives without looking at them myself and shooting thru trial and error with it. But I can tell you that the red and white plugs are for RCA jacks that directly link to an amplifier. But if you don't have an amp, won't do you any good to fool around with those. The plugs on your subs link to the amp that you don't seem to have, but that doesn't mean you can't wire the subs to play without an amp, it's just not the best idea. As for keeping your radio, all you have to do is find the ant. wire (usually a thicker black wire) that runs down behind your dash from your ant. and just directly wire it to the smaller ant. wire from the back of the head unit (these tend to be green or blue). If you want a lil quality from your speakers just grab a $50 (100watt or so) amp from a pawn shop or something and I'd be glad to walk you thru the simple process of hooking it up. Besides, you've always had great replies to my posts and questions why not. But in any case, as for the neg and pos speaker wires... just wire together and listen to the output... you can usually tell the difference and if it's sucky just switch em.



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Thanks man, I was looking into getting an amp soon but or right now I'll just wire it up without it. As for the positive and negitive thing, my dad says it dosent make a diffrence, but from what you said I guess it makes a diffrence in quality. I just wanted to make sure if I switched them around I wouldnt blow anything and when you say ant you mean antenna right? The CD palyer has a blue wire for that, but I dont think I was really clear with what I wanted to do. I want to set it up so I still have my factory radio in there, just cause I like the look of it and it takes up space. but I want it to be set up so I can use the normal (factory) radio and when its on a special station I can listen to the C player. Thats how it is now on my car except with the factory tape player. but I figure it will still work like that if I wire my CD player to the plug that the tape player came from, right?
thanks for all your help so far

Oh yeah and what do you think are good speakers, like brand wise? I just want to know how good the ones I have now are. I'll post up all the crap it says on the back on them when I get home, just curious if there any good, I'm till using them anyway cause there free

srry for a double post again, but I got another Q and didnt want to start another thread. I heard a lot about the big three when it comes to strio upgrades and I did a search and it answered most of my questions but I still have a few more. First off for those who dont knwo the big three is a few wires from Battery to alternator, Battery to ground, Alternator to ground.
What exactly does this do for gains in your sterio? and how were do you wire the wire to on the alternator? I havent look at mine in a while, does it just have a pos and neg that you hook up to or is it more complicated than that?
And one other quick random thing I'm curious about is what way does electricity flow? is it pos to neg or the other way around? I'm pretty sure its pos to neg (comes out of pos goes around powers stuff comes back in through neg)
thanks again, sorry for so many questions all at once, but if you ever need help with anything motor wise

Mr.Efficiency (Tyrin) wrote:srry for a double post again, but I got another Q and didnt want to start another thread. I heard a lot about the big three when it comes to strio upgrades and I did a search and it answered most of my questions but I still have a few more. First off for those who dont knwo the big three is a few wires from Battery to alternator, Battery to ground, Alternator to ground.
What exactly does this do for gains in your sterio? and how were do you wire the wire to on the alternator? I havent look at mine in a while, does it just have a pos and neg that you hook up to or is it more complicated than that?
And one other quick random thing I'm curious about is what way does electricity flow? is it pos to neg or the other way around? I'm pretty sure its pos to neg (comes out of pos goes around powers stuff comes back in through neg)
thanks again, sorry for so many questions all at once, but if you ever need help with anything motor wise

I've read alot about the "Big 3" upgrade and I still don't see a reason unless you have a system that draws alot of amperage. In which case you would also have to have and upgraded alternator also. I guess its all personal opinion.

As far as electrical flow, there is two theories about that. I foget the names, but in simple terms, one is from negative to positive and the other is from positive to negative. Since none of us are electrons, I don't think we'll ever know the truth

Hole flow and electron flow.

Electricity flows negative to positive. It's been proven. Benjamin Franklin determined the positive and negative points, but oriented the flow in the reverse direction from actual, from + to -. Since so much of the electrical world was already using the "electricity flows from + to -" mentality, the description of "hole flow" was concieved. The way to think ot it is that a chain of electrons is moving from - to +and each time an electron moves there is a vacated spot. This "hole" in the chain moves the opposite direction of the electrons. It's the same as empty spots in a line of traffic. As the cars move forward, the empty spot in line moves backward.

Just one of the great things you can carry away from electrical engineering classes.

-->Slow

alright, the postives and negatives of the speakers isn't huge. you're dad is right, it basically doesn't matter, however they are positive and negative for a reason. if they're crossed the worst that could happen is lower quality, you'll end up with a lot of ground noise that you either will or will not notice. some of it goes unnoticed but usually you can tell if you just listen to it. but as for blowing anything, not at all. I did mean antenna. I see what you mean with the radio, personally I hate the stock unit, but it does leave a gap in the dash without it (which I plan to design a plate for later). I was just telling you how you can use the radio built into the cd player but as long as you just splice things together it won't matter either way, so yea it'd still work.

There are all kinda "good" brands of mobile-audio, sterio equipment out there, certain brands excell as far as speakers and subs go, some even specialize in subwoofers only. I prefer Rockford Fosgate above all else. They're like the Nike of audio to me. What kind do you have and go ahead and post the specs of them. then again, anything free is good lol. The big three could really be summed up into Power, Ground and Remote. If you're just using a sterio set up low in wattage, nothing competition or ground shaking then dont' worry too much about straining your altenator. BUT, if you ever are deciding to go all out, perhaps pushing over 300watts or so, then the best way to avoid and not worry about your altenator is to purchase a farad capacitor. I basically acts as a second battery/altenator combination and the sterio will use the power from it instead.

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What exactly does this do for gains in your sterio? and how were do you wire the wire to on the alternator? I havent look at mine in a while, does it just have a pos and neg that you hook up to or is it more complicated than that?

The best way to obtain your gains and bass is to have an amp with adjustable gain and bass on it. that way it's at your fingertips. You can even have a gain and bass booster control (which I never had any use for) wired straight to your console. If you later want me to go into installing the audio, just let me know, I don't mind at all. It's not too complicated. and once you do it you'll get it down easy. as for electricity flow, generally like most anything electric.... positive to negative to ground. hope that helps ya out a bit. If I left anything out you need to know just bring it back up. And for any mechanical problems I run into or am stumped about in the future, I'll always hit you up Tyrin... so far I've always agreed with everything you've replied with and like your creative thinking. Too bad we're not local we could start up a new club.




Originality and Creativity surpasses Popularity

I meant negative to positive to ground actually. just like he said think of it as the electrons moving from negative to positive to form the electrical current, and then the positive electrical current ''grounds'' out. Now who's wasting posts. most people tend to think it starts out positive but the chain reaction into a positive state is what gives you a current in the first place.

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It's the same as empty spots in a line of traffic. As the cars move forward, the empty spot in line moves backward.

that's a beautiful analogy *sigh*



Originality and Creativity surpasses Popularity

and it's a metaphor damnit not an analogy... argh at myself....

another way to look at it is to see which cable you can take off of your battery and which one you can leave on which keeps the power flowin



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I guess I dont need to worry about the big three then cause I'm not aiming for anything big with my system. Heres the specs on my subs, I'll just type what it says on the back, it says SRS1623 (I have no clue what that means) Clarion 150W and in tiny letters it says "continuous power 40W" I have these other two smaller speakers made by Alpine that sound pretty good, its like one speaker with a litle tweeter on top of it, there in my car right now so I dont have the specs. I'm just curious if there any good, I hooked them up a few minutes ago (temporary set up) and they sound pretty good, I like them

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Too bad we're not local we could start up a new club.

wow, thats weird, I was just looking at your profile hoping you were local so you could help me with this and stuff like that, lol we think a like I guess sux your about as far as you can get besides the UK, lol It would have been nice to have another person helping with the T top cause I noticed you were pretty interested in it. Anyways I'm going to hook up all this stuff tonight, and I'll let you know how it went

Well I guess I'm not doing anything to my car today it raining really hard out side, which I guess is a good thing cause its melting all the snow and its not snow falling from the sky either

yeah, I noticed we're not too local of each other... that'd rock. SRS1623 is just the model number. Clarion and Alpine are both decent brands. I had an Alpine V12 300w in my trunk for an entire year until it went bye bye and I turned around and bought the same one for another year, so I've used Alpine myself before I turned faithful full pledged Fosgate lover. And those specs are just fine for the easy listening you're going for. Throw in a good amp and a sub box and they'd thump pretty nicely. I think we'd combine pretty well to start a club. And I'd love to get my hands onto and be a part of the first sunbird t-top (or at least the first I've heard of). I'm still looking forward to it, even if I don't have any part in it. as you can see I'm all about creativity and originality. hey, it's been raining here for like an entire week.... I'm lookin forward to spring, having my bird kitted and hittin up the car wash with my rag cloth and turtle wax.



Originality and Creativity surpasses Popularity

raining again today too hopefully is stops before I get home, but if not Imight just go out side and wire up the CD player anyway, I'll be inside the car rain cant bug me in there, lol but if it dosent stop raing I wont get my subs in cause I have to stand outside to put them in and I want to make a box for them before they go in, but I'll at least get the CD player in later toady so I'll get something done
I know something else you could help me out with, I'm trying to think up a good trunk set up, cause I'm doing this event were you autocross, drag race and theyhave a show and the best car from all three wins, so a good trunk set up could help me in the show part of it so far I'm going to put one sub on each side kinda angeld (sp?) towards you when your standing at the opening of the trunk, or I might have face more towards the front of the car, I'll decide on that when I make the box just to see what way is easier to make it. I'm also having it so the trunk looks flat with a hole in the middle and I'm going to have my full size spare flush with the floor of the trunk in the middle (not sure if I explained that good enough of not) and I want to put my battery in the trunk too soon but I dont know were to put it I might just hide it somewere back there. I'm also putting propane injection on my car some day and I wantto have two small propane tanks back there, anyone got any ideas to help me with aranging all this nicley in my trunk?
thanks
arch, what color are you painting your car?

I wish I had a garage to work in. What kinda box are you making? ha, I thought you weren't worried about a system eh? Now you're coming up with a trunk design? gonna go fiberglass? I've seen a few good fiberglass trunk set ups in the bird before. If you search thru sound domain.com or caraudiomag.com you can get a lotta good ideas or maybe someone else at the org has some thoughts.

well, I had originally planned out a paint scheme with a red and black, sort of two-toned. If you go to the second page of my cardomain site I have a ''concept'' of the colour, but lately I'm not so sure with what I first came up with, cause the trunk back panel might bug me with the black coming right across the top of the taillights and straight across the back of the trunk. also, I'm not certain on how complicated I want to get with design as far as a paint job goes. You have any ideas or suggestions I'm open to em... let me hear your ideas?



Originality and Creativity surpasses Popularity

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I thought you weren't worried about a system eh? Now you're coming up with a trunk design?

Well, I never did really care for any of that, but since it was all free I figured why not put it in and if I'm going to put it in I might as well make it look good No offence but if I was tojust put them in a box and place the box in the trunk it wont look very good, show wise and I'm making my box's (one for each speaker) so they cover the two spaces between the back of the shock tower cover and the tail light, and thats were the box will sit, it's not going to be a square it will fit into the hole and from the outside look flush wih the trunk.........its hard to explain, I'll post pics when I'm done, someday when it stops raining. I'm just using wood to make the box's, and I'm putting a 1990+ trunk carpet in, cause its black and not as fuzzy, then I'm covering my boxes in it too.
Your paint scheme was pretty cool but I think you should try and do it like the early sunbirds did with the black on top and silveron the bottom from the factory. they switched from silver to black at the bottom of the window and continued along the body line in the fender, it looked pretty good. If you look at pics of older sunbird GT's you'll see what I mean, but instead of silver just use red and paint the piece between the tail lights black, I like the look of that the newer sunbird GT's have that factory, you might have seenit before. I like your tail light conversion your thinking of trying, I swaped to phase 2 tails, and was thinking of going to some clear phase 1 tails, with a few modifications of my own.
anyway I'm not done but I have to go, I'll check back again soon

i just felt left out, so i wanted to post something.

i don't like big bass. upgraded factory size works for me


...

I was planing on wiring up my cd palyer today but I got a little side tracked and ended up spending all my time in making the faces of my speaker boxs, I used card board to test fit at first to make sure it fit right and I could get it the way I wanted. Then I traced out the cardboard on wood and cut it out with a jig saw, I got the driver side box face cut out and it fits perfectly, I like the look of it, the speaker ended up facing a little more towards you when your standing at the opening of the trunk. Now I'm going to build a five sided cube and put it on the back on the faces I made today and I'll post some pics up for you all to see, then I just have to get some carpet to match the stuff I'm putting in there.

free is good. but once you get started it sucks you in. I never cared much for car audio back in the day, bought my first set of subs next thing I know I'm learning about watts and ohms law. No offence taken... you could call that a temporary set up for me. For the time being I've got other mods that need to come before I construct the inside of the trunk. But believe me, I have the essentials for my system, it's just not dressed up for the moment. Like you mentioned about the carpet... I'm gonna redo the entire thing and then match the future sub boxes in the same carpet. Anyway, I'm not worried about it for now. I have a good idea of how you described the way you plan on setting it up. I saw this one guys trunk at a show once where he had the entire thing done in fiberglass and the subs were located in the same spot. actually, if I were gonna do it, that's where I'd locate them too. But still post pics... I love me some pics.

I know exactly which GM paint scheme you're talking about, I have an old calender with an 88 bird gt for november with the exact paint. My idea originated from a lexus paint job with minor changes in it. That's a pretty cool idea with also keeping a little bit of the pontiac tradition in it. I dunno, I gotta go back to the drawing board on it. As for the part where you said paint inbetween the tails black... I had already considered that, but with my kit the trunk panel sorta fades into the bumper, I'm not sure how it'd look... I haven't gotten around to photoshoppin it up yet. I had thought about just bringing the line of the black over the outter tails (the inner tails would be shaved like in my concept) and just bring the blak down to the bottom of the trunk, but I wasn't sure how it'd play out. I think the black would look good up against the clear lenses tho. I wanna do my rear just like how I shopped it. my only concern is relocating and having the back up lights molded in. Anyway, this is gettin kinda long... but I'm gonna have a new post tonight that i'd like your input on .... along with anyone else who'd give me advice on it.

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i just felt left out, so i wanted to post something.

i don't like big bass. upgraded factory size works for me

what's up stenger... ya know most factory systems these days push anywhere from 45 to 150watts... I think they sound pretty good, big systems isn't just all about bass tho =)



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on second thought tyrin, I went back to the drawing board and here's where my original idea was heading and the more I look at it, the more my gut is tellin me to go back with first instincts. I'm pretty happy with the rear and paint concept... it's just a long way from coming to life. *sigh*


hurricane project paint/tail concept


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I like that paint scheme I think you should go with that, I know what car your talking about that you got the idea for the paint scheme from and it looked good, and I really like the changes you made to it.
One I get home I'll set up the face plate and stuff for my box and get a pic just so you can get a rough idea of what its going to look like when I'm done.

I think it was a lexus is430 I don't remember, but I first saw it on an episode of Rides (on TLC) and then again in a mag while I was at a shop gettin my tires rotated and balanced. Watchin them practically rebuild that car and come up with the paint scheme they did made me wanna see what something similar would look like on mine. I'm not the best welder in the world, actually I have little experience so I'm not sure what it'll cost me at my local shop to get my trunk panel shaved like that. but I also need a set of outter cav tails to clear out.



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Well I didnt do anything yesterday or today cause of the crappy weather and we got more snow But its starting to clear up a bit and I might get something done today or tommorow, hopefully anyways.
I could pick you up some tails if you wanted, but I cant get em until April. In April I'm going to this thing at a local auto wreckers where you pay $45 CAD to get in and you can have anything you can carry out. So I could grab you some phase 1 outer tails and ship them to you for the cost of shipping if you want

sounds tastey buddy. free tails other than shipping? I just might be interested. that's even better than what I could get from ebay. Surely throwing the outter tails in a box and sending them out couldn't be more than 20 bux? .... and april would be perfect. Let me know when time comes. Are the ones in my photoshopped pic phase one? I thought they were (forgive my ignorance as I'm more familiar with the pontiac parts over the chevs). If you can find a set like those in mint condition, that'd be great. I still haven't heard from Diza :-( . After I get it and install my kit, I'm gonna go talk to my body shop guys about shaving my trunk panel... that's where the tails will come in. So that'd be around the right time. I'm still somewhat of a rookie in the whole custom world... I still haven't sanded and/or primed an entire car yet. any tips or pointers there? I'd like to do all the prime and prep work myself. I've never cleared out tails before either but there are plenty how-to's everywhere. Keep us updated on the turbo swap.



Originality and Creativity surpasses Popularity

Cavaliers are split up into phase's Phase 1 is 88-90 and Phase 2 is 91-94, the tails in your pick are from a phase 1 cavy. Shaving a trunk isnt that hard if you have acess (sp?) to a welder, or you could just somehow get the sheet metal were you want it with poprivets or something and the fiberglass over the seam between the metal and the trunk, as for the turbo swap, I'm not getting the parts until April cause I'm getting them all at that $45 all you can carry thing thats why I made that other post about the wiring cause I need to get all I need at once and if I miss something I'm screwed, well not really I could fabricate the missing part depending on what it was or I would have to find another turbo car for parts. So I reall want to get it all at once, I'm also looking for a T-3 turbo, intercooler and a few other parts, and once I've gatered all I need and get my spare head P&P then I'll put it al together at once and the car will be super fast
I am also rebuilding the motor so I want to get everything I need first then once its all together, spend a weekend swaping engines and trans, I'll have everything ready to go in for the swap before I do it which wont be until around May. I've also found a easy way to put rear disc brakes on a J, it the easiest thing in the world if it all works out right, I'm not saying anything about it until I'm done cause I wanna be the first, but then I'll post up a how to so everyone else can do it, I cant believe nobody else thought of it before me, its so simple, pretty much a bolt on rear disc from a certian car from the autowreckers
Wow another long post whats with this thread, lol