Crutchfield Radio Kits - Anyone used/seen one?
 

I posted in the Audio forum, but everyone's worried about their $20k FD in there.... Anyway, has anyone used Crutchfield's FB dash blanks? From what I understand, they're supposed to be textured black plastic in the shape of the FB's 2.5 DIN opening. I'm looking to gut everything and drive 4 speakers with a head unit - plain and simple. I imagine I'll want to yank the stock speakers and the wiring/amps/fader are definitely gone, but what about the dash? What are some good-looking alternatives?

most of those kits blow. See if manntis has any left on his site: www.rotorhead.ca he makes one out of metal that has a cupholder and holds a 1 din head unit. Looks really good IMO

I like Mantis' setup but my interior is black on a black car. A brushed stainless panel would stick out like a sore thumb. If I can find a plastic one that's nice, I'd like to go that route. Anybody?

Why not paint it?

~T.J.

If you think Manntis' kit looks bad, you're in for quite a shock....


The crutchfield kit I got for my 85 GS was pure shit. Not only where the wiring harnesses mislabeled and -wrong-, they dont mention anywhere that the rearspeakers are powered by an amp hiding under the storage compartment. The mounting kit looks terrible, and when I tried to screw it in where the old kit was, it wouldn't fit.Poorly engineered.


I don't want to be too hard on Crutchfield because their prices are beat all, I got a discount on everything for my system and saved $100, and the products themselves kicked ass. However, the harness/mounting kit they provide is sub standard. I'd invest in Manntis' kit which fits well and looks great. Took a little work to get it in there, but the end product is what counts.

It doesn't clash too bad if you have a dark car and interior?

before you put it in, just get some flat black crylon paint and spray it down with like 5 or 6 light coats, let it dry then go over it with like 3 or 4 light clear coats. should look good. that's what i did with like, half my interior. that old FB red is just nasty to me :nono:

-zac

I've got a silver car with a grey interior... so the aluminum color was perfect for me. However, a little bit of paint applied to Manntis' kit would be fine.

Here's the thing, if you use the kit Crutchfield sends, you will have a black valence around the CD player... but it's gonna look goofy. It's that simple. They send a piece of steel painted black with a rectangular hole in it. My rectangular hole was slightly tilted. The mounting kits they have look like crap...

To each his own, though. It is black, after all.

so the amp in the driver side storage bin is for the rear speakers? i havnt taken my car apart much, but i'd like to do a little stereo work. the haynes manual doesnt have any infor on the stereo system... where can i find out mor about the way it operates and whatnot?

If you've got a question, I've rewired practically everything and done a lot of research on the subject. Just pm me with any question you've got.

I couldn't really find any good information online about the stereo.... the actual mazda manual has a wiring diagram that's decent, but it's not great. But yes, to answer your question, the amplifier under the driver's side storage compartment powers the rear speakers.

You might take a look at one of these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...&category=6774

I got one, it fits well, looks good and works great!

There are these too. but i dont know how good it looks.

http://www.sounddomain.com/shop/item...30B&vq_id=none

The Wiring Harness i bought from them worked well. I only had to switch around one wire.

Any idea what color the illumination is on the Mazda in-dash changer?

its probably green. all the stuff in my dad's 91 mx5 is green.

Wow. You need to shop around more. I used to think Crutchfield was cheap, until I looked at other places. Hell, theyre really overpriced compared to some places I know.

~T.J.

Ebay.

Does anyone know for sure what color the illumination on the Mazda changers is? If it's amber, I'm all over it. Otherwise, I'll go the mp3 route.

Oh, and are the stock speakers decent at all? When I tear out the amps can I power the stock speakers with a head unit or am I gonna be really disappointed?

Display color is green on the 6 cd changer. I wish it were amber or red, too. But, it sure sounds good with the extra power, fits well, too.
I replaced the backs with jensen coaxials, the fronts with 4" coaxials as well. Honestly, the stocks sounded just about as good to me.

Crutchfield has been good to me. However, that doesn't excuse their shitty installation kits... even if I got it for free =X

Okay, so I'm a spoiled brat.

Thanks for the speaker info - I'll stick with the stocks until I get the new glass sunroof and maybe exhaust, then. Did you reuse the original wiring or gut it all and run your own?

Stock speakers are decent... but you'll notice a difference if/when you put in newer midrange speakers. I used all the existing wiring in the car behind the driver's seat. Everything else was rewired. Rewiring the front is a breeze... took me no more than 30 minutes to get the new stuff run - crimped - and hooked up.

just a clarification - the kit I designed, installed in the dash, has a visible facia of Stainless Steel. The bracket hidden inside the dash is Aluminum.

That said, the facia (being a separate component before final assembly) would be very, very easy to primer and paint to the desired colour. One might even consider a colored/tinted clearcoat so as to see the brushed effect through the paint (they experimented on this with DeLoreans and it looked pretty good)

I like the silver look.