What did you do with your Thunderbird Today?

Wired in the connector for my new headunit. Not my best work, this is the sloppiest stereo install I’ve ever done but it’s 30° and I’m literally not sweating the details 🥶IMG_8174.jpeg

IMG_8178.jpeg
 
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Unless you start completely over, it always looks worse each time you redo it.
I've put 5 stereo's in a car over several years that wanted cheapest install possible. Your ocd would have had you replacing the dash harness the last time, lol.
 
Grog6 said:
Unless you start completely over, it always looks worse each time you redo it.
I've put 5 stereo's in a car over several years that wanted cheapest install possible. Your ocd would have had you replacing the dash harness the last time, lol.
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It would lol. Basically what is driving me nuts is is I would have cut the slices back into the factory wires but because the new head is shallower since it has no CD player it needs a longer harness and rather than measuring I just left like 2” of the spliced wires from the Alpine pigtail to compensate. The plus side is the wire colors all line up but I hate myself for doing it.
 
what did you put in? decks have changed a bunch since I bought one.
I've been working on buying one from Kidd, but I've had more probs mailing dude 10 bucks it's insane. I've bought envelopes, stamps...
:roll:
 
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I still prefer knobs I can feel for, without looking. :) Looks good, and the phone integration seems cool. I'm betting the alpine sounds better tho, esp. the high freq. Which I wouldn't notice with my hearing,lol.
 
Grog6 said:
I still prefer knobs I can feel for, without looking. :) Looks good, and the phone integration seems cool. I'm betting the alpine sounds better tho, esp. the high freq. Which I wouldn't notice with my hearing,lol.
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I’m not a car audiophile but that’s definitely on my mind and if the sound sucks I could always add an amp.

I prefer knobs but the alpine(and most other aftermarket head units) isn’t any better, you need to click and scroll through menus to find anything you’re looking for which is equally distracting. This might actually be an improvement
 
Agreed. I fucked up and sold my 2-knob alpine to my bil for his 68 camaro.
 
The thing I hate the most about car audio is the varying frequency and intensity of the background noise and then the harmonics imposed by the speakers as you need to increase volume to overcome the noise.

I prefer my home theater, or a good set of open-back cans. :cool: 🎧
 
theterminator93 said:
The thing I hate the most about car audio is the varying frequency and intensity of the noise and harmonics imposed by the speakers as you need to increase volume to overcome the noise.

I prefer my home theater, or a good set of open-back cans. :cool: 🎧
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That’s why I never cared to build a real system, as long as I can hear my tunes among the tire roar and exhaust it’s good enough for me, I don’t need a home theatre experience in a rolling death missile 🤣
 
The big difference in noise is Real amp vs built in amp. Any 'amp' Without a power supply is limited to 36W into a 4 ohm speaker. a 2 ohm speaker could go 72W, if the chip in the deck can handle 6A output; I don't know of any that can. Chip amps are rated at 10% distortion.
Get an amp to drive speakers, amps have distortion specs around 1% until clipping, which sounds harsh, and blows speakers.
At 130dB, my amp draws 56A. Can't sit in the car. Thats ~800W on a 3000W amp. And the distortion I hear is my left ear rattling,lol.(308 w/no hearing prot.)
The Pyle amp I have was $200. If you jam in the summer, you have to run a fan, or it shuts off.
Any power rating not of the form "xxW RMS @20-20kHz into YY ohms, with no more than zz% distortion" Is bullshit. (marketing) The FTC set that rule in the 70's.

Pyle - PLAD618 - On the Road - Vehicle Amplifiers

6 Channel 2000 Watt Bridgeable Mosfet Amplifier
www.pyleaudio.com www.pyleaudio.com
If you look at the specs, they claim .04% distortion.
IDK if it does hit that but it sounds good.
The thing to remember is Class AB;NOT class D or T. D or T are filtered pwm. I've never heard one that sounded good.
This is my amps successor
$173. >05% distortion. I'd bet the 45W decks are using class D, and that's what you're hearing.
 
Grog6 said:
I still prefer knobs I can feel for, without looking. :) Looks good, and the phone integration seems cool. I'm betting the alpine sounds better tho, esp. the high freq. Which I wouldn't notice with my hearing,lol.
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Tell about it. Someone gave ma a Sony cd receiver and I installed it in my old beater ranger and it has a vol knob. Everything else is a teeny tiny point on the front to search stations or change display. I absolutely hate the damn thing and may smash it with a hammer to help my feelings. The f'n display reverts to the flashing all the features it has and I don't give a damn. Just play my cd's and tell me the time and station I'd. Rant off.
 
I started the teardown to replace timing chains and guides. Finally above freezing enough to stick with it. Curious to see what 384k miles have done. Hope it doesn't tell me to start w/ new engine. That could be a rabbit hole of no return.
 
Also today, I looked into my maintenance booklet and realized that my most recent transmission fluid change was 31,000 miles ago, and coolant was 20,000 miles ago. I do put a lot of miles on this car...
 
Generalee0527 said:
I started the teardown to replace timing chains and guides. Finally above freezing enough to stick with it. Curious to see what 384k miles have done. Hope it doesn't tell me to start w/ new engine. That could be a rabbit hole of no return.
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Something tells me (384k miles tells me) there is no rabbit hole too deep to keep that car off the road.
8-)
 
Generalee0527 said:
I started the teardown to replace timing chains and guides. Finally above freezing enough to stick with it. Curious to see what 384k miles have done. Hope it doesn't tell me to start w/ new engine. That could be a rabbit hole of no return.
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So this will be the first time for timing chains? So with my 87,000 miles as of now, it's not something I need to worry about anytime soon?
 
Zep5.0 said:
So much for the retro theme you were contemplating... Looks good tho!
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Or is it???🤣

IMG_8198.jpeg


But yeah the whole line output converter into aftermarket amp to improve the sound quality eroded away that plan. Plus I got it as a Christmas gift, may as well use it.


@Chingon1 I don’t like screens in modern cars. I hate LCD gauges, I hate interfacing controls like HVAC into them and I hate that they all look like an iPad glued to a boring dashboard.

As a aftermarket stereo only though? I don’t have any problem with it since aftermarket head units have shitty interfaces with VFD screens. This is no better or worse really but it does add some function I can appreciate. When it’s off it looks like a radio delete plate, which is cool, because racecar 😆
 
As an aside the NOS manual climate control head I found was a bust. I assumed the light outlines around the lettering I noticed in the listing must have been a protective film but upon inspection, nope it seems to be the textured lamination delaminating from the printed layer, bummer. It didn’t cost much at least but I’m going to see if I can get my money back, this is godawful has a few nicks in it too so even though it’s NOS it must have been tossed in a cardboard box with a bunch of other junk

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I'm biased, but the earlier style HVAC with buttons is actually the best looking, IMO. In later models, I prefer the one you have.
 
Zep5.0 said:
I'm biased, but the earlier style HVAC with buttons is actually the best looking, IMO. In later models, I prefer the one you have.
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Functionally intuitively nothing beats the 3 knobbers. They look boring, but only because they were used in every car in the 90s (…..because they work!)
 
That many buttons is about as worthless as all of the function my trucks screen has that I'll never figure out it attempt to. I have to be on a computer 8-10 hours a day at work, I didn't need that shit in my truck.
 
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