True there. Use atleast a 4 guage power and ground. A good inline fuse or circuit breaker is needed too.

 

I have to use 4) 0 awg power wires for each one of my amps. I use 4 awg as speaker wire to my subs.

For fun, I once used 16 awg as speaker wire from my 5000w amp, and the wire jacket started melting. It was very fun to watch.

 

Thanks guys for the info. I doubt anything I put in will draw enough current to melt 16 awg wire. I just looking for a little thump to mainly go with rock etc. I don't plan on trying to flex my roof.

 

Don't forget to insulate, insulate,insulate. It will improve the sound greatly............

 

Well, after looking at some of the wiring diagrams out there I'm almost certainly going to re-wire everything. I didn't realize everything was running through the crappy stock amp. Has anyone had any luck using the existing wiring when swapping out the amp for the door speakers (or using the existing amp for some new door speakers)? I was originally going to power the door speakers directly from the new HU but probably not now. I thought that's how the stock unit was done and it would be easier.

I'm trying to keep this as simple as possible because I'm notorious for leaving projects half done. The last thing I want is to drive around for a month or two with a bunch of door panels stacked in the back and no radio. I guess like anything else doing it right won't be easy. It scares me when I see pictures of people's cars with the entire enterior ripped out.

 

I will warn you, I took out almost the entire interior to do mine right. Only thing left was the driver seat, carpet, and headliner. Trust me, the easiest thing to do is get all you parts together and take a full weekend to do it. Have all your wire, amps, speakers, subs in box, fuses, whatever and then go through it all. Go one step at a time and you should be good.

 

The stock amp is in the back, you can tap into the factory wiring easily. There's a thread with a PDF that lists all the wiring to the factory equipment.