joemomma

tenx82

Crutchfield has the Focal ISS 690s for $140 and the ISC 165 (6.5 coax) for $80. Free shipping, free mounting rings, & free speaker wire adapters. (sorry, can't link to it at work)
That's the combo I went with, along with the Kicker KEY. Hoping to get to installing early next week (waiting on my harness).

Captainjml

tenx82

Will update you once it's done.

Are you planning to amp all four corners, or bi-amp the fronts? I'm really struggling with which way to go on this.

Captainjml

tenx82

That was my initial thinking too. But the Focals use an inline crossover (resistor), so I'm not sure if using the factory wires for the front speakers and tweeters will cut the impedance in half. I haven't really been able to find anything on that. I might call Crutchfield and see if they have an answer.

Captainjml

tenx82

I have seen that video, but he doesn't elaborate at all on anything beyond physically putting the speakers in.
I will get the speakers in this weekend for sure. (My "weekends" are Mon/Tues/Weds) The amp will depend on when my harness gets here.

Captainjml

never enough sound deadening


simple wiring


Factor has no bass why?

Made a little progress this July 4th. Replaced all of the speakers. Focal ISS 690 separates up front and RF's in the rear. The factory magnet size is laughable. I have magnets on my fridge bigger than that. Fabbed up a simple mount for the factory tweeters in the stock location. Functional but not super sexy so no pix sorry. Just used some backstop material and bent it into shape. I did pry the factory quick disconnect off the old tweeters and soldered the x-over wire to it for the new speakers. so i didn't have to cut and splice the factory wiring anywhere. My son and I agree that there was a great improvement but there is so much more to go. Put a very minimal amount of HushMat on the doors and their "Wave Breaker" pads behind the speakers. Yes I could do so much more but...

Ran the power wire from the battery to the back. (holy crap what a PIA!) My son was a huge help here. He could reach up the dash where I couldn't. I tabbed up a mount using 1/4" StarBoard for the fuse holder. I'll get a picture of it later. So power run done, fuse is not in the holder until the amps and done and run.

Wired up the t-harness. This was a lot of fun. (no really!) I didn't have any tesa tape so I used the flex covering. Everything is soldered, shrink wrapped... blah blah blah. It's going to look so good hidden behind radio where no one will ever see it. LOL

Next major milestones are to carpet the sub box, layout the amp rack then finish wiring it all up.

Cheers,
Capt. Jan

tenx82

Nice job, captainjml.
I Haven't felt the need to upgrade an OEM stereo in over a decade, but the speakers really are absolute garbage in these trucks.

I didn't take any pics, but I made some progress over my "weekend" (mon/tues/wed) as well. Got all my speakers installed. I did Noico 80 mil dampener over the entire door, doubled up over the larger voids, along with FAST rings. I ended up cutting off the factory tweeter plugs, soldered the crossovers to the tweeter's leads, then used connectors and heat shrink to tie into the factory wires.

Just got my amp harness in yesterday, so I will be wiring that up next "weekend".

For the tweeter mounting, my passenger side (but not driver's?) had a small foam piece cut to fit between the mounting tabs as a spacer for the factory tweeter. I took the ~0.75" I cut from the thickness of the 6x9 FAST rings and traced that foam piece onto it. Cut it out and split it in half to have 2 pieces ~0.375" thick. Then used plastic strapping to mount them, with a small piece of foam as padding on the magnets.