Given that I enjoy the radio so much, the task of installing the Kenwood radio that came with the car was a high priority. I think that it was already installed in the Z and the owner decided to keep it and install it in another project. Seeing that I wasn't sure about buying the car though, he threw it in to sweeten the deal. Sweet indeed, as I would have hated to have to shop for and buy another radio.
The harness had previously been wired in with spade-style crimp connectors. They didn't look too bad, but I wanted to get some more practice for the wiring jobs that were sure to come, so I decided to solder in the harness and work on making it look clean (for once!).
First, the center console came off. Then, I traced all the wires that were "hanging out" in the area, locating the ones that were relevant to the radio. Then, I trimmed both the car-side wires and the radio-side wires to length, so that they would meet up nicely in a soldered junction. If I had it, I would have shrink-wrapped this after I was done, but I settled for electrical tape.
As I was doing this, I accidentally touched the *continuous power* to the *ground* cable, causing a short and a spark. Heeding the warning on the manual a little too late, I went and disconnected the battery on the car to prevent further short circuits. When I finished the harness and plugged it into the radio though, it didn't work! I was worried that I had shorted something in the radio, but it turned out that the fuse on the *continuous power* wire had blown due to the short. Amusingly, the previous owner had the radio wired into the horn circuit and not the radio circuit (probably explains why the horn doesn't work). Anyway, replaced the fuse and the radio started fine, and even sounded pretty good with the 6x9 Pioneer speakers that were installed.
Next, I'll turn my attention to better physically mounting the radio in the center console.
PS. *BRAKE* warning light on the dash turned out to be low fluid, not a vacuum leak. Easy fix!
ETS: ~2 hours
Revised to-do list:
Tier 1 (fix immediately)
- fix up dashboard
- seats, specifically driver's side
- wash, wax, detail
- inner and outer shift boots - fumes and cold air are getting in the car
- heater controls
Tier 2 (fix soon)
- new tires. the current ones are dry rotted and bald
- patch the damage on the passenger door
- carpets behind the doors
Tier 3 (future plans)
- ford 302
- transmission has a crappy 2nd gear synchro...but this will probably be swapped out in the turbo swap
- hatch rust
- maybe 240Z bumper conversion??
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