How to Upgrade the Audio System in Classic Trucks | Kevin Tetz with LMC Truck

[Music] hi i'm kevin tetz working with lMC Truck to bring you technical information and some how-to videos designed to help you with your truck restoration project in this video we're going to address the shady audio system in any vintage vehicle particularly in this model pickup truck and show you how to upgrade to a much more modern system this is the system that our truck came with and it was fully loaded a long time ago with 8-track am/fm separate bass and treble controls and even speakers in the cab corners the problem is nobody's got eight tracks anymore and am/fm well it's just a limited selection especially compared to modern vehicles so we're gonna walk you through a system that upgrades any classic truck particularly 73 to 87 cabs like we've got to a system that is absolutely comparable to every late-model vehicle out on the road today the retro sound system we chose has everything we wanted including Bluetooth connectivity a four channel 25 watt amp and two USB inputs for alternate music sources now this thing will fit just about any vehicle or any buta that you wanted to put it in the reason being is because of its modular capabilities these 90-degree brackets get attached to the side and your controls get plugged into the unit itself and you can literally fit it to any radio opening without cutting your dash up we also reach for the quadrophonic for power amp which feeds 45 watts continuous power for each of the four channels it features a built in crossover and it's plug-and-play compatible with the other retro sound systems another cool option we're gonna use is this USB extension cable which gives different mounting options and accessibility to a USB port for a couple of different accessories including using a USB stick for an mp3 player now we really wanted this thing to thump so we opted in for the 8 inch powered subwoofer which has 200 Watts max power it's got tons of connectivity options its own crossover and it's made out of cast aluminum for great heat dissipation and it's low profile enough to fit under the seat of almost every truck our main speakers are these full-range speaker boxes with a 8 inch woofer a ported box and a soft dome tweeter they'll handle 175 watts of power content you ously these fit behind the seat of almost any truck and fit perfectly behind the seat of ours now as far as a difficulty scale goes I'm gonna give this a solid three and a half because it's busy work you're gonna be standing on your head unhooking stuff you got to disassemble a lot of the inside of the truck to really truly mount things in a professional manner and you may or may not have to solder wires depending on your configuration tools basic hand tools will get you there and a little bit of soldering equipment if you decide to go that route speaking of tools we got a little bit of teardown to do before we can put any of this stuff in now step one with any project that involves electronics or electrical work is disconnecting the negative battery terminal [Music] be gentle with this because it's kind of under a bit of pressure there we go this HVAC duct it's gotta come out of the way so we can get access to radio and the wiring I approached now the seat not that complicated it's only four bolts to take it out probably miss to have a buddy with you but it's gonna come out and get completely out of the way these two big full range speakers go behind the seat and since this truck was wired four speakers behind the seat from the factory we can utilize our existing wiring lMC Truck does offer cab corner speakers as well but we wanted to use the full range speakers instead this spot right here where the floor pan gets lower is the perfect place for the subwoofer nice and tucked in under the seat this is the ground to our power in here's the app itself and this can be mounted anywhere you want as long as it's out of the way of moving things like your right foot on the gas pedal and as long as it has some room for heat to dissipate so it doesn't get too hot ours is going right there nice and out of sight lots of room around it this is the adapter that goes to the vehicle chassis harness I just get plugged in it connects us to the truck now these are the feeds to the sub from the back of the head unit we've got these routed behind the kick panel down under the carpet and coming up right at the sub now here's the multi pin connectors for the power amp it this is the plug for the external Bluetooth mic there are two USB inputs in the model tube we're going to use this extension cable here and put it in an easy-to-reach spot on the lower dash now safely under the carpet is our power supply wire to the subwoofer it just plugs in here at the sub and is routed under the carpet and through the firewall right to the battery direct to the hot terminal since it needs constant power even when the key is off it's real simple to hook this stuff up it's all multi pinned plugs this is for a high level input connection that we're not using this here is for a power antenna which we don't have and please the RCA cable from the Radiohead unit our subs hooked up now one of the cool things about this system is that it's Bluetooth compatible so the microphone for hands-free phone is going to go right up here on the Sun Visor we're just going to tuck the wire behind the a-pillar now speaking of the a-pillar these are from lMC Truck and they have a speaker built-in right at the top it's got a capacitor that filters out all the low frequencies so it gives a nice crisp sound and really completes the sound picture [Music] you know USB port right here what's out-of-the-way the pedals we can reach it perfect that's found its happy home [Music] [Music] this [Music] here are your two constant hot wires one from the power app and one from the head unit you've got them taped together and make your connections to the hot side of the battery with the ground disconnected this way you don't run the risk of a power spike to your components or a short-circuit it's just safer we don't want the radio we want to listen to our own music off of a USB stick that's real simple there we go [Music] well we hope this video shows you that even with a classic truck you've got great options for an incredible sounding audio system and you don't have to look any further than retro sound at an lMC Truck make sure you check out the catalogs in lMC Truck com for other options that are gonna make your truck restoration project even better for now I'm Kevin Tate's and thanks for watching [Music] you you

Channel: LMCTruck

Views: 89,657

Rating: 4.9313574 out of 5

Keywords: Kevin Tetz, LMCTruck, LMC Truck, radio installation, install a truck radio, upgrade audio system, RetroSound audio system installation, Chevy trucks, GMC trucks, Chevy Truck parts, GMC truck parts, truck restoration, replace a truck radio, truck radio upgrade, truck audio upgrade

Id: fDz4vCHI5KE

Length: 9min 7sec (547 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 02 2019