# Nightmare cars, DIY, OH god installs



## wagonmaster (Jun 27, 2015)

As installers and car audio junkies. We have seen the best and the worst. What was some of the worst cars you worked on or saw?

When I was working a Car Tunes. 
A guy wanted an alarm in his mustang. Go out to the car open the door. Speaker wires run across the middle of the door. Had to climb over them to get in the car.

A guy wanted another amp(IIRC) we proceed to take apart the dash. A "piece" was shoved above the glove box. We has the salesman call the customer to remove it.

Working a half day before the first and only(?) IASCA key event at Coba hall. This jeep comes in. saying he's going to enter the show downtown. His amp power wire changed gauges 3 times with in 6" of the battery. 

Then the used prophylactic in a jeep. or the sub box with 2 different subs made out of paneling.

I know you have some lets hear about them.

Tim


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## Destarah (Feb 24, 2019)

Ages ago, a mechanic wanted me to hear his "system" ... it included a pair of horns sitting on the rear parcel shelf and pointed at the back of my head. Blew my mind (literally)

Not really car audio but back in high school a kid wanted to be a DJ on the weekends, planned to use peg board for the rear panel of his sub enclosure so that it would be louder


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## Jscoyne2 (Oct 29, 2014)

Happened a few days ago. "Hey buddy. I got a full OS system to put in. Can you help me, here's some pics of the amps"

Along with 3 amps like that and some analog crossover/9band
Screws wouldn't even budge.
























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## JCsAudio (Jun 16, 2014)

I took apart a door panel on a customers car to replace a part inside (was an auto technician long time ago) and the innards were barely held together with duct tape and self tapping screws and it was a mess. When I touched it, it all fell apart, and it took me three times as long to fix it but I got it right again. I mentioned to the customer that someone had hacked up his door and that I had fixed it thinking I did the right thing and the customer got angry because he said it was the dealership I was working for that had messed it up beforehand. I was very young and soon got out of that business and changed careers. I hated that job!


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## mattkim1337 (Jan 31, 2018)

Someone came in complaining that his amp doesn't "hit" anymore. I looked at the wiring, and I saw a 16 gauge wire wrapped through the hole for the set screw in the ground terminal (it was loose, to say the least). I've also seen a double din radio held in place with modeling clay stuffed in between the gaps because they didn't bother to use a dash kit for their car. I've seen a sub with the entire surround missing, then a customer complaining that we have to fix it because he bought it there. And more that I can't remember...


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## Aldaa (Feb 25, 2015)

I used to be in the automotive program with this kid. He's actually an extremely skilled and very quick mechanic, but when it came to audio... well, you'll see. 

This box was built out of rotting plywood that had clearly been in the elements for too long. The "port" was a radiator hose, and the hole wasn't round by any means... which is why there is a shop rag stuffed around the "port". The box is barely big enough to contain the speaker... I'm pretty sure the magnet was a half inch from the back. It sounded like massive crap, but boy did this thing thump!


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## Zardnok (Feb 21, 2019)

We are going back, way back, to the mid-90s. I was install manager at a local high-end shop and a guy came in with a Toyota something or other for a deck install. One of my guys installed it on my day off and the guy came back the next day saying something was cutting out. This meant it was my job to figure out why and make it right. I pulled the car into the shop and pulled up the hand brake, there was no cable attached, so I left the car in gear to keep it from rolling.

I grabbed my Fluke and some radio keys and proceeded to see what the problem was. I pulled the radio out and could see where my guy had connected the radio harness properly, but beyond that was a ball of spaghetti with dozens of wires going in all different directions. I started tracing the ground wire and dropped the bottom dash pan to verify it is solid before telling the customer he needs a full rewire on his car, not just his stereo.

I flipped over onto my back and lay my head back to get a better look at the wires and suddenly the car lurched forward knocking me off my feet. The car lurched again and again until it was slamming into my bottom tool box. I couldn't get my feet under me and couldn't figure out what was happening. That was when I smelled the smoke and started yelling. One of the other installers came running into the shop and grabbed my legs and pulled me out of the car.

The car stopped slamming my tool box, but there was still smoke coming from under the hood and inside the dash. I grabbed my crimps and popped the hood. There was another ball of spaghetti around the battery, so I started cutting and cut every wire there. The whole thing occurred in about 15 seconds, but the adrenaline rush lasted much longer. Once I caught my breath, I went up to the front of the store and proceeded to go off on the customer.

Apparently he had a problem in his ignition system, so to get around it, he wired a speaker wire from the battery into his car to a push button switch under the dash and then out of the push button switch directly to his starter. When I laid my head back on top of the under dash panel, I depressed the switch. There was no fuse, there was just crazy fire and insanity.


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## Jscoyne2 (Oct 29, 2014)

Zardnok said:


> We are going back, way back, to the mid-90s. I was install manager at a local high-end shop and a guy came in with a Toyota something or other for a deck install. One of my guys installed it on my day off and the guy came back the next day saying something was cutting out. This meant it was my job to figure out why and make it right. I pulled the car into the shop and pulled up the hand brake, there was no cable attached, so I left the car in gear to keep it from rolling.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Well. You win 

/Thread

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