Well... I sold my street jeep (a TJ) and joined the "other side". I have always wanted a Tacoma but the opportunity never presented itself. Nor did the bank account. The higher being you believe in must touch each and everyone Tacoma as they come off of the production line, because they are priced that way!
Anyway, I cannot leave anything stock especially a vehicle with a stock 2006 stereo. My CTD has me spoiled with blue tooth and other techno gadgets. I had a few pennies left over after putting a chunk down on the Tacoma and decided to do a double DIN stereo, back up camera, and an 8 inch sub in addition to the stock JBL system that the truck came with. My intention was to do a small build thread but after getting into it I either; forgot to take pictures or realized a lot of it was boring wire running. I did have to buy a module that allowed me to tie into the JBL system and re-use the steering wheel controls. Installing the module was pretty straight forward and very close to a plug and play situation. However, I missed one small section on the instructions that gave me an additional few hours of trouble shooting. I eventually got it figured out with some help from Car Tunes in Layton. When he showed me what I did wrong I felt like an idiot. It was a simple plug that I missed and I flipped the wrong switches on the module.
Stock Stereo (RIP)
The newness
After removing the old stereo I went to work soldiering the wires and adding shrink wrap.
After about 4 hours of getting the harnesses all tied together and running the wires for the amp and the back up camera all that was left was to put it all back together. That was after taking a trip to the local car audio place to find out I missed a stupid simple step. Here is the finished product.
I opted to build my own sub box instead of buying a direct fit box for $100 (mine cost me $35 in materials). I may upgrade to that box later on if mine doesnt sound great. We will see though.
All that is currently left to do is buy my amp and hook it up. I have to wait until payday (This Friday) to buy the amp because the CFO of the house has noticed $550 left the bank account at some point. I would like to keep the financial department of this household on my good side. I "need" to spend a few more dollars on "things" for the truck (tonneau cover and maybe powder coat the wheels that came on it).
This was the most in depth stereo install I have ever done. I have done multiple single DIN installs with no other accessories. I really enjoyed doing this and it wasn't harder than previous installs. Fun times!
