Another Supra stereo rebuild

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Skier's Choice and some of these boat dealers have NO BUSINESS installing stereos. This boat came in the other day to have the wiring cleaned up. He's also having problems with the tower speakers, the remotes only intermittently work, and it just looks plain horrible. A boat dealer installed the Syn4 and towers, but look at the compartment - there's absolutely no room at all for anything since all the batteries are piled in there. I think the boat was well thought out, and surprised at the changes since the last few years, but it's like they get the boat done, and just throw a bunch of crap in it and ruin everything. Then there's the LED's. The dealer disconnected the courtesy lights, and are using the switch and wiring for different LED's. That's lazy.... It's a shame this guy has taken the boat out just a few times and each time, there's a new problem......

We're building a custom enclosure for a Digital Designs 3512 to go under the helm, adding a DD M2A 1250W amp, adding a WS-420, and removing the batteries to replace them with Stinger batteries. Once it's done, he'll gain almost all of the compartment space back.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1...z/DSC_0025.jpg
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http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1...z/DSC_0023.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1...z/DSC_0022.jpg


Stay tuned, I'll update this thread as it goes.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1...z/DSC_0021.jpg
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Wow, that is a mess. Looking forward to seeing the pictures of the finished product.

For the record, if I think your wiring looks like crap, then you have reached an all new low. Because I suck at wiring, and I mean one armed blind epileptic monkey suck. So if yours look worse than mine, may god have mercy on your soul.

Jony, please save this poor soul. What kind of artillery is he getting?

I thought a secondary purpose for an amp rack was to hide the wiring?

Option 2: screw the storage, make a secondary carpeted vanity panel, & just cover the entire storage area opening.:)

I know you'll clean that mess up & make it righteous.

Jesus! That looks like my wiring (AKA.... the free kind!) I'd be seriously pissed if I paid for that.

[soapbox]
Hey guys, I just wanted to throw in my 0.02$ on the situation... My friend is the owner of this boat. I had suggested that he contact jonyb when he was considering buying the boat to have him do the install (paducah is pretty close to our hometown) but the jokers at the dealership convinced him it would be simple. There are very few people I would let touch my system -- probably david from earmark, grant west, jonyb, and chucktronics. This is the reason why! I live in STL and have been fielding phone calls from my buddy for the last two / three weeks about all of the problems with the stereo he has had. He paid a lot of money for this boat (not that all wakeboard boats arent expensive, but.. ) - and then paid an an excessive amount to have the Rev10s and some LED lighting added. I was shocked when he told me he didn't have WS420 & Sub installed after what he paid! When he started sending me pics of the wiring, i was cringing. I am not a professional installer by any means - but even in the worst days my stereo installs looked 10x cleaner than this mess. They didn't even hook his ipod hookup in the back - he's thought he had a messed up headunit for the last month!

Lessons learned are: a) avoid this dealer, and b) do your homework before you have someone do an install...

[/soapbox] - back to my malibu forums ... haha.

Thanks for the opportunity to fix this thing Clayton! Hopefully when it leaves here it'll be up to his expectations, but it won't leave if something isn't right.

Got everything stripped out of the console last night. What a mess.....

The USB wasn't working because it was pulled too tight and the cord separated, same thing with the remote cables. Everything up there was way too tight, but the battery cables were all about 4' too long.
The dealer that installed the lights had lampcord speaker wire running everywhere for the LED's they installed. It was just ran all through the boat, never wire tied. Remove a panel, see wires hanging all the way down to carpet.
They disconnected the courtesy lights and used the switch for some aftermarket LED's, then used an ACC switch for the LED's in the Rev8's. The last ACC switch turned the transom lights on. I wired the aftermarket cabin LED's to the ACC swith with the Rev8 LED's, and connected the courtesy lights back to the courtesy switch. That took all of 5 minutes. Blows my mind that they wasted all that lighting instead of combining switches.

Sub and box should be done by this weekend, the rest of the parts will be here after that. Should have this thing done next weekend.

Go John!!!!

I agree, looks like it was raped by a vinyl cutter machine. No offense.

Now this is just lazy! SC decided instead of screwing this down, they'd just wire tie it, with 1 wire tie!

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1...-13-26_831.jpg


Then put it up high and use extra wire

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1...-14-26_829.jpg


Got the amp rack back in tonight, batteries are connected, and the compartment is looking a lot better. I still need to pick up a Perko switch, so I won't post pics until that's in, but here's the amp rack once it was completed.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1...-13-02_431.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1...3-14-07_90.jpg

I wish you could come to VA and do my boat. My Malibu's upgraded sound package is horrible! The wiring looks awful, and the amps are not wired correctly. Furthermore, Malibu turns the gains to the lowest settings, and then places a sticker of the gain controls saying void if removed.

Virginia is not far from Kentucky. I took my old boat to JonyB, and it was awesome. I didn't take this one, and it's not awesome. :D

Not awesome yet, Haugy. Operative word being "yet"... You'll show us all up soon enough, I'm sure.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WadsworthSunsport22V

I wish you could come to VA and do my boat. My Malibu's upgraded sound package is horrible! The wiring looks awful, and the amps are not wired correctly. Furthermore, Malibu turns the gains to the lowest settings, and then places a sticker of the gain controls saying void if removed.

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Sucks that you can't find anybody locally that could help you out. The old days of car audio installers taking ownership in something is gone.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by haugy

Virginia is not far from Kentucky. I took my old boat to JonyB, and it was awesome. I didn't take this one, and it's not awesome. :D

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You're still awesome, even if your boat sucks..... haha

So the owner of the Supra picked his boat up Friday and was pretty pleased. I'll have a couple pictures up soon.

Finished pics:


http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1...3-14-07_90.jpg
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http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1...-04-52_581.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1...n/DSC_0026.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1...n/DSC_0027.jpg
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http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1...n/DSC_0030.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1...n/DSC_0031.jpg


I replaced the batteries with a Stinger SPP2150 for the stereo, and an SPP925 to run the boat and accessories, added a Perko switch, WS-420, repaired some lighting issues (the dealer unplugged all the courtesy lights to use the switch for a few extra LED's that were added), repaired the tornado damage in the storage console that was considered a stereo install, built a box for a DD9512, added an M2A amp for that, and due to the shoddy install from either the dealer or factory, I repaired the wired remotes that didn't work.

Most of what I did was pretty easy. It's not an Earmark or Chucktronics install, but it's an install that this guy can trust will work and not break when he puts the boat in the water. Everything works like he wants it to. He has 1 switch for custom LEDs, and 1 switch for courtesy lights, instead of having 30 or so LED's, and only 4 or 5 of them working because someone screwed with the wiring. He also has room now for storage, where he's supposed to have storage. I've seen so many boats come from SC with wasted space and all it takes is a little thought and planning.

And to the dealer that sold this boat: Get mad all you want about my comments, but remember this, your name has never been spoken here, nor will it ever be. If you continue to do stereo installs, please take your time and do it right. Don't just throw some crap together to make a quick sale, or let someone else worry about it. And the comment about bringing the boat to me, even though all I do is come here and bitch: Yes, mostly. Because I paid top dollar for a flagship boat, only to have quality issues with little to no dealer or manufacturer support. Which is about the same as this guy is experiencing right now.

The RE-install looks great - even from atop your soapbox :) .

I am the owner of this boat and I wanted to come on here and personally thank John for doing an excellent job! I could not have been more pleased with the way John handled all this, he was very upfront, professional, communicated well and let me know how things were going along the way, and most importantly he did AN AWESOME job with the install.. Took the boat out to the lake last weekend and was the life of the party due to the kick A&3 sound system... I will no doubt be taking my boat to John in the future any time I need custom work on my audio or lights... In my opinion, there is no one better to take it to..

VERY VERY pleased customer... Thanks again John.

John. Was the speaker in the area under the driver something you added, or is the manufacturer putting them there now ? I have always disliked not having a speaker for the driver


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Manufacturer is now putting one there I believe. It is still a 6 speaker setup, though. They moved one of the cabins to that spot. .... once again, I think.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jburdon14

I am the owner of this boat and I wanted to come on here and personally thank John for doing an excellent job! I could not have been more pleased with the way John handled all this, he was very upfront, professional, communicated well and let me know how things were going along the way, and most importantly he did AN AWESOME job with the install.. Took the boat out to the lake last weekend and was the life of the party due to the kick A&3 sound system... I will no doubt be taking my boat to John in the future any time I need custom work on my audio or lights... In my opinion, there is no one better to take it to..

VERY VERY pleased customer... Thanks again John.

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Glad you're happy with it man. Welcome to the board, stick around and keep posting. John has always done some awesome work for my boats, so I understand your happiness. Glad you get to enjoy it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sybrmike

The RE-install looks great - even from atop your soapbox :) .

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haha, well I apologize. I evidently ruffled feathers from the very beginning on this thread.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jburdon14

I am the owner of this boat and I wanted to come on here and personally thank John for doing an excellent job! I could not have been more pleased with the way John handled all this, he was very upfront, professional, communicated well and let me know how things were going along the way, and most importantly he did AN AWESOME job with the install.. Took the boat out to the lake last weekend and was the life of the party due to the kick A&3 sound system... I will no doubt be taking my boat to John in the future any time I need custom work on my audio or lights... In my opinion, there is no one better to take it to..

VERY VERY pleased customer... Thanks again John.

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Thanks Jonathan!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KG's Supra24

Manufacturer is now putting one there I believe. It is still a 6 speaker setup, though. They moved one of the cabins to that spot. .... once again, I think.

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That's correct. Moved it up front from normal. That could be good either way. Myself, I prefer it back where it was because the driver gets a little too much sound right there, and blocks it with his body when it's playing. That's just a personal preference, not knocking them for doing it that way.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by haugy

Virginia is not far from Kentucky. I took my old boat to JonyB, and it was awesome. I didn't take this one, and it's not awesome. :D

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I am in Richmond - still pretty far... and through Mountains. My SUV would die.

Looks good John...as with past installs, your quality work and attention to detail shows.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jonyb

Sucks that you can't find anybody locally that could help you out. The old days of car audio installers taking ownership in something is gone.

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I have a local guy that does great work on Cars, but boat, always a problem, some of them pretty annoying. Like speakers not be wired correctly for left and right. I just added a Exile Audio EQS, and for some reason, my amps got rewired. My tower speakers are on the same zone as my cabin speakers, and my bow speakers are on a separate zone. The cockpit is loud as H3LL!. I have to travel 40 miles, get my trailer, get dropped off at my boat (on a lift), have someone (my wife will not drive the trailer or load the boat) the truck and trailer to the launch, and then take the boat to the trailer. Then drive 40 miles back the car stereo shop. Then reverse!

So when are you coming to VA?

Buy me a plane ticket.....

Sounds like they just got the RCA's switched up. You can figure out which RCA does what by unplugging each one. Generally for left and right, "right is red". That's assuming they wired the speakers to the correct side. I'm sure you can figure it out. I had a customer call from Knoxville today and he was dead set on me wiring a pair of tower speakers he bought, but after talking to him, I convinced him he could do it himself.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jonyb

Buy me a plane ticket.....

Sounds like they just got the RCA's switched up. You can figure out which RCA does what by unplugging each one. Generally for left and right, "right is red". That's assuming they wired the speakers to the correct side. I'm sure you can figure it out. I had a customer call from Knoxville today and he was dead set on me wiring a pair of tower speakers he bought, but after talking to him, I convinced him he could do it himself.

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That is what I thought too, but, when I tried, I got a ton on feedback, and there are extra RCA wires that do nothing. I got confused and went back to the way they wired it. I'll buy you a ticket, a six pack, and a give you a pull.

How about this: Take some detailed pictures, and email them. Maybe we can start from there.