Yikes. I've spent the last couple days at the shop fixing someone else's hack job. I didn't ask who the shop was, but they should be ashamed of charging anyone for this junk.

No grommet, just a sharp metal hole.


Fuseholder flopping all around, not tied to anything at all.


Switch for under-dash neons. Nice, it would look super in a rusted out 74 ford truck.


Wire for more neons, but not hooked to anything - and not insulated! Just a hot 12v and ground hanging out on the back floor.


Battery in the trunk. First off, WHY?? The amps in the car weren't current hogs. And no, it is NEVER ok to leave terminals just hanging out exposed like that. Also the battery isn't fastened down so in the event of a rollover it will likely fall onto the metal deck, short out and cause a fire. Nice.


Another shot of the battery, looks nice doesnt it??


Justg a huge mess everywhere. The system had 4 different ground points and engine noise like nuts, and it looked like dog poop too.


I dont even know. They grounded to fan to the amp's chassis which i guess is ok, then powered it from the remote lead. 1 big fan + 3 amps on the remote lead is a bit much, and led to the fan never working and the amps shutting off as they pleased.


So in the car he had 2 kicker 10's powered by an Autotek 4 channel amp. Then he had a 2 channel on the rears and the sony 2 channel (with custom fan) on the fronts. What a mess. And why use a 4 channel amp on the subs? Even better was since the amp was bridged and each sub had it's own half of the amp, each half of the amp was set differently. The crossover has at least half a turn different and the level's were over 1/4 turn off. I could say they set the levels with a meter and the screws on the amp are just that far off, but obviously a meter is a little too high tech for these people.

Coming next post, what i put in to fix it!

 

lol the poor guy thought the dude did a good job because everything worked properly?

how much are you charging him to fix it?

 

I don't want to say any prices on a forum, but I hooked him up really well. I gave him way more than the price because he's a really nice dude and he wasn't done right by the first place at all. I didn't take many pics of the finished product because we're pretty busy and i didnt have a lot of timebut i got a few.
Basically we added 2 more CVR 10's, powered the subs off of an MTX JH1200 amp and switched the Autotek 4 ch amp onto his highs like it should be. I re moved all the wiring and cleaned it up and did it right. I also replaced the total junk neons that were installed under the dash with some Varad LED bars in both front and rear floor areas. And of course got rid of the hillbilly switch and put in a nice round rocker flush into the exising unused dash switch panel. Not pictured is a small box for a pair of 4" coax that fits snugly on top of the enclosure for some highs when you're hanging out behind the car. They are powered by the existing RF 250a2, and it only switches on when the trunk is opened.

 

Basic, clean, inexpensive install with just enough showy factor to make him happy. I would have preferred to keep a little more trunk space, but he was ok with losing 95% of it and it's his car, not mine. As long as other shops keep hacking, I'll keep fixing.

 

Damn Luke, that one was nasty. Are you sure an actual shop even did the work? Looks more like the "my buddy said he does mad car audio on the weekends in his backyard" hookup!!

If a shop really did do this, I HOPE it wasn't anyone local. And if so, I hope they have gone down the tubes along with our economy. There was so much "wrong" stuff even over and above what you took the time to point out, I don't even know where to begin. As usual, a complete redo was a good choice. It just sucks that the dude got suckered out of money already once for a hacked up job before finding a good shop.

What people don't understand is that from a shop owners perspective, when we have to fix these jobs, it is never very profitable by the time it is said and done. We spend so much time doing it over right that we always feel bad that the customer already got suckered out of their hard earned $$$'s and end up undercharging. I know we usually just break even at best with these kinds of jobs.

The bitch probably is (and almost always will be), the hack shop that did the work and sold the equip. in the first place made more profit then the good installer that came behind for the cleanup.

BUYERS BEWARE!!!

Another great bail-out Luke!

 

feels good to be good sometimes doesn't it

the new install looks like what i'd expect coming out of a shop, the before looks like some drunk buddies wanted a boomer in the trunk one night

 

i have a doozy i am starting, i will post where it was done and where not to go!, part of the deal on doing this car was I can take as many pictures and post them where i want, at first the owner said no, but after tring to get the original shop to fix the wiring nightmare they created, and get his 3 tv's, radio, 5 channel amp, sub, xbox and neon lights to work, they told him they wont work on it any more. WTF - they charge him top dollar for this mess, i told him i would fix it for $100 a day plus parts, - Rewire starts next week. i will post shops name and pictures when done.

 

I am looking forward to that one. You know, posting some pics of previous shop hack jobs on a public forum might just make the repair that much more gratifying.

I've had more than one "bit" TR member give us permission to post their prior shop hacked job before we fixed it. I think we may just start doing it also. Never really cared to before but seeing customers get taken is really getting old. Give's others a bad taste and that is when shops begin to get stereotyped...

 

luke did the shop install his h.u? did you peak behind it if so? if not you shoulda checked it out just incase its a rats nest so he doesn't think you messed it up if the wires come loose down the road..

 

Luke is quite a seasoned vet. I am quite sure he redid everything front to back. When any professional shop does a rewire on a hack job, we take NOTHING for granted. Half the time, we even have to use new amp power wiring because the idiots drill the hole through the firewall sheet metal just big enough to pass the wire through (this is wrong because a proper grommet actually requires a larger hole than the wire guage), then yank the power wire through. This puts a ton of cuts in the sheilding and many times compromises it.