Well then, I don't know if I should do it myself or not. It doesn't seem too difficult.

 

If I get it done at an audio shop, would they automatically do the PAC wiring? I assume not considering I've never seen them charge $70 or more for the harness components.

 

No. You would have to provide it and ask. There are other tap points to get what the PAC provides to the console harness. So, they will just use a metra/scoche and tap the right fuse box for the others that it might be lacking and run lines. If your lucky that is..

As I said...If you don´t use the guy you were referring to earlier I wouldn´t rely on a shop.

 

I went to the shop he works at (he used to own his own, but went out of business and went to work for these guys), and they said that they won't even touch the bypass issue. Even though it isn't for entertainment purposes and is completely legal, they don't want to deal with it.

I would bet that if I contacted the guy himself, he would do it for me.

However, I'm getting confident that I can do everything myself. If I go that route I'll need to get a sautering iron, any recommendations on that front?

And if the shop won't do the bypass, there is no point in getting them to do the install, because I'd have to take it all out again to do the bypass.

 

Radio shack should have all that you will need. Besides trying to sauté it (ya, I know ¨soldering¨, but I couldn´t help it). Figure around $40-50 for the below needed for this. You could probably reduce that to about $30 if you buy the stuff elsewhere online if your that patient.

I have a weller controlled station, but for just this the $10 15watt special will do it, one that has a sponge and holder with it, as you´ll dampen the sponge to clean the tip between soldering pieces together. Get the ¨extra hands¨ little holder for this kind of work as well to hold the wires while you solder.

Damned if I remember the name, but it looks like the below with just the clamps, none of the fancy BS on it. Trust me, you´ll want this.


Then the heat shrink tubing, diode, solder itself, and a good pair of wire strippers. Specifically these:
Model:64-074

The other ¨automatic¨ ones are gimmicky crap. These will require you to be fairly precise, eyeing and ¨feeling¨ the cut, but will last forever, and strip any wire you would buy, easily. For $6.

Mine don´t come from rag-shack, but it´s essentially the same thing with a yellow handle that´s lasted me for 20yrs.

For actually soldering, just a quick google of how to solder should do it. It´s not that complex. Hold the solder with one hand, the iron with the other, get a little started on the tip, then heat the wire itself with the solder held to it to melt onto the wire, do this for each wire end. Then put the two together and re-heat the two together with the iron.

I don´t think they sell lead based ones any more, but I was in the habit of holding my breath when doing the actual soldering joints because I´d rather not have the lead in my system. Once they´ve melted together properly I tend to pull the iron away and blow on it briefly just to make sure it´s set together before I move the heat-shrink tubing over the joint, heating the tubing to shrink it over the joint, and then moving it to start on the next one.

 

if you want to install ur self and are unsure of the wiring you can mail both harness to me, include money for return shipping or a prepaid label or something and ill wire em up solder and heat shrink, do the diode mod, and toss em back in mail for ya

 

Okay. What's the benefit of the more expensive soldering irons?

I haven't found the holder thing that you listed there, but I'll keep looking. And yeah, I spelled like it sounded, pretty unintelligent on my part.

What exactly is the PAC harness for? Like, I see everyone uses them, and you endorse them, but what functionality do they provide that I don't get out of the stock harness?

And thanks pentavolvo, but I think I'll pass. If I'm going to do it myself, I'd like to use it as a learning experience as well and do some hands on work with it.

 

I found it, it is called "helping hands" or "third hand" like you said. They have one at the Shack for 16 bucks and online for about the same price. I'll probably go get everything at the Shack as long as the quality is decent, that way I don't have to worry about shipping. I'll still have to wait on the PAC harness and the dash kit, so if I should order any of these tools to get higher quality I can do that as well.

 

that is actually not recommended, the solder joint could break over time.The "correct" way is to twist the wires together then solder the joint,then heat shrink or tape.

 

I've seen some videos and that was how I planned on doing it, the twist and solder method, but I doubt there would be a problem with either method...