by pidge » Wed Sep 07, 2005 11:23 pm
Wander down to a car audio shop and buy a wiring harness adaptor for your make and model of car (I've done this twice) - it plugs into the factory wiring for the speakers, accessories power, battery power ("memory"), power antenna etc, and provides wires for you to connect to the wires from your headunit. Much nicer and neater, and leaves the factory wiring intact if you decide to put the factory unit back in for some reason.
Also make a trip to Jaycar or DSE for a soldering Iron (or borrow), solder and heat shrink tubing, if you don't have any, and wire strippers (unless you can be real careful with a box cutter or craft knife). It's tedious and you have to triple check that you've got the correct wires connected.
It would also pay to run a separate 16 or 8 gauge wire for power, with a fuse at the battery end, for the "memory" power to the head unit (which is used as the main power source - the accesories "power" is just used to tell the head unit to switch on. (I think!)
If you can't face that, someone on the board might do it for you in exchange for a quantity of their favourite beverage - or just take to one of the Pros - at least you'll get a warranty on their work.