MP3 installed! and sticking out...

Well, for lack of a nickname, I'll just call him C. Anyway, he was good enough to mentor me on the ways of automotive wiring.

C was well equipped with his wrenches and whatnot so he helped me undo my battery. Then showed me the "right" way to crimp wirings to avoid short-circuits. Also let me do half the harness after we'd mapped out what each wire meant.

Had a little scare when we plugged it all back in and reconnected the battery though. Car wouldn't start. Turned out the battery wasn't connected tightly enough. But from the inside the dash was all lit up funny - very unlike when you have a dead battery. I was worried we'd scrambled the engine computer by tampering with the battery.

Anyway I unfortunately don't have any photos to share regarding my handy work tonight. Just as well, it's not really "done." This new unit has a couple of extra plugs and external fuses so there isn't the same clearance as the previous unit. Meaning, I couldn't squeeze the whole unit into its mounting slot with all those super-long wires in the way. I'm going to have to go in on the weekend with some twisty-ties or something and get it all stuffed in good back there. As it stands, my new deck's face is sticking about an inch out from the rest of my dashboard! Eek!

Oh well, at the moment I'm just glad to be back to MP3/CD capability in my car. *sigh*.