Hey all. I know...hardly anyone keeps the speakers. I didn't want to rewire the whole car. I'm writing this to help anyone with the same questions I had going into this swap.

A few tips. Pics to follow.

Get the connector for your year car to connect the new headunit harness with so it'* a direct plug into the factory harness. The wire colors on the connector from your HU will probably match right up to the wire colors on the connector you bought to plug into the car'* harness.

Play connect the wires. ****Tip of the moment**** When connecting to the new HU there usually is a wire on the HU for dimming/illumination, the wire you need to connect to on the connector to plug into the car harness is for illumination, not dimmer. (I needed orange instead of orange/white) If you got to the wrong wire your radio will dim in reverse with the headlight dimmer. Most HU'* are designed only with a single dimming level to turn on when the headlights are on (or when +12V is applied). The dimming wire in the car actually drops voltage to dim the lights in it'* circuit. When the HU sees the voltage drop off it puts the display back on bright because it thinks it'* daytime.

Connecting the wires. I chose to solder the wires together and put heat shrink tubing over the connections. Other methods include little crimp caps sold at Best Buy and other places like that. With these you put the two wires in and crimp. The standard blue crimp connectors,. And last resort of twisting the wires together and taping them up with electrical tape. (Sorry duct tape isn't allowed....Nate..put down the masking tape...it isnt' allowed either)

If you have the factory amp and want to keep gain control you need to add a wire to power the factory amp on, most afternarket HU'* have a wire to turn on amp. The connector you bought usually does not. I bought a second connector, scavenged a wire out of it to keep the nice clean look. (In 1995 the wire color you need to connect to is pink on the factory plug.) If you have this problem and want a wire I have about 20 extras at the moment and will send you one.

Now that'* done, the gain works and you realize the amp really doesn't "amp" anything. But the gain switch is functional and you never have someone say...why doesn't this work?

Ok, lets go plug it in. I am a firm believer in pulling out the factory radio and connecting the new one before installing it at all. This is to double check that your new HU isn't DOA and all wires are properly connected. Give it a run through of the general items. All speakers are working, volume control works... good enough. Finish up your install.

I'll be editing w/pics and the rest once my parts come in and I can finish up my install.

good job Bill

Couldn't have done it this quick w/o all you guys.

Gonna have to look into the Illumination wire on mine... When my lights go on, the HU goes darker.... Seems like it should be that way, tho, so I'll see what difference it makes.

MOS...w/o having to pull it ... check this. Pull the lightswitch on and turn the dimmer all the way down. Does the radio get bright? Wrong wire. If it says the same from the time you pull the lights on you are on the right wire.

Why don't they do it like the good old days?? When the dash lights dim, the radio does too? Always gott be changing crap, dont they???

they gave ya two wires instead of one buddy. One tells it "hey..it'* nighttime" the other says "he want'* mood lighting"

I would like to know why the stock amp doesn't amp...it only gains. Why name it an Amp instead of a Gain control box.

Bump..pac to arrive tomorrow... =0)

Ok.. here goes. First thing you do is get yourself some new stuff

Head unit, wire harness for the car, antenna adapter (not shown), Pac SWI (not shown), Flush mount kit (not shown)

Then you take and put the head unit wiring together with your harness you bought using the wiring diagrams from both packages...usually wire colors match up. (Hint: see above for illumination vs. dimmer wire...use illumination to dim radio)

Ok..using the soldering iron and some heat shrink, lets pu that wiring together.

Add another connector for the illuminated flush mount kit (gotta love it..thanks for the link Nate)

Add pac swi wiring to the harness..(not shown...but simple)
Let'* get the new radio into the car...what do you say?

Didn't we say light up..and dimmable flush mount kit?

The Bonneville SSEi Supercharged one is on the way...slight mistake on ordering.
So let'* take a look from the back seat

Pretty good so far...Pac Swi parts come in and we add a power wire, ground wire and run another to the harness for the steering wheel control wire. (After fixing the steering controls with the toothpick trick...awesome)
Now since I got a Kenwood and the angle for it to receive the infared signal is really thin...where do I put that led for the pac to transmit with?
Look...I bet I could do something on this piece

Hey... What happened here? Remember the angle is very small...so I basically gotta aim it straight on..but how do you do that when they give you a flush mount led holder..

Yes, you modify and thanks to your local Modman'* late night paint shop you can work your project and paint it into the wee hours of the night....don't forget drinking beer w/a buddy
This will aim straight to the head unit

And here'* a pic of the basic look

Pics of the finished install into the car when I get it back tomorrow...check back for edits.

awesome great write up