Well, I've got most of it done with the exception of everything that needs to happen to the rear quarter panel--for the life of me I can't get that damned cargo hook out of the hatch!!! My bro and I tried several small screwdrivers, an allen wrench, and combinations of the above with a pair of pliers to pull out the thing. Since we were stuck on this for about an hour and half, in our frustration nearly mutilated the appearance of the hook...oh well...

Any advice on how to get this thing off? The instructions are kinda vague in regards to the procedure at that point...

Jason H.: I read your post and that's where I got that allen wrench idea, it just didn't work for me--any other ideas.advice?

Thanks everyone!

 

took me a while too..just keep messing with it if you haven't already gotten it. There's really no easy way.

Kind of like picking a lock, I guess..

 

What I ended up doing was just taking a pair of pliers and just ripped it from the panel--amazingly it turned out fine! I'm done now--but there's one thing I need to fix--I had a hard re-installing the rear quarter panel, namely getting the uppermost forward section to hook onto the next panel forward in the car. It's still not quite right so the rear panel is slightly misaligned--I would like to correct this though. It seems that the angle of reassembly made it way too akward to get a good position to execute this. I think I may just have to remove the panel in front of it and then reassemble...

BTW, the factory sub sounds great! I'm an audiophile, and I think the balance is pretty good--it doesn't announce to the world outside that I've got a subwoofer, but inside the cabin it does have a nice presence that you can feel.

Next project when the $ is available: replace the front speakers w/ components (probably the infinity reference series or the alpine type s components)

 

if you're going to use the stock head unit you'll need an amp for the components.....probably some type of EQ also....the stock HU only puts out somewhere around 17-22 watts RMS and that's not enough for any component system.....

 

I've got an Eclipse AVN 5435 in place of the stock head unit--will that be enough? I know the RMS output on it isn't very high...

If that's not enough is probably better that I get coax's? I really don't want to buy an amp if I don't have to...