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Hi Folks,
I recently acquired a '90 T-Bird Super Coupe that had been wrecked. Prior to it's demise it spent the first 18 years of it's existence with it's original owner being cared for and pampered with extensive maintenance records to prove it. You could tell this guy was not opposed to spending a lot to get something he wanted for the car. It was not until I started taking the expensive sound equipment out of the trunk space in the car that I found a disgusting and pitiful attempt at the installation of that equipment. Better still it would be less that forthright if I failed to describe this mess as anything less that dangerous. Although this is not the first time I have seen this sort of thing, I think it is an excellent example of what is going on in countless thousands of Car Audio installation shops. Here is a picture of what the customer saw when he got his car back from the shop. At first glance it really looked great. It's what's behind the dark gray mouse fur covering that should scare the hell out of any sane and reasonable person.
Nice picture huh??? Looks can be deceiving...
OK, here the real scary part... Keep in mind the reason this car was wrecked is because of a failure in the anti-lock brake system. Remember what I said above about the anti-lock break module being mounted wrong??? So what do you think??? Fortunately the guy was not seriously injured, and that was at least partly due to the design of the car. One has to wonder how many people have been killed or seriously injured due to poor installation practices like this. I have spent a lot of time in junkyards and I have seen a lot of burned vehicles. I also see a lot of them had electrical and or audio work done to them.
I think it's time to get serious about this kind of thing and start checking out the work these people are doing. I don't doubt there are shops out there doing the work right but there's no way to know if you can't see what they are doing. Most people don't know if the work is done right even when they see it. If they did they would probably be doing it themselves. I strongly recommend to you folks who do their own work, as all of us here do, that you buy the equipment and do your own installation work. The time has come to put an end to these shops that run out and hire some kid who read a few magazine articles about car audio, and pay them at the amazing labor rate of barely over minimum wage. These people are a menace to society and the well being of those of us who pay them very high fees for shoddy work.
I strongly recommend that anyone reading this forward a link to others considering getting this kind of work done.
Thanks for taking the time to read my little rant here. I hope it prevents someone else from being a victim.
Later Folks...
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