Radio / Stereo Fitting

OMG. I have just had the worst mini based day of my short lived mini life. Today I took on the project of trying to fit my mini with its stereo. No biggy I thought. 3 wires should be pretty simple.

So I Head off to the scrap yard to pick up a wiring loom and an old stereo. After much bashing and cutting I get myself a wiring loom and then go and ask the guys about stereos, they take me off somewhere and show me a pile of old cd players etc and tell me that they have all been tested as working so I picks one out (cos its the same make as my old one so i know how it works)

Anyway off home i trot to fit said stereo. First thing's first I do a little reading in the manual which explains I need the feed from ignition, constant and ground. Low and behold when I peel back the casing besides the gauges there are already 3 wires there. I do a little investigating and find out that one is live so i figure I have good odds that these are my stereo wires!

So i try to connect it up. Nothing
I try a different combination of the wires. Nothing  

Anyway this nonsense goes on for litteraly hours. Eventually I crumble and go and buy a volt meter to try and work out what is going on.

During this time it dawns on me that actually the stereo that looks like my old one IS actually my old stereo from my scrapped car from only a few weeks ago!?! So I have just paid what the guy told me was a "bargain" for my own stereo, which incidently I left in the car because the cd player part does NOT work!?! (oh but it does still have one of my c.d.'s stuck in it!)

So I get the volt meter I phone my electrician friend we look at manuals, he explains what readings i should get and then about 6 hours after is started the whole thing i finally realise that the car stereo I am using doesn't actually work at all. I try connecting it to the car battery. nothing.

The worst min day off my life so far.

Still no stereo. Any ideas?

Angry Little Dom

Oh dear poor old you that's a bit of a bummer

That is so sad i felt quite teary when i read this!!!
If its any consolation even when the radio is fitted (yes when not if i have every confidence in you ) YOU WONT BE ABLE TO HEAR IT because of all the bumps rattle and squecks
We had a really loud exhaust and it was so noisy in the car we had to wear ear plugs but even then it took about an hour to stop our ears from "ringing" when we got out
i cant tell you how glad we were when it failed the MOT and we could put the old one back on .The new one is still in the garage and i look at it every now and then think "how about refitting it ????No  

Talking of LOUD exhausts, we took our Mini van to Guernsey one year, our son had fitted a 2 inch bore exhaust to it just before we went, I think the whole island heard us when we drove around.

The following year we took DOO and the exhaust was ripped off front to back going over a ramp whilst boarding the ferry at Weymouth, again the whole island must have heard us when we arrived.

Last year we flew over and hired a car, some one drove into us, wrote the car off and damaged us (at least we weren't in a Mini) (bump)

This year we are taking DOO back to the GMOC Mini Show in June ( we have fitted hi-lows) fingers crossed all will be well.

Gosh you are really brave - do you think Gurnsey is trying to tell you something

I did the GMOC show in 1999 I went in my 69 MK2 and my brother went in his 68 hornet we went all the way over there with out a hitch while on the way home loads of modern cars were braking down. I'd love to go again but it so expensive and it'sa 4 hour drive from home to the ferry.

The first year we did the GMOC show was in 2000, when 5 Minis from our club went over for 4 days, we spent our time going round the touristy bits, these are the places we avoid now. We have been every year since, but as you say it's getting expensive and we also have a long run to get to the ferry.