Words and Photography by Brendan Seymour

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When you’re down at your local SuperCheap picking up the stereo components, make sure to get a soldering iron and a 12V test lamp if you don’t already have them. A roll of solder will make the job easier, otherwise you’re just going to be standing around heating wires all afternoon.

What you need to find, with the help of your test lamp are two wires in the back of your dash somewhere. One will light the lamp up only when the ignition is turnedon, and the other will light up even with the key removed. To make things easy, we will call the first ‘accessory power’ and the second ‘memory’ or ‘permanent power’.

These are the new SCA branded speakers, which are just going on sale around the country now and are available from Supercheap Auto. Unless you’re a dedicated audiophile, you won’t be able to tell the difference, and they cost a whole lot less than big-name speakers

Earth your test lamp onto a piece of metal and start probing around at connections. If you’ve just removed your standard tape deck, have a look at the wires that were coming out of it because you will find both there.

If you don't have a stereo already, think logically about where you will find these wires. I found a permanent power line behind my clock and accessory power was hiding behind the cigarette lighter.

Here’s the front 6in split in place. I haven’t fitted the face plate yet, but I will to save damaging the speaker	Here are the rear speakers. Note that they don’t screw directly to the kick panel, but rather to the plastic spacer I grabbed from SuperCheap. They’re a great idea if space behind the kick panel is limited, as you will damage the speaker if its magnet is in contact with a metal body panel – and it won’t sound too flash, either

Next, look at the plug that came with the CD player. There should be anything from 11 to 13 wires depending on what kind of CD player you bought. The good news is they follow a standard and are easy to identify.

At one end, there will be a black wire – that’s your earth. Run this to anywhere that will earth it properly – a screw in a piece of metal frame is perfect.

The CD player is powered up and ready to rock. No longer do I only have the sound of the tyres to listen to on long trips!

There will be two labelled blue wires – one will be the power on/off for an amplifier (not needed in this story) and the other will control the up-down motion of your power antenna.

The red one will be your permanent power, and the yellow will be a memory/accessory power line (see, it’s all coming together!).

You should now be left with either four (unlikely) or eight (more likely) wires. That’s two for each ‘channel’ for each speaker to run off.

All you have to do now is extend these wires to reach wherever you want to fix the speakers, and you’re done!

You can save a bucket load of cash by installing a sound system yourself, and you won’t even have to compromise on the quality of the installation.

That means more dough in the pocket for more 4WDing, and of course a new AC/DC CD for the head unit!