Palmetto Shooters Forum

If I had only known how easy it was to do this head unit swap I would have done it on my 97 XLT years ago.
I now own a 2003 Ford F150 Screw and love it,I swapped out the stock Radio / CD head unit for a Jensen BT1611I CD Receiver. I have wanted the ability to do hands free calling but I hate the ear pieces so many people are walking around with.

I am posting some pictures below and while this is not nearly as impressive as a Double Din swap out it tickled me to be able to accomplish this with so little trouble. Buying from Crutchfield was certainly the right move fort a newbie like me. Sure I bought a cheap unit but I had certain specific needs, bluetooth hands free for the phone and a decent radio and the ability to play MP3's etc was a nice benefit. Install was a piece of cake once I worked up the nerve to pull the panel and get to the area behind the radio. As I mentioned I wanted at one time to drill a hole but that was totally unnecessary as the pictures will show. I ordered a direct power lead for the Radar unit and wired it to the hot wire on the harness with no issues and snaking it up was only the work of a moment.
Setting up the radio was straight forward, pairing the bluetooth to my Blackberry curve was a 2 minute job, and it sounds great coming out of the speakers, absolutely great. Total investment for everything was about $130, well within the budget I had set.

The radio buttons are no cheaper feeling than anything else I saw at Best Buy and the other local shops, the Cover for the USB port is the weak link though, I doubt it will get much use but it probably wont last long. I am completely happy at the moment, time will tell if that will hold true but so far so good.


















I did drill a hole in the lower bracket hole to pass the IPOD cable through, I came close to not messing with it because I really dont do much with my IPOD but at the last minute I figured I would put it in place.

I held off on hard wiring the GPS, I am thinking I will buy a new one for my truck and give this one to my wife.....we will see.

Sorry the pics are not the best, twilight and maneuvering my big fat butt around is not that easy anymore.

I hope this is not boring and it does illustrate that even an old fumble fingered fart can install a Head Unit......next project....hmmmm not sure but I am thinking about several things, new interior lighting may be the next one

Great write-up...Makes me want to go out and install a new radio in my truck....NOT....I am challanged with electronics...

Good job...

Steve

Very nice!
Great pics, thanks for sharing.
It makes me want to do it.
I wish I could directly interface my ipod touch with the stereo.
Via blue-tooth would Rock!

If I can do it anyone can. Crutchfileds web site can walk you through it and supply everything you need, as cheap or as expensive as you wish it to be.
My main motivation was trying to get rid of all the wires in front of me and all across the dash. Getting the hard wire for the Radar detector was a suggestion made on the Ford truck site and it only cost $6.95 and was simple to thread through the dash. I am going to study hard on the GPS and make a decision soon on it. But now that I have pulled the dash plate once I have a lot more confidence that I can do it fairly easy. If this head unit lasts a year I will have gotten my money out of it and be ready to upgrade to a new and fancier unit. Thanks for the feedback.

Wow, seeing this makes me feel like an idiot!

Then again, it reminds me of good old american ingenuity... from the movie "Mall Rats"- somewhat paraphrased:

"For a high school project, Silent Bob made a CD player out of his Mom's vibrator."

P.S.: This has nothing whatsoever to do with the Silent Bob of the Palmetto Shooters Forum.