I have a few suggestions for you as I have done this installation as well.
1. Go to your nearest Car Audio store and purchase a noise / surge suppression unit. These are relatively inexpensive and will eliminate ignition noise from coming back through the audio and spikes to the electronics. Remember, you are mixing 50 year old technology with the latest/greatest. Alternator was not designed for modern electronics and has no filters.. All power to the stereo and the amp should go through this filter first so make sure its rated for the max current draw of the stereo and the amp ( there ratings are on the amp and the stereo or on the boxes/manuals). Mount it under the dash to the right of the radio, next to the glove box. Should mount fine there and is well hidden but accessible.
2. Drop the fuse box by taking out the phillips screw that holds the fusebox to the dash and remove the plastic guard cover on top of it. Now you will have access to the available terminals. The radio fuse should have a double terminal so you can connect a bayonet style connector to the power wire for your stereo and plug it in there. Run your grounds directly to the body. Clean contact points to bare metal. BTW, this is much more easily done by taking out the instrument cluster.
3. Test fit the radio controls to the dash before permantely installing the radio. Pay attention to the display area in particular.
Don't use the flimsy bracket retro supplies to support the back of the radio. It will bend in short order and you will have to take the whole radio out again to fix it. (learned this the hard way!!) Car audio store will have a much heavier bracket that you can use. My store gave me one free!!
4. If you have a console, the cigarette lighter socket under the ashtray cover is the perfect mounting point for a USB connector. Just take out the lighter /blank plug and the usb connector that Retro sells plugs right in with no mods. Very handy for phone charging, installing USB map light etc.. If your lighter is in the dash, same procedure. Retro sells this unit as an accessory.
5. Because of the amount of wiring that comes with this unit, separate the wiring you will use and tie up the rest before installing the radio into the dash . I also suggest soldering all connections and use shrink over the connections.
6 One drawback to these units is that every time you disconnect the battery you will lose all programmed settings. A quick fix is to attach leads and alligator clips to a 9 volt battery and connect them across the battery terminals before you remove them from the car battery. This works great for me!
Hope this helps some !!
Cheers!
