no more left-o-phonic sound!

my camaro got a touch of the irony two weeks ago…

…or maybe it was just weird coincidence.

when i got my camaro convertible i only test drove two vehicles. total. two weeks apart. one was a ford explorer sport-trac, ’cause harold had one and wouldn’t shut up about how great it was. the other was the camaro. i was done.

there was only one problem – the stereo.

there are eight speakers in a camaro, four up front, four in the rear. and six of the eight were blown…and the two that still worked were on a coaxial configuration (i.e. woofer and tweeter in the same spot one atop the other) behind the driver’s side seat in the back – the WORST place for me to hear music from. love me the car, hate me the sound inside it. but i still bought it – just went straight from the dealership to best buy…and all went semi-well.

i say “semi-well” ’cause i wanted all rockford fosgate, all the way around. and the shop had four of the speakers that would fit. so, they went and installed two in the doors and two in the rear. i walked into the install bay and looked in on them half-way through and pointed out that the top dropped around the rear speakers so they might wanna make sure all cleared well. i was told “we’re professionals, just relax…”.

i have learned this is the “getting work done” statement that is the equal to the redneck “hey ma, watch this!” that usually doesn’t end well.

so the job was done, the sound system was rocking, and after two hours and some change in best buy we headed to downtown san marcos to grab some grub. went to put the top up, hit the button, and heard a groaning grinding noise, followed by a snap and half the sound went away from the back. the top did NOT go up.

and then we heard the thunder….and i don’t mean this as some euphemism for loud bass – i mean literally THUNDER. as in “rain’s a’comin'” kinda noise. and i was in a car with the top down and it wouldn’t go up, apparently ’cause i had a very valid point about that whole top clearance issue.

i headed back to see “the professionals” at best buy.

while the installers were far from, the manager really was. when i pointed out the skyline to him he made them stop what they were doing and back the current project out in the rain because even though the doors were stripped down to bare metal and the seats were out (his installation was a bit more involved than mine, obviously) his car had windows that would go up AND a roof. mine was then driven into the bay partially for climate protection purposes.

i saw the speaker after they pulled it out…it was twisted and mangled. miraculously the top (and top hydraulic motor) seemed unaffected. but there were supply problems -as this was a smaller best buy (hence the single car installation bay) they were now out of stock on the rockfords, so we had to go another way…and were there another hour and a half.

i haven’t spent more than five minutes in a best buy since, i should add – this trip pretty much got me my lifetime “fill” of the place.

but here’s what the manager did:

1. wiped all install charges off the bill
2. gave me two dvd’s i wanted plus discounted my next several purchases over the next few months on cd’s and dvd’s and such.
3. apologized profusely.
4. had them install alpines which were a bit more expensive at no additional charge.
5. had me oversee said installation and check all clearances every way i saw fit.

like i said, manager man made up for the lack of professionalism in the installation crew. what was interesting – fast-forward five years and the alpines are still rocking, but the factory amp recently blew out the rockford fosgates that were still left in the doors when i was blasting a deejay punk roc cd. well, the passenger side more than the driver’s. and it was BAD. like a noise i can’t describe in text form kinda bad. i pulled the door apart praying it wasn’t actually blown, but not one, not two, but THREE rips in the speaker surround confirmed that yes, it was blown. i just pulled it…and ordered some kicker shallow mounts to drop in due to ease of installation, compatibility, and price. but in the interim i just pulled the noise maker and drove around with my back speakers plus left one up front…for two weeks.

but no longer – kickers are installed and sounding good. in fact, the left one actually ripped out in one place while i waited for them to come in, but we’re all good now. i guess i ain’t too old ’cause it was never too loud, right? yeah, that’s what i’m going to tell myself…