After hearing my brand new "premium" Bose system (see my https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20690 thread ) I decided I want to put in my MTX Thunder 250W and 10" Polk sub.

It's a fairly basic amp/sub combo, but I'm a complete novice here.

I can either try to wing it and do all the wiring, drilling, and deconstrubtion/reconstruction of the interior.....or I can take it to some place like Circuit City or Best Buy.

My concern is letting some punk kid rip apart the inside of my car and drill through my firewall, etc. Do you guys have a recommendation?

Should I wing it, or chance it on the punk kid?

 

I think you know the answer :p
In any case, do NOT chance the punk kid at such places. If you don't want to do it yourself, take the car to a reputable car stereo place instead, pay up and get it done properly.
Trouble is, you still have a good chance that they will break several plastic clips and tabs, for the simple reason that they have to do several cars in a short time and that they won't have the RX-8 shop manual to know where those fasteners are. And the worst thing is: you might not even realize it in time because they will put everything back and you'll likely get squeaks and rattles from this only later on...

Sorry, but that's my paranoid opinion... nobody cares as much for your car as you do - especially if there is no obvious sign that something got damaged.

 

Of course if you don't know how to do this work you are likely to f#(k it up even worse. Have the reputable shop do it and ask if you can stay and watch. Most won't be bothered too much if you want to do that, and that way there is no "oh crap" later on when you find what you didn't notice after picking up the car.

 

Yep, that's pretty much the situation.

I have two options:

1) Chance it on shoddy installation and/or interior dmg during installation, or

2) Chance that I utterly destroy my interior having never done it before.


I'm not liking this situation much at all. Even if I stayed to watch, am I really going to be able to observe whether or not they cracked a panel, ripped some cloth, etc? I'd have to actually be listening for someone to say "Oh crap!"...

 

THe interior of this car is super easy to take apart without damaging. I would say do it yourself, and ask for help on the forum when needed. Assuming that you know how to hook up the electronics.

 

Alrighty then, I'll give it a go.

Do you think it's worthwhile to remove all the sub monster cable and cabling that went into my previous car's sub installation, or no?

 

If it will reach give it a go. Same some cash along the way since chances are you won't use it in that car again.