Install Highlight | 04.22.20

Install Highlight: 1969 Mercury Cougar – Artisan Details on Display

This month’s featured vehicle is an absolute clinic in attention to detail, as well as customer satisfaction. Follow me as I visit some of the finer details of this masterful install from Livewire Customs, in Fairfield California, in their client’s 1969 Mercury Cougar. Despite the current restrictions the nation is facing with all of the recent public safety issues, for most auto and audio enthusi …

Install Highlight | 03.26.20

Install Highlight: GTO and Monte Carlo SS – A Perfect Pair

This month’s feature runs hand in hand with the previous pair of our DDownlow Tech Talks, Equipment Choice Part One and Part Two, as we are highlighting a pair of recent projects from the talented staff out of Greenwood Indiana at Driven Auto Salon which perfectly illustrates how equipment choice is not only a big part of any install, but how the installation itself can take the equipment, no matt …

Install Highlight | 01.14.20

Install Highlight: 2001 Dodge Dakota – Trust in the System

There are few greater compliments for craftsmen than trust. Blind, unfaltering, unadulterated trust. This is an honor bestowed upon only the most worthy, and typically on the shoulders of an unblemished record of quality work, job after job, client after client. It is because of the stunning artistry, deft, talented hands, and can do spirit of the craftsmen at Exotic Sound and Tint in Salisbury, M …

Install Highlight | 12.11.19

Install Highlight: 2001 Chevy Tahoe – A Beauty and A Beast!

Goals are important. Without them, what is the point of success? Why would anyone ever do anything, let alone something labor intensive and difficult, were it not for goals? Goals give us achievements to chase, accomplishments to aspire to, and results to prove our success. They also give us a reason to do more, try harder. When opportunity and hard work meet, that’s when success is found. Having …

Install Highlight | 11.21.19

Install Highlight: VW Golf – Ebba proves “We Can Do It”

This hobby would be a lot cooler if there were more women participating. There. I said it. I couldn’t count the number of times I have heard this over the years at audio competitions. Well, as it turns out, there are tons of women out there who are just as fanatical about their audio systems. We would like to introduce everyone to the hands-on Ebba Wickström, from Sweden and her booming VW Golf, a …

Install Highlight | 10.08.19

Install Highlight: Chevy C10 – One Smooth, Mean Cherry

There’s something to be said for getting exactly what you want. It takes a certain type of individual to buck convention, shut out all naysayers and just go for it, doing it like that old crooner, Sinatra: his way. Those are the types that have no qualms about cutting the top on a classic C-10, and painting it as red as the law allows. The tricky part lies in finding a way to make the inside of th …

Install Highlight | 08.27.19

Install Highlight: 2010 Chevy Camaro – Professionally Finished and Just Getting Started!

“We all have to start somewhere…” It is a phrase we have all heard at some point in our quest for audio nirvana. For some, it brought solace in the fact that it is all uphill from that point, but for others it is functionally the death knell. I heard this phrase bandied about liberally during this weekend’s festivities at the Surf City Soundoff, and it made me think. We DO all have to start somewh …

Install Highlight | 08.05.19

Install Highlight: 2006 GMC Sierra – Powerful, Versatile and Hardly Noticeable

Simple. Little. Basic. Huge. Booming. Crazy. There is no end to the list of adjectives that get thrown around in the realm of car audio. The problem is that these descriptors are almost entirely subjective. They all mean different things to different people. My Mom believes a single 15” woofer on 1000 watts is crazy. To me, it is entry-level. Subjective. Luckily, some of the fine folks who work in …

Install Highlight | 07.08.19

Install Highlight: 2003 Chevy Astro Van – Nature’s Fury Unleashed with The Magnitude 9!

May 18th, 1980. On a calm spring day, a little piece of scenery known as Mount St. Helen’s decided to rock our nation unexpectedly. May 3rd, 1999. The largest tornado in recorded history set down and changed how we view tornadoes forever. Hurricanes Andrew (category 5), Sandy (category 3), and Katrina (category 5) in ‘92, ‘05, and ‘12 respectively, blew apart buildings and sunk the land. When even …

Install Highlight | 06.11.19

Install Highlight: 2006 Jeep Liberty – Concert Venue on the Go

Either Confucius, a Princeton professor, or a motivational speaker (depending on your research) came up with the phrase “Love what you do, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” This was confirmed in a couple of prior Install Highlight segments featuring the handiwork of our friend and brand ambassador from Sweden, Mr. Matthias Heden, and his outrageous H2. When you love music enough to create …