Installing a Headunit for a friend who owns a bug

[ItalynStylion]

Hello everyone, my name is Steven and I joined the site today. My friend's girlfriend has a bug and he wants to get her a new CD player for Christmas and I'm going to install it for him. I'm VERY car audio literate but I've never worked on a bug so I've got some questions.

Here is the situation: She has a beetle with the stock Monsoon system. As far as I can tell she has a 6.5 component system on the dash with the tweeters mounted in the A pillars, 6.5's in the front doors (are they co-axial?), and she has some more 6.5's in the rear. I tested them all individually and none are blown so I'm just going to install a headunit.

She wants the i-Pod control because that's what she mainly listens to. I thought the Alpine 9870 would be perfect for her. It has the full speed i-Pod cable and she can even play MP3 CD's if she wants.

Anyways, sorry for the novel...I'll bottom line it for you
Questions
-What dash kit works/looks the best?
-I need a wiring harness and antenna adapter...can i get a link to good ones?
-Does the factory radio have a separate amp that runs the 6 speaker sets? I ask because the alpine unit can only run 4 speakers because paralleling 2 sets of speakers on one of it's outputs will drop the impedance to 2 ohms and fry the internal amp.
-Also, anything tricky I need to be aware of?

[gilligan]

Originally Posted by ItalynStylion

-Also, anything tricky I need to be aware of?

Yes theres some wire you have to do something with otherwise you can't plug in a diagnostic tool to read codes the car throws because it will fry the code reader. I'll try to find the article I was reading about it, I think it was on the vortex.

[ItalynStylion]

Holy crap, yeah...that's the sort of stuff I need to know. I would definitely appreciate you giving me a link to that b/c I would never have known something like that.

[ItalynStylion]

Seriously, I need some help guys.
How propulated is this forum? It seems sort of slow.

[grumblebunny]

Originally Posted by ItalynStylion

Seriously, I need some help guys.
How propulated is this forum? It seems sort of slow.

Hello,

I think you want this thread. See post #10. It contains links.

Best of luck.

[ItalynStylion]

^thankyou very much sir! That's exactly what I was looking for. This should be a snap...now all I need is the parts to come in the mail.

[MattP]

Its really easy. I have the same setup. Alpine cda 9855 on the monsoon system.

I got the install kit from crutchfield. they sent me 2 different style face plate things along with their harness. the wiring part is really easy with all that.

my big problem area was finding space behind the radio for all the wires to go. I also have gauge wires running through the same area, so I had to cut alot of the inner dash out to stuff wires into the open area, and get the head unit all the way in.

I'm actually going to go install the alpine ipod control unit for the older head units today, ill try to snap a pic of where I cut the dash away.