Installation Time and Cost

I have the following that I need to have installed in my 2013 DoubleCab Tacoma and I'm wondering what the cost should be to have all of this done at a Car Stereo installation shop? I know many will say do it yourself, but I'm not interested in those responses. I don't have the time to do it and it's also getting cool here in the Northeast. I've done many installations over the years and I'm an electrical engineer, so it's not that I can't do it, I just don't have the time.

Here's what I have:

Kenwood eXcelon DDX-8901HD Head Unit
Focal Polyglass 165 V30 Component Front Door Speakers
Focal Access 165 CA1 Coaxial Rear Door Speakers
********* 10" Image Dynamics Sub and a behind the rear seat enclosure
Metra Axxess ASWC-1 Steering Wheel Control Interface
I'm still contemplating using a 5 channel amp to save space or if I should go with a mono amp for the sub and a four channel amp for the door speakers.


The local shop that can do this charges $75.00 per hour. I'm thinking I can save some labor if I go with the 5 channel amp, but I'm curious if folks out there know how long this should typically take to install? I also already have a Sirius Adapter connected to my non Entune, non JBL system, so I'll need that connected up too. But it's already installed and should only be a connection or two on the back of the HU.

So, anyone have a guess on the install time? Am I looking at 4-5 hours? Also, any suggestions on a good reasonably priced 5 channel amp?
Thanks for your help.

Bob

 

I would go with one five channel amp under the passenger seat. Make sure you have the adapters already for your speakers. If the installer has to make them your hourly labor will go up. Figure out if your gonna put the tweeter in the factory spot or someplace else. Are you putting Dynamat in? There are a lot of possibilities to consider. So put together another completed list and we can go from there

 

Yes, I have all the speaker adapters and I also have dynamat that I was going to see if they could install for me. So I forgot to include those on the list. So add in time for the dynamat but not for fabricating speaker adapters. Thanks for reminding me....

 

They will charge a good amount to apply the Dynamat, keep in mind. When I did mine In Auburn Mass at Sound Sensations. I had a head unit, front and rear speakers, 5 channel amp with the wires ran to the double sub behind the back seats. It was like 400.00 total. And that included extra time to grind down the garbage Taco Tunes adapters that didn't fit. Call them his work is great, his name is Scott

 

That sounds like about what I expected. What do you think the dynamat installation would add? I may call them since they're relatively close to me. Thanks.

 

It goes by door so I don't remember. But call them

 

Most people will rape you to install sound deaden material. It's not hard but takes a good amount of time to rip apart the interior panels and do it right.

 

With what they are charging your looking at 450-575 maybe more depending on finishing work, like sound dampening. I would shop for a better rate that seems high. I use to install for a few years and the shop I worked for would have only charged 400 tops for that work but then again that was years back

 

Thanks Kob0583, that's the type of information I was looking for. I would think a competent shop should be able to price this by the job and not an hourly rate. I'll see if I can negotiate something like this with the shop I was thinking of using. If they won't do it, then I can look elsewhere.

Has anyone simply had a shop install only sound dampening? If so, what did they charge for that?

Thanks again everyone.

 

No problem, we actually charged by the job with the exception of sound dampening because the difficulty varies so much by vehicle, but our labor cost went something like this: amp:50, HU 30, Compents 50, regular speakers 40, custom work 30 per hour. We would block about an hour of time for each item you listed except for the amp 2 hours, sound dampening varied, and sub box would also vary depending on type I.E. Custom or drop in. We also always worked faster than what we quoted because we got bonuses based on how many cars we did each day. Don't see shops do that anymore but I always thought it was smart kept us from being lazy and rewarded productivity. 75 an hour seems high unless your getting some serious custom work done but everything you described is what we use to call cookie cutter installs pretty basic and easy the only thing time consuming is the sound damping and that depends on how much you want done.

 

I just called a local shop here in Az and asked them this

"How much would it cost to sound deaden a 2011 Toyota Tacoma. All vertical walls, floor pan, rear wall, doors and I have the materials"

Price was $400 for labor.

That's just one shop here in Az. Not a big shop or anything like Audio Express (Home of the $1 firewire)