Still have the 03 HD Edition F150 I bought new, 188K miles, starting to show some age, mostly since I left it parked outside for the better half of 2 years, driving the GMC.

Now that is gone, and with the stupid price for new pickup trucks, along with high interest rates, the F150 is coming out of mothballs and it is time for a new radio.

The stock one is a multi CD changer and AM/FM, no phone connections, no USB, no BT, no Apple or Google play.... and no backup camera.



Putting in the new unit requires some "modifications" to the area around the old radio, took my multi tool and cut out a bit of the factory mounting area.

There really are only two panels you need to remove to do the job, but, the transmission shift indicator wasn't hooked up by the guy that repaired the LED screen and added LED bulbs to the dash display. That meant I had to remove all the dash panels, but it did make it easier to run some of the cables for the backup camera and to hide the wire for the phone mic, which I put up top by the mirror.



Added a JVC KW-M560BT double din (big screen) head unit with backup camera from BOYO and struggled getting things to work properly.

First I couldn't hear anyone on inbound calls, found out they only play calls through the drivers door speaker, turns out that speaker wasn't properly working and the microphone wasn't transmitting, after playing with the connections both started to work and the phone through BT or USB works fine. Also removed the extra power port and installed
a USB port that fit the hole perfect.

Next issue was the Backup Camera would not come on, finally found that the power wire tap I had used wasn't getting through the wire coating to the wire, fixed that and it came right up..



Put it all back together last night and it looks pretty good in the factory location, today I need to run the BU camera wire to the back of the truck and waiting on some new connectors for the Rockford Fosgate speakers for the fronts to replace the old ones that had some corrosion on them...

Nice work! Congratulations.

Cool!

Running the wires for the camera wasn't too bad with mine.

You may want to check who made the factory radio and try to sell it.

Some of the OEM radios are made by Alpine, Harmon/Kardon, Bose, etc... but won't be labelled as such.

That’s a heck of a project. Nice job

Yeah, that looks like a lot of work but it came out looking good....plus, it all works!

Very nice work.

Very well done, sir!

Very brave of you to tackle it yourself. I had a local car audio guy do it for my wife's '06 Honda Odyssey. Did it mostly for the backup camera and the wireless Apple CarPlay. Used a Kenwood Clarion unit. Harness, cover plate etc. I think came from Crutchfield, but maybe some from Amazon. In any case it is a huge improvement. My only complaint is that it automatically switches from my wife's iPhone to mine and vice versa.
Having the steering wheel controls work with the new unit is YUGE.

Fantastic work! Congrats. On a side note just looking at the pics and knowing how much neck cranking and back bending that was required for that projects is making my entire body stiff

After getting it done, ran the cable for the backup camera down the frame, connected it up and went to test and the battery had died, it was 4 - 5 years old and due, so last night was a trip up to Costco for a new Interstate battery.

It needed it anyway...

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
After getting it done, ran the cable for the backup camera down the frame, connected it up ...

Dude! That's even more involved than I read in your original post. I'm even more impressed and sore now Having owned a Porsche I don't like crawling under cars as of late. Impressive work my friend.

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:
Fantastic work! Congrats. On a side note just looking at the pics and knowing how much neck cranking and back bending that was required for that projects is making my entire body stiff

Ibuprofen 800mg and bourbon help...