When crimping on the stereo-side harnesses (from the OLD stereo), I'm assuming you've popped them out of the car with the old stereo, THEN clipped them from the stereo to work on them - don't do it on a live system.

On the power harness (6 conductors in a 2x3 arrangement), we have a red, yellow, white, black, and white+red wire. The black conductor (stereo side) is N/C on the car side - just wrap it around the others (after you've crimped the bullets on the others). The Red is +12v constant (often the actual source of current for modern stereos - it is used for memory and clock - but also for auto head-disengagement on ignition off. This is the line that runs to the fuse box and has an inline fuse under the console), the Yellow is +12v accessory (the signal that says "turn on" - may also be primary power to the unit - or generally used to be), the white is antenna (+12v out FROM the stereo when you use the Radio), and the white+red is +12v lighting (your stereo may or may not have an input signal for this - it allows the stereo to dim when the lights are turned on).

Crimp a male bullet to the antenna connector on the harness, and female bullets to all the others (I'm specifying gender only because if a wire were to manage loose, you don't want the +12v source lines to have exposed metal contacts to make ground with - thus you make them the females/recepticles which are better shielded (I don't have any of those clear soft-rubber insulator boots like you'll find on most new wiring harnesses, which would eliminate this problem).

Crimp a female bullet to the antenna connector on the STEREO harness (the one included with the new stereo), and male bullets on all the power/light leads.

Okay, Wiring 101 is basically complete. Now for the stereo framing (the REAL work). All new stereos I've ever purchased have included a mounting frame, which the stereo itself slides into. We're going to modify this. I'm going from memory on this part, but what you need is some medium gauge sheet metal (the same gauge you might do flashing with for house gutters) and to cut two pieces about 1.5" wide, and as long as the stereo cage is high (going from memory, it is around 2" to 2 1/8"). Eyeball the old stereo and mark the two pieces of metal and bend them at about the same point (placing them in a vise and tapping them over with a hammer works well). Line them up on either side of the stereo cage and compare the clearances with the old stereo (you want something with the same reach for the screw holes -- but not too much more, because it will interfere with the environmental controls). Mark the points for drilling some slots into them (to match the screw holes in the original). You want oversize holes because you need some room to adjust the position with (this whole cut/bend/drill thing being something less than precision engineering). Drill the holes in the metal (I have a metal drillpress and a drilling vise, which makes drilling the pre-bent metal much easier - with a bit of wood under the sheet metal for support and drill buffering). Hold these up to the sides of the cage and compare against the original. Re-drill as necessary.

Despite the fact that the original stereo had a groove cut out from between the two screw holes on either side, I found that straight sheetmetal on either side worked fine and didn't interfere with the environmental controls (as long as the sheetmetal didn't extend too far past the limits of the screw holes).

BTW, I would suggest that you mark one of the tabs as L (left) and the other as R (right), and stick to using them in that order, since you'll no doubt have subtle variations in the alignment of the two against the sides of the cage (especially so for this next part -- I've yet to see a stereo cage that is symetrical in the way the pre-cut tabs are organized on the sides).

Okay, now for the precision part. Reattach the facing trim piece to the old stereo and take the new stereo and insert it into the cage. Lay the two stereos next to each other on their sides (next to the edge of a worktop, so the tangs on the old stereo don't make it sit weird), and position the new stereo such that the back of the trim plate on it is about even with the back of the trim plate on the old stereo. Set the made tang (with the flush part facing the BACK of the new stereo) on the new stereo and mark its position. Repeat for the opposite side with the plate for that side (or measure your mark on the first side, and remark the opposite to match). Eyeball a good spot on either side for two 1/8" drill holes in the cage (as they generally are not solid metal on either side). Mark and set punch, then drill the cage (I moved the drill plate to one side, then placed a piece of scrap wood in the cage, and drilled it that way). Then place the metal tabs on either side and mark them through the holes. Set punch them, and drill. line them up to the cage and pass through a pair of 1/8" rivets (FROM THE INSIDE OF THE CAGE). These may be a tight squeeze, so when drilling, it might help to excercise the hole a LITTLE bit when drilling (both the tabs and the cage). Pop the rivets and trim the excess on the outside (these shouldn't interfere with much though).

Test fit the stereo into the cage. The rivets shouldn't interfere much with the movement of the stereo in and out.

Install the cage into the car. If you made the holes slightly oversized as suggested, you'll probably need washers for the original screws. Tighten enough that you can nudge the cage but that it holds position. Eyeball center, then test fit the facing panel in front, and adjust until it looks better centred. Repeat, then tighten the screws all the way.

Pull the wiring harnesses, grounding strap, and antenna lead through the cage.

Hook up bullet plugs as appropriate to the wiring schematic for the stereo (note: in my case, the yellow and red wires hooked up to the opposite colour on the car's harness, so don't assume that the colour codes are going to match). Connect the grounding strap to the rear of the stereo, and ground line from the stero harness as well. You may find that you need a small washer to do this -- in my case, the head on the screw that was threaded for the new stereo was much smaller than the hole in the grounding strap.

Plug in the speaker harness (this may be something you choose to do after you have the stereo running, as you can manually isolate which speaker pair is which - at least, this is how I confirmed which wires were which before inserting the stereo into the car dash).

Do a sanity check of the wiring, and turn the key to accessory (1), and see if your stereo lights up. It should. Listen to it, realize that the world of DIY is good, then turn the ignition off, and insert the stereo into the dash plate.

Here's where things get a bit tricky: when I installed mine, AFTER I'd completely reassembled everything, I could hear a vacuum leak behind the stereo. It seems the wiring harness (possibly when I'd pulled the old stereo), had pulled a hose from a vacuum line (I believe these are the hoses for the vents). Before you screw everything back in (but with the stereo pushed in), move the gear selector back to neutral and fire up the ignition and listen for any vacuum hiss. Turn the ignition off. If you heard a hiss, pull the stereo and reconnect the vacuum line (it is at a Y almost dead centre of the back of the stereo compartment). I rerouted it behind the wires entirely (it seems mine pulled free because one of the hoses had been routed in front of one of the harness wires). Reinsert the stereo and recheck.

Snap in the front trim (if your stereo has one), and test the clearance of the removable faceplate. You DID get a removable faceplate stereo, didn't you? If not, then you might find that you have to install the dash facing and inserting the stereo THROUGH that - but otherwise, the instructions should be about the same.

Now, you may find that you need to adjust the centering of the stereo a bit (if you didn't get it right on above). Pop the dash facing and loosen the screws enough to adjust the cage and nudge it as needed.

With the dash facing back in (you did check that all the wires and the fibre optics were properly seated on the controls, didn't you?), and the stereo fitted proper, you shoud be able to insert the nuts on each of the control knobs and tighten (to get them to line up proper, you may find it handy to take another fine-pointed tool and equalize the pressure on either side of the nut as you begin the threading). Tighten (press in on the facing to take up the slack), then replace the control knobs (the fan one should be facing down when off).

Don't forget to place your gear selector back into park.

You're now ready to tour with quality tunes - well, assuming you listen to quality music...