Bought the crimper last week sometime, $23 at Active (regular current price). It makes decent crimps. Funny thing it's rated for the pin size I'm using, but not the wire size. And the pins are definitely for this wire size. When I went into the store one of the sales people pointed me to the other model (red handles) which upon closer inspection is for the larger pin sizes only (at least that's what it says on the package.

I've done about 20-25 crimps so far (in making the cabling to go between my amp and factory wiring). I should be cutting the main stearo/amp harness on the car this week and then have some 60-80 more crimps. The bad part is that half of those will have to be done in the trunk of my car. That's not going to be comfortable.

I spent the better part of today (and all yesterday afternoon) in and out of the trunk of the car. Head first... Feet first... Sideways... You name it. I felt like a circus performer. But, the amplifier is now securely mounted to the top side of the trunk (under parcel shelf). Connection-side faces IN toward the cabin, so no wires will be visible. The amp isn't even visible unless you duck your head when looking in. I fabricated some nice aluminum brackets to hold evverything in place. Everything worked out well (cuts and bends all the correct measurements and angles on first try). I also ran my 4ga power wire and ground wire. Also wired up the subwoofer (JL Audio 10W6) and mounted it into its new enclosure (.64cf sealed Q-Logic box). And (as luck would have it) the enclosre fits perfectly under the mounted amp. I actually neglected to measure this but it worked out perfectly. The angle at which I mounted the amp gives me access to all its controls and terminals from inside the car, and creates a super-snug fit for the sub box under one of its mounting brackets. I think I'll make a bracket to secure the box next and use a large thumb-screw (cap bolt with a plastic cap) as a quick-release.

I'll take some pictures and post them soon (of the install as well as some parts used before I put them in place). I would have liked to document the entire process, but I simply didn't/don't have the time. Not while doing all this labour and not for putting up decent info afterwards. There's already a bunch of nice BMW stereo information out there and from reading some forums people are already ignoring it without me putting up another page to be ignored (don't run RCA cables in a BMW - it's already got UTP from front to back - just adapt it).

Bruno