stereo ground search & touchup paint

[jakewied02]

Here's one I've been frustrated with for awhile. So, some time ago my stereo started dying. It needs to be turned up all the way to hear anything, and the sound it does make is very quiet and distorted. I've looked through other posts and seen people with similar problems but no, it's not the volume knob, or severed speaker wire, etc. The only thing I can come up with is a possible ground short somewhere... Here's the best part. The level of volume can be controlled by turning on/off the headlights, or dimming the gauge lamps. I have no electrical problems anywhere else and was hoping some one might have know a good place to check.

Also, while I'm here. I've got some wicked rust along the lower part of the doors. I'm open to ideas.

[DanDombrowski]

Sounds like you've got some leakage to what is supposed to be the ground of your cars electrical system. Does the radio get louder when the lights are on or off?

First thing I would do is put a multimeter on the battery, then a multimeter on some places in the fusebox (headlights, radio fuse, etc), then a multimeter on the cigaratte lighter. Are they all the same?