83 K5 Interior Rebuild

[exilous]

wow that whole unit to replace that ugly cone came out really good. maybe a moderator can save that template or something thats a great idea.

[GoatBeard]

Thanks guys!

SUX2BU99, Nope, I got that part around the stereo from Crutchfield.  It worked perfectly.  It'd a dual-use item -- works as a template to cut the metal dash and the plastic bezel for the new style stereos and also works as a cover.  It'd also work good to hide any mistakes if someone did a hack-job on your bezel.  That thing saved me A LOT of time.  I had those holes cut in less than 10 minutes and didn't have to measure anything.

[GoatBeard]

Thought I'd show you guys what I've been doing. 

The first time I did this I didn't paint the old kickpanels & the speaker pods were black.


Think it looks better than having them 2 different colors...


I decided to put some deadener in there.  Don't know if it'll matter, or not.


BEFORE

AFTER


Speaker pod and kickpanel are there -- through all the crap...


The pillars holding up the headliner were lookin' rough.


Decided to go black.


Same with the visors.


It worked well...


Found part of an antenna coax... 


This headliner needed new paint.


Decided to go red.


I think it turned out good.  The red headliner actually looks like leather up close.  These pics seem a lot brighter than it really is.


The contrast between red and black looks pretty good.  Before the black carpeted panels were kinda out of place.  Now the black headliner pillars will connect the black carpeted panels I made in the bed to the new black dash.  It will all f-l-o-w


A few implements of destruction.


That's all for now.  I have a few more headliner pieces to install then it's on to the dash, the instrument bezel then a bunch'a stereo/amp stuff.

BTW, since I used so much Duplicolor stuff on this project, I entered Duplicolor's Restoration Challenge.   
http://www.restorationchallenge.com/  I saw an ad for it today and figured, why not!?     

[GoatBeard]

I've had a lot of people ask how to use that vinyl paint/dye so I thought I'd do a write-up on how I did it.

I took EXTREME pains in getting everything clean before I painted.  My neighbor was making fun of me because it was taking me so long to prep everything before I actually painted it.  But I've painted so much plastic in my truck that if it ever started peelin' it look like a snake sheddin' it's skin!   

Here's the process I used.

First I took each panel and used this carpet stuff on them.  I like this product because it gets 'em really clean and the fact that the head of the can has that plastic brush thing on it is awesome!  Also the fact that you can be scrubbin' and squirt some more cleaner at the same time makes it easier.  Anyway, this brush is perfect for plastic, it can get in the grooves and such on the panels (they aren't flat and the dirt gets stuck in the grooves).



Then I took a hose to them and washed them off really good.  Sometimes I'd repeat this step a couple of times until I got all the dirt out of the grooves.

After they were dry I came back with a clean LINT FREE (That's important) rag and used this Grease and Wax Remover on 'em.  You could probably also use a tack cloth.



Once your parts are dry and you think you are ready to paint....you have to first put some adhesion promoter on them. 

Duplicolor makes some Adhesion Promotor



and Klean-Strip makes this Bulldog brand, but it's upwards of $20 a can at O'Rileys...


(click to read about it: http://www.wmbarr.com/product.aspx?catid=1&prodid=56)

After you put the adhesion promoter on your plastic, it HAS to be painted within' 10 minutes.

That's pretty much it.  I tried to only have a couple of parts going at a time to prevent confusion.  I always let my stuff dry for a couple of days before I used it. 

It'd probably be a good idea to scuff up any really slick plastic a little before you attempted to use plastic paint on it.

I've had my door panels painted for about a year now and they don't have any peeling, nicks or scratches.  The one cool thing about using black is that you can touch it up with a Sharpie marker.  I will admit that I try to be careful with anything that's painted with plastic paint -- I don't know if I honestly trust it, or not.  I can say that from my past experiences, I haven't had any trouble -- so far; but like I said, I have painted so much plastic at this point that if it peels I'm in real trouble.  I guess we'll see what happens!

[GoatBeard]

Got the other headliner pieces up.  I wouldn't want to do too much with that black -- it's way too shiny.  If it were used for anything besides these headliner pillars I'd probably take a red scotchbrite pad to it and dull it down some.









I got all the stuff cleaned and transferred from the old dash to the new dash.  I'm ready to install it, but I'm gonna have to get someone to help me.  It's too unwieldy to handle by myself.  I'm also afraid that I'm gonna break more of those plastic pins off -- those things were a terrible idea in the first place.  Hope to have pics of the new black dash installed in a couple of days.

[oldwhity]

That looks pretty good!

[78 Chevyrado]

I see all that paint and I need some paint, are you a vendor now?   lol

I like the kick panel a lot better now, the black trim is coming out nicely.  Keep it up man you're almost there!

[friendlytruck]

some really good ideas

[GoatBeard]

Well, here's an update.  They are a little bright, turned out dark and I had to edit them so you could see them better.

I got the dash and instrument bezel in.  The dash has one spot where it doesn't fit exactly right.  I'm going to have to figure out how to pull it down a little.  I'm not all that concerned about it though.  I think I can just put a small screw inside the smaller circle I drew that'll hold it where it's supposed to be.  I took it for a drive yesterday and it looks like all the dash stuff is working now EXCEPT my gas gauge.  I must have bumped it or loosened it somehow when I was fooling around in there.  Hopefully I'll be able to reach my arm behind the dash and get it to connect easily.



You can see it needs to be pushed down about 2".



I needed to run some heavier gauge speaker wire (from 20 to 16) from my 6x9's to my amp.  Since I had half the screws out of the panel I decided to go ahead and take the whole thing off...



I took it off to add pretty a good sized eye screw.  This way I'll have a tie-down point on either side.  It was a lot of work to add those screws -- I hope they get used at some point...



I also took a couple of pictures of the back of the panels -- forgot to do that when I first built them.  Hopefully if my glue ever fails the 400 stainless staples (per panel) will hold the carpet on.   







I even cleaned and painted the ashtray.   



(Note:  The rear window button was faded really bad so I painted the button -- not perfect, but it looks better than it did! I might come back and hit the raised lettering with whiteout....)

I also got the amp installed and it sounds okay.  Since the top is off the K5 the sound goes everywhere -- not like having music playing inside the cab of a truck, that's for sure!  I hate to even think this but I believe I'm going to have to get an 8" subwoofer to make the stereo sound right -- it's just missing the lows.  I might cop out and get a powered sub.  At least I got an amp that'll work right if I go that route -- and I added some extra wire in case I decide to upgrade again.  On the other hand those dash speakers sound amazing!  I believe it is far superior to have them in the center like that rather than on either side of the dash.  As it stands, this stereo is a high and mid-range monster.  It's like going back to the 80s all over again! 



(I was wondering where that pack of cigarettes went!)



So I'm done with it for now.  Well except that I've decided that I'm going to go ahead and get my seats professionally recovered.  I take it this Thursday and am only doing the front 2 seats for now.  I'm gonna do them black and might add some red accents -- I have to see some examples of what he can do before I decide.  I really like the old school "pillow look" (not sure what it's called) where you have diamond patterns with buttons -- it probably costs too much, but I'm gonna check it anyway.  I wasn't going to do this until later (and had planned on trying to do it myself) but my driver's seat is bent and the old cover has to come off so it can be welded back straight (if you look at the amp picture above you will see a 3.5" metal sleeve holding the back of the seat up -- the sleeve is not supposed to be there, but that's what's holding my seat straight at the moment).  Since the old upholstery has to come off in order to fix the seat itself, I might as well get them covered now so I can drive it around some before I start the body work.  And besides, this way the interior will be 100% FINISHED and I won't have to take the seats back out at some point and create another mess.

Finished (for the 2nd time) minus new seats & eventually a roll bar & maybe an 8" sub...and and and...

[oldyeller]

Sure looks good.  You did an awesome job.

[Stantonss]

When you replaced your dash did you put new bulbs in?

If so would you happen to have the part numbers? and how well are did they light up your dash?

Thanks!

[Captkaos]

Sam,
Can you take a pic closer to the dash where it is up and one with the bezel off?

[GoatBeard]

Chris, really I don't think it's anything necessarially bad about the dashpad.  In my opinion it's just a bad design from GM.  There is no attachment point at the top of the dash for the bezel/dash pad screw. 

If the dash pad would have had a threaded clip rather than a washer-type (no threads) clip that may have helped.  Or maybe if the dash were about 1/4" larger in that right corner area.  The way it fits it's extremely tight.  In most situations this would be very good.  But with nothing to hook to it just put extra pressure on the screw that was basically being held by nothing. 

Since I did my dash I've seen a couple of other dashes that were the same after they installed new pads.

I think that one small well-placed screw (or glue, or probably even Velcro) will fix it.  I'm really not all that worried about it -- but here are some pictures to try and better explain what is happening.  I didn't want to take everything back off so I dug around and was able to zoom in on some other pictures I had -- they could be better, but they are all I have. 

I hope you believe me when I say that it's no big deal.

[GoatBeard]

When you replaced your dash did you put new bulbs in?

If so would you happen to have the part numbers? and how well are did they light up your dash?

Thanks!

Stantonss,

I had planned on putting new bulbs in simply because I had two bulbs that weren't working.  But after I got to the bulbs I was able to play with them a little and get them both to work again.

I do have this information:

http://chevyk5blazer.com/wb/index.php?topic=868.0

You should be able to put your make/model in to find any number you need.

[Captkaos]

I believe you, I would just like to know why yours is doing that.  It has to be hitting something to not come down to the crease.  My factory dash doesn't come all the way down, but it is closer.
Are you for sure hitting the other 2 supports?