interior resto thread (89 sierra SL ECLB)

[Sully]

wow that looks good!

 

[darren250r]

I always wondered how the headliners went together. Thanks, that is a helpful writeup.

 

[dusterbd13]

thanks guys. i try to be useful every once in a while.

stay tuned. youll see more soon.

 

[DRAGGIN95]

so this weeks update:

i have found a replacement seat-belt, thanks to addicted2bass. thanks again.

for tonight, i worked on my headliner and roof sound deadening. i did not take any pictures of the roof after the deadening, as i was running out of daylight pretty quick.

but i took enough of the upholstery job to make a how to. if its worthwhile, ill copy and paste it over to a how-to somewhere.

step by step, with pictures for most of it.

1. remove headliner. to do this, gut the interior. pretty much everything above the floor covering has to come out. i did leave the drivers side seat in, but came to regret that decision. it takes an act of god and congress to get the backer board out of the passengers side, even with no seat. i still so not know the miracle of geometry that allowed it to com out and go in at the factory, but for me i had to twist and turn it in a bunch of planes to get it out the door.

2. this is probably what you will be starting with. what is left of the foam is very loose, and the backer board is showing minor signs of damage.

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3. weapon of choice for getting the majority of the loose crap off is a stiff bristled concrete brush.

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4. this is what you should be looking at after some minor scrubbing with the aforementioned brush.

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5. once you get it all knocked off, you will notice dust clinging all over the backer board

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7. and quite a pile on your concrete.

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8. i use an air compressor to blow all the dust and stuff off of my backer boards.

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9. next we lay out our material. i put the backer board on a piece of plywood supported by sawhorses. makes life much easier when you have a hard surface to work on at a comfortable height. make sure to line everything up now, and make sure you're happy with the way it fits on the board.

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10. grab your adhesive. i prefer the BIG cans, as you always need more than the little cans have in em. i also use the adhesive designed for the heavy materials, as i find it to stick the lighter stuff better.

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11. work from the middle of the headliner out. fold the material over about halfway, and apply your adhesive. FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS ON THE CAN.

work that side down, then go around to the other side. repeat.

12. once the adhesive is set, trim off the excess to about 2 inches past the end of your backer board and flip the whole thing over.

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13. apply adhesive to the topside around the perimeter of the backer board, and work your 2 inch overlap to the adhesive. this helps to keep things from sagging and fraying. i also prefer to run a line of duct tape around the very edge as well. always done it, and never had a headliner fall on me.

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14. on my truck, i had the plastic Velcro roof pieces break upon disassembly. so for a repair/replacement, i use some self adhesive Velcro stuff from Lowe's. just stuck it to the roof after a good scrubbing with paint thinner.

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mostly finished product.

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hope that helps some folks out. it only took me about 4 hours tonight all told, but i already had the extended cab parts stripped out.

Michael

Nice job, it look's great!

 

[blackcoffee]

Looks like were at the same step in restoring our trucks ha. Fun to watch your methods/progress.

http://www.gmt400.com/forum/showthread.php?3525-Black-Coffee-s-98-RCSB-4wd-build-thread/page6

 

[dusterbd13]

thanks, guys.

and theres more im doing to this truck as i go, but im only adding the interior stuff as this is the interior section.

 

[dusterbd13]

this week has truly sucked at work. so I've been puttering in the garage on the truck at night. started on my center console. most of its out of the same 94 suburban that i got my front seats from. the rear cup holders are from a early 90's extended cab truck, the fronts and the plastic inner rear compartment are from another 94 suburban that was farther down the row at the junkyard.

first up, a color change/re-dying how to:
1. clean the part. i first start with castrol superclean and my trusty concrete brush. i then follow up with dish washing soap and warm water, scrubbing it with an old washcloth. let it dry thoroughly, and this is what you should be looking at:

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2. assemble your materials. you will need masking tape (i like blue 3m painters tape), pre-painting prep (i use prepsol from walmart), a roll of paper towels, and your dye (use SEM. duplicolor is crap.) sorry for the lack of can pic of the SEM.

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3. break the component down as far as possible to make it easier. the less you have to mask, the better.

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4. wipe it down until the paper town comes back clean. i find with my products its best to wipe it very wet, let it dry, and wipe it again. i repeat this process until my white paper towel comes out at the other end of the piece still white. if it looks like the pic, you're still needing to keep cleaning. fold the paper towel into quarters, and keep flipping to a clean side every time it starts to get dirty. there's no sense in just redistributing the dirt.

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5. once your piece is clean, mask off whatever you don't want dye on. on my console lid, i wanted the underside to remain the factory black, but not show any vestiges of the factory tan. so i also used some scrap paper from my trashcan.

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5. after masking, wipe it down and let it dry again, just to ensure no oil from your fingers or workbench got on the piece.

6. once its thoroughly dry from the pre-painting prep (i wait over night), begin to spray LIGHT coats. should look like overspray for the first 5 coats or so. just light dusting's. once the color starts to build some, then you go onto less light dustings. the part surface should NEVER look like it was spray painted (thick, very glossy paint). the SEM dye is thin enough that it dries almost instantly in my climate. i usually wait about 20 minutes in between coats.

when you have what you think is even and good color coating, let it dry overnight and walk out to direct sunlight. it WILL show any spots you may have missed. if you did miss some, spray the whole side again after wiping it with pre-painting prep. (remember about fingerprints).

7. reassemble your part

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8. if the texture feels a little gritty when you're done, that's OK. there's an easy fix. Wait about 2 weeks, and buff it with newspaper. newspaper is about the same as 4000 grit sandpaper. it will knock all the dryshot (what feels like grit) paint off. then, use formula 2001 for a nice, even, low gloss shine.

hope this how to helps some of y'all.

Michael

 

[dusterbd13]

I've also been working on the rest of the interior. got the seats and flooring removed, drilled and tapped the floor console mounting holes, drilled my last remaining hole for the passengers side bucket (had 3 drilled, tapped, and reinforced holes. #4 was not there. that's just odd.) got all the steel cleaned up, and started laying down my sound deadening. ill take pics when its getting close to done.

i did, however, find that there was a section of my rear half of the flooring that had become torn from the lower extended cab trim panel being broken off. apparently one of my clients some time ago had gotten their foot caught under the floor at the edge, and split it. a lot. in 3 places.

so, ill show you all how i fixed it.

heres the how to:
1. remove the flooring, and let it thoroughly dry out. while the jute under the vinyl is drying, take the time to clean your floor pans and address any surface rust you will find. i used a bristle cup on my 4 inch grinder to knock all of it off, then sprayed some rattle can enamel over the bare steel.

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2. once the piece to repair is dried out. slowly and gently peel the just off the back side to expose the cracks.

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3. grab you a roll of duct tape, some prepsol, an old inner tube, scissors, your 3m spray adhesive, and some weatherstrip adhesive (black, not yellow)

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4. cut strips of inner tube that are about 1.5 inches wide, and longer than your crack. clean them and the area to be repaired with the prepsol.

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5. apply a strip of duct tape to the visible side of the flooring, and use it to hold the two halves as tightly together as possible.

6. apply a liberal amount of weatherstrip adhesive to the flooring, making sure to get it worked into the crack.

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7. apply the strips of inner tube to the adhesive covered crack, and press it down really good. then, spray the 3m spray adhesive, and reapply your jute. let it cure overnight, pull of the duct tape, and reinstall.

hope that helps out someone else that's too damn cheap to buy new parts.

Michael

 

[Sully]

damn guy.... come do mine

 

[dusterbd13]

bring it south, and ill consider it.

i refuse to go that far north anymore. i grew up in NW PA in all the lake effet snow, and sub zero temperatures. i really, really, really dont miss it. hell, id like to get a winter house i costa rica, as ive heard it doesnt snow there, or get very cold. maybe after i win the lottery....

in all honesty, this stuff isnt that hard. if youve got some patince and a climate controlled place to work on the pieces, its pretty straighforward. its also not that expensive. seat upholster, stereo, supplies, and replacememnt parts/upgrade all told ive got about 600 bucks in my interior redo. and its worth every penny.