My '95 RCLB C1500

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Canadian Rust Bucket

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Both my trucks are regular cab, so I haven't wanted a sub box, but I like that design. It still has storage space. I might have to duplicate that for Roscoe.
This box is 53" long, 14 1/2" tall, 2 3/4" deep at the top and 6 1/2" deep at the bottom.
Any taller or deeper and it hits the seat back at the top. It fits a 10" sub in a ported box.

If you build one, I'd weld something up for the shelving portion. This box is fiberglass so the material is fairly thin. If you switch to wood you lose a lot of the storage space.
 

Canadian Rust Bucket

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The template worked for me, and after a lot of measuring and checking with the protractor, I built the box and checked it for the fit.
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Like a glove!

My box is a little smaller than the original to give me a little more storage space on the driver's side and to accomodate the amplifier mount over the right rear cab mount.

Because I made it out of plywood, the box's internal dimensions are smaller than the fiberglass. This caused some grief with the driver magnet making contact with the rear of the box.

To fix this, I put some grease on the magnet and put it into the hole, wherever the grease was left on the plywood I cut it back until no more grease made contact, then took an additional 1/4" for better clearance.

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The speaker sits in the box nicely. Despite being as old as the truck, the speaker and amp still work and I'll keep them in until they fail.
I'm very happy with the sound system after four hours of testing it while I worked on the interior trim.

Since I'm recolouring the interior to black from the original blue every piece of plastic and carpet has to be dyed. I got out the rear trim for woofer fitment checks, and since I had it in hand decided to colour it.
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Washed, scrubbed, sanded, then washed again.

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Gloss black to match the dash, two coats per piece.

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Washed, scrubbed, and steam cleaned. Drying for at least a day before I paint. When I did the door panels I found the carpet retained a lot of water.

Not bad for a few hours after a shift, I think.
 

Erik the Awful

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Sanding's unnecessary. I scrubbed my interior bits with Barkeep's Friend or Comet, rinsed them thoroughly, and shot them with paint. It holds up exceptionally well.

For painting the carpet, once it's dry paint it spraying all in one direction and comb it. If I remember right, I used a dog grooming brush with the fine wire bristles. Once it's dry spray in another direction and comb it. You're going to need three or four coats. I used more cans of color on the carpet than the rest of the interior, and I still have to touch up the driver's side floor once a year.
 

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Sanding's unnecessary. I scrubbed my interior bits with Barkeep's Friend or Comet, rinsed them thoroughly, and shot them with paint. It holds up exceptionally well.

For painting the carpet, once it's dry paint it spraying all in one direction and comb it. If I remember right, I used a dog grooming brush with the fine wire bristles. Once it's dry spray in another direction and comb it. You're going to need three or four coats. I used more cans of color on the carpet than the rest of the interior, and I still have to touch up the driver's side floor once a year.
Thanks for the advice! With any luck I won't have to touch this carpet again since it goes across the back wall and won't see any foot traffic.

I sand the plastic more out of an abundance of caution than necessity. With this textured stuff the paint seems to stick well but on smoother spots, like around the dash cupholder above the glove box adhesion was poor when I first did it. Could also be user error, not clean enough, etc.
 

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I temporarily installed the rear trim pieces to mock up my interior and make sure there was enough clearance for my amplifier mounting plate.
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It looks good, I just had better not drop anything black in the cab. It'll disappear forever!
Waiting on my box carpet to get delivered so I can finalize the audio install. But I finally finished my dash reassembly! The lower steering column supports and trim buttoned things up nicely.
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Still need to route the parking brake cables, but that's a minor finishing touch. While I was mucking around with the dash, I realized my interior lights had yet to come on, so I've ordered new jamb switches.
In that same electrical / lighting theme, I tried to install my turn signals, and of course, found more problems. Turns out your front signals don't work if the back ones are unplugged! So I temporarily hooked them up, and still no dice. The PO had done a hackjob of splicing to add a trailer harness, and I tossed the whole harness rather than fix the mess. I'd kept most of the wiring from the '88 parts truck, and the taillight harnesses are exactly the same. A little bit of TLC and the loom was good to go!
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A fresh ground on the rear fixed most of my issues, but the circuit boards demanded a deep clean. Thirty-year-old grease keeps the contacts clean, but makes it impossible to change a bulb. After soaking the board overnight in paint thinner, I was able to pick out the lumps of grease and seat new bulbs.
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It's like earwax dialled up to 11. Gross.

So now my signal and tail lights all work as they should. One less thing on the safety checklist ✓

I ordered a new set of seatbelts, since the old ones melded into a block of rust with no hope of ever turning. They should be in by the weekend, giving me a few days to sort out my headliner so I can assemble the interior trim.

My dog likes eating truck parts, and he munched my headliner pretty good. Badly enough, anyway, that I need a new one. In the spirit of the Starship Enterprise, I will attempt to make my own headliner from scratch. Other people's moldy cardboard is just not appealing to me.
I have added (I think 20mm) insulation to the roof, cutting down on the available vertical space. If it becomes an insurmountable issue, I'll remove it, but I'd rather not. It makes a noticeable difference in sound quality in the cab.
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My idea for the headliner is to make a cardboard template for size / shape, then cut a copy out of some coroplast I have in the basement. Once that is fitted and able to be secured, I'll wrap it in headliner fabric and it'll be ready to go. Worst case, my plan doesn't work and I end up getting a junkyard headliner to rewrap anyway.
 

Canadian Rust Bucket

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This is a hard angle to take pictures at, and the lighting is terrible, but the important thing is -- the coroplast fits!

It's held in place by the a-pillar trim, screws through the visor mounts, and the rear interior plastic. It fits nicely, doesn't weigh much, and is held pretty securely.

The inner channels of the coroplast run from driver to passenger side, so once initially bent, the board wants to bend upwards towards the roof.
 

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Got the sub box wrapped and the grille for the speaker installed. The box is now mounted for the final time.
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I had a little trouble wrapping the carpet around the ends of the wedge, but all the seams are on the backside and invisible. Happy with how it turned out.

The box is bolted to the floor in the centre, and it's solid, but that means I have to pull the driver to undo the bolts.

Just waiting on my headliner fabric to get delivered, then I can start the final interior assembly. I had a tough time finding a reasonably priced supplier, but JTs Outdoor Fabrics out of Barrie had a couple of good foam-backed options and decent shipping rates.
 

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Since the headliner mounts via the sun visor screws in front, I thought I should at least prep the sun visors for reinstallment. When I pulled them out of the parts pile, I was hit with a whiff of decay. The driver's side fabric let go of the cardboard at the 2" strap. So, I guess they need to be redone anyway.
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Got out the seam puller and cut the stitching around the border.

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Unfolded the cardboard sandwich once the stitches were pulled. You can see where the cardboard got wet.
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Got the fabric separated from the cardboard, mostly to make sure there was nothing weird about the design. This is my first time doing this, after all.

After looking at the aftermarket replacements, talking with my dad, and contemplating stitching new material, I decided to go a different direction. I'm going to separate the pivot hardware from the Masonite backer and replace the Masonite with a brushed, black anodized aluminum sheet. Some black shrinkwrap and a few small bolts or rivets to hold it all together and I'll have a lightweight visor that is more durable and long-lasting than OEM.
It'll be cheaper, too, since I already have the right size aluminum pieces in the basement scrap pile.

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I also recieved my new seatbelts from Summit. I ordered them in black, but they shipped in charcoal. I think I might just live with it, since I had enough trouble getting these to begin with. At least they're not maroon.

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And my headliner came! Two yards of black perforated vinyl, which now that I have it in hand is probably one yard too many. I was worried that the 54" width wouldn't quite wrap right, since it doesn't really stretch.
 

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I got my headliner made and the bulk of my interior trim reinstalled! I'm probably 90% happy with how it turned out, but given that I saved a bundle by making it myself and I didn't have to buy anyone else's moldy cardboard, I consider this a qualified success.

I finished marking the coroplast for the screw holes at the sun visor, sanded the rough edges and scuff sanded the entire surface with 100 grit to ensure good bonding with the glue. Followed the instructions on the can from there and it all went swimmingly.

Honestly, I meant to take more pictures during the process but got too excited and forgot! So here's a few pictures of my headliner and trim installed:
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You can see from the photos that it's not perfect in the areas where the headliner curves quickly, like around the top of the b pillar trim or around the sun visor brackets. That is the drawback of the coroplast backer, and my inexperience-- I didn't prep enough and relied on the natural flex of the material to make the curve. Which works, but when the panel was removed to have the vinyl installed it returned to being flat. The vinyl stuck to it when flat, and then was forced to curve when installing, which caused the wrinkles.

I will say the thing is so light I could install it by myself with just a small prop stick, and it didn't take too long. Good progress this week. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
 
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