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Interior Finally Done

I had several small projects that I needed to finish before I could consider the interior DONE.  The first was the door panel inserts and door pulls.  I grabbed some out of a junkyard for the time being from Fleetwood to install in the rear.  With a little modification, they fit just fine but will get replaced eventually.

The rear door panel inserts were in horrible shape.  The outer surface had deteriorated to the point it was gummy and sticky.  I tried several different things to clean them but ended up using brake cleaner.  I would just spray some on a paper towel and wipe the bad layer off.  After an hour or so worth of work, they looked decent enough to paint!  All installed now, I think they turned out great.



The front doors needed to be finished up as well.  I installed the original door pulls after cleaning them and had to touch up a few paint imperfections.




I cut out some arm rest savers out of aluminum and painted the new screws black to better blend in with the door colors.



Now onto the finishing touches of the console.  Little did I know but once again it was going to fight me every step of the way!!  With everything that goes into the B&M shifter installation, there are a lot of pieces that have to work together.  Because it is not a stock or factory option, everything has to be customized which also adds complexity.  I won't go into detail except to say I had a shot of tequila when I considered it "done".




One thing that caught me off guard was that once I thought I was finished, I tried to pop the trunk and it did not work.  It would only work if the ignition was turned on.  The gear selection switch on the column performs multiple connections depending on the location of the shifter.  One of which is to connect two wires together when in park.  Not knowing this at the time really caused some head scratches.  Only having 1 switch on the B&M shifter required me to install 3 separate relays in order to perform the same functions and act like it was stock.

Who would have thought a rear view mirror would be a target for thieves??  The people who stole Dan's interior also ripped the mirror off the windshield.  It cracked the windshield and took a small chunk of it too.  Dan wanted a stock Impala auto dim mirror installed like factory BUT the harness for the overhead console had the wrong plug.  I was able to source a used one online, soldered it in and glued a new mirror to the windshield.



This wraps up the interior so it is now time to move onto the trunk and stereo installation!!

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 12, 2018 at 12:17 PM

    Wow!!! What an amazing job! You did a beautiful job on everything!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 28, 2018 at 6:30 PM

    The overhead console looks like it was installed at the factory. Beautiful install! I forgot about my windshield being cracked when they stole my mirror. That will be on the list to replace. The B&M shifter looks awesome! I have some other brushed aluminum parts I will swap in later to compliment the shift handle.

    ReplyDelete

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