Got it back on Monday.. Love driving it.. love it so much.. I stand on the hood.




(post modified: 04/12/11 19:31:49)

oh, and this is the video of me cutting the giant hole in the roof of my truck.

Sorry for the lack of updates but I've been working on various odds an ends on this slowly over the last few months.

Tonight I finished redoing my doors.

This is what they looked like the day I got them..



1 word.. Yuck...

Here is what they look like now.



and them mounted..



I'll get some better daylight shots tomorrow.

I still have some various interior peices I'm working on, but for the most part the inside is pretty much done.

I don't have any pictures, but I've pulled a few dents out of it, and done the body work to smooth them out.

I've already got the paint to just flat black the whole thing..

i figure after i get done pounding all the body pannels smooth, and it painted flat black.. we'll move on to doing the same to logans car.





(post modified: 11/18/11 21:49:52)

picked up some new bits..

Went to the junk yard on Friday, and found 3 trucks that hard various odds and ends that I needed. So here is what I got.

Today, I dragged Honey to the junk yard.. she was my helper today! =)

Picked up the Front Left, and Right Fenders, a new hood for 165$

used but in great shape 1st gen front bumper for Texstar Detail over on s10forum for 40$

And a new grill for honeys jeep.. Sorry no picture.

But this is what was in my bed.



Also, pulled these off of a 1st gen Blazer. Chrome Door Handles with the blue sticker insert. The blue insert does come off. They look good as is, but will polish up very nice. I thought they were worth more.. but LMC sells them for 40$ shipped. I think asking 25, and that'll include shipping is fair.. Anyway.. First person to PM me on them gets them.





(post modified: 12/10/11 18:46:54)

wow.. really dragging my feet.. but i did get some new used seats, and a 2nd gen center console for 90$.

Seats just need to be washed with some oxy clean, and then i'll dye them black.

I had sometime today to work on my truck. It was a little chilly, but I thought I'd do something other then work on work.

I picked up some new used seats. They had no tears in them, sure they were dirty, but I had plans for them.

This is phase 1 of the passenger seat. Taking it apart.

I've never taken a seat fully apart, so I thought I would document it. Mainly so I could put it back together.

NOTE.. Because I've never taken a seat apart, I took it apart sort of out of order. But the pictures should make sense.

Here is what I started with



I know the 2nd gen tracks will not fit in my first gen, so I took them off. The first gen tracks seem to line up with these seats. I'll know more when I goto install them.

I used a 10mm socket to take the 4 track bolts out.



Tracks are off.



Next.. Seat handle.. Held on by a clip.



Here is the handle and the clip.



Flipping the seat on its back, I removed the front clip holding the lower seat cushion in.



On to the side.



On to the other side.



Then I took this side bolt out and the handle.



The handle is held in with a star tiped bit. Here is how I got it out.



Next I moved on to taking the seat cover off the back rest.



In this shot you can see where I removed the front part from the rear part of the seat cover. I noticed the factory had long zip ties to tighen the edges around the bracket.



Folding the Backside of the seat cover off.



Got the back all the way up but not off.



Decided to to take the head rest off. Its posts are wedged in there pretty good. You have to lift the foam up in the back and use an old screw driver or socket to pound in out.



Other side.



Here is how I did it.



And its out.



Next, I realized there were some hog rings holding down the front of the back rest seat cover. 2 here



2 on the other side.



Then the seat cover prys up like so. The hog rings were connected to the i-bolts you see in the sides sticking out.



Next, there were these 3 hog rings that had to come out.



And this eye bolt goes throuh the white fabric you see and connected to the rod glued into the foam. you can see it near the top.



And the cover is off.



Next I worked on the bottom part of the seat. Folding the front and the sides of the cover up, I discover more hog rings.



Here.



and here.



Then 1 in the middle of the seat.



Another on the otherside.



Progress so far.



Damn it.. another hog ring in the very back.



Yep.. one more on the other side.



Realized I couldn't get the seat cover off until I removed the back adjustment. I unbolded both bolts here



And rocked it away.



And the seat cover came off. You can see the 2 I-bolts that run along the inside of the seat in the white material.



I took the i-bolts out just so you could see them.



OMG NAKED SEATS. The red arrows are where all the hog rings were holding the seats down.



Here are the seat covers. Nasty.



I took them inside the house and soaked them in the washing machine with OxyClean and Cheer for about 30 minutes. When I took them out of the washer machine. This is what I was left with. GROSS.



I dyed the seats in my tub, which was a mistake. It turned my tub purple, after massive amounts of panic thinking the wife is going to kill me... I was able to clean it with some bleach.

I didn't take any pictures of dying them but here is how I did it.

I rinsed out the top and bottom covers in the tub to get all the soap out. Once the soap was gone, I filled the tub about 4" full of hot water. Then I added boiling water from the kitched to the tub water. I used Black Rit dye, about half a bottle. Once the water was stired, I put the seat covers into the tub with the head rest using the head rest to push the covers under water. I let it sit for 20 minutes. flipped them over, added more boiling water to the tub, and more dye. again moved things around with the head rest, and then let it sit for 20 minutes. Drained the water and then rinsed the seat covers and head rest till clear water came out. Then I washed them again in the washer. Below is what I ended up with.

Here is the bottom seat cover dyed next to the undyed seat cover.



And backrest... Undyed vs Dyed.



They look pretty good. I might dye them one more time, but I like the way they came out.

Thats it for today. I'm going to do the other side tomorrow.



(post modified: 02/04/12 18:55:15)

Well.. I was able to mount my seats today.

I'm very happy with the way things turned out.

I used these hog ring pliers and hog rings



Here is the link to the kit from eastwood.

http://www.eastwood.com/bent-nose-pliers-and-hog-rings-upholstry-kit.html

Definitly made these turn out really nice.

So the first thing I did was get the top seat cover sort of pulled over the top of the seat.



I then took this eye bolt and refed it back threw the fabric.



Then attached my first hog ring crimping together the eyeboy and the bar glued into the foam.



Did one here..



Then the other side.



Next I turned the same eye bolt vertical.



Started to pull the seat cover down.



This eye bolt only has a circle on one end. The other in is flat, and gets fed into the top eye bolt i turned vertical.



Then hog ringed both side here to the bar glued into the seat.



Pulled the top part full down, and reclipped the plastic tabs. Also fed new zip ties around the post. The back rest is done for now.



Grabbed the bottom seat cover and flipped it inside out.



Took the eye bolts and fed them into the fabric.



see?



Lightly put it on top of the bottom seat.



Pushed the eye bolt down into the seat foam to meet up with the glue in bar into the foam.



Hog ring here:



Here:



At this point the camera battery was starting to die.. SO i took a few less pictures.

But I bolted the lower part of the seat to the back rest.



And my final product.



here they are both done.



I uninstall the old seats, and took the tracks off the old 1st gen seats, and they directly bolted up to my 2nd gen seats. NO MODS NEEDED.



Old 1st gen seat vs new 2nd gen seat.



Yuck..No i didnt shit my pants driving this truck.. it came this way.




And installed. new passenger vs old driver,



Nother shot.



nother shot. now both install




I am *very* happy with the way these turned out. They are not as dark as I originally wanted, but I think they look a zillion times better. And they don't smell like fart anymore either.

Recap.

BEFORE



NEW





(post modified: 02/11/12 19:05:56)

Looks great.

thanks. they sit lower then the older ones, but they are a great upgrade. very happy with them.

I might keep my eye out for a pair of 6 way adjustable seats, and if i gettem cheap.. take these out and install them. LOL.

I have some new bits for this I ordered last night. I'll post up the details when I get everything.

Sneak Peak at next plans.



its an 8" pioneer shallow mount sub.

I had good luck with them in this build: http://www.s10forum.com/forum/f27/stealth-box-build-for-a-ford-f-150-a-461068/

So i thought I'd make a very small, custom, hidden jumpseat box for one of them.

I have a whole box of stuff that i'll be installing over the coming weeks.

Hoping to run everything off my phone.

Today I picked up the remaining bits to do my stereo build.

I have a bunch of fiber glass weave, and matt i'll be using. If things go well I should have pictures in a few days of the build.

I got out of work early so I thought I would get some early work in.

I decied to install a small stereo into this truck. Nothing fancy, just small and something to hear my tunes. I plan to run things off my phone.

I decided to install an 8" sub into the passenger Jump seat location of the back of my truck.

Here is what I am working with.



First things first.. Tape everything off with blue painters tape.



I usually make a mess so I lay some extra 3mill plastic mat down in case I spill.



Here is 3 layers of fiberglass weave.



Another shot..



While it was drying, I made my speaker rings.



Here is what it'll look like when they are glued together.



The glass is hard enough to pull out. It was a little tricky, but I got the mold to release via the blue painters tape.



And out of the truck..



Rough idea of where the sub will go.



I used a whole package of chopped matt via a suggestion from one of the forum members at one point. It was neat to work with.



It was not tacky anymore.. so I thought I'd test fit.. the fit was a little tight, because the glass sorta expanded or something. I think next time I'll leave it in the truck longer before I pull it out. But it still came out great. hard as a rock, and I didnt use a whole lot of weave this time.



Thats all I have for now.. I hope to finish it in the coming days or so. I'm ready to have some tunes in the truck.



(post modified: 03/23/12 18:07:37)

I was able to make a little headway today.. not much because I didnt have the day and had other things I was doing.

I was able to trim things up a bit.



Test fit.



Jump seat cover on.



Glued down the speaker ring.



Test fit again.



Thought I'd try something different. I glued wooden dowls into place to anchor my spandex. Worked out ok I guess.



This the bottom first.



And soaked with resin



Thats it for today. Hope to have this wrapped up by tomorrow.

Wow.. Got a lot done today. Everytime I do this sort of stuff, it gets easier.

I was able to spandex off the top part. This time, i only used hot glue. It worked pretty well.



Then a-glassing I went.. This is 2 layers of weave.



And then this is 1 later of heavy matte.



While Stuff was drying I thought I'd make my connectors for my amp.

Clamped it down.



Filled in with sodder.



Hey Look.. The box was dry enough to trim up with my knife.



Sanded and cleaned up...



Test fit.. Need some more sanding to make it fit better at this point.



At this point, I tried whats known as a "milk shake". I use 4oz of rage body filler, 8 oz of Resin, and a shit load of catalistand dumped it inside the box tofill the edges, and then painted it on the front. I ended up doing 2 batches of it. It worked pretty well. Wish i took a picture of the 2nd layer of "milkshake".



Then sanded it down.



Then did some regular rage body filler, and sanded it down.



Painted the inside ring black, stuffed the shit out of it with poly fill, and ran my sub wire.



Laying the carpet.



Trimmed up and test fit.



And speaker mounted, and complete.



And then the jump seat cover over it loosely for the moment.



Next up.. doing the pillar, and dash speakers, and getting the amp hooked up. =)

Over all this little box took me about 15 hours worth of work.

Now that is pretty bad ass!!! Nice work!!

Very nice indeed!

thanks guys. =)

Impressive. Most impressive...

You * are * a Jedi.

like anything, practice.

I have the dash, and pillar speakers installed and wires run. I'll be hooking up the amp today.

I just sound tested everything, and WOW.. It sounds really clean! There is a slight air leak in the sub woofer box, but that will be an easy fix.

Now I just need to trim up the wires, clean things up, and I'll be done.

I'm pretty much done working on this. It'll be getting a paint job here in a few weeks. I'll post pictures of it when its done.