FatherSonSS

I’m still playing catch-up with all the stuff I’ve done to my truck, next up is the interior. I want to document all this stuff to show my kids someday and hopefully help some guys out (plus its convenient for appraisals)*

Like most of my threads there will be a lot of pictures. Let it finish loading and the pics will resize automagically.*


I started out with the standard tan interior plus a sub box and some amps








Then I pulled everything out in preparation to LineX the interior of the cab, pulling everything apart was fun and not really that hard at all, pulling your seats and console for a really deep clean every couple of years isn’t far fetched at all













After everything was out I taped everything up and sprayed it out. Whenever I work through the night I always forget to take pictures so the huge gaps in all of my projects is due to that. I just get so determined to finish and I forget everything else






From there I drew up this (very) rough sketch of what I wanted my new console to look like. Its a pretty funny story, my cousin and I used to train for hours in the sauna and we would always talk about the weirdest things after we started getting really hot and one day this drawing was created in there and when we got home we looked at it and were like yeah thats good lets do it, and no other planning went into it, we just completely committed to something we thought of when we were out of our minds haha




I made a rough mockup out of particle board to figure out clearances, arm rest height, and to try and make sure it would accommodate the manual transmission I planned to put in it at some point in the future




I was having a hard time figuring out how to mount it to where it would remain rock solid, but also leave room between console and seat, and be easily removable because the tranny hump is curved and uneven and just weird, so I cut up some aluminum I had in the garage and made this and welded some bolts sticking up from it*




Heres some pics of the console starting to take shape*






The Kickers came in !!




Testing the fitment and ease of install/extract here also making sure I like the arm rest height and that it would accommodate a shifter in the future




Ensuring fitment for the sub and the head unit and making sure I like the angle of each before continuing

FatherSonSS

Making the wiring harness for radio/GPS/alarm etc and also putting in provisions so its easy to add switches to console when I add the stick






I used a semi-thick foam on the sides but on the top I put a full 1 1/2 of memory foam and I am so happy I did it feels amazing road trips are awesome in this thing




I did this all black to begin with but ended up not liking it so I re-did it with maroon on the sides










My Corbeau’s came in the mail so I got to tearing them apart and put a maroon/black mix of leather on them and got a piece of the leather embroidered with the SS logo











I cut up some foam to make a new rear seat, I couldn’t find anything I liked so what else is there to do but make it yourself ? Just little bit of foam completely changed the look and feel of this seat you sink down into it and it holds pretty good, much better than just a bench for sure





The headliner was fun I love the look of suede but couldn’t find many places in the interior that I wanted it so when I saw how good it looked up there I was very happy. I was considering doing two stripes in anticipation of my future paint job but ended up doing this instead, I still might change it I’m not sure but for now I like it. All throughout this there is a ton of painting with the original color but I’m leaving that all out because down the thread I paint again with the new red






I don’t like the way I did this, I just took a standard roll of automotive carpet and glued it to my factory carpet and pad. When I did it I was thinking of the extra thickness for sound deadening and softness but aftermarket carpet is almost never up to the OE quality standards. Next time I pull the interior out I’m ditching this for a stock black carpet setup, they come molded and everything it will retain its glossy black much longer that way*




I considered painting the airbag but it just didn’t seem right to me with all the leather on the dash so I ended up wrapping it. I really wish I wasn’t so stubborn because finding the regulations and imitating them to make sure the airbag would still deploy properly was a pain but it looks great so it was worth it. While this was going on I was also fiberglassing the iPad dash mount, I believe I was the first silverado in the world with one in the dash especially because at the time I didn’t even know of any vehicles that had done this yet. No pics on that sorry it was my first time and it didn’t go amazing but I did it haha. Its on a hinge and can come in and out, when it slides in it plugs into a charger and I use wifi to play music to the stereo wirelessly and also to connect to the OBD2 wirelessly*






What a mess back here with the amps !! This is a project thats still not done, I cleaned up all the wiring but I want to build a MDF wall back there to mount amps inverters crossovers etc to. Im always changing this stuff and having that will help tremendously. I’ll mount it up tight and great stuff all the gaps than dynamat it because my back wall is the only thing left of the truck that still vibrates. A single layer of dynamat is just not enough for 3,000 watts




I was originally running G-force seat belts but I just didn’t like their feel or look and eventually upgraded to Corbeau’s own belts*

FatherSonSS

Several years pass here with a interior near identical to the one the thread will end with so I’ll skip those pictures, All the really changed was I updated the red and added in a few things, changed the color scheme a little bit and moved stuff around. For example in the dash pic up there everything is black but I ended up redoing that with some more red in it.

At this point the truck is getting ready for paint so I took all the doors off



I took every door and started by sitting it straight up, took off all panels and cleaned everything out of the inside. I threw away all hardware motors etc and replaced it all with stuff from gmpartsdirect I also powder coated everything metal inside there including the connecting bars, latches, supports etc. From there I put the first layer of dynamat on the inner door, covering literally every inch including places where hardware mounts, so now all the latches etc attach with bolts going through dynamat. With the door straight up and down I taped up all the holes and filled the door with great stuff expanding foam. I used housing conduit so my wires could still slide easily in out and when needed. I rotated each door all on four sides completely filling it with foam. I then cut out areas that needed to move freely such as on the front where the window slides. After that I closed up the panels with the second layer of dynamat










Painting the interior stuff again, I sandblasted all of it than applied a self etching primer really thick to get rid of all the fake leather texture and than laid some SEM 2in1 and sanded for weeks until I got the texture out of everything and it was all smooth as glass






Actually painting the parts was very difficult and time consuming. I hung all the parts with wire and wiped them all individually with wax and grease remover, did a final check to make sure all parts were texture free and that there was no cracks in bondo where used. Then the hard part, my paint is a 3 stage with a metallic and pearl so to get every single angle on every single part to be the exact same color was defiantly just magic, not sure how else to describe it.*






….and all the work was worth it, in this pic you can see the difference, on the right is the black diamond used in my stripes and on the left is the plain plastic. Little details like this when the sun or interior LEDs hit them really set the truck apart, they pop out and make you think that there isn’t a inch of the truck that wasn’t carefully thought out. It really is a cool effect to see in person




Here are some more of the completed parts*

FatherSonSS

I re-did the leather on the console the second to last time, I really like the new stitching on it and the leather matches my paint perfectly, the only thing I changed since than was to add that gorgeous stitching to the shift boot






At this point I put a stick in the truck and had to remake the console’s face plate, this is how I was rolling for a little bit*




After that I made a new faceplate for it






Then finished up the console with some banana plugs for the subs, some dynamat new switches and dual purpose books. I have a pressure bracket on both sides of the radio and I use the books to smash it down and hold it, let me tell you that radio is not moving anywhere and the books help block the transmission noise










I put some carbon fiber wrap behind the speaker grille in the door panel, I plan to run a very dim red LED around the ring of the speaker and it will look great subtly highlighting that carbon fiber










Putting everything together and rug doctoring the carpet








I started a red LED swap but haven’t finished yet, heres one of the panels to compare tho*




I really like my Covercraft sun shade and its red too ! I couldn’t have asked for a cooler product (pun definitely intended)*




Oh yeah somewhere in the I redid the interior lineX to match the new paint, I also brought the LineX down under to door now for extra protection and ease of cleaning and its virtually invisible you would never guess that there was bedliner there so it just hangs out and does its job

FatherSonSS

This is what the iPad is usually doing while I’m driving, I can go through and look at anything I want with this app including GM codes like ABS*




and here it is almost finished, and finished !! An insane amount of work but it looks great is very functional and its durable. Wifey and I hit up the beach nearly every weekend out here and it takes it like a champ*









-Matt

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