Blazer Interior/Soft Top/15 GMC

Today on trucks, the guys have already given big blaze the proper stance and plenty of motivation with that 350 crate motor and bulletproof drive train.

This week, they'll rework the interior before topping off their K five blazer.

After all that's done, they'll turn back the hands of time with a 1915 GMC flat bed.

That's all today on trucks.

Welcome to this week's show. We're glad you're with us. Now, if you followed the build up of project big blaze, then you've seen us take a very used very worn 88 blazer and literally resurrect it with a brand new drive train.

So today we're gonna dive into the cab of our K five blazer and deal with the interior

any time you're working on an older vehicle with a ton of miles on it. Well, you can pretty much figure that the interior is trashed

and our old K five is no exception and

not only is it well worn but

smells like a pack of dogs has been living in here, which is not real pleasant on a hot summer day.

So the first thing we're gonna do

is pull this cap off to give you a better idea of what we're gonna do in here

and also to show you why Blazers are so cool. Now, all you have to do is pull off these perimeter bolts

and then just lift the top off.

Now, we've obviously got a lot of stuff to replace inside our bow tie, but first and foremost is the carpet and for the new stuff, we went to Cheyenne pickup parts and got their blazer set that includes the front and rear sections

as well as covers for the wheel wells. Now, Cheyenne also has replacement pieces for the door panels and interior trim if you need those.

Now with the top out of the way, it's time to get rid of these seats, the seat belts, this console, anything that's bolted to the floor. Now, on a project like this, you'll probably be tempted just to toss these seats in the garbage. Now you can do that,

but here's a couple of things to think about. First of all, custom seats are expensive,

you're gonna have to spend

some time making them to fit and you're still gonna be stuck with this old ugly blue thing in the back. On top of that,

these old seats are not in bad shape. All the foam rubber still good and solid, it's not broken down.

So these are a good candidate to be recovered. So we're gonna show you how to make these things look like new and save yourself some money in the process.

Ok. With the seats out of the way, it's time to deal with these rear side panels and they're just held in place with a bunch of finish screws. So once you have all those removed,

you can carefully pull the panel out of the way.

Now we are gonna restore our panels because they're still in good enough shape to reuse. Not to mention they're almost impossible to find replacements for

now comes the moment of truth

and that's rolling up this old original carpet. Now, the good news here is you'll probably find some money under here. The bad news is you're gonna find a lot of really nasty things you'd rather not know about.

Now, make sure that you remove it all the pad, the carpet, everything.

Now with everything out, you definitely want to spend some time with the vacuum cleaning things up and you also need to check for rust, especially around the doors and seams. Now, if you have any rust,

you need to hit it with a good rust, prohibitive paint like this miracle paint we got from Bill

Hs because that's gonna prevent any future rust problems down the road.

Now, while the paint's drying on the floor,

we'll go ahead and tear into these side panels and kick panels. Now we're gonna change the color of our interior to black. So these panels will need to be painted.

Now, a big mistake that people make is they just grab a can of spray paint, shoot it on there and then they're surprised when the paint doesn't stick. Now, you can make paint stick to plastic and vinyl, but you gotta do it the right way. First of all, hit it with a good cleaner, take off the dirt and grime,

then hit it with a pre cleaner. This takes off the grease and the silicone

and then finally hit it with a good vinyl paint. If you follow these steps, you won't have any problem

stas already talked about making our seats look brand new. But before we can do that, we need to tackle these frames. So after cleaning everything up to get rid of all the dirt and grime, we're hitting them with some sandpaper to scuff things up before we tape them off and shoot them with some paint.

Finally, we're ready to start laying the carpet in. First up, we'll glue these wheel well covers in place.

Follow that with a sound deader.

Then the rear carpet piece

finally drop in the front section. Now, once you have it all in and centered up, all you have to do is cut the holes for your shifters

and your various mounting bolts.

Now that our seat frames are dry, we can put the finishing touches on our old seats. Now, the covers we're gonna use are from wet, a Coy and they're made of a neoprene rubber just like a wet suit, which means they're gonna be waterproof and extremely durable and insulation couldn't be any easier. All you do is slide them over the seat and strap them down, which also means you can pull them off and clean them up any time you need to.

One thing's for sure, seeing all these pieces go back together, makes all that disassembly work worthwhile. Check out how nice those newly painted panels look. Now on these carpeted areas, you've got a couple of choices if the carpets in really good shape, well, you can just get some dye and dye it to the color that you want.

Now, if the carpets in really bad shape, you need to peel the carpet off and replace it.

Now, our carpets in really good shape. So we're going the dye route,

you know, since all the pieces we're putting back into big Blaze are either new or refurbished, there was no way we were gonna put these nasty old skid plates and trim back in.

So what we're gonna do is spend a little time with a good cleaner and polish to make everything look like new before we put them back where they belong.

Of course, the last step to this part of the project is Bolton in these seats. We think you'll agree that the transformation is pretty amazing, but that's not all we got planned for this interior. Stay with us. We got more trucks after this

later in the show. We're gonna do a little time travel with you. The year was 1915 and GMC called it the model 41 flat bed.

But before we take a look back at GM history, we're gonna put the finishing touches on the interior of Big Blaze.

Welcome back to the shop. Now, if you're just joining us, we're right in the middle of doing interior rehash on Big Blaze. And the next step is this dash, not only is it all cracked up,

but it's also the wrong color. So we're gonna tear it all apart, starting with this steering wheel and this old gauge cluster.

Now, these door panels are also the wrong color and they've definitely seen better days, but they still seem like they're in good enough shape to reuse. So we're gonna pull them off along with all the hardware and handles, clean them up and find out what we've got to work with here.

Now, for the dash and the instrument bezel, we went to Cheyenne pickup parts, got one of their chrome bezels

and one of their fully padded replacement dashes. Now, this isn't just some little cheap cover. This is a full dash that replaces your old one. It's definitely worth the money.

Now, there's a trick to getting these dashes out of these Chevys. First of all, take off the bezel,

pop out these four screws and then lift up on the dash

and pop it out that releases the clips in the back.

Some other stuff we grabbed at Cheyenne are these trim pieces as well as handles for the door panel. Now, these things along with some paint and clean up work are gonna make our panels look brand new without draining our bank account.

Of course, before you put your new dash in, it's a good idea to paint all this lower metal to get everything to match.

Then just slide the new dash in along with the new trim, make sure that you hook up all your air conditioning vents,

then you can put on the bezel. Now, remember these things are plastic. So if you over time the screws, you'll break them

with our door panels all painted up and looking good. All we have to do is pop them back on

and we'll be ready to go. Now, we also took the time to paint all the plastic trim inside the cab. So everything will look new

and we're gonna top it all off with these brand new sun visors. We also got from Cheyenne.

Now, one of the most important parts of an interior is of course the steering wheel. Now, since you're gonna have your hands wrapped around it, most of the time, you might wanna get yourself something kind of nice. So we went to LA

Carra, got one of these really cool leather wrapped wheels and the adapter kit.

Now, installing one of these things

is about as simple as just sliding the adapter on

and then bolting the wheel to that.

Now that we have everything back together, there's no doubt we have a great looking interior and since we did it ourselves on a reasonable budget, we won't have to face any of those nasty bills from the upholstery shop either

with the interior taken care of on big.

There's still one area that needs some attention. That's this old beat up grill.

So we made one last trip to Cheyenne pickup parts, got this really nice billet grill

and that'll smooth everything up without overdo it

before you put your new grill in. Now is a good time to replace your trim if it's bad. Now to install the grill, your original turn signal lights mount right here in the back

then just carefully slide it into place,

fasten it down with the supplied hardware.

Now, the grill and the trim weren't the only things a little rough around the edges. The headlight buckets were pretty scarred up as well. So we gave good Mark industries a call and got the trim and the buckets to finish off the front end. Now, once you have everything exactly where you want it,

go ahead and pull the protective tape off the trim and you're done.

Well, that pretty much takes care of everything that we wanted to do to big blaze before we rolled into the paint shop.

Except for one of course, to find out what that is. You're gonna have to come back after the break.

This thing looks good, doesn't it

up next on trucks? We're gonna top things off with a soft top on our K five Blazer.

Just can't get enough of trucks. Check us out online at trucks, tv.com.

Thanks for staying with us now, like we said before the break, there's one last area that we need to deal with before we roll. Big blaze into the paint shop.

That's the issue of a top. Now, we could reuse the stock fiberglass top, but it's big and

heavy. And where are you gonna put it when you take it off? That's the biggest reason why most people never take their tops off the blazer. Of course, that's the reason to have a blazer so you can take the top off.

So the answer that we found

is in the form of a soft top

for our soft top. We went to Best top and got one for the K five Blazer. Now, this top is made with a heavy waterproof fabric and also has plastic windows on the sides with heavy duty zippers so you can open and close the top whenever you want to. Of course, it also comes with all the bows and hardware you'll need to install it.

Now, there's a couple of really important things that you need to remember. Any time you're installing a convertible top first, the fabric will contract when it's cold. So the warmer the top is the easier it'll lead to install. Second of all,

you can see that we've got a lot of wrinkles in our top from shipping. Now, don't worry about those. Once you install the top and it sits out in the sun,

that'll all disappear in a couple of days. Finally,

these plastic windows are really easy to scratch. Don't ever just wipe them when they're dry.

Always use a nice wet rack. Now, with all that said, let's get started.

The first thing you need to install are the bow mounting brackets. Now they mount right down to the body edge, 44 inches from the rear edge of the cap. So once you have your marks, go ahead and drill your holes and bolt them down with a supplied hardware.

Next up are the body snaps. Now, for those, you'll start right in the center of the cab measure in a half inch from the edge and then drill and mount a snap. Now make sure that you use some silicone on these because that'll keep them from leaking,

then make a mark a half inch all the way around the cab,

then

attach the center snap. Now, working from the center snap out, put on six more studs on each side, making sure you stay on your half inch line and

making sure to pull the top tight.

When the top is up, it's supported by these metal bows and they slide through these loops in the top and the legs mount into the bracket using the hardware that comes with the kit,

the rear bow mounts into the bracket the same way, but six snaps hold the cover in place.

Ok. Here's where things get critical for a proper install. Now, the four corners are the most important spots for a nice wrinkle free fit.

So while mel pushes down on the top,

I'm gonna pull down and back on the sides

and then we can mark our spots for our snaps.

Now, once your rear corners are done, use the same technique to find the location for your front snaps,

then all you have to do is mount the other snaps to pull out the wrinkles.

One of the neatest things about this top is you can unzip the sides and roll it up without taking the entire top off. But to support the top while the sides are up,

you have to mount this loop on the rear corner of the bed so you can run the strap for the top through it.

Now, a few more tips that you should know about a soft top like Mel showed you you can roll the sides up but don't try to do that on a cold day because you can crack your windows. Also, if you happen to rip this material, you can fix it with a special iron on patch.

And finally to take the top down, all you have to do is unsnap it, everything folds back. Well, there you have it. If you want to cover up your interior best top will not only help you do it in style, but if you install it right, you don't ever have to worry about it leaking on you either.

Now, today's tip has to do with replacing your drive shaft after you've put in new U joints.

Now, most U joints are held in place by these little U bolts. And since most people think that tighter is better, they really crank these down. Now, the problem is if you do that,

you can crush this bearing cap which squashes down on the needle bearings and of course, destroys your U joint. Now, only 20 to 30 ft pounds is what you need.

And since most torque wrenches don't fit in these tight little areas.

I like to use a short handled wrench to keep from over tightening them.

Welcome back to trucks. Everybody, you know, now that we're into the new millennium, there's a lot of things we tend to take for granted, things like the state of the art trucks you see at your local dealership available with all the comforts of home. But if you'd have walked into a dealership in say 1915, this is what you would have seen a 1915 GMC flatbed truck, which really has more in common with the stage coach than with a modern truck. So follow along as we take, you on a ride to show you how much has changed over the years.

Now, the first thing that catches your eye are the wheels. Yep. Those are wooden spoke wheels. The same thing you'd see on a lot of horse drawn wagons of the era.

The tires are also unique due to the fact they're one solid piece of rubber. Keep in mind back in 15 air filled tires weren't the norm yet.

Up in the cab. The seat looks like it came right off of a Wells Fargo stage coach

and safety obviously wasn't much of an issue because the gas tank is right below it.

Now, doors were not an option because this was a working man's truck

and air conditioning. Well, that came from 14 miles an hour

and no windshield

power steering that depended on how much power you had in your biceps.

An airbag was a term that was usually reserved for your mother in law. Back then,

electrical systems were pretty much non existent in 1915.

So the headlights were nothing more than kerosene lamps hung on each side of the cow.

Of course, there were no gauges except a single oil pressure.

And since there was no dash for a glove box, dual storage compartments were located in the seat pedestal. Now, starting one of these old boys didn't take a key, it had its own unique process which could be a little dangerous.

Now, you had to be really careful when you cranked one of these things because the engine could kick back and break your arm.

So what you did was engage it about seven o'clock,

pull it up hard to 12 and keep doing that until it started.

Now, once the engine's running,

you're ready to go all sort your order.

Of course, the whole purpose for a truck is to haul stuff. And this vehicle did that with an all wooden flat bed that kept the cargo from rolling off with removable side sticks

underneath the bed are familiar things like a drive shaft axle as well as lease springs. But you can't help but notice it was mechanical brakes and no shock absorbers in 1915.

Well, there's no question. Our technology has come a long way since the early 19 hundreds. Just check out this vintage photo of the Rapid Street Assembly plant where less than 6000 of these trucks were built.

But the real treat is the honor of having a perfectly preserved piece of GM history.

Take us back to a time when trucks and horses share the road

and now truck gear, parts, tools and equipment for pickups and sport utilities.

You know, there's a whole bunch of ways to keep people from breaking into your truck and stealing it. Of course, one way is an alarm

but another is called the Jimmy Jammer from Red line Technical group. Now it's nothing more than a pair of thick metal plates with some hardware that mount right inside your door to prevent any kind of forced entry through the door handle, including a slim gym installation only takes about 30 minutes

and it only costs about 30 bucks, which is a lot better than paying the deductible on your insurance to have your truck repaired or even replaced.

Now, when it comes to paint and body work, there's a lot of tricks and techniques out there that a lot of people never hear about. Wouldn't it be nice to have access to that?

Well, now you can

with these tapes in the paint education series. Now, they've got everything from rust repair to paint techniques to even color sanding and buffing. Now, you can get them all in a set or you can just buy them individually and Eastwood is a place to get them.

Now, if you're driving a Ford truck with a power stroke diesel, you may not realize that its stock air intake system is very restrictive.

So Western diesel came up with a solution to this problem with their turbo

ram air that they claim will give you a 13% power increase by

the amount of air flowing into your engine. Now, the turbo

ran air replaces your entire stock system and installs with just simple hand tools. Put the power in your power stroke with Western diesel for about 500 bucks. That's gonna do it for truck here. Here's a preview of next week's show.

The guys show you how to put the power in a power stroke. When they take you step by step through the installation of an intake upgrade on their diesel F 250.

The Ford theme continues when they roll a 1948 F six into the truck shop for a closer look.

And finally, Stacy gives you some helpful tips on repairing rusty panels.

That's all next week on trucks.

Well, that's gonna do it for this week's show. We appreciate you hanging out with

us. Yeah, we got more trucks for you next week. Hold on.

Let's go.

Where's the Beverly Hillbillies music

move.

Get the Zing

already.

Trucks is an RTM production.