- Interior Restoration -

Probably the worst project so far.  Interior dashboards on these cars are not very easy to deal with.  We'll soon find out how much of a pain it is to reinstall!  Uhg!  

Holy mother of God!  What in the hell?  Oh, yeah, that's the interior after removing the entire dashboard.  This was the cause of a rat that decided to die in my air ducts.  Although it is a pain in the ass to do, right now is a good time to replace the heater core and various other interior components to restore the interior.  This includes carpet, carpet underlay and center console pieces (so far).  I also plan on replacing the dash pad as it's all cracked up.

11-10-00

I really don't know if it was the anticipation and expectations of this project, or perhaps I was overly patient with this (probably a bit of both), but installing the dashboard back wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.   Sure, there were tricky moments, but I managed through them no problem.

Here's are some shots with my new digital camera.  The previous one was taken with our Sony Digital Camcorder.   You can definitely tell the difference.  I can except that, though - the Camcorder is designed to take movies, not necessarily still pictures.  I did take all of the exhaust project pictures with it and it didn't turn out too bad.  Anyway, back to the interior.  Yes, it's still a mess with wires and whatnot dangling around.   That'll probably be one of the last steps in reinstalling the dashboard.  For now, I have the dashboard part in.  I'm waiting to get a new dashpad (the top part) since my old one was pretty cracked up and now fading.

I stopped here.  I wanted to install the instrument guages, but I needed to install the headlight switch first.  Since the only real way to get the switch in there, was through the decent sized access hole where the instrument guage cluster goes.  But that was postponed due to a broken headlight switch retainer.  That costs about $8 at the dealer.  The ECM and passenger side speaker is up as well as all of the venting.  I removed the vent grills to see about replacing the "friction pads" on them so they don't move around so easily.   I used to have to stick little pieces of paper in the vents to keep them from moving, because the material that was supposed to keep them "stiff," had wore out.

12-17-00

Slowly, but surely - it's coming along.  We had a pretty bad rain recently and since the T-Tops leak, I had a pretty wet interior so I had to vacuum it dry and let it air out.  I pulled up a section of carpet to ensure that rust isn't forming.  So far, so good - all seems okay.  Now, back to getting this interior back together!

I got pretty sick and tired of looking at those worn out door handles so I replaced them.  I don't exactly know what model Camaro these came from, but they are black instead of the original red.  I got them at a good price so I figured I'd give them a try.  They needed a little modification where it mounts at the top.  Since the screws, holding the old ones in, were shorter than the ones for these, I had to shave out the hole about and inch so the threads could reach and grab in the door.  After that little modification, they mounted right up.  The only thing I need now is a plug of some sort to cover the top hole.  Cosmedics.  I think the black ones look better than the original red.   They add a bit of contrast.  If it ever gets to the point, where I think I should go back to the original Carmine Red, I'll hunt down some red ones later!

After the fact, I decided to take pictures of the old, red door handles.  As you can see above, they're pretty well aged and falling apart.

Installed the headlight switch and got the wiring around the instruemnt guage cluster all straightened up.  Then installed the instrument guage cluster.  That was a little tricky.  Originally, I was under the impression that I had to reinstall the wiring to the cluster before inserting it into the dashboard.  After studying this a little bit, I figured that the plugs actually snap into the dashboard, and you pretty much line up the cluster and push it in.  Then, from the bottom of the dash, found a decent path up to the speedometer cable and snapped it into place.  I cranked up the car to make sure that all of the guages worked.  At first, the fuel guage was reading over the FULL mark so I knew I had a loose connection there somewhere.  Also, none of the blinker indicator lights worked.  After reaching around and reseated the light sockets for both lights, they all started to work.  I vibrated on the dash board and banged on it a few times to make sure that the connection was okay.

And for the last part of this "episode."  I installed the bottom portion of the center console.  Now it's starting to look like an interior again.  Arranged all of the wiring and ensured everything was ready to go for the top part.  I'm also waiting for a center console lid for that.  I managed to fix the original radio (power button wouldn't lock on), but what really got to my nerves, was that at the beginning of putting the radio back together, I counted 5 equalizer knobs.  When I got to the point to put them one, I found 4.  Damn!  And those little suckers aren't that big so I haven't been able to find it.  It wouldn't bother me so much if I was missing one from the beginning!  

So if anyone has an equalizer knob they can sent me, e-mail me - I'll pay you .33 for it (.34 after January 2001) ... hehe!

12-20-00

Well, the day before my birthday ... and I'm setting out again to do some more to this interior.  Whatever gets done, one of my primary goals I have set out for, is to figure out why none of my interior lights work.   At all.  When I installed the guages, I noticed that none of the backlights were on.  Immediately, I assumed that the guage cluster assembly isn't working right, but then got to thinking ... NONE of the lights are working inside!  I'll probably be looking into a grounding issue, loose wire type of scenario to begin with.  We'll see what happens after that!

12-21-00

The almost finished product.  Definitely a far cry from the first picture in the project page!  Wires are still dangling a little here and there from the alarm system which is really not that big of a deal.   Installed the climate control and stereo, then the remaining components of the center console.  I also slapped on the dashpad to get it out of the garage.   It's not bolted on - I'm still waiting for my new one.  In the future, I plan on doing this again once I get more money and replace almost everything in the interior. How many years in the future that'll be?  Who knows ..

In tribute for all of this hard work, I have a condensed WAV of highlights taken from the entire project.  It's only about 14 seconds in length, but it explains what I went through, the entire process, so perfectly!   Click here to listen!

I'm missing my brake lever cover, which is in the garage somewhere ... if you saw my garage, you'd understand!  As far as that switch in the middle sticking out.  That's the passenger side power window switch which decided to crumble as I put it in so I fastened it on top.  I plan on replace both switches very soon as they are both pretty worn.  There's something definitely funky with the wiring in this thing.  I got the radio to work once with the ignition on, not in accessory.  Added to the existing problem of the interior lights not working.  Also installed is the center console lid.  Again, two bolts and that'll be replaced soon too.

It came down to the point where I plopped everything in for functionality versus looks at this time.  I should be getting a new dashpad, power window switches and center console lid relatively shortly.  As far as the rest of it ... I'll stop there.  I'll end up replacing everything!  Ideal, yes ... Cheap, no.  And seeming I don't want to have to do this again for a long while ... I can wait!  Next step, cleanup and figure out what in the hell is going on with the wiring.

Allan Reinike

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