Wayne's Garage: Truck Interior Finished (almost) and a Nice Distraction From Reality

So this past weekend I almost finished the truck interior restoration. I’ve been meaning to post the latest pics but just haven’t had the time. Well on top of that I have a speaking thing to do at tomorrow’s Triangle Game Conference in Raleigh. I absolutely hate public speaking; the feeling I get when that first squirt of adrenaline hits my blood stream is not a good one. But I’m manning up and will give it my best. In the meantime I am writing to my blog so I can think about something else. Funny thing is that as I write this blog I continue to write about the public speaking thing. WTF?!?!?

Ok, on to the truck. I spent a lot of time on the truck this past weekend. It was a three day weekend because of the Holiday so it was good time to catch up on the project. Also, I want to take the camper to Charlotte this weekend for a hotrod show so that I can check out Factory Five’s latest Roadster, the Mk4. So here is a picture diary of the truck project. By the way, did I mention that I am going to be on a panel tomorrow at TGC?

I got a Clarion VZ400 DVD receiver to go into the truck and replace the OEM radio. I wanted a system with an LCD screen, HD radio and the ability to hook up two rear view cameras; one that activates on reverse and another one to serve as a rear view mirror when going down the street with the camper.

This is the official image of the radio.

This is the rear view camera. It’s a Kenwood and it’s not as big as it looks!

I ordered the stuff from Crutchfield. Firstly I have to say that crutchfield is awesome. Good support and they even sent me a thank you card! Another good thing about them is that they sent harness adapters for the truck. There was a printout that described what each wire did; left front +, left front –, etc. And the colors actually matched the colored wires on the receiver!

So the first step was to connect all the wires together. I would strip them using this super cool stripper (and my friends know that I like super cool strippers). Just kidding… no no really.

Wind them together.

Not long ago my father in law Stan lectured me for the fact that I never soldered the wires together; only wrapping them in electrical tape. I am happy to announce that I have changed my evil ways.

This is the door panel with the old speaker removed. Note someone should start a drinking game where they drink a shot every time a beer can is in a photo.

This is the new speaker installed in the rear door. These were a challenge because the previous owner had disconnected the wires under the dash to install some sort of aftermarket system. It took us a while to figure out why the speakers weren’t getting a signal. We eventually ran new wires and had to splice into the harnesses. Don’t worry, Stan, I used solder.

This is the new radio test wired into the truck. I did this to test all the speakers, camera etc.

Holy cow. What a mess. At this point I didn’t think it would ever get done.

New front 6x9’s installed.

Next I needed to focus on the rust problem that we discovered once the carpet was removed. Water had settled in under the drivers side seat and began to rust the metal.

I always wanted to use this thing. It’s been in my toolbox and I finally get to use it. It totally thrashed the rust.

Then a little elbow grease to get the tight spaces. After that we put some sort of rust conversion stuff on there to convert the rust to something inert. Then we painted it.

The paint applied. Looks much better.

The radio in the dash. I have NO IDEA how all those wires fit behind it.

OK, the carpet was next and I was pretty intimidated. The carpet came pre formed for the truck but all holes and trim had to be cut to fit. The whole time I was worried about screwing up. We started at the back. We used the old carpet on the floor of the garage as a gauge and began cutting.

Getting further and it’s starting to look good!

Hey! Your feet better be clean!

That’s a wrap. The bolt holes have been cut, the edges have been trimmed, etc.

Another view. I was very happy with the results!

Now it’s time to put in the finish pieces to hold the carpet down.

The rear bench seat is in and Justin is checking it out. It was very easy to put back together and the plastic trim pieces hide the subtle carpet flaws perfectly.