I would like to say take the bench out and replace with bucket seats. But I don't know any where you can find seats that would fit in there and still look cool. I'm having the same problem, my seats are worn out, I don't want to spend a but load of cash on new seats. So I'm contemplating just getting mine refurbished.

I'm planning on taking out the heater this weekend. Is there anything I need besides coolant? Do I have to reroute the hoses or can I just cap them off? I don't want this to disrupt the flow of coolant. And make the truck overheat.

 

I have never done what you're doing but I would assume the best approach would be like what was mentioned before - loop the system back into itself in the engine bay, before it enters the firewall. This way all the flow should still be there as if the heater core was still present.


I don't mind my bench seat, I kinda like it since it sits lower than the glass and gives me that vintage feel. Also it's quite comfy. PO swapped the beat up bucket seats with the pristine bench he had from a parts truck, saw the pics of the originals and they'd need a complete rebuild including the frame and springs, might as well buy brand new seats at that point based on what I'd spend fixing them. Bummed he didn't at least keep them, otherwise I'd have them as backups and make that decision myself. Also bummed he primed the whole truck instead of leaving patina around the body work he started, but oh well these were out of my hands.

BTW - what color is your dash? I see you have an all white truck like mine will be, but everyone's truck I've seen has a gray dash or whatever color it is from factory, i've never seen another color unless it's been repainted. The PO painted my whole interior bright white and I like it, but contemplating painting the defroster cover a darker color, because of the glare the white shines on the inside of the windshield.

 

My dash is navy blue. I bought a dash plastic cover for it that I wont use I decided to go the vinyl route. The cover is brand new still in the box and well made it will go right on top of the dash board.

 

it's blue? is that stock?
i'm talking about the steel part, not the dash pad. mine's got an aftermarket slip-on cover like you're talking about. I think they look fine, I can hardly tell it's not the original, the PO did a decent install job.

Look at this pic of my interior and you'll see the glare from the white defroster panel. Since you have a white truck, figure I'd ask what color yours is and if you have issues with glare. Hope it makes sense now.

 

Damn that looks nice, what ever you DON'T cut the doors and put speakers in them. Yes that is a bad glare, mine is blue like the dash board so I don't have a glare. Since your interior is so nice I would recommend taking it out and painting it black like your dash. There is also a speaker whole under it, while your there you can install the speaker.

Its easy to take out as long as you remove the dash first. But before that you have to loosen the instrument cluster cause there is a dash clamp right behind it and you can not get in there to be able to loosen that clamp.

 

Big mile stone this weekend I finally took out the heater. Had to reroute a coolant hose and remove the heater. Been trying to do this for weeks now but life and work sometimes has a way of ruining your build plans.

So much more room in the front of the shifter now, i can start designing the box now and mocking up where the radio and speakers are going to go. Im also going to make an arm rest of the box that is going to be so much fun.


Ohh by the way who wants the heater? I don't want to throw it away i'm sure some one needs it. First come first serve, pay for shipping and its yours.

 

So I have had some time off from work over the thanksgiving weekend. And decided to tackle the interior got pretty far till I ran out of material for the floor and it started raining plus it was cold and could not apply the remaining insulation I do have.
Got the seats out and ready to rip out the carpet.
Got the carpet out and was left with this mess. The passenger side was not as bad as driver side. On the driver side the sand and dirt was so stuck together that I had to use a brush with soap, water and elbow grease to get it out. I had some krud remover which worked great for most of the stuff. But the sand and dirt that was caked on for over the years needed more scrubbing with a brush to come out.
Got it cleaned out and ready to apply the sound deadening. I plan to apply it all over the floor and up and fire wall as high as possible. It will be really tedious on the fire wall cause I have to cut and go around all the wires and electrical parts.

Got the ceiling dynamated. I might do it again in the end depending how the sound is in the car is. I also have to do the doors but it started raining over the weekend and it was to cold. Plus I ran out of material for the floor, so I'm going to wait till I get more material to finish the rest.

So for now I installed the driver seat back in so I can drive it around till I get more material to finish the floor. So far all I have in the cabin is that seat and the shifter, no seat belts, no door panels. The cabin is drafty, and everything echoes like a tin can. LOL this is going to be fun.

 

Nice! What seats are you putting in there?

 

@taswift I'm going to put the same seats in there but I will get them refurbished. My plan is to get the all the sound stuff installed all over the place and drive it around for a while feel out the noise in the cabin and then take it to an upholstery place and have them install the carpet and refurbish the seats.

I have been trying to look for new seats and found none that would fit in this truck. To buy new ones they have to be custom made to fit the tracks and it was way over my budget. I still want bucket seats but can't find any. Maybe i'm over thinking it. If you guys have any ideas I would like to hear them.

 

Maybe I'm oversimplifying, but my plan was to get seats, and then make rails for them that I can either weld or bolt into the cab

 

It has been raining here in so cal for the past few months and it has put a damper on my resto/customization project. I have been trying to install automatic door locks in the truck for the past 2 months and between the rain and me chasing tools this has been the longest installation part of this truck, the suspension did not take this long. So after a few hick ups and tool collecting I was able to drill the necessary wholes and install the solenoids.

Passenger and driver side doors this is where they sit in the door, this is driver side. After this I drilled the doors and enlarged the cabin side walls where the door light switch was installed. I had to enlarge it to be able to install a piece of plastic tube to run the wires throw. I'm also thinking of adding automatic windows as well and also speaker wires for the door speakers. I needed something thick enough to hold 7-9 wires. So I went with a .5" plastic tube from Orchards its like $.39 a foot.

This slides in out of the cabin as the door closes and opens, at the moment the plastic tube is giving the door a bit of hard time closing as it slides in and out of the door. With time this will get better, and i have a bit of room to add the wires in for the windows as well. I also had to do some bending and adjusting of the parts that came with the locking mechanism to fit my truck.

Lets hope this little piece will hold over time. I have 2 more but I will hate to take the door panel off once in a while to change this piece. Will see how it goes so far so good.

 

I have had time to work on the truck these past few weekends. As I knew it the plastic tubes in the door wore out a lot faster than I taught. I changed them do these door looms. They work and look a lot better.
I also installed the rest of the of the dynamax I had left over. I put some in the doors
and I covered the back of the cabin
I also installed insulation in on the floor
and carpet

 

Its been a while since I been on here and posted anything about this truck. I have been working on it but with life being busy I only had time to work on sat for a few hours. I have been focusing on the interior. I bought material for the door panels and the head liner, perforated vinyl and foam, glued them together and sowed them up in a diamond double stitch pattern.

Here I have mocked them up so I can sow.

This is what it looks like sowed up.


This is the headliner. I used thicker foam to get that fabric to bubble out.

The door panel cut and glued I will attach them to the door using screw rivets instead of the OEM plastic clips.


This is what the rivet looks like I just inserted them in the same wholes that the OEM plastic clips were. I needed to do a little bit of finessing with a drill. Then used the rivet tool to secure them in the door.




As of right now I can not install the door panels just yet because I don't have a handle to close the door with. Right now I'm using the wholes in the door to close it. I plan on building a strap out of seat belt material to close the door with. I will post pics of that as well. But first must change the differential gasket, cause its leaking.

 

Ive been debating on installing power locks on mine. It would be nice to have an alarm on it.

 

You can have an alarm installed without power locks - I had one (can't remembe which alarm) that I could'e hooked up actuators to but never did.

 

Oh i know that, just not going to waste my time installing an alarm just for the shock sensor. Id like the convenience of remote locks+alarm

 

@jetas The power locks are so convenient and a nice addition to this old truck. No one ever expects it and it was a cheap part to buy. The big pain was getting the wires throw the door. As you have seen in posts. I also wanted power windows, but the aftermarket windows motor's are slow and feel cheap.

I highly recommend the power locks. You will love them every day.

 

Straight up the only reason why i havent taken the plunge on the locks is the fact that i dont want to drill into the doors lol.

 

If you did the power lock conversion - could you still use a coathanger/slimjim to open the door?

20 years of driving and I never locked my keys in the car until I got my Hilux...and I've done it twice! 15sec with a coathanger and it's all good!

 

Since I always use the remote to lock the doors and the remote is on the same key chain. It's kid of hard to lock my keys in the car. I have only locked my keys in the car when I did not have a remote. The fact that I don't have to unlock the pasager door then walk around and unlock my door. Or unlock it from the inside. Is worth the risk for me.

I'm thinking of making it harder to break in the truck. I'm going to add a system in it. I will bolt the box and the speakers with those ireversibile screws. But I don't want people in there trying to take it apart. My truck lives on the street. And it's a pretty busy street. So if you really want it you will only have seconds to get in and out. Security is going to be something I'm going to put some time and attention on.