Save The Junk?

[RustCollector]

So my '88 Suburban has been sitting a while. It's a long, sad story. Anyway, I'm bringing her back to life now.

The interior is truly sad. The plastics on the door panels are faded and scratched, the "vinyl" is stained and discolored, the dash pad has cracks every 6 inches, the plastic inserts for the door panels are in many pieces... you get the idea. I put an LMC ABS headliner in about 7 years ago, but it sank the first month (never stood a chance in a Phoenix summer).

Since I'll be driving her almost daily again, including hauling my 4 year old, I would like to spruce it up at least a little. But money is tight. If I start blowing $200+ for a dash pad, $170+ each for new door panels, $600+ for seat covers... let's just say my wife will make me as dead as the truck has been.

So I'm THINKING of trying to upholster the sad, degraded plastic and dash pad with some good vinyl and spray adhesive. Just cover it up to make it nice-ish. My question is, has anyone tried that and can it be done with single pieces of fabric without sewing? I know my limitations

Next, I'm thinking of trying to heat gun my headliner sort of back into shape and fiberglassinh the back side. Thoughts? Better solutions?

Thanks in advance for any advice you have!

 

[Rusty Nail]

Gonna need some pictures first man..

Payment is due when services are rendered round here.

 

[80BrownK10]

I believe it was @79dentside that covered his dash pad recently. He used a cheap cloth he got from Walmart to do just like you. Cheap covering to make it look better. I believe he used just a single piece of fabric off the roll from Walmart.

 

[SDJunkMan]

Welcome from South Dakota.

I believe it was @79dentside that covered his dash pad recently. He used a cheap cloth he got from Walmart to do just like you. Cheap covering to make it look better. I believe he used just a single piece of fabric off the roll from Walmart.

I think he filled the cracks with spray expanding foam first.

There are several posts from people that have cleaned and painted their door panels.

 

[RustCollector]

Welcome from South Dakota.


I think he filled the cracks with spray expanding foam first.

There are several posts from people that have cleaned and painted their door panels.

I was thinking something similar on the cracks. Cut/grind the flares down, then fill and smooth. Hadn't thought of expanding foam, I like that

I thought about painting the door panels, but would it last at all? I'd be worried about a lacquer or enamel wearing off or going goowy in the summer. I've used the dye paints on vinyl before, but never on hard plastics, so I don't know how well that would work.

Rusty Nail, I'll get pics up probably tomorrow...

 

[79dentside]

I took the same avenue. I have $40 in my interior so far.

My interior started as this catastrophe...

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So my dash is different from yours in the fact that mine has NO FOAM... someone peeled it off and it only has like a fiber glass mat with purple fabric over it . On yours, you may see the cracks under the fabric if you go the route I went?? I’m not sure how a person would fix/lessen the visibility of the cracks.

I went to Walmart and found a stretchy synthetic suede that stretched and contoured over the purple PERFFECTLY. I bought double the material and still have it I case I want to use it for something else, but the net cost was $6 for the material to recover my dash.

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I just stretched the material and glued it on the backside with gorilla hot glue.

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Then I bought some wood grain vinyl and some black interior paint. I vinyled the dash trim and painted the dash bezel (I went in with silver paint and painted the borders)

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This was the dash after everything.

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Next was the door panels... these were junk. Quite honestly, they probably needed to go into the trash.... but I challenged myself and that’s a dangerous thing....

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I repaired the holes with fiberglass that I already had in the garage, using tape as a mold.

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After that I shaped it the best I could and sanded it smooth.

I then used adhesion promoter, then interior paint. I also bought some wood grain vinyl wrap which I put over the dented polished aluminum piece to freshen it up. Finished it off with a leather pull strap... ie: my old tattered belt.

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So it can be done on the cheap, but as you can tell, mine is not perfect... I didn’t expect it to be, but I’m ticked with the money I saved. Hope this helps!!

 

[RustCollector]

79dentside, first let me say good work! Seriously for a budget job it's pretty sharp, especially considering what you started with, which brings me to my second point... holy crap you just made me feel better about the condition of my interior

How has the paint on the panels held up?

 

[79dentside]

79dentside, first let me say good work! Seriously for a budget job it's pretty sharp, especially considering what you started with, which brings me to my second point... holy crap you just made me feel better about the condition of my interior

How has the paint on the panels held up?

I’ve used interior paint on panels before and have had good luck, BUT that’s on hard plastics. The elbow rest has started to chip paint away... I probably should have sanded it better to be honest. This is what has started happening to mine.

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[80BrownK10]

I was thinking something similar on the cracks. Cut/grind the flares down, then fill and smooth. Hadn't thought of expanding foam, I like that

I thought about painting the door panels, but would it last at all? I'd be worried about a lacquer or enamel wearing off or going goowy in the summer. I've used the dye paints on vinyl before, but never on hard plastics, so I don't know how well that would work.

Rusty Nail, I'll get pics up probably tomorrow...

That interior paint works. It doesn't get gooey or wear off right away. It will wear off but it will stick for years

 

[RustCollector]

That interior paint works. It doesn't get gooey or wear off right away. It will wear off but it will stick for years

I just need to buy a few years until I can rip it all out and do it right with front buckets, a real center console, and color change the whole thing from the factory caramel color to a gray/black to go with the eventual silver/black two tone paint.

In the interim, I just don't want to feel like I'm back in high school every time i climb into it and I don't want my 4 year old to climb out talking about the pretty colors of paint that came off on her clothes in this ride

May have to get creative with the arm rests. Given the visible goo ground into them, I don't imagine my paint would even do as good as 79dentside's.

But I am feeling a little more confident about the plastic portions.

Now I just gotta figure out if the single piece of stretchy fabric will contour to my dash. It's got a few more corners than the style of 79dentside's.

 

[RustCollector]

I know I'm slow, but here's my nightmare...

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[RustCollector]

IDK why it went weird with the pics. I pulled the dash out for proper viewing

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[80BrownK10]

What is all the mouse nest looking stuff in rear floor and on driver seat?

That truck is in great condition!! I mean the headliner is trashed of course and you would need to do something with the dash to make it look a lot better but I see nothing else wrong

 

[RustCollector]

What is all the mouse nest looking stuff in rear floor and on driver seat?

That truck is in great condition!! I mean the headliner is trashed of course and you would need to do something with the dash to make it look a lot better but I see nothing else wrong

That is what happens to a walmart grocery bag in it's second Phoenix summer. And if that's the visual after two summers, imagine what it feels like after 5. If you breath on that crap it crumbles exponentially. That's my first chore Saturday... hit it with a vacuum.

Anyway, the pictures didn't come in as clear as I hoped. The door panel plastics are 3 different colors. The very top surfaces have a lot more texture than GM gave them . That additional texture is because the plastic is crumbling like the early stages of those walmart bags. The only thing holding the trim piece on the passenger front door is the junk yard pull strap I put on it. You will notice the passenger side rear door does not have that luxury . The rear drivers door trim will look like the rear passenger as soon as it's closed a couple more times. The color of the arm rests are not darker from lighting or shadows. Same for the velour and carpet inserts.

It's just sad and old. Now, I'll give you that the carpet and seats are not terrible. The front seat is only nice because of the $150 custom fit seat cover on it. But the problem areas are the door panels, dash, and headliner.

 

[Snoots]

Just tackle one thing at a time. You got this.