Project Pancho Villa - 1978 SWB

[sson20s]

nice build congrats

[BruthaMan]

Some updates.

Finally got the cab mounted last week:



Started laying in the sound deadener. Using Fatmat off Ebay, seems to have a good reputation.

Paused for a little bit to do a test fit on the bucket seats. That necessitated a trip out to the parts yard, at high noon, in 96 degree heat. Man it was hot! I'm not a fan of the heat either!

Took a bit hammer and some cold chisels and beat out some Suburban bucket seat tabs. Brought them home, cleaned them up and set the bucket seat in for measurements. Once I had a good fit, welded them in.



The buckets fit in. Very, very snug and tight fit. The backs lay up directly on the cab and the rears have to be bolted down with force, pulling the seat down. I put tape on for now, to protect the area.




Cleaned up and painted the drivers side seat tracks:








Here's a pic of the firewall. There are some minor imperfections, but overall, very pleased with my first time painting. Hired an auto glass company to come out and install the windows with new seals I purchased. They have a "no leak" guarantee and didn't wanted to be out driving one day in a storm and have water rushing in.

My wife will tell you, that while I generally see myself as Bob Villa when it comes to fixing things, in reality I'm really more like Tim "The Toolman" Taylor! Taking no chances on window seals!




One last pic:





I going to talk to a few body shops tomorrow. I had a guy helping me, and he knew these trucks inside out, but he had to leave the project. Slowed things down quite a bit. While I definitely want to be able to do as much as I can, it would speed things up considerably to send the bed, hood and fenders off to paint. Would allow me to focus more on the cab and getting the wiring and everything else done, while professionals get the rest painted.

This would also give more room in the garage, where the bed is currently, so I can move the truck into the garage and work on it in the shade. Heat is a killer here right now and is raining a lot the past few weeks.

[EJC78]

Dang Bro you have come a long way. Those seats look great so does the paint. Keep the pics coming (of coarse we are going to ask for more) Time for me to get off my ass and start my project.

[BruthaMan]

Hey, it does help having a friend in Gilroy, California to hook a "brutha" up with some good bucket seats!

Bought the covers from Capt Kaos, the came out really good. I've seen pics of your truck, it's badass to the bone!

[menace121978]

sweeeeeeeeet!!! nice progress report. those buckets look real good in there. hope i can find a set when i'm ready. and just when i thought i was catching up you just had to go and throw the cab on!! keep it up buddy. i know the body is gonna be the time stopper on mine also. hopefully i can get the entire body to my school to work on it there w/ the help of pro...

[JohnC]

Looks good man! Keep it up.

The Bob Villa, Tim "The Toolman" Taylor comment really cracked me up. That could really be my motto!

[78BO]

Nice, the cab came out looking real good. Didn't these trucks come with bucket seats?

[flamingbig10]

Originally Posted by 78BO

Nice, the cab came out looking real good. Didn't these trucks come with bucket seats?

looking good, they did come in trucks, but there was very few of them that had them and about half of the burbs came with buckets, and almost all of the blazer's had buckets

[78BO]

Oh, so I guess they were the same seats?

[tvblazer78]

Very clean. I like the black on black look.

[jgh64pkup]

great build do you have a link to the front brake calipers

[jchav62]

Nice!

[BruthaMan]

Brake calipers are from Performance Online.

Should have some more pics soon. We've got the cab interior covered, front to back, top to bottom, with Fatmat (sound deadener).

Stripped the plastic interior pieces and used SEM black to recover everything.

Headliner is done in black (faux) leather, came out really nice.

Speakers and amp should be in today, along with subwoofer.

All sorts of parts out to powdercoat, including drive shaft!

Doors and hinges are at painters now, should be here by the end of the week. Decided to outsource the painting. Was an experience to do it "some" but it will take forever to finish up the truck if I do the paint/body, so found a guy to use my materials and do pieces at a time.

Will be covering the "rod doors" shortly, with black (faux) leather. Ordered some billet/flame switch panels and custom switches for power windows/locks. Should be here Thursday.

Getting a lot done here this week. My son-in-law is came up for the week to help out.

Taking lots of pics, just need to brake away and load them up.

[JohnC]

Sounds like it is coming together fast and furious like. Can't wait to see pics. How did you like the fatman sound deadener? I was looking at that for mine when I get to the interior.

[jgh64pkup]

thanks for the linky

[OLDIRON69]

Love the build and super fast at that!

[ndametz32]

Hey, that looks great! Nice progress!

[BruthaMan]

Hey Guys,

Making some great progress this week!

All the stereo equipment is in, have all the wiring, amp install kit.

Speakers:

2 JL Audio 6x9
2 JL Audio 6.5
1 JL Audio 300 watt amp (75x4)
1 Boss Audio enclosed low profile 10" powered sub

No pics on these, still in the boxes. We should be installing tomorrow.

First up are some pics of the cab, completely lined with sound deadener, top to bottom:







If you've been around the show care scene or any forums that talk about car detailing, you've probably heard of Zaino Brothers Show Car Polish. I've been using it for about ten years now, have not come across anything better. I used it on the back of the cab and the lower part of the dash that is painted. Here's a few pics:








Painted the wiper motor and cruise control unit. No point in putting in dull parts on a build like this






These are 6x9 speaker brackets that Jeff (BigBlock73) sells. He really does a great job on these. If you haven't bought a pair yet, they are a great addition! Painted these aluminum so they would pop on the black, with the black JL Audio 6x9s.

[BruthaMan]

Headliner. This came out so sweet! Big thanks to Joe (hoser) for the tip in his build thread. I purchased some "faux" leather like material from Joanns Fabrics. My wife looked at me like I was nuts a few weeks ago. I said "Hey baby, I need to go to Joanns, wanna go?" The look was priceless.

The material is not too thick, not too thin. It's hard to describe, but feels like really fine Italian leather. Solid Black. Plan to cover the custom door panels with this too.

Used spray on glue, but I backed it up with some contact cement, sprinkled liberally as we went.










It came out fantastic, better than I thought. I took some pics of it tonight, but it was too dark in the garage and didn't come out well. I'll take some better pics of it tomorrow.


Plastic trim pieces. Used SEM paint prep and black satin plastic paint. I had bought some granite color SEM, as it "shows" to be a dark gray and thought that would look good as a mild offset to the black. Turned out to be a much lighter shade of gray, more like a medium light gray. I had bought some black, as a backup, and ended up going with that. Also had some SEM adhesion promoter, but everyone always talks about how good Bullydog is, so I picked that up and used it instead.








Tomorrow, we plan to set the bucket seats back in, to get a center point to mount the amp and enclosed subwoofer behind seats, mount the 6x9s and, layout the wiring, etc. No idea how far we'll get, but will try to post up some pics of everything.

[flamingbig10]

looking great

[JohnC]

Man that looks awesome!!!!!!!

I'm getting some of that Fatmat too. Have you heard how well it insulates? It doesn't say anything about that on the website, which I know it is pirmarily a sound deadener, but was just curious if it helped any for heat resistance.

The speaker brackets are cool. I got mine this week. Jeff really does do a great job on them. Yours will look awesome painted silver, and then with the black speaker in them! Nice!!

The headliner, and trim pieces turned out great! You truck is coming along nicely. At this pace you may be driving it before end of summer!

[BruthaMan]

Hey John,

Thanks, always appreciate your comments. Aaron, thanks bro!

Fatmat, like most of the other sound deadeners has it's good and bad reviews on the web. It's hard to decipher between what's BS out there and what isn't. A lot of "every day users" have commented it's a great product and does what it's supposed to, then I see the "reviews" by those that seem to want to be the resident "know it all" looking to become the next "authority figure" on the given forum.

I won't know for sure, until I drive it, but it seems like a good enough product. It covers well, it was about the thickness I expected (I bought the mega matt version). No idea if it's the best, but I'm sure it will work for my application.

I bought two rolls. I had read that one roll, used conservatively, would do the floor on our trucks. I wanted to have extra, just in case. Glad I did. One roll will definitely cover from where the carpet starts, back to the bottom of the cab. I went way up into firewall/dash area and covered everything, including the lower half of the rear of the cab, and inside the speaker area. Then did the roof, and I believe I have enough left to do the doors. Cab should be pretty good in terms of sound proofing.

Updates:

We're making great progress, despite having to stop and run to "Lowes" five times a day for misc nuts/bolts and other items for the sound equipment install. It's been 105 degrees here the past few days. The fan in the garage feels like an oversized hair dryer on high heat.

Here's a few shots of the back of the cab, with carpet setup and the speakers, amp and powered subwoofer:












Here's a pic of the headliner, done in a "faux" leather material:




We should have the carpet in tomorrow. Did all the wiring today and really focused on doing a very clean/professional install. Bought amp installation kits, 8 awg power wire, rca twisted pair speaker cables, ground down a spot on rear shelf for grounds.

We put the buckets and center console in, and marked areas on the cab floor that would not be affected by the seats or console, to run the wiring. We're laying it down carefully and using duct tape (gotta love it!) to secure the wiring down nice and snug.

Should have some more updates tomorrow!

[menace121978]

living the dream buddy! awesome progress and pics! everything is looking great!!

one ? though... how do you get so much done?? i havent even started planning my interior yet!!

[flamingbig10]

sound system install does look professional great job, so I guess the interior will be mostly black with a little gray

[BruthaMan]

@Dennis - My son-in-law is here this week and part of next. It really helps having someone to work with.

I work at home. I have a small software company with a few software products and a few other online businesses. They are, for the most part (other than support) fully automated, and come with good documentation which helps keep support fairly minimal.

Very rarely, though, does any progress on the truck go as planned. You guys would have laughed, if you saw how many times we've been to Lowes the past two days. Five times on thursday for various screws, nuts, bolts and hardware, along with two trips to the parts store and one trip to the parts yard to figure out the dash mounting clips. Three trips on Friday, two to Lowes, one to Walmart for another amp kit for the powered subwoofer. And of course, a trip to Mi Famalias Burrito stand for lunch


@Aaron - Thanks. Really took our time on the install to make sure everything was solid. No split wires, no electrical tape, etc. Last time I installed an audio system was 1985 in a new Blazer. Times, they have changed!

Carpet is a medium gray for some contrast. Most everything else will be black. I bought the custom door panels that you have from Chris. Plan to cover the main piece with the same black material as the headliner, and the overlay piece and bottom insert (same material), going to dye the material with SEM Granite which should be about the same color as the carpet.