Florida M1009 interior project has begun!

[deank]

Thank you deank! Here is another heads up for M1009 drivers. While remaking my seatbelts, I found an issue. The white latch buttons on the side door jams are suppose to deactivate the latching mechanism of the shoulder belt when the door is opened. This serves two purposes. 1 to retract the seatbelt so rear passengers can enter and exit the vehicle unimpeded. 2 so you don't go down the road dragging you seatbelt if you forget to put it on. The issue I believe I found is that this latching mechanism is made from a soft nylon material (both good and bad) more on that in a moment. The soft nature of the latch button allows it to slide off the flat of the door and over time take a noticeable set. It then wears at that angle. View attachment 960669View attachment 960670
This then allows the latching mechanism to stay unlocked and in the retracted position, not sure if this locks out the inertia dongal or not. Should know more on that when I dig in deeper. From what I understand this is only used on the Blazer body style. No suburban or trucks have them from what I've read and only there to access the rear seating. This part is not available to purchase, I guess they don't want people digging into the seatbelt mechanism. On my 1009 only the drivers door was in complete failure mode. Passengers door was rough but functional. My work around was to drill out some 3/8 aluminum rod to the proper depth using a 5/16 bit to allow for the 1/4" diameter spring. I then cut it to the proper length. I used the old latch trigger as a sleeve over the rod I made. View attachment 960672View attachment 960671View attachment 960673
View attachment 960674View attachment 960675
With some creative drilling 3/8 bit and sandpaper rolled and chucked up in the drill the soft nylon hollow center can be enlarged and used as a tight fitting sleeve over the aluminum rod. I'm really happy with the finished product and have complete confidence it will perform better than oem without deformation. Some finish sanding on the outside surface of the sleeve has it running smoothly through the housing tube. Any comments or insights would be welcome as this is a lifesaving device.

Thank you,
James

That is a fantastic rebuild, excellent solution!

 

[Geo James]

Okay, UPDATE! After digging deep into the mechanism and disassembly. The findings are, the latch button only affects the the slack allowance pressure clutch mechanism.

It has no affect on the main latch bar controlled by the inertia weight used in a panic stop, crash or rollover. Drive worryfree!

 

[pgp29646]

Thanks for sharing your build - looks great!

Doesn't look like you made it to the door panels yet.... curious to know what paint to use on them to best match the original burgundy color. Duplicolor Carmine red?

 

[Geo James]

Seatbelt UPDATE!
Rear seatbelts were pretty easy to service. The reel axle is held in by a staked on nut. Pretty easy to remove stake and restake when completed. Front seatbelts are a completely different animal. Axle shaft is staked to the reel during assembly, I did not feel comfortable trying to recreate this so I am ordering new complete black front belts from LMC. It's just not worth the risk. I'll paint the plastic trim pieces to match the rear and the rest of the interior and call it good. I would say other than the door jam button there are no other serviceable parts in the front retracting device.

pgp29646

Due to color variances on digital screens, I did not want to spend time money and effort trying to get a match. Chevy called the interior bronze and was only used in the CUCV. I took a trim piece to home depot and got as close as I could with the rustoleum X2 paint and primer in one made for metal, plastic and wood. It's a little lighter than original but works for me. The color is satin French truffle. The trim pieces you see in my previous posts are this color. I will be doing the door panels very soon. I'm going to build and cover new armrests with the remnant seat vinyl and paint the plastic. They had a rustoleum paint a shade darker but was only available in gloss. Hope that helps.

 

[Geo James]

Instrument cluster completed today. The printed circuit from LMC was an exact fit. Even found the broken tip of the speedometer needle and was able to reattach.


Started the dashpad today. Cheap Amazon pad seemed to pre-fit pretty nice. Couple spots I'll have to work but I think it's going to look nice. Better than the cracked gray for sure!


Thanks for looking !

 

[Geo James]

Got the door panels finished today! Installed the new weatherstrip. Still have to build my armrests, not sure how I want to do them yet. Put color on the new front seatbelts from LMC. Did the final fitment of the dash cover. I'll start attaching it this evening.



More to come.

 

[M1009_SPAIN]

¡Eso es fantástico! Me salva de tener que reproducirlos. Gracias por la información. Acabo de terminar las viseras. Es hora de tirar del asiento trasero. [ADJUNTAR tipo="completo"]958533[/ADJUNTAR] [/CITA]

Have you bought the skin replacement? or did you make it? If you made it, could you tell me how, I'm interested because mine are very ugly.

 

[Geo James]

Which skins are you referring to? Seat or visors?
I made them both from vinyl I bought from Brytech industries in Jacksonville, FL. Brytech sells it on Amazon also, if it's in stock.

 

[Geo James]

Which skins are you referring to? Seat or visors?
I made them both from vinyl I bought from Brytech industries in Jacksonville, FL. Brytech sells it on Amazon also, if it's in stock.

 

[Geo James]

Forgot the before and after pics. This was the only before door panels shots I could find.


Front seatbelts.

 

[Geo James]

When I pulled the dash out I notice some water puddled on the new floor paint on both driver and passenger floors. Looks like the vent window seals are leaking. Back to LMC to get parts for vent window rebuilds. It's a 2 piece seal and reusing the glass and main frame and just buying the glass frame, seals latches and hardware will be $177 for both vs. Almost $600 for drop in replacements. It will be nice to eliminate the whistling vent and have good solid, locking latches.

If anyone is interested in the process I used on the door panels just say and I'll do a write up on the details.

Thanks for following the interior journey. Can't wait to get it all back together and see how it looks as a whole.

This is where I started.

 

[Geo James]

Working on getting my mechanical gauges mounted right now. Something to do while I wait out the cold. I cut out a piece of scrap stainless sheet metal to cover the radio area recess and covered that with a piece of scrap ABS leftover from the rear seat bottom. Texture matches the dash bezel perfectly. I'll mount my oil and temp where the radio goes and volts where the original amp meter was mounted. Had to go with Bosch mini gauges (1.5in) to fit the radio cutout in the metal dash. Not sure how i want to mount the trim plate yet. Screws in the corners or a pressure plate from the back.
Slowly but surely, if I could just stay out of the rabbit holes. I don't want to have to go back into it, so if I want to do it then nows the time.
Only drawback I can foresee is next time I need to pull the dash bezel, I'll have to disconnect the oil and temp gauge to pull it. With the new printed circuit and bulbs, I hope that's a long time from now.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Geo James]

Got the gauge plates cutout and the dash mocked up. Don't know if it's the phone or me. Photography is not my forte.

 

[Geo James]

Learned more this week about plastics than I ever wished to know. I always thought plastics can be bonded pretty easily, never had a bond fail. Little did I know the difference in plastics bonding is dependent on the materials surface energy. The Dash pad i ordered is TPE (thermoplastic elastimer) it's nice and flexible has a great dull sheen to it but it's more conducive to cook eggs on than glue to a dash. Nothing wants to stick to it. It's Low Surface Energy value of <36 makes it very difficult to bond to. PVC is 39, ABS is 42. Long story short, I would give the dash pad 1 star for effort. I feel long term and probably more short term it will fail due to lack of adequate adhesion. I see they sell a hard version on Amazon for the same price which is made of ABS. I'm going to use this one just to get it on the road and keep an eye out for a junkyard dash and try the hard ABS.

We learn from our failures.....and our successes.

Cheers!

 

[Geo James]

Started putting it back together today. Atleast I can drive it again now. So far so good. Hoping to get the rest of the seats in tomorrow and passenger door panel. Fingers crossed, time is a prized commodity right now.
Before and after.

 

[Geo James]

Managed to get a little painting done.
I'm sure the HOA loves me. Can't wait till I start firing it off at 5am every morning. Oh well a man's got to get to work.

 

[deank]

Looking good!

 

[Geo James]

Well got a lot done today. Pretty much complete except for a few things to rap up. Missed seating the drivers side corner dash cap clip so the corner at the bezel is sitting a 1/2in high. Can't seat the dash bezel till I correct that. Need to switch over to the new temp gauge and hook up the oil pressure gauge. Going to tee off and run the oil gauge and the light. New radiator (Spectra premium CU850) will be here Wednesday. New hoses, belts and oil cooler lines will get changed then. While I have the radiator out I'm changing the harmonic balancer. Next up will be springs, steering box and complete brake job including all soft hoses, calipers, wheel cylinders and master cylinder. Complete flush and new DOT 5 fill. When that's done I'll tackle the rust spots at my leisure. Gonna be my daily driver and sell my 2019 silverado. Looking forward to no computers, wheel sensors $700 (DEALER price), $4000 infotainment screen, $6000 transmission, and the infamous DFM.

Pictures with sun makes it look more red than it really is. Digital pallet.

Before pictures were taken 11/25/25, three months start to finishish. Me only me touched any part of the truck. Truly DIY.


And BEFORE

 

[deank]

Well got a lot done today. Pretty much complete except for a few things to rap up. Missed seating the drivers side corner dash cap clip so the corner at the bezel is sitting a 1/2in high. Can't seat the dash bezel till I correct that. Need to switch over to the new temp gauge and hook up the oil pressure gauge. Going to tee off and run the oil gauge and the light. New radiator (Spectra premium CU850) will be here Wednesday. New hoses, belts and oil cooler lines will get changed then. While I have the radiator out I'm changing the harmonic balancer. Next up will be springs, steering box and complete brake job including all soft hoses, calipers, wheel cylinders and master cylinder. Complete flush and new DOT 5 fill. When that's done I'll tackle the rust spots at my leisure. Gonna be my daily driver and sell my 2019 silverado. Looking forward to no computers, wheel sensors $700 (DEALER price), $4000 infotainment screen, $6000 transmission, and the infamous DFM.

Pictures with sun makes it look more red than it really is. Digital pallet.

Before pictures were taken 11/25/25, three months start to finishish. Me only me touched any part of the truck. Truly DIY.
View attachment 963203View attachment 963204View attachment 963205View attachment 963206View attachment 963207View attachment 963210View attachment 963211

And BEFORE
View attachment 963213View attachment 963214View attachment 963215

Looks really good! Great work.

 

[WWRD99]

Well got a lot done today. Pretty much complete except for a few things to rap up. Missed seating the drivers side corner dash cap clip so the corner at the bezel is sitting a 1/2in high. Can't seat the dash bezel till I correct that. Need to switch over to the new temp gauge and hook up the oil pressure gauge. Going to tee off and run the oil gauge and the light. New radiator (Spectra premium CU850) will be here Wednesday. New hoses, belts and oil cooler lines will get changed then. While I have the radiator out I'm changing the harmonic balancer. Next up will be springs, steering box and complete brake job including all soft hoses, calipers, wheel cylinders and master cylinder. Complete flush and new DOT 5 fill. When that's done I'll tackle the rust spots at my leisure. Gonna be my daily driver and sell my 2019 silverado. Looking forward to no computers, wheel sensors $700 (DEALER price), $4000 infotainment screen, $6000 transmission, and the infamous DFM.

Pictures with sun makes it look more red than it really is. Digital pallet.

Before pictures were taken 11/25/25, three months start to finishish. Me only me touched any part of the truck. Truly DIY.
View attachment 963203View attachment 963204View attachment 963205View attachment 963206View attachment 963207View attachment 963210View attachment 963211

And BEFORE
View attachment 963213View attachment 963214View attachment 963215

This looks amazing! Your interior work is spot on. I am assuming you have been doing that stuff for a long time. That back seat looks better than gm made it. I have a few NOS covers for the back seat and a few for the front but not a full set. I am on the eternal hunt to find the ones I don't have for a full set someday. Did you replace the foam in the front seats? I did do the plastic cover on the dash. I used the black weatherstrip adhesive to glue it to the dash and it worked very well. Got a close color too. I put weights on the dash for a day to hold it tight and it hasn't pulled yet. I've done a few balancers stock and fluid. The fluid ones made a massive difference in felt idle vibrations in both of them to almost non existent. Expensive but worth it. Daily one of these is fun. Sometimes you go months with not so much as a hickup...then sometimes the planet blows up and it needs all kinds of weird stuff. Make sure the starter bolts are tight and the front bracket is good. Have fun with the rest of the fixup!