Hey everyone,

I've been following LS1 and interior threads for a few years on here now and now it's my turn. I was lucky enough to purchase an 01 Z28 that had been in a rearend collision and therefore my 88 is getting turned into a 01 Z28 in 88 skin; LS1, 4L60E, 10 bolt with a Torsen, full electrical, HVAC, dash, console, seats, and door panels. Front brakes are getting the 13" C4 HD treatment and wheels will come courtesy of a C6 Vette.

Enough of the rest (I will start the LS1 thread once I start on it) lets get into the interior. I've been looking for a thread which might not be on TGO but has pictured the stock mounting brackets on a 3rd gen car modified to accept the 4th gen dash. These did not require welding though, only cutting of the top tabs... Anyone have leads on this thread? Thanks!

My modified 3rd gen intrerior so far included leather seats from a 96 SS Convert, 4th gen seatbelts, and 4th gen e-brake, along with a B&M Pro Stick. So far my progress after has been disassembly of everything.
Any questions, please ask. I've found the threads very helpful for myself in the past even though I haven't posted myself much.

Art

 

Pics of disassembly progress. Nothing too exciting...

 

i like turtles

 

Thank you Jonathan the zombie kid

 

sorry im kinda new at this but was there any extensive mods needed to get the seats and everything in there? i would like to do this to my 87 iroc but have no clue where to start

 

the 4'th gen seats just bolt in, all you need it a philips screwdriver and a rachet with a 1/2 socket.

 

Wow! I'd die if my interior looked ANYTHING like that! Good luck with the swap, a fourth gen swap is about the only way you could make that look any nicer.

On another note would you be interested in selling any of that interior? If you are I call dibs on it. Like, all of it

 

x2 (13mm actually ), the only thing I found with my leathers, which the 4th gen cloths that I had in before didn't do, is they seem to sit a bit further toward the doors and actually the 3rd gen arm rests were in contact with the seat bolster. Kinda weird and I've tried to adjust them as far to the center as I could with no luck. So I don't know if that's a leather seat thing, a power seat thing, or if I just got an odd set, but that's my story.

 

Heh thanks, I'm hoping the dash will fit as nicely as I've seen it before. I'm just not looking forward to cutting the stock dash brackets off, gotta do it for the swap but there's not turning back then.

Yes everything I'm replacing is for sale and ready to go, Complete dash with perfect dash pad, w/f gauges, switches, factory carpeted dash mat, etc., Complete console with an uncracked lid, black carpeted sides, HVAC controls with A/C (shifter plate was modified to take the Pro Stick thou), complete power door panels, tilt/cruise column with stock steering wheel (the Grant is going back in the car). I'm sure I still have the stock auto shifter aswell (or a 4th gen atleast) and an extra park/neutral lockout cable. Auto pedal set with a good working brake booster... black carpet in mint shape and original floor mats, black carpeted kick panels, another set of 4th gen black seatbelts...

heh sorry got carried away, anyways I'm up in Canada so shipping might be pricey but if you are interested in something it is all up for grabs. Gonna craigslist it too pretty soon.

 

Here's some more progress of disassembly, which is now complete except for pulling the carpet later for my weld-in framerail connectors...

How do I attach more than 3 pics per post?

 

Now for the 4th gen pedals and brake booster installed. I know some of this is repetitive from other threads but here's my story anyways.

These were a direct bolt-in but I used both from a 4th gen. Mixing and matching 3rd and 4th gen will result in some reaming of holes. Two bolts that are guaranteed not to line up are, 1. the hole for the lower right stud of the gas pedal bracket isn't even close, which is fine for me, and 2. the main top hanger bolt is about 3/4-1 inch off to one side which I still have to modify to work.

The gray rubber booster rod cover is slightly bigger on the 4th gen booster than my 88 but easily pulled through the hole in the firewall with a set of pliers and seals actually better than the original 3rd gen one. Some early 3rd gens are known for a smaller hole yet which may have to be modified (82-84 I think). The mounting studs on the 4th gen booster are 5/16's versus 3/8's tread (or metric equivalent) which also causes some difficulties when mixing the parts. The fitment under the hood is great too but does sit closer to the firewall and is a bit bigger around.

More pics here
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/ltx-...project-3.html

 

What part of Canada? lol it looks like it's coming along pretty well so far. I wish I could find a nice parts car for an interior..

 

I'm in the Vancouver area. Lots of Maro's here but 95% of the 3rd gens are all rotten or beat to hell. I got pretty lucky with my parts car, the only options it didn't have was leather interior and a high series carrier for the Torsen. Some of the 01's came with the LS6 blocks too, and I think the 243 LS6 heads but they were few and far between. Otherwise it worked out great because I wanted to stay auto with my car and the trim level is the same in the two aswell so everything just swaps over ( with some work of course )

To update, I Got the vents modified to fit in and the dash frame temporarily mounted. Going to try something different with the lower dash brackets that I haven't seen done before. Would like to try to do it without welding since most people don't have an access to one. I will if I really need it but not at home so I'd have to mock it up and do the final weld at the shop. oopps gotta go take some pics.

 

Here's some current pics. The airbox seals pretty well. It's bee nmodified pretty well just like the others but I'll take some pics once I take it out again.

 

The difference between 3rd gen mounts and 4th gen dash bracket

 

Ok, So my goal for today was to get the factory dash brackets cut and modified and I think I've accomplished what I was after. Everything looks like it'll clear the dash itself and if it does it has been an extremely easy non-welding way to modify the 3rd gen brackets for the 4th gen dash.

Pics in my photo album https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/album.php?albumid=2953

The passenger side will require a spacer of about an inch but that's an easy fix. Everything is sitting in natural state with no binding therefore that dash should juts slip over top of the frame and bolt in.

 

Well the dash is in and fits pretty well. I had to do a bit more screwing around with the lower brackets with bending and trimming but the basic modification worked great IMO.

The d-side top bracket also did not reach all the way to the firewall so I'm going to just build it up with washers and use a long screw. I know there was one thread on a 93-97 dash that was chopped to sit flush but I would have had to cut the side of the dash and pulling the dash to the firewall would have forced the dash to twist. One question I have if anyone has done this swap already is,

Does the bracket coming off the back of the dash at the top (on the back of the gauge cluster housing) usually sit fairly high. I'm just looking at it and I'm wondering if the contour of the dashpad will cover that and still slide in the bottom corner of the windshield? Or does that have to be trimmed,... or does the dashpad never sit quite right to the windshield. I've never seem pics from the front or through the glass?

I still have to trim the top pad and figure out the vacuum lines to work the air controls. Steering column should be going in tomorrow and then I'll see if all the 3rd gen wireing will work with that, all looks the same... I have to run both sets of harnesses in the car for now, one to run the V6 when I need to move it and another to have the LS1 a plug&play swap when I get to it. What a mess of wires.

I think I might slide the console in too even thou it'll have to come back out. I just want to see what it looks like complete. Once this is buttoned up I might start on the door panels. I think the pillar trim mendong will have to wait for a bit,... but then again maybe I'll pick away at that too.

 

she looks great.

 

here is what i did for the lower bracket mounts if it help you any. worked out rather well.

Driver side

Passenger side

 

I really wish I could put one of these in my car. It looks great, but I would be so lost it wouldn't be funny.

 

Ah, you don't have to be lost. Just change everything and it'll all just plug back in the way it came apart LS1 is definitely the way to go.

 

yea its pretty straight forward, i got lucky on my ls1

 

Heh I was kidding but hey that sounds even better for me. I haven't finished building the motor yet so I don't even want to think about how long that weekend is going to be. I do have to say if it's anything like what I just went through with the dash, I'll be as happy as a pig in ****.
My last two major projects were putting a SBC in a Vega w/ headers... GRrrrrr and a SBC in a Vette... A CHEvette heh so I know all about unexpected headaches.

 

Here's some finished pics of the interior for now. I have to build another mount adapter for the ProStick and cut the shifter plate to fit the shifter to complete the console area. And cut the dash pad, install my stereo, and get the HVAC vacuum to complete the dash.

I might start on the door panels next so I can wire the doors with the power window switches etc. and have more of the 4th gen harness in the car. I have some brand new GM door handles to put on the outside and some 50% tint to overlay the flames. Need another long weekend...

It's funny how the console doesn't match the dash even thou the came from the same car. Mind you the flash is making the color match MUCH worse than it actually is...

And what made me happy today was that the car still started once I got the 3rd gen harness (that's located on the floor right now) plugged-in to the column.

 

That's a good idea. I guess you never had these posted before, or I never found them. I looked forever for different ways to do this. Alot less massaging than what I had to do. Do you have pics of your LS1 swap? Or a thread?

 

Yea i forgot to put these in my dash swap thread. my ls1 swap thread is in my sig.
Im working on making a write-up for 4th gen dash swaps so i should have that is a few days

 

Well been crazy for the last while and haven't got much done lately, still staring at the door panels... I did get the dashpad cut (a few times now) and I'm having a problem with the pad not sitting down in the front middle by the defroster vents at the velcro. I'm not sure if I still didn't cut it short enough but seems like it's twisting due to the tab hanging towards the windshield at the back of the dash at cluster ad making the center pop up. Anyone else had this problem?

Also I did pickup a FB cluster face (with the frames around all the gauges) and now looking at some FB white faced gauge overlays.

Another question I have is did any 4th gen cars have the heater water control valve? My 88 has it and I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to plumb that in to the 4th gen heater controls. I've done some searches and I keep finding just to ditch the valve all together. Otherwise my vacuum is all ready to go.

 

Hey, any updates?

I am picking up my 4th gen dash tomorrow, and was wondering if you had any pics of your lower dash mounts?

 

Hey,
Nothing new of late. My dash is as good as it's gonna get for now. All the mounting pics are either in this thread or my photo album, can't remember. I was going to move on to my door panels but I've been getting my driveline ready for the swap instead. I also found I'm getting water in the driverside front from somewhere so I may have to pull the dash out again to find/fix it.

One piece of advise for you is to pull the heaterbox, the plastic cover and all the insulation at the firewall off to see what's behind it while your old dash is out. I was in such a hurry to get the dash back in that I skipped that. Now I'm kicking myself cause I can't find this leak.

I did find a few things to help me out in the 4th gen heater control department. Used an idea from another thread where a guy cut the nub off at the bottom of the hot/cold air door (where the 4th gen control cable attaches) and fab it to the 3rd gen door mechanism. Then use a hot/cold control cable from an early (a 95 parts car I had before) 4th gen instead of the 01 because the 95 has about 6" of extra cable with the same ends where the 01 cable is almost too short.

I also used the vacuum lead extention from the 01, took the plastic coupler from the car side of the 01, and attached the vacuum hoses from the 88 into that with a bit of black permatex. Now I have a plug & play vacuum system. I haven't figured out how to make use of the heater control valve vacuum thou.

If you hav any questions I'll be glad to help.
Later

 

Leaks suck, especially into the interior.

My car is AC-Delete, so no worries about that stuff.

I am confused on how the headlight switch gets integrated to the 3rd gen harness..

Here is what I got:
HEADLIGHT SWITCH
Orange to orange
red to red
yellow to yellow
brown to brown
the brown also needs to go to your dimmer switch input and the output from that goes to the grey wires for your dash lights and also the grey lead for the headlight switch

DIMMER SWITCH
Outer Wires
Black - ground
White - Dome light
Brown – Parking lights from headlight switch
Green –To grey wires for dash lights

Wire Functions
white is for the dome lights
grey is dash lights
yellow to headlights
brown is your parking lights
the orange and red are hot at all times
all black are ground

Mainly, the brown wire for the headlights, I am not sure what it is telling me about input/output and the grey wires? Are all the wires that hook into the fourth gen headlight switch found on the connector for the 3rd gen headlight switch? My car is a convertible so no dome light to worry about, and honestly I really don't need a dimmer switch, I would prefer for the instrument cluster to be fully lit up when the headlights are turned on.

Thanks, man!

 

I'm sorry I can't help you with the wireing. I'm using the full 01 harness in my car and adapting the few things to that I need to to work with the 3rg gen stuff. Less adapting for me this way, and I had it all in hand so I might aswell. Do a search on TGO here. There's some good threads on that and I got some other dash ideas from them too.

The A/C delete will make it easier for you but you'll still have the heater mechanism to worry about, unless you are eliminating heat/cold all together. All of the vents are oprated by air solenoids which you'll have to hook up.

 

Im deleting Air and heat all together. Taking out the delete box, and all the ducting. Ok, I have a non-wiring question for ya: Is the ducting for the Air conditioning and stuff part of the supporting structure of the dash itself? Like, will I need the airboxes and ducting anyway in order to mount the dashboard, and does the steering column have to be removed in order to install the lower mounting bar?

Thanks for the help, I searched on the wiring, and I have a few thread bookmarked and I even drew up a gauge wiring schematic, and the headlight wiring schematic but the headlights have me confused.

 

The A/C unit is completely self-contained. Take the bolts out of the box and the engine bay wiring comes through a hole in the firewall. A bit of a tight fit, but the wiring and box come out all at once. Don't forget to disconnect the wiring from the engine harness and the blower resistors. Also, the duct can be removed from the center of the dash... Doesn't appear to be a support. There is a metal bar that IS a support, however.

 

Yeah I'll second the ducting and the metal support. I'd pull the column out just to make things easier, might not necessary to completely remove it but sure easier. Just take the pinch bolt off in the engine bay and tap the column towards the inside of the car with a mallet. It'll come loose. Not at the steering box thou, half way up, the knuckle won't fit through the hole.

The ony thing I found with the ducting is that it helps out all the bracketry by taking some of the weight onto the airbox but I don't think it's 100% necessary in there. And it's not really downward weight but weight that wants to swing forward. Maybe add a bracket front the steel support on the bottom of the dash to the firewall.

 

I personally like the Third gen interior way better than the fourth gen, but it still look good.

 

The ducting doesn't really bolt to anything other than the dash, so it doesn't really provide any support other than vertically between the top and bottom of the dash. If you're really worried about it, add a couple steel straps between the upper mounts and the lower mounts for the center duct and the lip under the windshield. Also connecting both mounts together.

 

Allright, thanks for the help guys.

I pulled the 4th gen dash (97 Camaro) out yesterday and I may start removing the old dash today. I noticed a couple things that I was wondering about the swap. The lower bracket that holds the dash in can slide in over the column as long as the bolts are just loosened, which is what I am going to do, along with taking the steering wheel out. The Air box assembly is in fact a self contained thing, so I just left it in the 4th gen.