I just bought an 86 camaro and the interior in it is shot so im taking the interior out of my 90 camaro and switching it over, the pannels dont seem to be lining up right with the holes so i can bolt it in, am i just doing something wrong or is the plastic different from the years?

 

I put a full set of panels from a 92 into an 83 several years ago... Some of the panels key into each other. If they aren't hooked together right, they don't fit right. Pay attention to the tabs on the back and the edges of panels. Some of them will key into spots on the body. When the panels are in place, push them up against the steel and move the panel around until you see the screw hole, and then put in the screw.

If you're in a REAL pinch, many of the screws are self tapping. If you really can't find the hole, and you've removed and reinstalled the panel a few times and absolutely can't get them lined up, you can hit em with a drill driver and they'll go right in making a new hole. That should be an absolute last resort, because if they're keyed together and lined up right, they'll line up.

 

Also, any way to change the seat belts out from the 86 to the 90s newer style?

 

Yes, but you'll have to get the mounting plates out of a newer car and weld them into your car.

 

Don't bother installing the rear belts. You'll probably never use the back seat for anything anyways other than maybe a pet (if necessary).

Put the sail panels in first, the kick panels, and then the panels covering the lower seat belt retractors followed by the sill plates. Put the pillar post trim, tail panel, and the ceiling bow in, and the spare tire cover goes in dead last. Be careful installing the sail panels as it's not too hard to catch them on the body attachments for the hatch struts.

 

besides the rear seat belts, the other issue that you're going to encounter is the rear panel that covers up the hatch pull-down motor. The newer style bulges out further to accommodate that motor, but your car doesn't have it. You will probably be best off reusing the original piece for that location.

EDIT: Oops... just realized your car is an 86. For some reason I was thinking you were swapping the new interior into an older car. My bad.

 

my car doesnt have the rear hatch pull down, unless they changed style from 86 till 90, i only have two plugs back there, one is for the third brake light and the other i think is idk, its a white plug type with one prong if that helps any, i think the wires are red with a white stripe and the other is black but dont quote me on those plug wire colors.

 

Which car are you referring to? IIRC, both the 86 and the 90 both are supposed to have the pulldown, which would connect to the single wire connector with the red/white wire.

 

I swapped out my old 89 interior for a better condition 87 interior. I found that all the holes were close, but few were exact. Since they were self tapping, I drilled many a new holes. Just be carefull where you're drilling into.

 

The hole for the rear roller shade apparently was changed. I had installed a later set of plastics in my '86 and the holes were off from where it screwed into the metal part of the body. I installed a different (later) set that did not include holes and transferred the hole locations of the original 1986 plastics to the later version and it was off from the pre-cut markers on the later version.

Probably not explaining it very well. See in the pic below where it's pre-scored and how it doesn't match up with the earlier location.




Below is how I transferred the location from a couple of reference points:




Otherwise I didn't notice any issues.

 

im talking about the 86, i tried putting the 90's pull down in it but again the wires didnt match up, did the pull down units change from the years?

 

this is actually really good to know. I have to cut the hole in one of my interior pieces and was going to just cut on the marks on theback of the panel. Not now, i have to measure.

thanks for the heads up

 

The pulldown units themselves didn't change until about halfway through 91. The wiring, however, may have. My red/white connector seems to have been put into or back into the wiring harness with one of those crimp connector (tap) things. All you would need is to go out and get a package of bullet connectors and put the wires together if the connectors don't match.

However, the wiring back there is screwy. I guess GM used the universal pulldown unit... Parts can be scavenged from a number of vehicles (including some Caddilacs). Anyways, the body side of the power connector has a red/white wire, and the pulldown side is blue, for some reason. Do you still have the link to my PhotoBucket? There is a vid on there that shows how to put in the pulldown assembly. Unfortunately, I can't make a new one without a wiring harness to connect the pulldown to.

 

Yeah i still have the link, i didn't think about cutting the connector from the 90 and re-wireing it into my 86 to work with the pull down... thanks guys

 

Like I said, check to see if it'll plug in before you dive in to rewire it. I'll double check my diagrams when I get out of work tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure the body side is red/white and the pulldown wire is blue. Don't forget to screw the ground to the nearby ground screw.

 

will do, i think tomorrow im getting the fuel pump out of my 90 and installing my new gaskets on my intake so i can try to start this thing, after all that ill look into the connectors

 

Glad it helped.
I know I've gotten a lot of advice from here so I'm glad to be able to do so in return.