Body/Interior Stuff - Preventing Rust, Seat Upgrade ?s, etc

[KnuckleheadS10]

Hey all, recently been thinking about how I want to go about upgrading my interior to leather. I know ZR5s did have a leather option, but there are almost none in any junkyards nationwide - good for reliability stats, bad for pick and pull options. I wanted to see if anyone here had done a swap, and how they sourced the seats - at this stage I'm thinking of asking a parts sourcer, my local stealership, or possibly just grabbing a tore up blazer heated power seat and having a leather upholsterer put in some quality leather - everything I gathered on the old Blazer seats when I was researching for my 95 Ext Cab S10 was that they were a definite upgrade, but the "leather" was actually vinyl. No idea if this changed with the ZR5s though. I'd also like to have heaters put in the backseat too for maximum comfort, maybe wiring a button to the back of the center console. Thoughts?

Also wondering what others may have done to prevent body rust. I'm debating having the rockers from the indent line down and the inner door sills in the same area Line-Xed all the way around, but I don't know if that is 100% surefire. I really want to keep this truck looking clean and avoiding any pain from the winter and general wear. Not sure if I should remove the ZR5 fender flares and have Line-X spray that area as well.

[_STUCKY]

The round body 4 door blazers have what you need. Bravada's all had "leather" and other fancy interior bits. The seats swap right over, and there is a plug taped to the floor under the carpet for the seats. I believe it was just in front of the hump for the rear seat, passenger side. If you find a bravada, you can also grab the door panels and the home link stuff. Personally I couldn't care less about homelink, but it also has more features for the overhead console like average mpgs and range. I think they also had a self dimming mirror that's on that harness too. And lighted visors. Other things I also pulled from a 99 bravada were, glove box light, roof rack (for my topper, same as the zr5 but with longer rails), dual 12v outlets under the dash on passenger side. If you can get it out, bravadas and awd Astro vans also have a 1 piece axle shaft in the front to get rid of the disconnect. The bravada seats are a big upgrade over the stock cloth seats I had. I didn't like sitting on the floor, and the heat is nice. I wouldn't worry too much about a rear seat heater, the rear seat is kinda uncomfortable to sit in if your are bigger than a 12 year old. I very rarely have people in the back seat. I did however put another 12v outlet in the removable plastic cover of the center console.

For the rear seat, the only bolt in is from another crew cab pickup. There was a guy that swapped in a blazer seat years ago, I don't remember specifics, but should be able to search here for it, pics could very possibly be dead. As for the rear door panels, again only a 4 door crew cab for a straight swap, but there was also another member here that grabbed the rear panels from I believe a 95-97 4 door blazer, made a tool to melt the plastic on the back to remove the "leather" part and put it on his door panels. I never tried it, but did find the panels, have them in the shed, it looks like it'd work fine. I don't remember what he did to attach them to the stock panels. Epoxy perhaps, I don't know.

As for rust, I would think that by line x ing it you would be sealing in whatever rust has already started. Mine is starting to get bad around the rear corner passenger rocker and front rocker under drivers door. I don't know what I want to do. I took all my flares off and the bed has some bubbling around the holes. Another spot to look for rust is the front bed mount, the sheet metal channel that the bolts go through. When I was crew cab shopping, I would grab the bed and lift it to see if it moved. If so, next truck. Disappointed some salesmen I'm sure. Same with the flares, if they were loose, next truck. The flares cost so much to replace its kinda dumb to be worried about. I forget who, but someone here took the flares off, put some "buttons" or whatever you want to call them in the holes for the flares and had it painted over, was pretty slick. I like the look of mine without flares.

[KnuckleheadS10]

A Bravada is definitely on my search list, funnily enough I was just reading in the overhead console thread all of the things HenryJ was swapping over. I attempted the self dimming mirror off a Saturn Vue in my 95 but after I cracked my windshield trying to get the old one out I said screw it and left well enough alone! IDK jack about Homelink, some form of vehicle monitoring from within the house or vice versa? I do think that most of those things would be handy additions to my CC - especially the MPG, can't seem to figure it out - so a trip to the pick and pull if I can find a newer Bravada may be warranted.

As far as seats go, the problem is finding them in an un-janked state. Most yard hauls have the left side blowout or crack, and most people selling them on craigslist or other sites want $200-300+, which just blows my mind as they're basically junk vinyl. I mean, I'd roll with them until I got the money to reupholster them, but my main attachment is to the OEM power, lumbar and heated bits. My CC does have a plug under the drivers seat that I found when I lost a nut to my roofrack under the seat, but unless it's buried or tucked away I don't know about the passengers side. My thought process on heating the backseat is more of a "why not" than anything - if I'm going to the trouble of putting heated power in the front and possibly new good leather, why not add some heat to the back as well when it gets popped off to be redone? I'd probably just have whoever did that do the door panels as well, would be more costly but it would all match up then.

Luckily for me there is very little in the way of visible rust - not to say there is none, but the body is straight and the only spots with some beginning to form were right under the back doors. I know exactly what you're talking about on the bed mount/drip channel - when mine got sprayed I had three or four big portions chopped out and new metal welded in, and once my dad has his garage addition built (he's got his own passion project - his fathers 47 Dodge Power Wagon) I think we may pop the bed off and flip it to grind down any rust spots, weld in new where needed, fab up an entirely new bed mount, and then weld it in and spray it with undercoat just to be safe. Mine has some rust visible but it's still solid on the frame, so I think I will be okay for the time being. My flares are faded on top in the back, but all four are still solid on the body, so I think they're okay. One of those things where you almost don't want to take it off for fear of finding something terrible underneath! I think that was jedthro who did that mod, he seems pretty well versed in S-10 bodywork what with his cutting the flares to fit his solid axles and all.

[LoneWolf04]

Just a word of caution with upgrading to power seats. I was tempted to do the swap from a blazer I parted out with cloth seats. Not all the functions worked on the seat and while doing some extensive research to find a replacement motor, because GM doesn't sell just the motors for those seats, I decided to scrap the idea. If you wanted to buy the whole seat bottom with all motors it was upwards of $500-600 if you could find one since they are so old. Definitely an oversight on serviceability. Searched all the numbers on the motor itself and even to see if anyone had changed one and could only find items for full size motor swaps. Good luck with your upgrades.

[KnuckleheadS10]

Good looking out, I had already planned to bring a little AA converter kit to test all seat power functions before pulling them. It was also from what I'd gathered the easiest way to access the bolts if the seat was pushed back - just run it all the way up! In your research, did you ever see if GM has the leather seats available to order? I plan on asking my local dealership but not sure if it's worth it.

[LoneWolf04]

The seat I had it was the motor the runs the seat forward and back that failed. Again, bad design on GMs part unfortunately. If I could've got another motor for $50 I probably would've continued with the swap.

If you're looking for interior updates I would scrounge the yard and upgrade the overhead console with a homelink garage door opener as well as the upgraded display to give you mpg, miles to empty, etc. All components will be found in a blazer.

[_STUCKY]

For me the seats from a 99 bravada swapped right in, all functions worked. However since then one of the wires on the passenger seat has broke and not everything works currently. It appears to be an easy fix.

As for the homelink console, at some point m truck got an aftermarket sunroof. They chopped up the overhead console. N order to get the homelink stuff to work in my console, I had to swap the guts around. There were a couple pins that's needed moved, but it's been so long I doubt I have any pointers on what to do. I took no notes.

[KnuckleheadS10]

Mine has the roof rack so no worries on that end thankfully (although a sunroof would be pretty neat). And good to know that older GM seats will still work in ours. I was a bit worried they may not if they swapped some pins around as they aged.

[uwwsquirrel]

there was also another member here that grabbed the rear panels from I believe a 95-97 4 door blazer, made a tool to melt the plastic on the back to remove the "leather" part and put it on his door panels. I never tried it, but did find the panels, have them in the shed, it looks like it'd work fine. I don't remember what he did to attach them to the stock panels. Epoxy perhaps, I don't know.

Yeah that was me. SEM 39847 Multi Plastic Repair Material is the adhesive I used. BTW I fixed the Photo links on the Bravada rear door panel inserts install (photobucket changed all of the URL links to my pictures.)