The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Tell us about your new PPV, show us some pictures, let us know how you did what you did!
Forum rules
One thread per car per member in this section. No thread hijacking in this section please, if it's strictly a tech discussion please move it to the appropriate sub-forum - moderators can assist if needed or requested.
fuzzkill
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 4:19 pm

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by fuzzkill »

Continued some more on the Caprice tonight.

Got the rest of the harness from the trunk area, seats, rear door harnesses, headliner, along with the steering wheel and radio. Started removing the dash. My hands haven't healed yet from all the crap on SS and now this plastic crap is slicing me up on the Caprice.

Found a nice surprise tonight, when I got under the car to disconnect the rear bumper harness (it only has 2 pins populated out of the 20 pin connector :lol: ) I found that my 2014 rear bumper has the mounting brackets for the blind spot sensors already plastic-welded to the bumper. WTF? I'm not going to complain though as that will just be one less thing I need to do (and now I know position will be perfect).

Just seems really odd to me, GM went through a lot of effort stripping things out of this car to make it as cheap as possible compared to the SS/Caprice.

Anyway ... this is what you guys do on Saturday nights right?

Image
Image

Wait - almost forgot. Special shoutout to whatever drunk dude was working for the upfitter company. Look at this shit!

Image
They routed the wires through the belt reel to go into the rear doors, even though there is a huge opening where the factor harness goes through literally 1" away. And the wires were chafing going 180* bend right over the metal bracket. Both sides were like this.
fuzzkill
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 4:19 pm

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by fuzzkill »

So my original plan was to swap as much of the interior and electronics, then drop out the V6 and start working on that.

Image

However, It looks like the pedal box has to come out with the remaining dash frame, and it bolts from the firewall side. Luckily, it looks like I can get things out of the way without having to dive too deep in the engine bay.

Image

I'm very surprised at how different the cowl systems are on the Caprice vs. the SS. The SS has a 2 part plastic cowl, and then an underlying metal cowl structure. The PPV has a right side plastic cowl, and then the underlying plastic cowl and the left side upper plastic cowl come off together. Wiper linkage and motors are the same but the arms on the PPV have sprayers built into them where the SS does not.

Image
PPV cowling

Image
SS cowling

Anyway, got the cowling off and it looks like that fat AC suction line will probably be in my way for removing the booster. So currently recovering the freon and then I will remove those lines and continue the quest.

Image
Image

Almost enough room for activities
fuzzkill
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 4:19 pm

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by fuzzkill »

I was able to get to the rest of the pedal box bolts without too much hassle, and got the dash frame out.

After that, removed a couple more connections and pulled the dash harness.

That leaves the HVAC box, which is secured to the dash frame, and also has 3 bolts through the firewall. The two easy ones are below the AC lines and heater lines, and there is a third one tucked behind the fresh air intake. Have to pull the outside of the box out.

Once those bolts are out, a few more electrical connections to remove and then the whole thing slides out quite easily.

Next I pulled the firewall insulation, and then the flooring. With all that out, it makes access to the front door harness disconnects very easy. I can also backfeed the body to engine bay harness back through the firewall and into the engine bay for removal.

Once the front door harnesses are disconnected, that is the last part of the body harness holding it in the car - so out the body harness comes.

We now have a fully stripped Caprice. The interior at least.

Need to put a little thought on the order of my next moves. Definitely need to clean and then going to lay some Dynamat where I can.

Image
Image
Image
Image
fuzzkill
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 4:19 pm

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by fuzzkill »

Started on the sound deadening today. Ran out of dynamat (I had some spares from my 13 Caprice). Supposedly I am getting some delivered today but who knows what time.

Got the roof, rear seat, rear deck, and passenger floor mostly done with what I had. I forgot how tedious it is. It will be worth it though. Also removed the rear deck speaker cutouts as we will definitely be using those.

Once all the dynamat is in I'll be doing a layer of closed cell foam before everything goes back in. Should make for a very nice ride inside.

Image
Image
Image
Image
fuzzkill
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 4:19 pm

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by fuzzkill »

My restock came in pretty late, but at least it showed up today.

Image

You may notice that I'm using Kilmat now - figured I would try it out and I can get it quicker than the dynamat. I'm very impressed with the product for the price - it seems like a fair price for the product vs paying $160 for a box of dynamat and I feel like I'm getting robbed. It is the same thickness, same material, but comes in smaller sheets compared to the dynamat. Smaller sheets = less cutting, and less cutting means less slices on my hands from handling that crap. Also the kilmat has a nice embossing on the foil side that acts as an indicator when it has been pressed down and sufficiently bonded to the underlying panel. Definitely going to be using this on future projects. You could put down two layers of this and still be lower cost than 1 layer of dynamat.

Still need to remove the door harnesses so I can do inside the doors, as well as the trunk. Should get that knocked out tomorrow. Also probably going to order a carpet from GM, in lieu of using the SS carpet. Might as well make this shit legit.

Also, feel free to post feedback or questions here, you damn lurkers. This thread shouldn't just be my own echo chamber :|
Fandango
Posts: 67
Joined: Fri Jun 12, 2020 12:31 am

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by Fandango »

I love seeing all the progress. Keep it up!
fuzzkill
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 4:19 pm

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by fuzzkill »

Found some interesting information on the wiring. Per the factory service manual, the clutch pedal sensor passes from the dash harness -> main body harness -> forward body harness -> engine harness. Looking at the wiring pin outs for all of these connectors, the clutch wires are populated on all of them - even though there were no 2014 manual SS's. Of course, it would be foolish to assume this is actually the case without verifying.

Image

So I laid out my harnesses. As expected, the wires are missing in the dash harness. This is fine, I have the CPP sensor pigtail, I can just add it into the dash harness.
The wiring IS in the main body harness, which is convenient
The wiring is NOT in the forward body harness. This one will be a little harder to add, since it passes though the firewall and has quite a long run it needs to be tucked into. But still not that big of a deal
And finally, of course the wiring will be in my engine harness, since I am using a 15 SS M/T engine harness
fuzzkill
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 4:19 pm

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by fuzzkill »

Expensive day today.

Went with the Camaro 3.27 instead of the SS unit. Should be stronger and I got a good deal on a very low mileage unit. I'll sell the SS unit.

Ordered the carpet. Not sure how many are left but now there is 1 less. First dealer didn't want to be nice with the price but the second one hooked me up.

And another member came through and got me the driver side blind spot sensor and the rear bumper harness for a decent price. Will probably be a little while until I get to that point but mine was MIA and the pigtail was smashed from the accident.
Pursuit
Administration Staff
Posts: 969
Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2013 3:39 pm
Location: Omaha, NE area

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by Pursuit »

I want to say THANKS for posting all of the pictures and comments. This will be a great reference and source of context when anyone wants to or needs to see how these cars were built. Great job!!

Maurice
Maurice Sheil

mhsheil@gmail.com

2011 Caprice Phantom Black 9C3
2012 Impala 9C1
1995 9C1 Caprice
1996 GMC Sierra C1500
1996 Chevrolet K2500 Extended Cab, long box, 454, 91,000 rust free miles
1974 SJ Grand Prix 455 well optioned with factory moon roof
lastcall190
Posts: 604
Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2017 5:17 am
Location: North Jersey

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by lastcall190 »

Truly jealous of the space and resources you have available. Quite an undertaking and I witnessed a few of my own "WTF were the upfitters thinking??" moments when I had mine as well. With respect to that wire, "sometimes the road less traveled... is less traveled for a reason" :|

Keep the pics coming, it breaks up my day! :lol:

-J
2012 Caprice
2008 CVPI

Both gone but not forgotten...
Post Reply