Highlander interior before and after
 

Been workin on this turd for quite a while. But it's time to move, so I needed to button it up for the trip. Still awaiting seat belt retractor parts, but that's about it. Still need to bolt in the seat also (a little off center in the pic).

The previously mentioned noticeable gap in the driver's (and passenger) side outer cushion area where the back and bottom met turned out to be nothing more than a new seat foam issue. Took it all apart and examined it compared to the original GM foam and it was just not quite right in the lower seat back areas on the outer edges. Ended up going back to my original 72 foam and it took care of the issue. No visible gaps between the back/bottom now. Glad that got resolved. Found it a bit of a challenge to get all the plaid to line up in straight lines, but I'll live with what it ended up as.

Because of the pending move, had to put off the door rehab project - so, will fill the speaker holes and paint the doors at some point in the future, just wanted to make them semi-presentable for now. Redid the dash, added a tach and vac , and finally resolved my temp gauge/sender issues. All the gauges work, which is kinda nice for a change. And added in a factory am/fm that sounds pretty darn good through a single factory speaker. Nice and tinny, just like I like it :) Added an AM/FM antenna and a splitter for that inevitable CB radio install thread... I wonder if there's even anyone to talk to on that thing anymore. have a few stuffed away in boxes that have never been used, and will be nice to stick it in without an extra CB antenna. But, that's for another day.

Now if I could just get my doors to shut after the new seal install... Ha. They're coming along. Hopeful they will loosen up a bit after sitting in the sun still.

Anyway, a special thanks to Tim at Truckseats - this was no easy task to get the highlander plaid with the scrollwork, appreciate your perseverance. Also thanks to Tom for the tach/vac tin and Brian Mac for his HUGE help on the temp sender issue I had. Also Wes over at Classic Heartbeat - thanks for several small parts and the dash bezel and lens and the perfect carpet - they are top quality, very pleased. LedZepp - Scott, was a pleasure to meet you, you probably wondered what ever became of the dash pad I bought from you when I picked up the green door... And Pete, thanks so much for reproducing the Main/Aux fuel tanks selector sticker - that made my day.

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

Very nice job. :metal:

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

I love it!

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

Looks clean...love the plaid!

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

Beautiful!

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Looks great Jocko....did I miss something, where you moving to....

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THAT'S a great question - don't know for sure yet! But my time workin for uncle sam is comin to a close. Gotta go find a job. Trying to find something near Phoenix/Mesa, but pretty wide open for now.

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

Looking great! I just can't get enough of these interiors, it really finishes the trucks off nicely.

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

That's a good look!

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Mark- It was very nice meeting you as well. That interior is awesome! The seat just steals the show. Congrats on getting to move where you want and best of luck in finding a new job.

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Well I hope this "coming to a close" means a retirement and moving on to a more relaxed employment. ...Best of luck finding what ya want where ya want. :metal::metal:

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

ha, no, just round 1 of retiring. which really just means a career change nowadays.

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

now that is show quality!

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Awesome work Mark! Glad you put the decal to use. How did you get the door panels clean - plain old elbow grease?

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Very nice! Question for you, any special reason you went with parchment VS black belts? I wrestled with that when I redid mine.

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

That looks very nice. That scroll in the center really makes the difference. I wasn't up for jumping through the hoops to get that done on mine, and kind of wish i had. Quite the improvement!

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

Really like the clean lines and look of that interior. Great job on bringing back to life.

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

It really is amazing what a seat can do !

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Just installed mine this weekend, Loving me some 70's Plaid! Dog matches perfect!

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

Nope, not much elbow grease involved in that - the originals were even worse than they appear in the picture - very stained, etc. I replaced em with a better set! :) I do plan to resto the originals when I get a chance, but they may be candidates for a redye or paint.

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

Lee, I went with parchment because it had the original parchment belts still on it when I bought it from the original owner. I've occasionally seen parchment with black, but have always thought that parchment belts were the norm with a parchment highlander seat. Hope I didn't screw the pooch, but that is what was on it and they were very "original" (i.e. pretty trashed)

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

Mark, I have always heard, and research indicates parchment or black belts are factory correct with parchment interior, I don't know about highlander. I went with black belts because the column, carpet and dash pad are black. I do have a very nice set of parchment belts, I'm going to put them on for awhile now that I've seen yours. Cheers, Lee

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

I think your belts look great in black Lee - parchment buckets with black houndstooth - a great look. I had to go double check my "highlander files" - here's what I found from original sales brochures for the highlander, but who knows what happened in the factory... Ha! Yours looks great with black, and white would probably look great also, especially since you have both black and white in your houndstooth inserts.

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After seeing the sales brochures it's clear parchment is the right choice! Black would not look right. Kudos.....

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Truck could have come with either black or parchment seatbelts. Both look good, but black won't get dirty ;)

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That seat looks great. Do you mind sharing the cost?

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

worked a special order through Tim (Truckseats) and SMS. (SMS provided all the materials - the vinyl with scrollwork was a special order and why it took so long - and Tim had em stitched together). In the end, I was working with both Tim and SMS directly.

Hopefully, now that SMS has done this, they can do it more quickly. There was a big delay involved because of a wrong color that was sent once (Saddle-ish, I think) and Tim headed it off before it ever got to me and sent it back to SMS to correct. SMS folks did say that they were thinking of going into production on this cover (and I assume all 4 highlander covers) as they've had a lot of requests. That sure would be nice.

I've purchased this cover and an olive custom cloth cover from Tim, he's who I plan to buy any covers from in the future - very satisfied. It can take a lot of time for a special order like this, so hopefully SMS will get into the biz of producing them.

As for cost, I believe I had about $650-700 in the cover by the time it was all said and done. NOT cheap, but that is primarily because it was a special order. Still, expensive when you consider the Cheyenne Super cover I ordered was in the $250-300 range, if I recall correctly. But they just don't make these (right now), so kinda had to bite the bullet. Saved the pennies for a while to get it done.

How is yours coming along? Wish I had a big block like you!! Your interior would look about identical, wouldn't it?

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

Looks absolutely beautiful!!!!

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

thanks all, appreciate the feedback. Would love to do a frame-off on this truck, it's going to be a keeper (but I always say that...) but, just no time to do it right now - or, more importantly, to start it, because I've got to pack er up and move sometime soon most likely. So, this was the last thing I wanted to get done before taking a little break to relocate. Not sure it warrants a frame off anyway, not the original motor, but that also frees me up to not worry about upgrades, etc - just build it how I want it (thus the tach/vac/am-fm...)

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

Beautiful!

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Thanks for the info. My truck will look just like yours but green. I am going to run this original cover until I can afford a new one. I have made no progress on the truck but I did just put a new motor in the burb. I have been thinking of putting a highlander interior in the burb as well.

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

That would look excellent in the burb. Need lots more plaid to do all the seats in there!

Here's something I thought was pretty cool - I sent on of the "after" pics in the first post to the guy I bought the truck from - he's also the original owner, name is Sherman. Here's what I got in reply (his wife Carole handles the email chores):

"Hi Mark,
It's so nice to hear from you. You were so good to send the pictures. I always loved those seat covers. We're so happy you were able to duplicate them. They look great!! Sherm said to tell you he cried for an hour after he saw them. (;-) He didn't really, but was so happy to see what you have done. Made his day for sure. We are so glad you were the one to purchase our old friend.
Thank you so much,
Carole & Sherm"

Anyhoo, just thought I'd share that. When I bought the truck, he actually peeled some family pictures out of his old family photo album and gave them to me - most from 73-73, when he first bought it. Was very cool of him to give them to me, have always felt a little indebted to him, so I keep him posted on the major resto phases of the truck.

Now, I never meant to make Sherm cry - but I have to say that meeting him was far and away the most enjoyable used vehicle buying experience I've ever had. Made a good friend.

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

That blue looks great, I just finished mine last week, I cannot believe what a difference the seat makes!!!

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hope to have ya for a neighbor! great job on the interior buddy!
ps.. east of phx mesa gilbert queen creek is nice!

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yep, I like the area - I've been down to Mesa Blvd/Main St area many, many times, but all over once I get there. The job would be the key ingredient to moving there though! Ha. Concur, east of all that is very nice. Love the weather, even though it has been to 109 degrees already this year! Have only been up to 105 so far in lovely Chinese Lake, CA.

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

My understanding is all Highlanders had parchment interiors and parchment (not black) seat belts. Otherwise parchment interiors could have black belts, which is how my 72 K20 was outfitted.

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Well Done! Those seats look so much better than what you started with. Those 80s style velour replacement covers just never had character.

Every original Highlander I have looked into has had white seatbelts. If someone has a black seatbelt Highlander I would very much like to know about it as well as the assembly plant and if it was a Highlander trim truck or a promo package truck coded YG6-8.

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

Thx Tim and Pete. Tim, believe it or not, that velour "thing" that was on there was actually what looked to be a complete custom (i.e. $$) job. They did a nice job, even though I did think it was pretty hideous. Matched the carpet though... I'm glad it's gone. Wasn't in decent enough shape to even re-offer it to someone for cheap.

Re: Highlander interior before and after
 

Looks great!

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Those highlander covers have really grown on me over the years. Your seat looks great!