[dug224]

Found a rollover Buick Ranier (Trailblazer Platform) at my buddies wrecking yard that was headed to the crusher. He cut the roof off and cut it behind the front seats and let me take it home to see if the trans hump would work. My plan was to cut the hump (including the portion of the floor that the seats mount to) and the firewall (or partial firewall) and work it into the cab. I wanted to use the center console, e-brake and seats as well.

Here is what did not work:
1. The seat is WAY too high. Threw the driver's seat in the cab and my head was nearly touching the roof. Will need a seat that is about 8" above the cab floor for me to see out of the windshield. I would like a real simple seat with no electrically driven adjustments. Will start looking at small import car seats. The mockup of the steering column felt pretty good. Sitting on some low profile plastic crates, I am looking out of the windshield about about 3/5's the way from the bottom and can see the gauges nicely. Hate this did not work because the seats have integral seatbelts. Even when the seats were on the floor, the top of the back of the seat was a bit too high in the large rear window. By the way, the leather on the seats was still perfect after being in the weather for a couple of years except for some oil stains and the rusted out seat pan.
2. The distance from the seat to the firewall is several inches longer in the Ranier.
3. The hump is not particularily appealing asthetically. If I can't use the seats, it defeats the purpose of having this oddly shaped hump.

What may work:
1. Pedal assembly. The drive by wire gas pedal mounts to the side of the pedal assembly so the brake and gas pedal are a complete unit. With a little modification, this should work.
2. Steering column. Was concerned about the bulky look of the plastic behind the steering wheel as well as the distance of the back of the plastic to the dash. May have to fab a small filler piece to clean it up and hide the cast portion of the steering column case. Overall, it looks pretty good. There are 4 mounting points for the column so the bracket will be pretty easy to make. Will have to adapt an old steering wheel to the new. The cruise, turn signal and windshield washer controls are in one wand which is really nice. Will allow me to simplify the dash. With the new old steering wheel, the wheel mounted AC and radio controls will be deleted.
3. Emergency brake. The recepticle for the e-brake in the floor has all the mounting points for my frame mounted e-brake cables. I will cut it out of the floor and find a spot for it. Nice unit.
4. Trans. shift. Nice unit. Got the cable with it hat fits my transmission. Also has four mounting points so install should be fairly eash.