Tell me you make poor life decisions without telling me you make poor life decisions:

 

Ah that’s nothing!!!

 

Mr. Beast is going to do a "I Survived The Quietest Car In The World" video when you're done. Anechoic baffling next?

 

Haha don't give me any ideas

 

The new old dash is prepped. All ductwork fits much more snugly and is probably as airtight as it's going to get. The dash as a whole exhibits very little noise when flexing it. The only creaking comes from the side vents which are just hard and brittle and no longer made so those are just going to be what they're doing to be.


Soft tape on the duct joints that run to the door defrosters



And the same on either side of the dash defroster. The one in my tan dash creaks with the slightest touch and the tape completely eliminates that.





Also noticed a gap between the center duct and defroster louvers



So let's close it up






Ready for reinsertion (that's what she said)

 

More disintegrating foam on this duct junction thing in the center console area



All replaced and mounted back into place







The foam around the center defrost duct is actually still in good shape so I'm leaving that alone.

In hopes of finding a grey sunroof shade and other remaining pieces at the junkyard tomorrow, I pulled the headliner and took the sunroof glass out so I can replace the seal around it. I also started with a little sound deadening on the rear of the roof. The sunroof frame will have to come down in order to continue. This time I'm using much thinner deadener and 4mm foam as it was hard to tell how much clearance is between the headliner and roof. I definitely don't want to have to worry about fitment issues or it falling down.

 

Whew it was a busy day and I am beat.

Went to the junkyard this morning and almost left empty handed. The black interior car that came into their inventory a week ago was absolutely trashed. It was missing a door in the pics so I didn't expect it to be great but it must have been sitting outside somewhere before the yard got it because the whole interior was so moldy and the sunroof shade had cigarette burns on it so that was a no go. I did at least grab the parking brake release handle though so it wasn't a total loss. I almost left but decided to check another GS that had been there awhile that I thought had a tan interior based on their website pics. Turns out it was actually grey and pretty decent so I was super happy about that. The sunroof shade was in great shape however I only took two door seals from it because the other two were ripped and trashed. It also had a good condition instrument cluster trim. I've been wanting to replace mine because LEDs were installed in the top for the radar detector I previously removed. So then it was time to go to work:

First step was paintless dent repair...or at least attempting it. There was/is about half a dozen dings in the roof that I wanted fixed before sound deadening. I checked with a few PDR shops around here and they all wanted around $700. Because I'm cheap, stubborn, and watch too many DIY youtubes, I decided **** that racket I'll do it myself. I mean how hard can it really be? So I got a hot glue gun puller kit and a tapper kit and went at it. After all, part of this whole fiasco is it to expand my skills. As far as the cosmetics and body stuff goes, if I can make it less ****ty than it currently is then I'll be happy with that.

Big one before and after above the passenger A pillar





A cluster on the roof although you can really only see the worst two



Got them reduced but also pushed them up a little so I'll work it more tomorrow





And the one I'm most proud of but forgot to take a before pic of. It was a vertical crease along the roof rail that I got out completely

 

There's more throughout the body that will be dealt with in time but on to the rest of the roof:

Got the mechanism down by myself without breaking anything so that was cool



Dirty AF like everything else





All cleaned up





Cleaned and regreased the track



Donor sunroof shade cleaned up





Sound deadening/insulation





Put a couple panels on top of the shade too. Figure it should at least help reflect heat



Know why our shades rattle? Because they move on plastic sliders mounted at each corner that don't quite form a perfect fit within the track. More felt tape to the rescue...put just enough to tighten it up but still allow it to slide

 

Starting to look like a car again on the inside





Wiping down the inside of the B-pillar shows how nice the paint used to be. I'll be happy if I can get it sparking half as nice. It's gonna be awhile before I can do paint correction though.

 

Note to self: just buy a ****ing car with an original black interior next time.

 

Great work. I think you’ll have a better car than if you had “just bought a black interior car.” The sound deadening and cleaning is worth doing.

 

Thanks yeah it's amazing how much dirt and crud builds up over time and just gets into every crevice.

I should be able to get the dash in later today. I've got an amp wire kit due to be delivered later so I want to run a power wire through the firewall first while it's easy to access. I'm still intending to make the most of the stock stereo and amp but the sub isn't quite cutting it. I've got a replacement sub in mind along with an amplification method that should cause minimal disturbance of the factory wiring but that will come further down the road...

I did decide to cut this a bit shorter than originally intended since I don't quite have all of the pieces I need. Still need a good set of black seatbelts and the grey assembly pieces that fit behind the height adjuster. I'm going to forego dying the seats and deadening the floor until I have those parts so I can get it all out and done at once. Also waiting on a deadener sampler kit from Resonix and Second Skin to decide what to do with the floors as well as explore other options for doing the doors. I think laying down one of their heavy carpet liners is going to be a better and easier option than trying to cut and stick deadener all over the floor.

Otherwise, I've got a new OEM sunroof seal coming Tuesday. Of course I managed to crack the hell out of the trim pieces that fit around the sunroof glass but luckily found a good condition used set on ebay coming later in the week. Naturally, those will get the soft tape treatment too because they liked to rattle during the winter in my last GS. A grey mirror will be arriving around the same time and then I think I'll be able to call the interior roof complete.

 

Power wire for a future amp is in place. Loving this conveniently placed rubber grommet



Ran along the back of the dash following the factory wire bundle



Coiled and stashed behind the kick panel

 

Replaced the two most pain in the *** to get to servo motors

 

And it's back together short of the airbag