Question

[BIGWILLZ71]

On my '94 Z71 regular cab, I have a large plastic piece that runs from the floorboard up around the rear window... It has the Clothes hooks, seat belts, and the interrior light mounted in and the rear speakers mounted behind it... It appears to be in three large pieces. What is it technically called and HOW do I take it out I wanna find another one that isn't damaged and swap it because the previous owner had it out before, and when he put it back in overlapped it and cracked it- now its noticebly lop-sided and looks horrible... It IS the older model interrior style

[wsigo]

The middle (top) piece is designed to overlap the sides from the factory.

These pieces are also designed from the factory to be pieces of **** and break just by looking at them. Believe me, you will NOT find any pieces that aren't broken unless you buy them new- and you'll break them putting them in.

Cheap ****ty squeaky brittle crappy f'in plastic is one reason I'm going Ford on my next truck!

[someotherguy]

It's true that it's easy to break the plastic when removing or installing these pieces. Not sure what the "technical" name for them is, what the dealer calls them, but if you hunt around a little you will find them in good shape in other trucks. For your '94, you'll need to get them from an '88 up to '94 only. '95 will still fit but the colors changed slightly, and '96-up is different yet again because they have the sliders for the front seat shoulder belt position.

Removing it...I may miss some details here but you'll get the idea. REMOVE THE BACK SEAT. Yes...one bolt at each end, 15mm, and pick it up off the hinges. It has to come out. Then start with the plastics, knowing that they are all brittle and can break if you're not careful. Buy or borrow the "soft bent fork" style door panel tool to help. Remove the rear windshield lower trim piece by pulling the bottom part forward, then push up to pop the top end of it loose. Remove screws from the bottom of the large side panels. Remove ashtrays, then the two screws inside each ashtray hole. Remove clotheshanger hooks. Remove front shoulder belts (torx T50 at top and bottom.) Slide rear shoulder belts off the back seat hinge posts. Remove the door sill step plates.

Now the side panels are two large pieces, top and bottom, they're still held on with hidden clips that you have to pop with the door panel tool. Again, be careful. Also note that as you're removing the upper piece, you must fold it in towards the middle of the truck at the bottom, making sort of a hinge motion at the top, because it hooks into the piece across the top of the rear windshield - many people break this one because they don't realize they hook into each other.

Yes, it's a major PITA, I've pulled a few apart, most recently in my '94 C2500 so I could change out the rear shoulder belts. Not fun. But definitely do-able without breaking stuff, if you're really careful.

Or, you could just buy a Ford. I've heard that they don't have these problems, even though their interiors are plastic too. It's like magic.

BTW door panel tool that I like (mine was made by Lisle):



Richard