'69 Camaro Gets a Fresh Interior Look with Overhauled Seats and Carpet

(Marc)>> You're watching Powernation!

(Marc)>> Today on Detroit Muscle we tackle the interior of our '69 Camaro giveaway car, adding a new carpet, and upgraded seats.

(Tommy)>> Then we check out what's the latest and greatest in the tool industry at this year's Matco Tool Expo. [ MUSIC ] [ engines revving ] [ MUSIC ]

(Tommy)>> Hey y'all welcome to Detroit Muscle. We're making some pretty good progress on this giveaway Camaro that we're building with Sea Foam. We've addressed under the hood. We've added another 100, 125 horsepower. So we're at about 450. We've got some fancy wheels. We got an appearance package. Just about got this thing knocked out of the park.

(Marc)>> Yeah we took what was 1969 technology Camaro and brought it into the modern era with those things that Tommy was talking about. That engine, it's got electronic fuel injection. Put a five speed transmission in it with an overdrive, big brakes, modern handling. This is the kind of thing that you just get in, drive across the country if you had seats of course.

(Tommy)>> Yeah the interior on this old thing, to say it was beat and worn well that's kind of an understatement, but today we're gonna solve all those problems.

(Marc)>> Well here's our interior. Once we got it all gutted out it looks pretty nice. Now if you were doing a full restoration everything would be out of this interior and you could fix all the problems necessary while you were there, but when you're doing a freshen up like this you need to stop, take the time to look at everything before you put the new rug in because you don't want to cover up any problems. You want to inspect all of the sheet metal. Make sure there's not any holes where they shouldn't be or any rust. Another thing check your seams. Where the floor pans meet the rockers there's seam sealer here. I want to make sure it's not falling out or anything. Ours looks really good. Another thing is the sound deadening. You see all these black sound deadening mats in here. This is a factory style sound deadening that's been replaced at some point and it's in really good shape. So we can just put the carpet on it.

(Tommy)>> Now normally whenever you get ready to install a carpet you drag around a box about this tall. You have to open it up, pull the carpet out, mash it down all nice and good, set it out in the sun for a couple of hours if you want it to look like something in the end, and what we're going for the effect is gonna be far more tailored. We've got a TMI kit that we got from Summit Racing. It's 7 pieces and we're gonna have to glue it in but it's gonna look really nice when we're done. Here you go man. We've got to figure out which one of these go where.

(Marc)>> Okay!

(Tommy)>> I'm gonna let you get busy doing that and I'm gonna go get some glue.

(Marc)>> Wish me luck. [ MUSIC ] Yahtzee!

(Tommy)>> Hey man did you have any trouble with this thing?

(Marc)>> Not at all, it fits like a glove. You know I'm good at puzzles.

(Tommy)>> If you want to go find something to do I'm gonna go ahead and glue this thing to the floor.

(Marc)>> I'll go get the seats ready.

(Tommy)>> Alright buddy. [ spray gun hissing ] [ MUSIC ]

(Marc)>> Well Tommy mentioned a little while ago that we got that carpet from Summit Racing. Well we tapped them for our seats as well. We could have just re-upholstered those factory seats but on the front seats especially the factory ones don't do a good job at holding you in, and over the years they'd start to break down. So if you can afford it something like this is a really nice way to go. These are sport seats made by TMI. What I really like about these is the hounds tooth upholstery. So it has that classic look but with a modern design. It's got all this bolstering in here. What's great about these is they come right out of a box, bolt on the brackets, and then you can put them in the car for some spirited driving or even a long road trip. The rear seat though is not quite so simple. Even though the upholstery matches you have to re-wrap the factory seat frame. So we enlisted some help for that. Well you may have guessed that phone call I made was to Wyotech based on our friend Mac here on the screen. Mac how's it going?

(Mac)>> It's going great Marc. How are you guys doing?

(Marc)>> Not bad, nice to see your smiling face. How's everything over there at Wyotech?

(Mac)>> Wyotech is going strong right now. These last couple of years have been a building year. Student numbers are looking up. We're one of the few places left in the country where we're in the wide open spaces and we have students coming for hands on training.

(Marc)>> Currently?

(Mac)>> Currently!

(Marc)>> Glad to hear that. So obviously we sent our seat out to you to fix it up for us. Tell us about what it took to get from what it looked like when we sent it to you to what it looks like now, the finished product?

(Mac)>> Well when the pallets got dropped off things were looking a little bit scary cause the frames had gotten twisted during shipment. So we basically took it down, took the old covers off, took the foam and padding off of them and took a look at the frames and decided yes, they were twisted pretty good. So we set it up and straightened them out. Took the spring system out of the existing seats, the factory spring system, and replaced it with the TMI padding that you guys had sent over, and then covered them up with those seat covers to match your front seats, and I think it turned out fairly well, and hopefully they arrived back to you looking good.

(Marc)>> Oh yeah, the seat looks amazing. Just want to thank you for doing that for us, and I know that this isn't really fully in depth of what you teach in your class. I know there's a bigger, broader spectrum of what you teach as far as upholstery goes right?

(Mac)>> That's true. We could have recreated this entire seat with what we teach here at Wyotech. From the sewing, to the foam building, to patterning, this is just a small part of what we can teach in a small amount of time actually. So the trim program is three months long. Most students can come through the school and take a core and take a specialty within a 9 month period, although a bunch of them elect to stay for longer. They'd like to take additional classes, but year we could do something like that yes.

(Marc)>> Awesome, well we really appreciate it. The seat looks great. Matter of fact Tommy's finishing up on the carpet right now. So I need to get the seat, and get over there, and start getting these in. I'll tell you what, I'll keep you posted on the project as we wrap it up okay?

(Mac)>> I appreciate it. Good working with you guys again. Let us know if you need anything. Coming up we finish installing our retro interior.

(Tommy)>> And give you a tip on how to make new pieces look original.

(Marc)>> Hey I don't know if you heard or not but we got our seat back.

(Tommy)>> I almost enjoy your stupid jokes.

Key word there was almost.

(Marc)>> The fact that you acknowledged it, that's enough for me.

(Tommy)>> It does look nice in there though.

(Marc)>> Man it does. [ MUSIC ]

(Tommy)>> You ready to man handle this thing?

(Marc)>> Oh yeah, it's so heavy. [ MUSIC ] Let's get the fronts! [ MUSIC ] Well with our seats and carpet in the Camaro it's time to move on to some of the finer details of the interior and exterior, and we're gonna do that with everything we've got here on the table that we got from Rock Auto dot com. Now you know we've used them in the past for o-e-m replacement parts as well as performance parts, but what you may not know is they have restoration parts as well. We got these wheel opening moldings and some other shinny stuff. A new chin spoiler, some seals, some lighting and emblems, and these seal plates right here, which we're gonna do first. As a matter of fact Tommy's got something cool to show you with these. Is it seal plates or sill plates?

(Tommy)>> One of the two but it all depends on where you're from. Now with ours we've run into a little bit of a snag but it's not big deal. They don't have the Body by Fisher here on the front like the original ones do. You can buy reproductions but usually the way you have to put them back on is they come with a couple of rivets, and that isn't the way they come from the factory. I've got a little trick here that I want to show you that'll make it look all o-g. Now your first instinct would probably be grab a screwdriver and go to whittling up under the side of it and try to peel it up. Well you can do that but you're gonna sacrifice that emblem that you're trying to save because you'll just bend it all to heck. The thing I like to do is use some heat and pick and a razor blade. You want to make sure that you wear some gloves cause this little piece of aluminum is gonna get crazy hot. Now you want that thing plenty warm. Just keep moving it around. That should do the trick. With it hot now you go to work. Grab your razor blade. Stick it right up under that edge. [ MUSIC ] Now just grab your new piece but you want to make sure that you heat that one up just like you did to remove that thing because what that'll do is that hot surface will re-flow this adhesive. [ heater buzzing ]

(Tommy)>> Now just got to drop our emblem on. Move that thing around where it needs to be. Push it down, we're good to go. [ MUSIC ] Dang son, from the sound of that screw over there somebody's gonna need a cheater pipe to get that thing out.

(Mike)>> Nah I torqued it to spec. I love that interior though.

(Tommy)>> Man that hounds tooth is something. Sunshine and shorelines, we head to San Diego, for the Matco Tool Expo.

(Tommy)>> Well it's that time again. We're here at the Matco Tool Expo and this is one event I thoroughly enjoy cause you could call this a mechanic's paradise. Your distributors are here checking out the newest, latest, and greatest items so that they can bring them to your garage, and I'm here to make myself a wish list. This year's expo is in America's finest city, beautiful San Diego, California, where there's plenty of sunshine and amazing harbor views. Matco has been selling automotive tools and products for over 40 years with the same set of principles that has kept them on top of the game.

(Tim)>> Pride in the Matco brand binds us together while our belief in service, trust, results sets us apart.

(Tommy)>> Over 1,300 distributors from the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico were in attendance to see what new products Matco was unveiling where this year's focus was to connect. Meaning Matco is working with the distributors giving them the equipment and knowledge so they can connect with their customers, giving them the best service and automotive repair tools that they've come to trust.

(Matthew)>> Solving people's problems is the biggest. Service, yeah that's fun.

(Josh)>> Most of my customers are more friends than just retail customers.

(Dewayne)>> And they trust me to get them things they need for a certain job. I've had guys say hey, get me something to do this and I trust your judgement, put it on my bill. That's the ultimate deal.

(Tommy)>> With vehicles being as advanced as they are having the correct diagnostic tools are a must. I'm here with Eric. What do you got new for us?

(Eric)>> Well we have our diagnostic family we're showcasing here at expo. It's a real powerhouse of diagnostics. With the new addition from our top of the line scan tool all the way down to the new member of the family, the Max Lite. A really strong introductory scan tool for the newer technicians out there that are budget minded but has the ability to purchase software as needed to give you the full coverage of function tests and bi-directional communication.

(Tommy)>> You have anything else new you'd like to show us?

(Eric)>> I really want to show you the t-p-m-s tool.

(Tommy)>> So Eric what is this jewel?

(Eric)>> So with the tire pressure monitoring systems becoming more of a demand from our customers for coverage we've developed the t-p-m-s 2.0 with Wi-Fi updates. So now unlike the past products we can connect to the Wi-Fi and our customers can simply click an icon and download any new vehicles, any new makes and models instantly onto the tool at real time. So it really kicks it up a notch and creates that time management situation much better for the technician. The second thing and what's really cool for all the modifications that the technicians are doing to their vehicles. You know lowering kits, lift kits with bigger tires, smaller tires, we can change the placard adjustment in the computer so that the tire pressure monitoring system can see the right tire pressure and keep that annoying light off the dash.

(Tommy)>> Oh that tool's definitely gonna be used a lot cause that is a huge upgrade that people are doing is changing the wheels and tires. Well man we got plenty to see. I appreciate your time. I'm gonna go a little further. Every year Matco looks for innovative tools to bring to the expo, and some of those tools just keep on improving. Y'all may remember Chad Schley. He's got one of the hottest tools here at the expo, and this ball joint press is very impressive man.

(Chad)>> Yeah it's pretty remarkable how strong this tool is. It's the Matco BJP-18-100 and it's able to press ball joints out that previously were thought you really couldn't press it out with a standard. You needed hydraulics or something like that. So this tool has a high offset leverage advantage. You're also able to get the lower ball joints out with the upper ball joint still in. That's a big time saver for the technicians allowing them also to quote the job a little bit lower because they have less things to replace and it's more competitive that way. We have a nice demo setup here with some load cell showing a conventional C-frame to the Matco version, and what that shows really clearly is how much more pressure this tool will create at the same torque going into the bolt. So I've got a small torque wrench set to 50 foot pounds of torque, and we're gonna go on the C-frame here, and it's properly lubed and there's a ball bearing there trying to be as fair as we can. So this thing will ramp up quickly and then it pops right about, just under two tons, at about 1,800 pounds or so of pressure. So the Matco version it's gonna take a few more turns on the bolt but that's the leverage advantage that it has, the tool's been designed so you can use impacts on it. So a lot of times this extra rotation doesn't take any extra time. Right about five tons or so. Yeah just over five tons. 50 foot pounds of torque we're able to get to five tons of pressure on the Matco ball joint tool. So that's a whole new world for any of those ball joints that have been real stubborn. This is like Ford, Dodge, and Chevy four wheel drive pickups. The front end of these vehicles are big and heavy, and they're hard to move around. I mean the Dodge on this side here. Obviously the ball joints are pressed into the center housing of the axle. You're not moving that around. So you've got to do it right there on the truck and this ball joint will press out some of the most corroded and stuck ball joints that we've seen, and the response has been tremendous from the field, and the distributors have been really excited because they have something now that will press these out a lot easier than they had in the past.

(Tommy)>> Well you've definitely got something that's gonna save people time and effort, and that just means money for them.

(Chad)>> That's right! There's been some questions about the cups that we have and the different adapters. We really researched this well and we came out with a set of adapters specifically for the real hard ones right now. This is the Ford and Dodge specifically, and some of the larger GM trucks, but we're always looking for more applications and new adapters. The popularity of the tool has really shown that this can work on a lot more applications like passenger vehicles, maybe some big rig items, and we're looking forward to the next phase of the tool's progress on the market.

(Tommy)>> Well man I have to say it's definitely impressive. I've got a few more things to see. I appreciate your time.

(Tommy)>> Welcome back to the Matco Tool Expo in sunny San Diego. A familiar face always here is three time NHRA world champion Antron Brown. He comes to support those who help support him. He knows the key to being successful is to have a great team around you, and that is especially true with Matco.

(Antron)>> If you want to do something incredible or you want to be successful in life you have to surround yourself with the same group of people that's going in the same direction, and that's what Matco's all about. We're all in it together and even just people coming off the street from them being a mechanic or being Debbie food snacks truck driver and transform it into a Matco mobile tool store and being a distributor is that it's a big undertaking, but at the end of the day there's no reward without a great risk, but when you take risks and you've got people behind your back like Matco who's your backbone is really not a risk at all. If you want a better way of life this is how you do it, and we change people's lives and that's what Matco's always meant to me.

(Tommy)>> Well I'm here with Melissa in front of the new items showcase, and what all do you guys have?

(Melissa)>> We have a lot of great new items this year. So we have an Evil Jester welding helmet. That's an exclusive design to Matco as well as some great new items from Streamlight. So we have a Strion switchblade, which is the next generation of the great switchblade line. So we launched the Stinger switchblade two years ago and it blew up the market. Also have a new flip mate and some new head lamps for them also. We also have our new Versa Pro 3, which is our premium jump starter.

(Tommy)>> I seen some fancy camo gloves. Anything special about those?

(Melissa)>> Oh yeah, our customers picked that color of camo. We put it in Instagram, and they voted, and they picked the color they love and it's been doing great.

(Tommy)>> Is there anything here that would be your personal favorite?

(Melissa)>> My personal favorite is definitely the Evil Jester welding helmet.

(Tommy)>> A new partnership from Matco this year is with Motor manuals. They have an extensive repair and labor collection. These are a huge help to anyone that's starting a new shop or trying to make one more efficient.

(Michael)>> We made a direct exclusive distributorship with Matco Tools, and they're gonna carry all of our repair manuals, labor time guide, service manuals, and such forth. This means that they'll be able to know the exact labor time for each job. They'll also be able to know the repair procedures so they don't make mistakes fixing a vehicle. They get it out in a timely manner and they make money in their shop. We had a distributorship of 46 distributors, and we met with Matco, tested this in Oregon and Washington. Very successful, and then an opportunity to go from 46 to 1,800 distributors seemed like a win-win. Matco's a company that's built loyalty. They're also big on their support, and Motor is big on their support. We've got a long history, 115 years, of producing manuals and products. Matco's got a great name and reputation behind them. We thought it was a great partnership.

(Tommy)>> One tool that is a must that will save you time and money in a mechanic shop would have to be an impact wrench, and it doesn't matter if it's battery or air operated Matco has some pretty serious equipment.

(Jason)>> Matco continues to expand the 12 volt and the 16 volt battery family. You see all the colors and tools available there, and now we're continuing to grow and expand with the 20 volt family. So we have a 600 foot pound brushless three-eighths impact wrench with 4 l-e-d lights, and then a 1,600 foot pound half inch impact wrench, brushless motor, 4 l-e-d lights available in all the colors, and these kits contain a universal charger that has provisions for charging 12, 16, and 20 volt plus batteries. We're still growing air. Air tools are still a powerful tool. We have the most powerful with the MT 27-79 half inch impact wrench. The rear push button's for changing direction and 1,600 foot pounds of breakaway torque there also. A brand new long barrel air hammer that's loaded with patented features. A patented valve body that's moving a lot of air through here, and then natural second hand placement on a rotating forward grip. So the Matco family is continuing to grow in cordless and air tools.

(Tommy)>> Now I don't care if you're working with wood or metal one fabrication must have are good drill bits.

(Chris)>> You have the DBC-21-HS here. It's the new cobalt mechanics length hyper stepped drill bit set. It's new to the show for 2020. It's basically your traditional hyper stepped drill bit set, which is actually quite new in the industry, but short, which is what the mechanics length name comes from. It's about two-thirds the length of a jobber drill bit and made out of cobalt. So great for hard materials like stainless steel manifolds and cast iron turbochargers. Traditionally high speed steel drill bits are not really used for a stainless steel application. Of course with the hyper stepped design more and more people are just because they cut so well. These take it the next level up and offer that exclusive design in a cobalt fashion. It's typically made for really hard materials, broken exhaust studs, ARP fasteners, and stainless steel manifolds, panels, stuff like that.

(Tommy)>> Well that does it for us here at the expo and I built myself quite a list. If you guys seen anything that tickled your fancy make sure to connect with your Matco distributor.