First things first, shout out to this G8 in the Pontiac U Pull. A lot of its parts are now on my car, or destined for my car.

Anyway, as we can see in that picture, and previous installments, I took the front door panels, rear door handles, door trims, and some other misc pieces up to and including the carpet. Today I finished up some work to install them while Decopifying.
First up, my rear door panels. My Caprice is a 2013 model, and as such as model-specific 2013 rear door panels. I'm going to guess they wanted to remove the rear speaker cutout, but didn't want to convert the rear to the 2014-2017 rear door pulls. So we get the 2014-2017 style rear door panel (large single-piece mold with 2-3 additions) with the 11-13 style door pulls, window switches, and lock cylinder.

2013 panel

2014-2017 panel. Note the chrome handle in a different shape opening, and grommet in top left of panel for the plunger style lock indicator.
A fortuitous Facebook find led to a quick fieldtrip to Indiana to trade two 2012 rear door panels for a center console I pulled from another junkyard G8 (not the silver one). Thus I was the proud owner of a set of panels that not only matched the fronts, but they had door pockets, a vinyl door insert, and something suggesting a cupholder!

It also had that little cover on the underside of the armrest for those that abhor exposed fasteners.
These door panels are great BUT they're a bit bland... So I took my G8 parts, and after a couple of torx screws and a little JB plastic weld, I got this!

The same BUT BETTER. The door pull was a simple pair of torx screws (T20 if you're keeping score), while the speaker grille had to be drilled out and JB welded back into place.



Much like a load strapped down tightly with ratchet straps, that's not going anywhere.
With that, I got to it on a nice, warm winter's day. Before and after:




Muuuuch better. Of note:

Yes, there are actually speakers in the door. I just need a radio silverbox that has the amp for the rear outputs. I plan on acquiring one from the land of Oz.

Here's the two panels side by side. The 3 piece on the right is not nearly as good as the many piece on the left.

And with that, I have door panels that match in style front to rear. Time to match in color, too.
And here's where, not a roadblock, but a speedbump hit.

The Pontiac G8, and basically every other Zeta Holden, have the window controls in the center next to the cupholders (sidenote: bad idea!). The Caprice 9C1 patrol car with the flat console (AKA my car) came with the window controls in the door. I prefer having them in the door, but this means they needed a new armrest. And here lies the problem... I figured I could drill out a few plastic weld spots, like I did with the speakers, transfer the power armrest over, and send it. But upon viewing them side by side...
G8


(yes they're dirty, they were in a junkyard)

PPV 9C1



That front screwhole plus the hole for the wires means I'd need to take more than just the armrest.
So it's going to be a bugger of a job to switch the armrest over. I am NOT switching to a center window switch, as that's a LOT of work, and I don't like it (drinks right next to electronics? GREAT IDEA!). I guess what do I lose if I just move over the door pull and speaker grilles? The seam in the vinyl and my repair job on the G8 panel?
...
The seam doesn't matter, and I learned something, so tossing the repaired panel isn't a big deal.

(this means I swapped the speaker grilles and door pulls to my 9C1 panels)
So... Before

After


I like it. I'm happy with it. It's the little things that make the difference, and I approve of these little things. Also, I'm not sure if the window-switch door panels ever got the silver door pulls and grille surrounds, so I may have made my own one-off door panels. Neat!
While I was messing with the doors, I looked to the next job on the list:

Officers would tend to wear this part of the door, likely from their belts. Thankfully the front doors share a LOT with the G8. Thus...

Slightly older G8 rubber, but at least it doesn't have a hole. When it's warmer I'll wipe it down with some silicone, but this should help take care of some of the wind noise I get when driving.
Directly adjacent to this door seal are the b-pillars and their trim. And my car, being ex-cop, has brackets for a rear cage.

We're decopifying here, so time for those to GO!


These things have some beef. Surprising considering that they were held in with essentially self tappers that were half an inch deep.


It's going to sound silly, but these changes feel like turning a corner. This car used to carry people having possibly the worst night of their lives in the back. The rear seat is now basically a civilian-spec area where you'd never know what happened in it's previous life. And I'm only going to make it better.
I'm currently working on getting the front seat heaters going, courtesy of the parts seat I scrounged up from the silver G8. I'll likely make my own wiring harness (or buy a universal kit) and connect directly to the heating pads in the seats. I can't see how to make the stock seat heater computers work. IIRC they talk to the body module before going to the seat, and that's just not going to work here.
BUT BEFORE THAT, I am amassing a pile of parts, and will be fixing a couple issues. The greasy kind. All that AND MORE (maybe)(probably not) in the next installment of Decopification!