Page Sixty-Eight - Some Consolation

 

How to restore Alphie’s “reasonably original” console.

I have three consoles – one from the black Alpine, one from the Organ Donor and one from Bob (the guy who gave me Bob’s Butt, remember?)

1. Find the lock that fits the rest of the car; remember, one key fits the ignition and doors while the other fits the boot and console.

2. Picked the console with the best (meaning least rusty) sheet metal, took it to bare metal and primed it.

3. Carefully peeled the original vinyl from the sheet metal so I could make a pattern later.

4. Cut a piece of tool box drawer liner for the non-skid, rattle-smoothing bottom liner, no glue, just laid it in.

Tool box drawer liner works great! 

5. Laid out the old vinyl on the back of the new vinyl and drew a pattern.  Foreseeing me screwing up, I cut the vinyl leaving a generous margin for error – important step!

Old vinyl as a patttern for the new vinyl

New vinyl ready to glue

6. Did many, many test fits – another important step! 

7. Got out the stinky contact cement, loads of clamps, binder clips, paint stirrers and popsicle sticks (lolly sticks for the Brits) and set to gluing the vinyl to the metal.  See the pics.

Wrapped, glued and clipped to dry.
(The popsicle (lolly) sticks keep the clips from denting the vinyl.)

8. The console lid gets a specially sewn cover from the gang at Sunbeam Specialties, but I stuffed some extra polyester batting between the foam and the cover because the foam didn’t fill the space as well as I wanted.  LOTS-O-TEST FITS and glued it to the cover plate.

I forgot to take pics during the process, but here's the finished lid.

I bought some stainless #6 oval Phillips head screws, as short as I could find, and some #6 finish washers for the underside of the cover.  No Rust! and they look spanking!

The lid on the cleaned and painted console sheet metal

9. There’s a little square (trapezoid if I’m being precise) of cardboard, which vinyl wraps around to create the top piece at the back of the console, behind the console lid.  Mine was buckled, so I cut a piece of sheet metal to replace it, glued it up and placed weights on it to smooth out the vinyl.

Old, warped cardboard on the right, new sheet metal on the left.

Vinyl wrapped and ready to glue down.
The dots are where the hinge will mount.

Glued up!

Underside of the lid with new stainless fasteners.
(I'll clean up the tag ends of the vinyl, don't worry.)

    10. Glue and clamp the little trapezoid to the console metal and attach the lid with new #10 stainless screws.

11. Cut out the hole for the lock and mount it in place.  Fiddle with the lock until it locks and unlocks easily.

And the lock works!
(I see the little bulge in the vinyl, but it's too late to fix it. 
Don't look that closely!)