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 79-86 Center Console Restoration 

Please excuse the low quality of some of the pictures.  I had to try to use fairly high compression to keep the size of this site under control. Please be helpful and send comments here.

Go to part: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11

Part1:  The "Challenge" or "WTF have I just gotten myself into?!@!?#$"

CLICK ON THE PICTURES!  They get larger.

So I found a heckuva deal on this center console from a cool dude on FEP.  $20!  Well, $20 plus $17 shipping.  So, $37 shipped.  I mean, they ain't making them anymore, right?  I've been looking for a basket case...er DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH to restore.  It is an automatic console, not as valuable as the manual one but it comes with a pad, and most of the console parts.  It looks a wreck but isn't all cracked and the pad is untorn on the top.

SOLD!

And soon...a box shows up:



So far so good.  Let's get her opened.





Oh what a mess.... ewwwww....don't know what the heck was all over this thing.  Slimy dirt...droppings.  Yick.  Of course the e-brake seal is gone.  It always is.  No shifter bezel too.  Will have to find one.  Automatic console specific parts are cheap as most people convert to manual.





Red paint everywhere.  Guy was some kind of artist.  HEY!  We have a cigarette lighter!  Those are always missing.





Is that tan I see?  Ok, so we have a tan, red, grey, black console.  Joy.




No cracks in the inside.  Usually the se things are YANKED out of the car and the screws pulled through.




Pad looks good from the top.  Gotta stay positive.





The underside is not doing it for me...DOH!  No latch!  NO BUMPERS????  That'll have to go on the list of parts to get.





The console underside is decent.  No cracks here.





The ash tray light is there....but one of the plastic ears is busted.  So it's just flopping around.  Also, the little bracket that should hold the harness connectors has been YANKED out.  In the corner, the whole plastic mount is GONE.   Owch.  As Lando would say..."this deal is getting worse and worse".  Glad the previous owner figured out how to make the light socket all red, but miss the rusty bracket.  Talent.

Here is a picture of how the underside is SUPPOSED to look.  Note the wiring harness connectors are nicely attached to a thin metal bracket?  Yeah, that's a problem. (The metal brackets are supposed to be natural, but I HATE RUST.  So they get painted.  They can't be seen.  Sue me.)




In Conclusion

Well, we have what looks like an originally tan 85-86 console (maybe 84).  It was painted.  Painted with colors.  At first appearance it looks pretty decent, structurally.  I didn't find any immediate breaks in the console plastic.  The top, has no splits in it.  Maybe not too much needs to be repaired? (HA!).

We need the following parts though:

E-Brake Console Seal
3 parts for the console pad latch.
Pair of console pad bumpers.
Auto Shifter Bezel.

Everything else like paint, tape, etc I have.  Time to disassemble and clean her up!

Part 2: Lamesville