[Johnny99]

Just cleaning up the interior on the 65 LeMans and the console needs some help. The base had a few issues. Two sections were missing. Sorry but I didn't take before pics.

The left side horn towards the dash was broken off, missing part of the top and a good chunk of the side. The right side was missing a section about 6 inches long and 3 inches tall.

$300 for a repro base is a little to steep for this car and even eBay bases were over the $150 mark and either of those two options still needed to be prepped and painted This repair ended up costing me about $45 and 1 1/2 hours worth of work.

I had thought of buying a broken base and transplanting the the sections but knew I'd never get the patch hidden completely. And at that even broken bases were not cheap.

I ended up using pcv sheet to form inside supports and attached them with some Devcon Plastic welder that I had in stock. I folded them using a heat gun, cleaned the supports and console inside with lacquer thinner and clamped them up for 24 hours.

Using paper mockups as templates I then cut outside patches to replace the missing console plastic. Then used the rest of the Plastic welder to inset the patches which were flush with the outside and supported in the back by the previously installed supports. Again clamped and let sit for 24.

Another hobby of mine is guitars and before deciding to repair the console in this manner I had noticed how the Fender amp covering/tolex grain looked pretty close to the embossed plastic grain of the console. $20 later I had a 36"x54" piece of Fender style tolex to wrap the console with. Using both 3M 90 spray and Weldwood contact cement covering the base went very quickly. Much easier than tolexing an amp


I'm really happy with how the base turned out now I just need to figure out what to do about the pox marked chrome on the top plate.


Internal support patches:

Side panel inside support patch:

Side panel after repair:

Horn inside support patch:

Horn after repair:


Recovered console:

[Bluesugar]

Very nice and great idea for the covering.

[Hammertime Mike]

I like it, especially the idea of covering the base with the wrap.

[donziboy]

Agree well done and the cover material you selected look very nice.

[Greg Reid]

Yeah, that looks really good. I didn't realize that you could buy the amp covering material. I'm subscribing because I just bought a console for my '66 and the chromed pot-metal is in worse shape than I'd hoped when I took a chance on buying it unseen.
The only cure I've been able to find for it is very labor intensive and pretty expensive. You have to remove all plating, drill each pock mark out down to clean metal and then fill each pock with solder. After getting it all smooth, then you can re-chrome.

[donziboy]

I procured a used console that for me cleaned up ok and after paint and polish does not look out of place and overall matched up well with my existing interior. I decided to add a vacuum gauge because it coved up a problem area that for some reason was very discolored and had several large pits. Although my plastic base looks OK after painting covering it with vinyl material may be something that I consider in the future.

[Johnny99]

donziboy,
That's a sharp looking interior. If the bottom after being cleaned up and sprayed is still a step below the top in appearance I would recommend possibly covering it. I've never seen a covered early console that I liked as they always seem to be covered vinyl to match the seats . Looks to smooth for me and completely different from factory. While the tolex might not be an exact match to the factory plastic grain I think it's close enough and different enough to the other upholstery vinyl that it COULD have been factory . If that makes sense.

Greg,
The top on mine is in pretty poor shape. I could live with the too black and fins, when done they would look older but not terrible. The chrome on the sides has more pimples on them then I did when I was 13 Rechroming is out for me as I can't justify $1K on a single piece of trim for a car that's worth maybe $20K. The money can be put to better use on the car elsewhere IMO.

I just picked up a console on eBay, I'm hoping that the top is nice enough to make me happy. If not I'll need to figure out how to salvage what I have and make it presentable

[Jeff Hamlin]

I think this is a great alternative to a $700 Repro.

I went looking into this covering and man-o-man anyone doing something custom could have a ball with the different offerings.
We have a few beat up consoles at the shop I may have to mess with.
I found an Emerald Green that looks awesome.

Parts Place has a High Chrome ABS console top kits that some reported was a good option over a costly restoration of an OE pot metal top.

Again very cool.

[Johnny99]

There are quite a few options, no tiger stripes that I could find though

Looks the The Parts Place has an automatic top kit coming in plastic but no prices yet. I did find a better top on eBay but will continue to look for updates from Parts Place