I'm no carpenter. I'm much more comfortable with a wrench in my hand than a saw, but for various reasons I decided that I needed a custom console. After looking around at consoles made by TMI and MTF and seeing how expensive even an unmodified unit is, I decided to try making one myself.
I had no idea about how to go about it, so I figured that I'd start by mocking one up out of some cardboard.
After getting the mock up done it was time to shop. I got some nice 1/2" plywood from Lowe's. Its not taken quite a half a sheet. Then it was time to start measuring, cutting, fitting, cussing, trying to remember long forgotten geometry lessons, and a bit more cussing.
The rats nest of wire you see is the excess wire for the transmission controller. I had decided to integrate the controller into the console and I've since shortened the wires up to the length they need to be.
A bit more progress over the weekend. I still need to get a couple of new a/c vents to put in above the controller and I need to find some cup holder inserts that are big enough to hold a pop bottle and find someone in the area that does custom upholstery.
It looks really good. I'd guess you're looking at a couple hundred bucks to get it upholstered to the same quality as the rest of your interior. My car has a factory console, which I like the look of, but I'd really like cup holders.
Got my new a/c vents, cup holders, and shift boot today. Its beginning to look like it belongs in the car, at least I think so. I guess the next step is to find an upholstery shop and buy some vinyl.
If you can't find an upholstery shop nearby, go to a car interiors shop or someplace where you can find material. For your car, I would say doing a white on red console to match the red and white theme you have going on. Red for primary, white for the small trim and stuff. I may be able to help you with some other question if you have any.
I intend to have the center section, from the dash to the cup holder panel, be white and the rest red. I'm just not sure if I want that section upholstered or if I want to bend some aluminum to fit that section and paint it white.
The seat upholstery is TMI and I see they sell the vinyl by the yard. I also see that NPD stocks TMI vinyl. That should get me the same color and grain as the seats.
This is looking great! Keep us posted on progress. I love this kind of project because it's pretty do-able for most hobbyists and everybody adds their own unique details to it.
Thanks Blake, and yes its pretty do-able even with basic tools. I've used a circular saw, 3/8 drill, sabre saw, and a cheap hand mitre saw on a portable bench made of two sawhorses and an old door. Believe me, if I can do this, then pretty much anyone can.
Thanks for sharing your progress on this. My trans tunnel will be modified with a Lokar shifter, so I need a custom console in mine. I like seeing the process you have gone through going from cardboard to wood. I will be watching your progress and likely following in your footsteps.
Its not terribly heavy, I'd guess maybe 10 lbs. You probably could get away with using thinner stuff; I think the aftermarket ones are built from 1/4" plywood, but I'm not going to screw it down to the floor so I wanted to be sure that it would be heavy enough to stay in place.
I would definitely mount it to the floor in some fashion. In the case of even a small fender bender that could do some damage to flesh. It looks great and is definitely the direction I am going, the cost of the aftermarket ones is just too much. My only suggestion would be to replace the reinforcing wood in the corners with aluminum angle.
I had thought about that, but since I'm using 1/2" plywood I decided it would be better to use 1x2" braces in the corners of the storage area since wood screws don't really hold well into plywood.
I had thought about using 1x10 (3/4" x9-3/4") cut down to the sizes I need for the main portions, which would have been OK with wood screws, but I needed at least 7" on the inside to keep the a/c vents from looking walleyed. Even using an 1/8" steel panel for directly under the dash, the math told me that I needed at least 3/4"between the a/c vent holes to maintain structural integrity especially with the cutout for the trans controller in the same panel.
Yeah, a lot of thought went into this build, WAY more than I anticipated. As I said, I'm no carpenter and working with wood is almost alien to me, but so far its been a nice mental challenge.
For those who have a slightly different situation, I already had a factory console but TMI doesn't build a saddle console for the 1968. As a result, I built an arm rest with cup holders and USB ports. I even added a speaker into the back side of the arm rest so it would pump decent audio to the back seat. I was able to find upholstery that was extremely similar to the seats. It's not quite as professional looking at TMI but it's plenty good enough for me.
Looks great! 1/2" plywood is definitely the right way to go - that's what I went with on mine because I figured I'd be leaning all over it for the rest of my life. I have not regretted it yet.
I had to make mine with a removable floor plate because I've got underdash AC so finagling the console out around the shifter is impossible without taking the floor of the console out. Turned out for the better though as I was able to make it follow styling cues from the rest of the car and I really think it ties everything together.
Nice work. I have similar plans but was going to go with 1/4" luan, brace with ribs and then lay fiberglas over it, similar to a kayak. Strong and light that way. I love seeing folks do innovative things like this, feeds my imagination and gives me different ideas. I echo one of the others though in attaching it somehow, that would be a dangerous chunk moving around the inside of the car in an accident.
Since we're showing off, here's mine, although not nearly as fancy and professional as others in this thread. Perhaps obvious, but the base is a stock console, with a custom top. Lokar shifter and parking brake, with a Lokar gear indicator in the front left. The gauge is for vacuum, just to fill up the empty spot.
I got my console back from the upholstery shop today. I have a little tweaking to do on it before I install it, but it was just too humid today to mess with it too much. I'll probably work on getting it installed tomorrow. Please excuse the background mess. I've been waiting to clean the garage until I'm done.
OK, much nicer and less humid day today so I got the tweaks done and put the console in place. I have just a little trim work to do, but I think it looks pretty good in place.
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