Homemade Center Console
08-29-2013, 08:39 PM
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Car: 92 Firebird--02 Grand Prix GTP 2Dr
Engine: Poncho 400--3.8 Supercharged
Transmission: T56 6 Speed--4T65EHD
Axle/Gears: Open 10 bolt 3.42--Internal 2.93
Homemade Center Console
Well i may be stretching myself thin here with my engine swap at the same time on my college budget, but while i was recovering from my awful wreck i had been dying to do something on the Firebird. So i looked at how heat rotted my interior was, and decided to try my hand at building a new center console and radio pod. I went and bought some decent quality plywood, lots of wood glue, sandpaper and took measurements of the original console.
08-29-2013, 08:41 PM
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Car: 92 Firebird--02 Grand Prix GTP 2Dr
Engine: Poncho 400--3.8 Supercharged
Transmission: T56 6 Speed--4T65EHD
Axle/Gears: Open 10 bolt 3.42--Internal 2.93
Re: Homemade Center Console
A side by side of new vs old. Trying to make it an exact fit, so i can incorporate the original shifter plate and glovebox light.
08-29-2013, 08:53 PM
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Car: 92 Firebird--02 Grand Prix GTP 2Dr
Engine: Poncho 400--3.8 Supercharged
Transmission: T56 6 Speed--4T65EHD
Axle/Gears: Open 10 bolt 3.42--Internal 2.93
Re: Homemade Center Console
Bought some vinyl today that's close in color. Gonna do the corner stitching in a light grey to match the rest of the interior. the radio/climate control pod will be done in the same manner.
08-29-2013, 09:15 PM
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Car: 87 Trans Am, 99 WS6, 16 Mustang GT
Engine: LB9, LS1
Transmission: 700R4, T56
Axle/Gears: 3.42 Posi, 4.10 Posi
Re: Homemade Center Console
I'm curious to see how this turns out.
09-04-2013, 11:28 PM
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Car: 92 Firebird--02 Grand Prix GTP 2Dr
Engine: Poncho 400--3.8 Supercharged
Transmission: T56 6 Speed--4T65EHD
Axle/Gears: Open 10 bolt 3.42--Internal 2.93
Re: Homemade Center Console
Started working on the little glove box area tonight, got the base in place. Also snapped a pic of the shifter plate to show how it fits.
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09-04-2013, 11:54 PM
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Car: 92 Firebird--02 Grand Prix GTP 2Dr
Engine: Poncho 400--3.8 Supercharged
Transmission: T56 6 Speed--4T65EHD
Axle/Gears: Open 10 bolt 3.42--Internal 2.93
Re: Homemade Center Console
i was a lil when i started. the more it comes together the more solid it feels. i assume it would take as much punishment as much as the plastic would. even the upholstery guy i was talking to when i bought the vinyl laughed at how much the plastics give out in ours cars. when i make the console lid it will be solid, i feel like that should distribute the weight around it decently.
pretty much just following the factory design as much as i can seems to be sufficing in strength.
pretty much just following the factory design as much as i can seems to be sufficing in strength.
09-05-2013, 03:26 PM
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Car: '82 Camaro z28
Engine: 355 4-bolt
Transmission: t56 out of 95 Z
Axle/Gears: 3.73 disks out of same 95
Re: Homemade Center Console
Cool idea, a lot of work. I have done this a few time for design projects in ID school, but never installed one car. Nice idea. I am work on mine now. I stuck with the stock center, but I am making all new top panels out of laser cut polished aluminum. Then topping that with print on polycarbonate...
The reason I bring it up is the laser cut aluminum would really strengthen it up. You just need to tie some of the sides to each other. triangulating corners will seriously reinforce it. You can do it externally with aluminum (feel free to have it powder coated black if you want). You can even do it with a wooden frame internally. That is how they were all done in the '50-'60. I use work at a company that restored classic cars. One of the parts of my job was refinishing the wood components in the interior.
Good job, takes a lot of work. I would suggest deviating from the original console a bit to show-off you made this thing custom!
The reason I bring it up is the laser cut aluminum would really strengthen it up. You just need to tie some of the sides to each other. triangulating corners will seriously reinforce it. You can do it externally with aluminum (feel free to have it powder coated black if you want). You can even do it with a wooden frame internally. That is how they were all done in the '50-'60. I use work at a company that restored classic cars. One of the parts of my job was refinishing the wood components in the interior.
Good job, takes a lot of work. I would suggest deviating from the original console a bit to show-off you made this thing custom!
09-05-2013, 04:15 PM
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Car: 92 Firebird--02 Grand Prix GTP 2Dr
Engine: Poncho 400--3.8 Supercharged
Transmission: T56 6 Speed--4T65EHD
Axle/Gears: Open 10 bolt 3.42--Internal 2.93
Re: Homemade Center Console
Cool idea, a lot of work. I have done this a few time for design projects in ID school, but never installed one car. Nice idea. I am work on mine now. I stuck with the stock center, but I am making all new top panels out of laser cut polished aluminum. Then topping that with print on polycarbonate...
The reason I bring it up is the laser cut aluminum would really strengthen it up. You just need to tie some of the sides to each other. triangulating corners will seriously reinforce it. You can do it externally with aluminum (feel free to have it powder coated black if you want). You can even do it with a wooden frame internally. That is how they were all done in the '50-'60. I use work at a company that restored classic cars. One of the parts of my job was refinishing the wood components in the interior.
Good job, takes a lot of work. I would suggest deviating from the original console a bit to show-off you made this thing custom!
The reason I bring it up is the laser cut aluminum would really strengthen it up. You just need to tie some of the sides to each other. triangulating corners will seriously reinforce it. You can do it externally with aluminum (feel free to have it powder coated black if you want). You can even do it with a wooden frame internally. That is how they were all done in the '50-'60. I use work at a company that restored classic cars. One of the parts of my job was refinishing the wood components in the interior.
Good job, takes a lot of work. I would suggest deviating from the original console a bit to show-off you made this thing custom!
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