- Joined
- Jul 27, 2012
- Messages
- 3,094
- Reaction score
- 445
- Location
- Brisbane - Australia
- My Car
- 1973 Mustang Convertible
Hi to all,
There's a wise old saying. If you want something done properly, you do it yourself. That saying applied to me, in regards trying to get hold of a decent center floor console for myself. I wanted to put one in my '73 convert as the car did not have one X factory. My first mistake was to buy last year before i joined the forum.That would have been a great help to me in regards proper pricing and availability. Since there are no repros made for '71 - '73's yet, my only option was to try Ebay. I came across one for sale and it looked quite good, so i pulled the trigger and that's where the fun began.
Part1.(The Rip)
The buy it now price on Ebay was $450.00 American
and was being sold on the basis that it had been completely restored. It did seem expensve to me but being restored was a big plus, and i thought it is hard to get hold of one of these things as well.Also, it was being sold from around Florida way,and had to be shipped to California so it could come by boat to Australia.That meant extra money as well. When it arrived, i checked it over carefully, and discovered the so called resoration was very second rate. It stared it's factory life as a Ginger Colored console from what year i don't know.Basically, it had been given a wham bam make over and attention to detail was very poor.For example, nothing had been stripped down or taken apart, bad rust was on all metal surfaces, a quick coat of matt black spray enamel was put over the whole thing, rust and all, the lid was old and stuffed with bad cracking in the vinyl,the ash tray was badly rusted and pitted and had a coat of siver paint sprayed over it, the chrome trim was in worn average condition, the original inside box liner was worn and old looking, and the clock didn't work, and had a stuffed lens as well.The only thing decent about this console was the main plastic body of the console was in good condition without any cracks or breaks or chunks missing, except for bad gouges on one side where the passengers seat had rubbed into the side of the console. Sadly, i had been ripped off, payed way too much, and realised i would have to start from scratch, and restore the console properly myself at added expense. (Mustang Masters):dodgy:
Part2. (The Resto)
I took the whole thing apart completely.I used 2 pak reducer to wash the body to get rid of the lousy matt black enamel paint that had been sprayed on the shell.That didn't affect the grained plastic finish thank God, and i refinished the shell with a good quality satin black acrylic lacquer.It came up very well.
I fully took apart,and restored the ash tray compartment, which had bad surface rust everywhere.The box lid hinge was stripped and refinished properly.All wiring and bulbs and bulb holders were cleaned and fixed.The storage box was retrimmed with a lovely black felt lining and reinstalled.To complete the resto, new parts were bought. New console plate, new ash tray, new clock lens, new console lid. The clock was professionally restored to original working condition.I even threw in a plug and chug for drinkies.Now here's the part that's hard to swallow - the costs.
Plug & Chug - $42.00/ ash tray - $28.00/ console plate - $150.00/clock lens - $20.00/ console lid - $53.00/ buy original console - $450.00/ clock repair - $180.00/ paint materials - $50.00/ liner for storage box - $25.00
Total material costs = $998.00. Total shipping and handleing costs =$271.00. That's a grand total of $1,269.00 (Oh my God! What have i done!)
I would have put around 35 hours labor into the project. Can you imagine what that would mean if i was to pay to have the work done instead of doing the resto myself! Anyway, i enjoyed the resto, it's the expense that's the frustrating part, and being ripped off of coarse. The end result looks great and was worth the effort i put into it.
See my photos on photobucket. Press any photo to start slide show.
And now it's off to my next resto adventure!
http://s1295.beta.photobucket.com/user/gregsladen/library/Center%20Floor%20Console%20Photos
Many Thanks,
Greg
There's a wise old saying. If you want something done properly, you do it yourself. That saying applied to me, in regards trying to get hold of a decent center floor console for myself. I wanted to put one in my '73 convert as the car did not have one X factory. My first mistake was to buy last year before i joined the forum.That would have been a great help to me in regards proper pricing and availability. Since there are no repros made for '71 - '73's yet, my only option was to try Ebay. I came across one for sale and it looked quite good, so i pulled the trigger and that's where the fun began.
Part1.(The Rip)
The buy it now price on Ebay was $450.00 American
and was being sold on the basis that it had been completely restored. It did seem expensve to me but being restored was a big plus, and i thought it is hard to get hold of one of these things as well.Also, it was being sold from around Florida way,and had to be shipped to California so it could come by boat to Australia.That meant extra money as well. When it arrived, i checked it over carefully, and discovered the so called resoration was very second rate. It stared it's factory life as a Ginger Colored console from what year i don't know.Basically, it had been given a wham bam make over and attention to detail was very poor.For example, nothing had been stripped down or taken apart, bad rust was on all metal surfaces, a quick coat of matt black spray enamel was put over the whole thing, rust and all, the lid was old and stuffed with bad cracking in the vinyl,the ash tray was badly rusted and pitted and had a coat of siver paint sprayed over it, the chrome trim was in worn average condition, the original inside box liner was worn and old looking, and the clock didn't work, and had a stuffed lens as well.The only thing decent about this console was the main plastic body of the console was in good condition without any cracks or breaks or chunks missing, except for bad gouges on one side where the passengers seat had rubbed into the side of the console. Sadly, i had been ripped off, payed way too much, and realised i would have to start from scratch, and restore the console properly myself at added expense. (Mustang Masters):dodgy:Part2. (The Resto)
I took the whole thing apart completely.I used 2 pak reducer to wash the body to get rid of the lousy matt black enamel paint that had been sprayed on the shell.That didn't affect the grained plastic finish thank God, and i refinished the shell with a good quality satin black acrylic lacquer.It came up very well.
I fully took apart,and restored the ash tray compartment, which had bad surface rust everywhere.The box lid hinge was stripped and refinished properly.All wiring and bulbs and bulb holders were cleaned and fixed.The storage box was retrimmed with a lovely black felt lining and reinstalled.To complete the resto, new parts were bought. New console plate, new ash tray, new clock lens, new console lid. The clock was professionally restored to original working condition.I even threw in a plug and chug for drinkies.Now here's the part that's hard to swallow - the costs.
Plug & Chug - $42.00/ ash tray - $28.00/ console plate - $150.00/clock lens - $20.00/ console lid - $53.00/ buy original console - $450.00/ clock repair - $180.00/ paint materials - $50.00/ liner for storage box - $25.00
Total material costs = $998.00. Total shipping and handleing costs =$271.00. That's a grand total of $1,269.00 (Oh my God! What have i done!)
I would have put around 35 hours labor into the project. Can you imagine what that would mean if i was to pay to have the work done instead of doing the resto myself! Anyway, i enjoyed the resto, it's the expense that's the frustrating part, and being ripped off of coarse. The end result looks great and was worth the effort i put into it.
See my photos on photobucket. Press any photo to start slide show.
And now it's off to my next resto adventure!
http://s1295.beta.photobucket.com/user/gregsladen/library/Center%20Floor%20Console%20Photos
Many Thanks,
Greg
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