Centre consul repair

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Big dog

Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2016
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Location
Woolston southampton
My Car
72 351 2v Mach 1 project just purchased
Hi I have just purchased a long centre consul which is cracked through the side by the ashtray does any one know what the best glues are to enable me to repair it

Has any one had to do it

Any info would be great

Regards Perrie

 
If you are still lost get in touch I have done several. They get all warped up in the hot cars the bases get all wavy. A good heat gun and you can get the base back into a good shape that you can repair. If you are careful it is very difficult to find repair unless you point it out.

Daniel Carpenter sells the correct repo lids and ash trays if needed. Nobody sells the clocks that I know of. Have 6 to restore after the garage is up and done. It is a great little project and makes the interior pop. The chrome around the shifter / clock panel there is no hope for the chrome unless you have deep pockets. They do repo it.

 
I used a bit of chrome polish on the chrome area around the clock on a small piece of rag. Really shined nice. Masked that off and painted. Came out great

 
If you are still lost get in touch I have done several. They get all warped up in the hot cars the bases get all wavy. A good heat gun and you can get the base back into a good shape that you can repair. If you are careful it is very difficult to find repair unless you point it out.

Daniel Carpenter sells the correct repo lids and ash trays if needed. Nobody sells the clocks that I know of. Have 6 to restore after the garage is up and done. It is a great little project and makes the interior pop. The chrome around the shifter / clock panel there is no hope for the chrome unless you have deep pockets. They do repo it.
It's in the post coming to me when I get it il post photo of crack which is a complete break but when pushed together looks fine

Clock has numbers that scroll round not hands at this stage not known if works

Regards Perrie

 
Hi I have just purchased a long centre consul which is cracked through the side by the ashtray does any one know what the best glues are to enable me to repair it

Has any one had to do it

Any info would be great

Regards Perrie
I use the acrylic fingernail materials, you can build up the back for strength. You can wet and dust on powder as necessary to make the missing pieces. There is a name brand product called"Plastix" that works as well.

 
when i got my '66 fairlane a few yrs ago the center console was cracked about 3".

found this online and it worked.

now u need to get to the back side for this..

sand down, place a strip of self sticking fiberglass drywall tape over crack and and extend the sides a bit. sprinkle baking soda over it to cover, and drip on super glue to cover baking soda and let sit and cure. the drywall tape holds the part together while your working on it and for strength when done.

 
i took a different approach since fiberglass does not stick well to plastic.

Ford used ABS plastic so i used Tenax R7 and sheets of Black colored ABS plastic as back patches and re-enforcement for cracks.

drill the end of a crack to stop it, then prep the back side with sand paper wipe with plastic cleaner.

paint the R7 on the area to be fixed which softens the plastic then paint r7 on the patch piece and hold together for about 30-60 seconds.

you can also make goop to fill in broken areas. i used another broken console for donor plastic you sand the donor plastic into little fine pieces.

then get Testors Plastic Cement Liquid 1 Oz 3502, mix the plastic dust with the testors until you get the consistency were you want it.

now you can literally 3d print plastic by hand and fill in missing areas, use some pieces of wood like a tongue depressor to work in missing details and let dry for about a week.

:D

 
when i got my '66 fairlane a few yrs ago the center console was cracked about 3".

found this online and it worked.

now u need to get to the back side for this..

sand down, place a strip of self sticking fiberglass drywall tape over crack and and extend the sides a bit. sprinkle baking soda over it to cover, and drip on super glue to cover baking soda and let sit and cure. the drywall tape holds the part together while your working on it and for strength when done.
I have received consel in post and they did not pack it good so front r/h side that goes under dash is in about 7 pieces

 
ABS is weldable provide you use the same or similar for welding material. If you don't have access to a hot air welding tool, it can be done with a hot solder iron with a clean tip. I would suggest something like a Weller 80 watt with a 1/4" tip. File one side round and leave the other flat. The method is to "stitch" the crack to hold it in place, then using the filler material, work the filler into the cracked area and smooth it over with the rounded side. Takes some practice, but is doable. Work from the inside as it will be difficult to refinish the outside pattern. I hand welded plastics for a living before retiring, so I know it can be an option.

If that is not an option, then I found JB Weld's Plastic Bonder, works very well on most plastics. I glued up the throttle cable cam on my boy's BMW a couple of years ago and it is still holding.

 
I used ABS pipe cement to repair mine. In the backside i braced it with steel strips adhered with epoxy over areas that were presoftened with the ABS cement. The resulting repair was extremely robust.

1971 M-code Mach 1

 
I used ABS pipe cement to repair mine. In the backside i braced it with steel strips adhered with epoxy over areas that were presoftened with the ABS cement. The resulting repair was extremely robust.

1971 M-code Mach 1
I've also used ABS pipe cement to repair trim panels on my bass boat (and several other ABS items over the years). Coating the damaged area with cement, then adding fiberglass mat, then covering the mat with more cement is one technique...another is to bond ABS plastic patch (cut from a sheet) to reinforce a cracked or broken area. As previously posted, ABS is easily formed with a heat gun and also weldable. I've made gussets and bonded them to the panel to reinforce. My repaired trim panels on the boat have been in service for 6-7 years and still going strong...

 
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I just took a look at the consul I picked up for 35 bucks a while ago. No intention of restoring it to use myself as it is in need of a lot of work and besides, I had one in my 72 Q code 4 speed and I kept banging my elbow into it when I power shifted!!

I was looking for material codes, but found none, just Ford numbers. With no codes, I can't be totally sure what the material actually is. ABS would be my first guess anyway. It could also be a blend of materials. Guys are saying that ABS cement works on it, so it probably is ABS. I have not tested it myself to be sure.

What I did find curios was that the various parts were made in either the USA or Canada. Interesting that the parts were not all made in one country or the other.

 
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The majority of the hard plastic parts in these era cars were ABS. If a replacement part needed to be painted for the shop we ordered a primer from Ford with the description,"Interior primer, interior parts of electron cure coated ABS plastic". The softer vinyl trim pieces such as rear quarter trim panels used a different primer so as to flex and not pop the paint off.

Thank goodness most of these parts were manufactured in Canada or the US. Our cars lag way behind in "Quality Fit" when Compared to how well the new cars are assembled. But at least we had a fighting chance with our parts manufactured in Canada or the US!

 
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