So after reading about how to take the centre console off, I decided not to do it 21 year old Italian wiring and the idea of fiddling around with it worried me, so I managed to spend a few hours doing it in situ.
I used methalated spirit, my wife's makeup removing pads and lots of elbow grease on all the peeling rubber, after a couple not hours I had taken it all back to a plastic finish and then used silicone spray to get a nice finish.
Isopropryl alcohol is good for this and the handbrake console too. If you plan to paint, a pack of brillo pads with the chemicals work well. lots of elbow grease still reqd.That's halfords gloss black plus lacquer to match the centre console done by prev owner
Last edited by jonnyboy54321; 02/09/201921:38. Reason: pic
Always seem to have too many 20VT's to count......
I like the piano black. When I did mine, took me some time to come up with a finish that was acceptable to me. I could not for the life of me get rid of the orange peel when spraying the gloss black. In the end, there were so many coats of paint on, I rubbed it with fine wet & dry, & polished the hell out of it. I was at it for days, on & off.
I'm an old git & happy with it,most of the time
Re: Centre Console refurb
[Re: jimboy]
#1635240 03/09/201908:1203/09/201908:12
I used VHT Hood Bumper and Trim paint on mine in June 2010 and it still looks good. Had no problems with "orange peel". Although I live in the sub-tropics, my cars are always garaged, and as we say here, the best carpark at the shopping centre is the one in the shade.
Does the methylated spirits get rid of the nasty stickiness? I lent my car to a relative and they had it valeted. I think the valeter used something funny on the interior and the centre consul has gone horrid and sticky.
Re: Centre Console refurb
[Re: ]
#1635625 18/09/201923:5118/09/201923:51
Yesterday with TWO extracted consoles waving at me I took the plunge.
First one had been a complete basket case and untouchable after being left outside in the Orcadian tropics for many years (this donor coupe has been invaluable as a part source) - meths did a remarkably quick strip and it was all clean and polished within 90 mins, a dead cert to install in our project car. That is apart from some very light grazing under the clock which is annoying as the rest looks good. Hoping it might polish out somehow without looking even more obvious
The second was going to be a breeze therefore. Haha no such luck, after applying the meths as before the surface was left resembling a relief map like a badly-washed milkpan Could I remove this stuff?
Hours later I resorted to scraping as there was no way meths or anything else would get through and it began to look very messy, me cursing away just as instructed in the how-to
That is until I thought "acetone" and enquired after some nail-polish remover from Mrs Ed who produced some Boots moisturising pads for this purpose. Worked instantly!! Also finished her supply
Kick-in-the-teeth though, the nice matt black finish of the successful first console is nowhere to be seen as the end result is now blotchy white-ish/black all over so this one's a rattle-can job. Matt black 100 ml can was the way to go so when our February "shrinking" rain has cleared up the experiment will continue....
So, acetone looks like the best course of action to remove the rubbery gunk that is on the console? I would like to try the Plastidip finish, as per the tutorial here (sadly the pictures seem unavailable), but I'm unsure about the longevity of the finish...
I use some IPA "pre-injection" wipes to clean off one centre console, but the handbrake surround is taking a bit more effort. The success of one solvent over another may be a function of how much the original coating has aged or "weathered" so be prepared to try a variety of approaches...
1996 Portofino 20vt & 2000 Pearl White Plus 1985½ & 2016 2017 Fiat 124 Spider + XF Sportbrake
Re: Centre Console refurb
[Re: 386ka]
#1639071 11/02/202015:0211/02/202015:02
So, acetone looks like the best course of action to remove the rubbery gunk that is on the console? I would like to try the Plastidip finish, as per the tutorial here (sadly the pictures seem unavailable), but I'm unsure about the longevity of the finish...
I'm looking into the possibility of obtaining the pics for this..
BumbleBee carer
Re: Centre Console refurb
[Re: DaveG]
#1639072 11/02/202015:0311/02/202015:03
When I did mine, took me some time to come up with a finish that was acceptable to me. I could not for the life of me get rid of the orange peel when spraying the gloss black. In the end, there were so many coats of paint on, I rubbed it with fine wet & dry, & polished the hell out of it. I was at it for days, on & off.
Agreed, the pitted finish that my second one came up with seemed immovable.
Then I remembered being daft enough to polish up a plenum some years ago, it took weeks. Got a lot of good advice during the process and learnt quite a lot also, especially never to do it again
Using a 380 grit wet-and-dry I was able to remove all the citrus stuff from the console eventually. I was quite glad not to keep going at it with acetone as it seemed to melt the plastic surface. Going through 1000, 1200, 1500 and 2500 grit in turn I've managed to get a passable surface on it now, with a final coating of decent paint restorer to polish it off.
Seeing as one of my examples had not turned out so well, revealing stubborn scratches still, a return to 1500, 2000 and finally 2500 wet n' dry did the trick followed by a machine polish
The resolution is not so great - what did you use for the finish?
Yeah, I was pretty pissed off when it transferred from my phone as it looks much better in the flesh.
I used dots of Menzerna Super Finish Plus, step 3, on a good quality foam pad, buffed up afterwards, then a light spray polish. This might have to be superseded at some point.
When I did mine, took me some time to come up with a finish that was acceptable to me. I could not for the life of me get rid of the orange peel when spraying the gloss black. In the end, there were so many coats of paint on, I rubbed it with fine wet & dry, & polished the hell out of it. I was at it for days, on & off.
Agreed, the pitted finish that my second one came up with seemed immovable.
Then I remembered being daft enough to polish up a plenum some years ago, it took weeks. Got a lot of good advice during the process and learnt quite a lot also, especially never to do it again
Using a 380 grit wet-and-dry I was able to remove all the citrus stuff from the console eventually. I was quite glad not to keep going at it with acetone as it seemed to melt the plastic surface. Going through 1000, 1200, 1500 and 2500 grit in turn I've managed to get a passable surface on it now, with a final coating of decent paint restorer to polish it off.
I found Mr Muscle oven cleaner (aerosol) is super to melt the rubber finish. Used on a couple of handbrake consoles to great effect. A word to the wise though - light coats of paint and many of them, spaced out. otherwise you get an elephant hide effect in a few weeks as it settles
Always seem to have too many 20VT's to count......
When I had my motorbike, I painted the rear mudguard which came as unpainted black plastic. I used a plastic adhesion promoter spray, then sprayed with halfords matt black. It looked really good and the finish remained after years of outdoor use. So that's my plan with the console.
I finally got round to removing the handbrake console before my coupe went in for her respray and it’s taken me a few days to strip the coating off using acetone in the main. Now the weather is warming up this weekend I can move on to painting it with some satin black plasticoat spray paint. Will post some photos once it’s done.