Center Console Fiber glassing

[Nick]

My 69 RR center console is in less than great shape. The rear portion has a large crack and some small broken sections. From what I have found on the forum i'm looking at about $250 to buy a new one. If I am looking at buying one I might as well try to fix the one I have. Worst case scenario, I have to buy one anyways. Best case, I don't :smile-new:

I already have fiberglass cloth, resin and bondo. I also have experience using it on other applications.

My questions are:

1. Has anyone had any success fiber glassing the B body center console?
2. Are the consoles available on like megapartsUSA essentially plastic molds?

Thanks in advance!

 

[moparmonk]

I think I would try to plastic weld it before I would fiberglass it. The plastic is so smooth that the fibers of the glass do not adhere and eventually I think it would separate. Try this. http://www.amazon.com/Urethane-Supp...186041&sr=8-1&keywords=airless+plastic+welder. It has a pretty good booklet on plastic repair and it can be used on a ton of stuff. If you do it on the inside, and "v" it out good, with a thick coat of paint, it may be very hard to see that it was broken. Just a thought.

 

[Nick]

I think I would try to plastic weld it before I would fiberglass it. The plastic is so smooth that the fibers of the glass do not adhere and eventually I think it would separate. Try this. http://www.amazon.com/Urethane-Supp...186041&sr=8-1&keywords=airless+plastic+welder. It has a pretty good booklet on plastic repair and it can be used on a ton of stuff. If you do it on the inside, and "v" it out good, with a thick coat of paint, it may be very hard to see that it was broken. Just a thought.

Interesting. I will check it out for sure. Thank you for the input. I will have to see what else I could use it for. $90 more and I could buy a brand new console mold. Thanks again.

I also read about using epoxy to attach fiberglass cloth. Then resening the fiberglass cloth to the epoxied cloth. Sounds like it would hold. I will run a couple test patches on some throw away plastic from the car.

 

[metalstorm]

I think by the time you get dome fixing you will wish you got new.jmo.My Satellite console was cracked and a chunk out and no way I felt fixing it was going to be good unless it was all I could do.

 

[Ranger]

Just how bad of a condition is this console in?

 

[Nick]

I forgot to grab a picture of it this after noon. I will post tomorrow. Its actually not as bad as I thought it was. There is 1 5" crack on the rear portion near the rear chrome plate. There is a chiped portion (to which I found the broken piece) and other than that it could be re trimmed with chrome. Will get it cleaned up tomorrow.

 

[Big John]

I've used Plast-Ex for repairs like that. I buy it from Eastwood.

http://www.plastex.net/Product_Info.php

 

[Basketcase]

if you do end up buying a new console, get it from Tony D. He's not the cheapest, but he knows his stuff, and I've never heard a bad thing about him. dealt with him several times.

 

[Photon440]

Nick, you`re getting close with that remark about using epoxy. What you need to do is to ditch the polyester resin that you have and get some epoxy resin instead. Unless you`re coating a greasy surface, it simply will not come back off.

Epoxy resin costs more, but has much less smelly fumes, less shrinkage and is a lot stronger.

 

[Nick]

Thanks! I think we're going to go ahead and get a new one. $250 from tony and most other places. Will probably sell the one we have on CL.