Whilst waiting for the weather to break so I can sit on my garage floor and not cause major shrinkage...one of our fellows here (or on groups, I forget which) had an upholstered TCS console with the cover in decent condition (the ABS plastic shell not so much...). Picked it up and decided to adapt one of my old S2 consoles (the hole for the shift boot is about 1" to the rear on the S2 vs the TCS but the window switch holes are close to the same size.
So...lots of photos below. It came filthy dirty, but there were no seam tears or major nicks that couldn't be repaired. Not my first go-round...so dug in.
One thing I noticed right off the bat was that there was a stiffening brace that was installed (as the photo shows) along the top edge down each side of the front wings (I'm assuming to add structure since those wings flapping is a major cause of cracking at the top corners of the console...so, pulled it off, and installed on the spare console I had. Yes, it does stiffen it up. Nice.
Second, I carefully (using judicious application heat gun) removed the cover from the plastic form. Most of the foam padding came off...but, as you can see in the photo...it is deteriorated (as can be expected after 50+ years. I had a piece of closed cell foam about the same thickness, and decided to use that to pad the sides and top edge as you can see in that photo.
I usually use the SEM dye products (no financial interest etc, ok?) and have had good luck with them. So, important: use the Vinyl Prep before redying, especially if you're changing color. It softens the plastic up just a tiny bit...but that tiny bit ensures the dye will last. So...prep'd the cover (sitting on the new plastic form) and proceeded to apply 2 cross coats of vinyl dye in satin black.
Let it flash off...with some help from my heat gun on low, and proceeded to buff it with a microfibre towel.
Figured I try and see what it looked like (not glued up all the way, mind you, but enough around the window switches (I'm following the glue traces on the back to see where to glue it up!) to let me install a spare complete ash tray, window switches, and belt warning light (as well as the shift boot/trim panel I cleaned up last week.
I didn't take a lot of photos. But wanted to get this out there...have other things to get done today, so, will let it set up and work on it tomorrow or over the weekend.
Photos are self explanatory...I think.
