The console was a mess. A previous owner used electrical tape to cover the gouged out foam, and the vinyl covering was badly cracked and deteriorated, and the lid was missing. There was no point in trying to recover the existing structure, as removing the covering destroyed what was left of the foam surround.

The steel console is dissassembled and stripped of it's foam and  vinyl cover. This was a messy and difficult job. The console pieces were sandblasted and primered prior to recovering. I had to cut the console in half just forward of the glove box lock face to get the pieces into the blast cabinet. After cleaning, they were welded back together.

I search for a suitable base foam material. It needed to be very firm and dense, yet flexible, and be able to be carved and sanded. I seetled on a structural foam called Ethafoam, which I got from a plastics distributor. It was cut to 1"x36x96 sheet. It wasn't terribly cheap, but was perfect material for the console foam base.

After much carving and shaping, the rear console covering is being glued on. I used 1/2 hour epoxy for bonding the foam.

The basic covering installed. It was then sanded to the proper contours.

Building the lid. I used 1/2" plywwod for the base, and then built the foam around it to match the console.

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