Midget Center Console

[Loren]

In search of a place to mount some switches, I removed the center console today. I was going to have to remove it to replace the Hazard Flasher Unit, and to install a USB charger/voltmeter in place of the lighter, anyway.

Removing it required pulling the center carpet and completely removing the shifter assembly. The console itself is held in place by just 8 screws... and this mess of wires. It really only took 10-15 minutes to remove it.

Ugh!

Here's what it looked like when I started:

On the left, there's an odd screw that I always wonder why it was there. Turns out it was holding a bracket that held the hazard flasher in place. Could they have made it more conspicuous and out of place? Then there's the hazard switch and the EGR light.

On the right, seatbelt light, lighter, and Catalyst light.

Those emissions lights are stupid, probably meeting some federal requirement at the time. The way they work is that the speedo cable comes up from the trans into the engine bay, goes into a little plastic box that is a mechanical counter, out of that box, INTO ANOTHER mechanical counter box, and then to the speedo. I'll be replacing that whole mess with a one-piece speedo cable eventually! All those counters do is light up the EGR and Catalyst lights at a mileage interval. (one is 50k, I don't know what the other one is)

[Loren]

Soooo, since I have this thing out, and I like to do things right and do them once...

The vinyl has shrunk around the hazard switch and looks like crap, plus a couple of melted circles around the lighter, etc. Plus, I'm removing some things and moving things. Recovering it should be very easy. Gonna do that.

Since I'm stripping it to recover it...

1. Might as well fit some kind of radio (I'll likely never really worry about using it, but, why not?), something simple with very basic BT connectivity. New speaker. Either a single 6x9, or a pair of 4's might fit, definitely a pair of 3 or 3.5's. I don't need fidelity or anything. Just something to put out some sound that might be heard if I care to turn it on.

2. EGR, Cat and Seatbelt lights are being removed.

3. The horn button will go where that stupid screw for the hazard flasher module was. (can scab the hazard flasher bracket to the speaker mounts)

4. The lighter hole needs to be enlarged to fit my USB/voltmeter.

5. I don't like the way the factory interior light looks. I'm going to remove it, and find some under-dash LED solution to replace it.

6. Main Power switch needs to go somewhere. I was thinking bottom left next to the radio.

7. But, I'm also thinking that since I'm doing this, I should go ahead and set it up to do away with the ignition switch. I may or may not do that, but if it ever starts acting up... would be nice to already be configured to use switches and a start button. I already have a bunch of matching switches like the main power switch. Should be able to get a starter button to match the horn button.

If I do #6, I'll put the start button across from the horn button. Then the only other switch to add would be an "ignition" switch. I'm already handling main power with the other switch. Probably will do it... just do have all the switches in place. Run the wires over to the steering column and be ready.

To recap, I need holes for two push buttons (horn and start), and three switches (main, ign and interior light).

Removed the radio. It's a vintage aftermarket Hitachi if anyone wants it. It does work.

Ain't she a beaut?

And I discovered the best twisted-wire speaker splice I've ever seen. Well done, radio installer guy in 1976. Well done!

[Loren]

Almost there!

Here's the inside stripped. Check this thing out! If it were a new car, this would be one piece of injection-molded plastic that cost about $2 to make. This thing is made of two pieces of steel. Stamped, formed, cut and welded together. It's actually pretty heavy for what it is. I wonder how much lighter this car could have been using modern production methods?

And here it is with nothing left but the vinyl!

Time to start shopping and planning!

[Loren]

Messed around and stayed up until 6:30am last night shopping for stuff. Hate it when that happens!

Running through the list now to see if I've covered all the bases.

Got vinyl. Marine grade, heavy duty, black with a nice texture. I have glue. I think.

The previous list:

1. Radio - I wanted something that was going to be reasonably okay, but not expensive. Good BT connectivity for music and phone integration (don't need full nav and all that). Also wanted something that didn't look like it came out of a space ship. Ended up with a Planet Audio P350MB. It's pretty basic looking and won't stand out too much. Also ordered a set of speakers. I went round and round and round about this. Ultimately decided to go as large as I could. Could MAYBE fit 6's. Opted for 5.25's. I'll have to fab some brackets to mount them a couple inches back from the panel rather than directly to it. I might have to angle them a little bit towards each other, but probably not. The sound won't be GREAT, and the speakers being right next to each other pointing out the same grille will negate most "stereo". But, a 5" speaker is still going to produce better low end than a 3.5 or 4" speaker! I opted for some decent quality speakers, too. Infinity Primus coax speakers. Supposed to have a range of 59-20k Hz, the low is what it is, and I can't hear much over 12k, anyway. Spent more than I wanted to at $60, but I know speakers are worth spending money on. So, that takes care of the sound system.

2. Removing unused lights. Done.

3. Horn button, I already have.

4. USB socket / voltmeter, I already have.

5. Interior lights. That's what I just spent 3 hours looking into. Ordered a 12v LED "hardscaping" light. It's got a mounting plate that's supposed to fit in between bricks on a retaining wall, and the light itself is 7" long and about 3/4" x 3/4". That'll fit neatly above the speaker grille bolted to the top of the console and I'll be able to bend the bracket to get the angle of the light just right. It's powder-coated bronze, so I'll have to paint it black to match the console. Shouldn't be the eyesore that the original light was. And I'll put a switch for it somewhere on the panel. (also controlled by the door switches... which I'll need to clean at some point because they are flaky) I also got a pair of tiny panel-mount single LED "driving lights" to use as footwell lights. They'll go in the sides of the console. It angles inward at the bottom, so that will point the lights downward so that they aren't blinding. And they're flush-mount with tidy black aluminum bezels. They'll look nice and not intrude on knee space. So, those are on order.

6. Main Power switch, I have. (and I have 6 of those switches, so I can use one for the interior lights)

7. Other Switches. The company that makes the cool backlit SS horn button that I'm using has an assortment of matching switches. I had to think about this a lot. But, what I settled on was:
- Ignition Power - 10A (their standard switches are 5A) push-button toggle. There's still some power going through this for things that I didn't put on a relay. And it's back-lit in RED when it's on. I chose red for this one because it's the button you want to push to turn OFF the engine.
- Starter - Simple push-button switch. It's back-lit in GREEN when it has power. Green means go!
- DRL - Because Horn + Ign + Starter gives me 3 fancy polished SS switches, two on the right, one on the left... I wanted another matching switch on the left. So, I got another push-button toggle, back-lit in white, for DRL.

That should be all I need to rebuild and revise the center console!

I'll probably strip the vinyl off of it tomorrow. Take measurements so that I can mock-up all of the switch locations. And maybe weld-up some of the unused holes. Then I can drill all of the necessary holes, clean and refinish the steel before covering it with vinyl.

[Loren]

One more addition to the plan:

Since I'm putting some fairly significant volume into this thing with the new speakers, I'm going to add some side sound ports to try to let a little more of that sound out. Maybe it will keep it from sounding too "muffled"? A couple 2" tweeter grilles should do the trick!

[Loren]

Stripped the old vinyl off (carefully, so I can use it as a template if need be) today.

The vinyl cover was made with 3 pieces sewn together. Two side pieces. One strip from the top, down the front and all the way under. It's stretched to fit around the corners at the sides and all glued in. I didn't even notice that it had stitching (or that the way the seam fits around the corners isn't perfect) until I started working on it. So, whatever I do... Doesn't need to be perfect. Just needs to be all-vinyl, and a snug fit.

The top edge is hidden under the dash. The bottom edge is behind the shifter and crammed tight against carpet. What you see is the part that wraps around the front, which will be perfect.

My question was: can I just do this with one piece and no stitching?

Looks like I can! If it can be done with paper (not stretchy) then it can be done better with vinyl (stretchy). Instead of wrapping top-to-bottom, I went side-to-side. The only visible seams will be around the corners next to the radio on each side.

If I do all of the fitting and gluing in stages (will take days), I should be able to trim things to lay flat, and I have some killer black vinyl cement to work those two seams. It'll work, I tell ya!

All of my years as an expert Christmas gift-wrapper have paid off!

Un-origamified the paper, and here's the pattern. The vinyl that I got is 12x56". Should be enough to do this project twice. Hopefully, I'll get it right the first time!

[Loren]

Last night, I drew the layout for the new console. Pretty simple, but I wanted to be sure of where everything was going to go so that I can lay out and drill the holes properly.

For some reason, the original layout had the items on either side of the speaker grille offset to the outside rather than centered. Because my USB port that's going in place of the lighter socket is larger diameter, I've got to move that to the left, which puts it pretty close to the center of available space. So, I laid everything out like that. It looks nice and symmetrical.

To make that all work, I've got to do three things:
1. Move the hole for the Haz Switch a little to the right.
2. Fill a bunch of unused holes.
3. Drill a bunch of new holes.

I've got to be 100% certain of my layout before I start.

Midget Console Layout.jpg (36.41 KiB) Viewed 8745 times

Most of my parts have arrived. I have all the switches. The vinyl. Verified that I have glue (E6000 should work, and it's black). All that's left is the radio and the side speaker port covers. Oh, and the LED lights.

The speakers arrived today, too. They look like they'll fit nicely. Need to fit the radio to be sure there's clearance everywhere, then I can fab up some speaker brackets. I may go ahead and wire up the stereo (dang, it's handy having a cheap 12v USB power brick at hand to power stuff!) and play with speaker position and angles to see what kind of difference it makes. I could aim them straight forward, up a little bit, angled out (to maybe get some stereo separation from the side ports), angled IN to criss-cross and blend the channels together better. Point them directly to the main speaker grille to direct the sound of the tweeters more directly out. Odds are, it's not going to sound great no matter what I do. I'm just going for "acceptable" and "audible"... and I'll probably not really be listening to it much, anyway!

[Loren]

Radio arrived today. Works great, I think it will sound decent even with the speakers crammed into a little metal box.

Went ahead and trial fit it in the car.

See the problem? Now, I don't really "need" to see that screen. But, when I do want to see it, it would be nice to be able to do so without craning my neck! If I had to live with it, I would. But, I'm redoing the console... Why not make it better?

The radio body has about 1/3 the depth of a traditional car radio, so I can tilt it quite a lot before hitting the bottom of the tray.

Doing that doesn't interfere with the shifter. And all I'll have to do (other that make some structure for the radio bracket to attach to in this new position) is create a triangular filler piece for each side. I like it!

And I finally realized why the hazard switch is mounted off-center in the console! Look at the first pic. The hazard switch is in-line with the headlight switch up on the dashboard. So, I might just leave it there.

So, I reworked the switch layout (again). While I had it in the car, I marked my sight-line (now on the drawing). The dashboard overhangs the top of the console, so wanted to be sure not to put switches so far up that I can't see them.

Midget Console Layout.jpg (38.76 KiB) Viewed 8736 times

[Loren]

Lights showed up today. (along with speaker grilles, and some other stuff) I'm very pleased with them!

The main interior light is going where the old one was. But, this one tucks up under the rolled (it's not really rolled, it's actually molded plastic) edge of the dash. Completely invisible from normal viewing angles except for the light that it produces! Awesome!

Only problem is that from MY normal viewing angle, it has hot spots that glare HARD off of the speaker grille. So, I'll have to fit some kind of a diffuser on it. That'll be easy enough, the way the thing is assembled.

The other lights are just mini LED spots. They're supposed to be running lights or something. Pretty bright. And they glare pretty bad if you look straight at them.

I was planning to put those on the sides on the curved part, pointing at a downward angle. But, even that angle, you get significant glare. Then, I noticed that I can actually mount them on the BOTTOM of the console. The console is wider than the transmission tunnel. So, I can put them there, pointed straight down. No glare, but plenty of footwell light. One on each side.

That's all going to go together easily.

[Loren]

Still slow-leaking this project.

Friday, I got all of the rest of the holes drilled and test-fitted everything.

Test-fitted it in the car. Looks legit.

Time to figure out how to mount the speakers! Put my CAD skills to work once again. This will work.

And here's the template, all unfolded. I was pleased with it.

But, then one of my audiophile friends convinced me that my "bracket" did not function as a proper "speaker baffle", and the world would probably come to an end if I didn't fix it. So, since I'm still at the mock-up phase, I did some more CAD based on the original bracket... and came up with a proper speaker baffle.

Aaaaand, last night, I started working out the wiring of the console itself just to make it easier to hook things up when the time comes. The last thing I did this evening was clean up the console frame and throw some black paint on it.

Now, all I have to do is fab that speaker bracked, paint it... apply the vinyl, assemble, do the WIRING, and then test it all! I count at least 46 electrical connections that need to be made. That'll take a few minutes.

[Loren]

I'm way behind in updating this mini project. But, I'm going to go ahead and do it just for the sake of completeness. Someday, I might want to know, even if nobody else does.

So, we left off with a naked box with a bunch of holes in it. After that, I cleaned it, painted it, waited for the paint to dry. After a day and a half, I ended up putting it in the oven at 175 for 90 minutes to get the paint to cure. That's what I get for painting in the cold, I guess.

Then, I wrapped it with vinyl and used E-6000 adhesive to glue it down. That came out BRILLIANTLY. Very happy with it. Didn't have to sew anything, and the only visible seams are next to the radio on each side... nearly invisible.

Punched a bunch of holes in the vinyl and ended up here:

On the inside, I ended up using some terminal strips that I had leftover from the main wiring panel. I figured this would make the wiring a LOT neater and easier, and it did. I have one bus for Ground, one for main power (unswitched), and one for switched power.

The only things on the unswitched power are the main power switch, the interior lights, and the radio "always on" wire.

Midget Console Bus Blocks.jpg (271.54 KiB) Viewed 8674 times

See all those loose wire ends? All told, there were at least 30 of them. Plus the radio. Plus the hazard lights (which I didn't rewire). It took several days to get all of that wiring done and tested.

[Loren]

But, get it done and tested, I did!



Huh. Just learned that this forum handles video links with no tags. Neat! (yeah, I'm the admin, I should know... I don't)

So, now it's essentially done:

Time to start working on a speaker bracket, er... baffle:

I ended up doing that with a piece of galvanized steel that I had laying around, so I didn't need to paint it. (the edges will rust... whatever) It all worked out great until I test-fit it with the speakers installed. That's when I found out that the speakers stuck out about a half inch beyond the back of the box! So, I ended up cutting about an inch off of the top part, redoing my welded nuts to bring that forward. (backward relative to the car) That fixed the clearance issue. It's not as pretty as it was, but it still works and fits nice and tight.

Getting to the mounting screw at the back of the radio is nearly impossible now. I should have taken a pic of this. I guess I still could. But, what I did was used the longest M5 screw that I had (fortunately, I bought an assortment a while back... I've started doing things like that, SO HANDY!), which was about 1.25" (30mm) I put a double-nut at the depth I want it to screw into (about 3/8") and left the rest to hang back and be visible and reachable with a screwdriver. Then, I threaded it through the bottom bracket and into the radio. The speaker baffle bottom bolt hole became a slot, so I can just slide it over the screw, between the bottom bracket and the radio. Tighten the screw and "Bob's your uncle", as they say.

[Loren]

Last night, I finally started testing it in the car. Did all of the extra terminations that I needed to do on the car end (not many, because I tried to use factory connectors on factory wiring as much as possible... but, I had to terminate my added wires). Thought I was done. Turned the power on... and not everything worked. Some things didn't have power. NOTHING is as simple as it seems, and I really wasn't in the mood to troubleshoot. I actually took a break, had dinner, played some cars, and TOOK A NAP. Then got back to it.

What I found first was that the wire that I ran to the main power switch... I'd never connected at the end under the hood. I still had my temporary switch hooked up under there. So, the main relay wasn't switching, thus anything that wasn't powered directly from the power to the switch wasn't working! Fixed that.

That got a lot more things working. Now my turn signal indicators on the dash are on constant. WTF? And I still don't have power to the starter. Took another break. Looked at some diagrams.

Okay, the starter was easy. Another stupid on my part. First of all, I wasn't even going to wire that up, that was for "future use". Three wires from three switches (ignition, starter and DRL) I was going to leave hanging and deal with later. But, while I was there, I saw a connector 3" from where I was working with what appeared to be correct wires in it. Why not? What I forgot is that I was using a white/black wire for the starter, and that's NOT the color of the wire in the factory harness for that. (the other two wires ARE factory colors: Blue for the headlights, and White for switched ignition power) So, I'd connected my White/Black wire to a White/Black wire... fortunately, didn't blow anything up!

But, why are the signal indicators lit up??? Fortunately, the wiring is simple. (goofy, but simple) THE ONLY way those indicators get power is through the hazard light switch, which happened to be on. It took some poking and close inspection, but what I found is that it worked (sort of) with the worn out old OE hazard flasher, and not with the fancy electronic (LED ready) one. Close inspection of those parts indicated that the "B+" side of those two flashers is on a different pin. Only two pins! But, they switched them. So, I re-pinned the 2-pin connector and plugged in the new flasher... bingo!

Okay, so that's fixed. Now I still have to fix the starter switch wire, and... now the parking lights are on! What? WHY ARE THOSE ON? Took another break.

Came out around 1am. Located and fixed the starter wire. Found that the HEADLIGHT SWITCH was on, that's why the parking lights were on. So, that was easy. Everything seems to be working, including the starter. But, I don't want to start the car in the garage (loud and stinky) at 1:30am. So, I called it a happy night.

[Loren]

TODAY was my day! Re-checked that everything was working, including the radio.

Carefully tucked the wiring, and stuck the speaker assembly in place. (it covers up a lot of things, like the hazard light switch connector, so it has to go in last) Crammed the console back in place. Refitted the shift lever. Spent 5 minutes looking for the damned shift knob. It was under the passenger seat, of course.

Then, fired up the car, flipped the DRL's on (when things are in final config, the switching will only be turning on relays, right now, light power is going through switches and 16ga wire), and let it run for a while. Just to let it warm up and be sure that no fuses were going to pop or anything before driving it.

After about 15 minutes, I took it for a drive! First time I've driven it since I started this side project 2.5 weeks ago. (I like that... I'm measuring time in weeks rather than months or years)

I've still got to finish putting the interior back together, but the console project is DONE! And check out them DRL's, yo!

[Native]

The finished console looks really nice. The buttons aren't the same. but everything goes with everything else very nicely.

Let's see it in the car!

[Loren]

Well, it's in the car, but not bolted in yet. Need to do that and finish reassembling the interior. It's really only about 5-10 minutes of work. But... procrastination.

Now that I've driven the car and feel like it's all going to work as it should, I can button this all up. I'm off Tuesday.

Truth is, you can't see a lot of it in the car! I noticed when I was driving it... the upper two buttons are mostly under the edge. I knew that, when I placed them. They aren't buttons that need to be seen much. DRL's are left on most of the time, and the starter button is just above the ignition button, easy to find when you need it.

The two bottom switches are nearly invisible. Once I learn the feel of the main power switch and remember which way to switch it, that'll be fine. The other one is the interior lights, which also aren't used much.

The radio is behind the shift lever and shift knob. So, you can see it, but it's partly covered and largely seems irrelevant.

What you see is the middle chrome buttons and the chrome speaker grille. The hazard light chrome bezel is visible, but sort of blends into the background. (the headlight switch is right above it on the dash, and looks identical) The black USB thingie is pretty invisible. I honestly forgot to even check voltage on it while I was driving! It could have quit working for all I know!

But, actually, from the driver's seat, the horn button and the hazard light switch are obscured by the steering wheel! So, you really don't see most of the switches without REALLY trying.

Overall, it's what I wanted. Convenient switches in the panel. Unobtrusive.

Pix when it's all together!

[Loren]

Oh, and I have to admit, as much as I enjoy happy engine noises like any manly man car guy, I also enjoyed some background music on my drive Saturday. It wasn't overly loud, and surely didn't sound "fantastic", but it was loud enough to hear with earplugs in... connected to my phone without a thought, and all I had to do was adjust the volume.

[Loren]

Finished reinstalling the interior today, so here are some photos for Steve. Photos suck. I jacked up the brightness rather than re-take them.

Here's the view from the driver's seat. Face it, this is the only view that really matters to me!

Close-up of the left side:

Close-up of the right side:

[Loren]

As if the list isn't long enough already... now I'm thinking about replacing the steering wheel.

You might notice that part of what's hidden by that fancy wood-rimmed steering wheel is the speedometer. The tach is symmetrically placed on the other side, and also blocked. This bugs me every time I drive the car. I don't have to put up with things that bug me every time I drive the car!

The stock steering wheel is also a 3-spoke wheel, but the top spokes are level across the middle and don't block the gauges. The stock wheel is also a larger diameter, something like 15.5". I'm not gonna go there. But, this one is 13.5". I like the feel of a smaller wheel, so I think I'll go with a 14" wheel... that might actually make the temp gauge more visible!

I'm looking at 2-spoke wheels. Lecarra makes one with drilled stainless steel spokes and a fat leather rim. That might be just the thing. It's price is up there with Momo, though... so I really need to think about it. A nice, ergonomic Momo with the top spokes level would work quite well for me.

Gonna leave this one in "thought status" for now.

[Native]

looks great.