G3's with consoles

by SSTOOLMAN Mon Apr 18, 2016 10:41 am

Hey Guys, Last week I had some vacation time I had to burn so I spent it working on my 73, I pulled the dash out and replaced it (Thanks Limey for the help in getting Troy's phone #) with a not perfect but nice dash from a 73 El Camino, (got the whole dash but used the pad only because the lower section on mine was in nicer shape ) I also refurbished my insterument cluster, polished the gage windows, put in my rebuilt tach from the Tachman (no haters please I know it was a rip at $250 but WTF are you going to do) and swapped my column with an nice tilt column from a 76 442 (thanks John M AKA Dynchel for your help with this) All I have left is installing (back to factory console/shifter setup from a B&M)
Here's my question"
Is the console installed over the carpet or should I cut the carpet over each mounting bracket and bolt it directly? t doesn't seam to fit nice over the carpet. Any body know how it was done from the factory? Thanks in advance!

by impalamonte Mon Apr 18, 2016 10:59 am

I put in new carpet 2 years ago. As I recall , the carpet was just cut around the mounting brackets from factory. That too , is the way I reinstalled the carpet with no issues and the carpet lays nicely over the "hump". I did not notice abnormal bunching of the material.

by SSTOOLMAN Mon Apr 18, 2016 3:14 pm

I replaced the carpet 2 years ago and got the (plush) option and its very nice but the vacuum forming sucked, no matter what I did it didn't lay down around the hump, especially where the front section overlaps the back. I hope its not a problem now. Ill pull the carpet and see how the console fits the mounting brackets just to be sure.

by builtnotbought Mon Apr 18, 2016 4:52 pm

SSTOOLMAN wrote:Hey Guys, Last week I had some vacation time I had to burn so I spent it working on my 73, I pulled the dash out and replaced it (Thanks Limey for the help in getting Troy's phone #) with a not perfect but nice dash from a 73 El Camino, (got the whole dash but used the pad only because the lower section on mine was in nicer shape ) I also refurbished my insterument cluster, polished the gage windows, put in my rebuilt tach from the Tachman (no haters please I know it was a rip at $250 but WTF are you going to do) and swapped my column with an nice tilt column from a 76 442 (thanks John M AKA Dynchel for your help with this) All I have left is installing (back to factory console/shifter setup from a B&M)
Here's my question"
Is the console installed over the carpet or should I cut the carpet over each mounting bracket and bolt it directly? t doesn't seam to fit nice over the carpet. Any body know how it was done from the factory? Thanks in advance!

Can you tell me please how did you polish you gauge windows? Did you sand plastic + polish with paste or only polished the surface with paste?
I need to remove lots of scratches but I have only one cluster to try ) Thank you

by SSTOOLMAN Mon Apr 18, 2016 5:31 pm

This might sound crazy but I used Mothers mag wheel polish, the stuff in the small white tub.
I used it on my daughters headlights last summer and it worked so well I used it on my gage window plastic. I use a soft lint free rag and rubbed it on by hand in one direction then buffed it off wit a clean rag. I didn't push too hard and polished each window several times until clear.
the gas gage window was really yellowed bad and it came out almost perfect.
I DID REMOVE the window clear plastic from the gage bezel first by heating up the factory plastic rivets on the back side with a soldering iron and gently pulling it off starting on one side then the other side then the center. If you do it right the rivet material will melt and stay attached so when it comes time to reinstall you just melt it back down to resecure it.

by Mcarlo77 Mon Apr 18, 2016 8:07 pm

This pic of a floor shift Cutlass might help show how the carpet was cut. Look closely and you can see the outline of the console base where carpet has faded.

G3's with consoles Cutlas10

by SSTOOLMAN Mon Apr 18, 2016 10:04 pm

Wow that's carved up pretty good! lol

by builtnotbought Mon Apr 25, 2016 3:48 pm

SSTOOLMAN wrote:This might sound crazy but I used Mothers mag wheel polish, the stuff in the small white tub.
I used it on my daughters headlights last summer and it worked so well I used it on my gage window plastic. I use a soft lint free rag and rubbed it on by hand in one direction then buffed it off wit a clean rag. I didn't push too hard and polished each window several times until clear.
the gas gage window was really yellowed bad and it came out almost perfect.
I DID REMOVE the window clear plastic from the gage bezel first by heating up the factory plastic rivets on the back side with a soldering iron and gently pulling it off starting on one side then the other side then the center. If you do it right the rivet material will melt and stay attached so when it comes time to reinstall you just melt it back down to resecure it.

Thank you for the info!

by dynchel Tue Apr 26, 2016 6:36 pm

They do make a dedicated plastic polish. It works well.

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