My initial thoughts on finishing this up was to send the wood side pieces to an upholstery shop and have them wrap it. Well I saw one too many episodes of Wheeler Dealers and if Edd China can do some reupholstering then I will give it a shot. Pulled out the laptop and began searching online for inventory at local craft stores. Jo-Ann’s had upholstery fabric online and so I headed out to actually visually see the samples. I picked a very soft black vinyl with a nice grain to it. Almost leather like. This should match the dash quite nicely as well. I also got some padding to put to give a little bit of a softness to the sides of the center console . Amazingly enough the fabric that I got was headliner! A new headliner will be one of the things I will have to do soon, and I was going to do it in black not white. I will have to remember Joanns in the future for doing all sorts of interior projects.
So I went to Home Depot grabbed a heat gun and a staple gun. First I added the padding. I traced the shape of each side, cut it out and sprayed each side with glue and applied. Now for the hard part. I began by gluing the center of the vinyl to the padding. Then stretch the edges and staple. I added heat, muscle and sweat. 90 minutes later I was done with one side!
Measuring the padding for the sides.
Padding added to the sides of the console.
One side finished!
Day 2…..
I grabbed the staple gun and within about 30 minutes, I was pretty much done with this side. It was easier and went super smooth. Better than the first side. Now all that is last is to clean up the edges and assemble!
2nd side almost done!!!
Click here for the next update in the center console saga!