Hi All,

Any advice on sourcing or fabricating a center console for a 77 Aspen?

It's currently column shift with 60/40 front seats, but I really want a console sitting on the center hump for my drinks and cd's! A 4spd floor shifter might come later down the road, but not right now.

Any advice besides those crappy case logic generic consoles?

_________________
'77 Dodge Aspen SE, /6 2225, 1 bbl

Fiberglass, plywood/luan. If you are handy with hand tools and have a jigsaw and a staple gun there is no reason why you cant make your own. Fiberglass offers the most opportunity to build a neat, lightweight, cheap custom console, but you should definitely practice first. THere are loads of website that describe how to make fiberglass speaker pods for import cars. Look at a few of those and then apply those same principles to fabricating a console. Remember, you will need to build some kind of inner structure to permit proper mounting in the car.

Hi banter, I hava a '77 Aspen Wagon myself, and I found the blog of a guy that bought a center console on ebay for his '77. Look at his blog Dodge Aspen Restification for pictures. Please post pictures if you build one.

_________________
Aspenized

I have 2; one decent shape other than the lid; Seems thatw as the 1st to go) at that mine's still "better" than most I see; at one time, I saw someone online selling replacements made of real hardwood (oak mahogany cherry) for ~$35 but I cant remember who; these were OE size drilled for screw holes so that the OE hinge would work, and the OE latch/lock would also be usable; that's probably what I'm gonna be looking to do with mine; (I'll make my own though) this one is maroon out of a car I parted out.
The other one was originally green painted (porrly so) black, the lid is missing entirely; it has various holes from aftermarket speakers etc; I got this one for relatively "nothing"; but only because as it is already altered, I have my own ideas of a "custom console" and am going to use this one as a guinea pig to build off of. I mean it's screwed anyway, no sense ruining a nice one.
I have plans of (different) speakers mounted within, also modifying the front part closest to the dash to be able to mount my extra (aftermarket) gauges into. and also as I have a 5 speed here out of a Dakota (may change my mind and go T-5, before the project gets to that point)
and I want to mod the shifter to come out of the same hole as the Slap stik did from the factory, with only the addition of some sort of shifter boot.

I would TRADE my nice maroon one for a tan/"butterscotch" as the factory called that color, in equivalent condition,even up, I'll pay to ship mine "there", you pay for shipping the tan one "here.

Also a member here ( again I forget who) wa looking into a build of custom consoles at one time--dash clusters as well IIRC. That's been a while ago.

Good to see you already have some old consoles to take the measurements from and play around with. I have a small tip that may come in handy: We have a local company that make small suitcases, travel gear and custom made tool cases and the like. The nice part is they make some of these suitcases in a vacuum forming machine, and as I understand, that machine is very flexible in use, so people I know have brought their homemade consoles, dash panels and other similar things to the friendly people at the factory. The consoles have been used as 'plugs' that plastic sheets are beeing drawn down over, and formed by vacuum from the underside and possibly by some heat applied as well. It gives the finished product a very professional and factory made look, if that is what you are looking for. Olaf.

_________________
Aspenized

That's not a luxury that we have around my area. must be nice.

Don you could always use whichever one is nicer to make a "buck" either wrap it in saran or just wax heavily then fiberglass it over to make a mold for your custom peice out of 'glass. Then sell it to banter

_________________
72 dart acquired 12/08 /6,holley2b, mopar perf intake, mopar perf header, cam, built motor,904 finally re-installed, 8.75....still needs sorting out.
99 dakota 318 5 speed reg cab picked up 9/09; Trans finally fixed! woohoo!

I have one in the garage for my '78 Volare.
Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that any F-bodies equipped with 4-speed manual trannies came with consoles. I think this is because the shifter is offset towards the driver a bit. I'm not saying that you couldn't fab up one for yourself, I just don't think the factory ever made one for a 4-speed F-body.

_________________
"Ja, Ich fahre ein altes auto."
'78 Volare 225
'67 Charger 318

Nope they didnt come that way. That's largely why I am going to a 5 speed with an integral shifter instead of an 833 OD. I'm building my car to be "different".

I am thinking that I am just going to fabricate something myself for now... I found a console at a yard in san jose, but there is no way it is going to fit with the middle "seat". So, likely I am just going to form something out of plastic, or fiberglass.

Thanks Olaf for your suggestion about the luggage makers. That might be a good option....

_________________
'77 Dodge Aspen SE, /6 2225, 1 bbl

if that one in the JY is "cheap" enuf, you might still want to grab it as a pattern of sorts...

I've looked in the manual for '79, and the center consoles pictured there are definetily not for floor shifters, they have picture of brackets mounted on the tunnel, no shifter mechanism visible. But then you had the Super Coupes and other small-volume models, I can't remember how they looked on the inside, they may have had some special stuff mounted. Personally I think the original consoles are rather ugly! I have 40/60 seats myself, and when I bought the car way back in time, the guy I bought it from told me ha removed the console he had made out of an engine-cover mounted console from a cab-over truck! Thanks a lot...
Take a look in a junkyard, many nice looking center consoles about.
Olaf

_________________
Aspenized

Yeah I'm quite sure that something out of another model (Don't know what offhand) could be adapted to fit, if you don't like the "OE" original ones. I know that putting a manual trans/console combo into an F body isn't stock, (all "Kit cars" were A/T; it was a req'd option I believe "Super Coupes were same situation)
so my car won't be "original" no more but it won't be in many other aspects either, so what; but what I'm going for is for the casual observer that would see it at a cruies/car show would wonder about the interior; "did they come like that"? (other than engine, the one I'm using was 12 years away from production when my '80 was new, and the engine I have was a truck-only deal) the interior will be done up in a color that was available on them from the factory.
I'm kinda going for what you see in the magazines as "the car they should have built" or "looks like it could have come that way", etc.
NOT at all saying that once done it'll ever be "good enough" to ever see in a car mag, just have some of their "tag lines" I've seen in mind, as my goal in what I want out of it.