I liked Sarc's idea of that silver edging around the ski slope so I stole it.

It turned out to be quite a project (nothing is simple around here) because the brace in the console had been bashed so badly that it wasn't bracing anything (would you believe, it was pop-riveted into cardboard!), and the hole spread so wide the panel just fell through instead of sitting on top as designed.

Restorers did that because the leather is so much thicker than the original vinyl covering material that nothing fit correctly (I've fought this situation since I got the car with either carpet of leather! Too much bulk in confined spaces). So I had to fabricate something else so the panel wouldn't just fall through the hole.

I found a section of aluminum rifle cleaning rod in the spare bolt pile, cut it to length, and husband drilled and tapped the cut off end on his lathe.

Perfect Job!

Then I carefully measured where to drill the console , making sure where the metal frame was with a Stud Pop.

These things have an incredibly strong magnet which had no trouble finding the metal frame surrounding the hole.


Here the center peg is dropped down, showing no metal underneath.


Now the center peg has found the metal frame.

It seemed like a good idea to put a hole in the leather first before drilling the metal frame. That way it didn't twist up around the bit while drilling the console wall.



This punch is slightly larger than required.


Chucking the punch in a drill rather than trying to beat on it worked Very well!

The frame is curved on 2 planes so I needed a small pilot hole first, and then the correct size for the screw.


I used Stainless trim washers and 12-32(the original female threads in the rod) x 3/4" Stainless screws to hold the whole thing together.


I was surprised how well it worked! Now the ski slope sits in its depression as designed and doesn't fall through, and has that very nice edging.


Thanks for the idea, Sarc.
(';')

 

the chrome edging is sold by JagServices, I got a strip of it by mistake years ago, mine is black, Series 2 is chrome.