heminut
Well-Known Member
So my wife felt like the Cuda should have a factory console and I had been kind of kicking the idea around for a while myself. The car was originally an automatic car but when I got it the console was long gone and the brackets had been hacked off. When I built the car I put a B&M shifter in it, bolted directly to the floor hump.
I picked up a used console from a member here that had been spray bombed red (it was originally burnt orange). I took the console over to xcudame's and we cleaned it up with his soda blaster. Since I wasn't going to run a factory shifter I bought the 4 speed console brackets because they are about $100 cheaper than the auto brackets. Figuring out exactly where to weld in the new brackets was definitely a PITA! I didn't get any pics of that process so don't ask because I'm not going to pull the console out for pictures. There's a guy online selling a double cupholder setup to replace the storage compartment door and since the console didn't come with a door I went that route. My wife really liked that!
I moved the shifter over to fit the console opening and made a sheetmetal bracket to support the left side of the shifter and welded it onto the side of the floor hump. Xcudame gave me an extra woodgrain insert he had (the console didn't come with one of those either) but I couldn't use it because the cutout for the shifter didn't match up with my B&M shifter. Instead, I had bought a sheet of 1/8" textured plastic and I used the insert as a template to make my own insert and cut a hole for my shifter. I had to do two because I screwed the first one up!
I got it all in and then cut down the original B&M shifter cover to basically a top plate and this is what I ended up with. I think it came out pretty good!
I picked up a used console from a member here that had been spray bombed red (it was originally burnt orange). I took the console over to xcudame's and we cleaned it up with his soda blaster. Since I wasn't going to run a factory shifter I bought the 4 speed console brackets because they are about $100 cheaper than the auto brackets. Figuring out exactly where to weld in the new brackets was definitely a PITA! I didn't get any pics of that process so don't ask because I'm not going to pull the console out for pictures. There's a guy online selling a double cupholder setup to replace the storage compartment door and since the console didn't come with a door I went that route. My wife really liked that!
I moved the shifter over to fit the console opening and made a sheetmetal bracket to support the left side of the shifter and welded it onto the side of the floor hump. Xcudame gave me an extra woodgrain insert he had (the console didn't come with one of those either) but I couldn't use it because the cutout for the shifter didn't match up with my B&M shifter. Instead, I had bought a sheet of 1/8" textured plastic and I used the insert as a template to make my own insert and cut a hole for my shifter. I had to do two because I screwed the first one up!
I got it all in and then cut down the original B&M shifter cover to basically a top plate and this is what I ended up with. I think it came out pretty good!
