Panama_Red
Member
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2013
- Posts
- 32
- Reaction score
- 2
- Ram Year
- 2002
- Engine
- 5.9
Hey new to the forums here, I have been looking at the forums for some ideas and figured I post after my project here.. So I got an 02 dodge ram 1500 recently, and it had a jump seat in between the buckets up front. The back of the jump seat doubled as a center console when folded down but that still leaves room for someone to ask to squeeze in there and I really don't want anyone sitting that close to me...LOL... I had the same thing on my old 06 f150 quad cab and just found the factory center console and replaced the jump seat. Well Dodge doesn't have a center console option on a truck with a manual shift for the 4 wheel drive so I had to get creative.. I also needed room for a speaker box for my sub woofer, so I figured I'd kill a few birds with one stone.
Crutchfield has a center console speaker box for my truck that bolts right in but I wanted some extra cup holders for some of my junk in the truck, and the pre made one costs $899! So here is what I came up with.. I was looking for a center console for a ford super duty because it is wide enough to fit in there but they were all spendy on ebay, ( like $400) so I looked for a ford excursion basically the super duty in SUV form they were cheap as people weren't looking for them. I found one on auction that the auction ended after midnight...LOL... I bid like $2 over the current bid got it for $54 plus shipping so it ended up being like $90.. Got it, gutted it out just wanted the shell. Built a sub box for a Kicker solobaric 8 I have had for many years, can't kill that thing! money well spent.. built a platform around the box to match up to the bottom and rear of the center console, used some old plastic (I am a plastic fabricator) for the radius on the front, built a little area for an inside of the center console under the lid. Hit it with some spray adhesive and carpeted what needed to be covered. I made the console a bit taller than it was stock so it matched the height of the door armrest and was comfortable.
The console I got was light gray and my trucks interior is "dark slate grey" so I decided I was going to cover the center consoles lid with the seat back off of the jump seat. Its leather on the front and vinyl on the rear, I could have used leather but vinyl is easier to stretch and cover the plastic center console lid. Looked it up on youtube, found a video of a guy redoing his whole dash in vinyl so I gave it a go, and it worked perfectly.. Oh I had to take the damn jump seat out the bolts holding it to the brackets coming from the driver and passenger seat rounded right off. So I had to take the whole front seat assembly out.. got it out with some elbow grease and sweat and cut the damn thing out with the sawzall. Cut the brackets for it out as well and ground the edges down so I wouldn't cut my hand looking for whatever under the seat.. Sprayed all of the seat brackets with some satin black just for good measure.. The body of the center console was still light grey, so I found some plastic interior paint called color bond at summit racing that came in the factory interior color. I was kind of thinking this area won't get so much handling so it shouldn't scratch. This color bond paint is friggin awesome for painting plastic! I prepped the plastic by scrubbing it down with some alcohol little lite scuff with some 1000 grit sand paper, licked it with some flame lightly on the blowtorch to bring up any oils left from mold release or folks shining it up with armor all, and wipe it down with alcohol. Sprayed it with 4 or 5 light coats. I was thinking I'd let it cure for a week, I left it out for 20 minutes or so and tried to scratch some of the paint off in an area under where the cup holder snaps on.. I couldn't scratch through the paint! I tried harder still nothing, I was scratching hard on this stuff to the point I had indented the plastic a bit and the paint was still on there...LOL.. For once a product that lives up to it's name..(color bond)..
So I spent a little under $150 bucks on it VS $899 for the pre made one without cup holders. I already had the speaker I think they are about $300 or at least thats what they were back when I got it...LOL...
Anyway here are a few pics..
the ugly bits behind the scenes..
Covered with the console..
I left the paper clip on top light as my ceiling and pillars are light grey.. My watch rubs that area as well..
carpet in the truck is black, so I used black carpet..
In the truck.. looks pretty much like it came that way..
Been working on it a little bit here and there as parts I had ordered came in at night and on the weekends..
Crutchfield has a center console speaker box for my truck that bolts right in but I wanted some extra cup holders for some of my junk in the truck, and the pre made one costs $899! So here is what I came up with.. I was looking for a center console for a ford super duty because it is wide enough to fit in there but they were all spendy on ebay, ( like $400) so I looked for a ford excursion basically the super duty in SUV form they were cheap as people weren't looking for them. I found one on auction that the auction ended after midnight...LOL... I bid like $2 over the current bid got it for $54 plus shipping so it ended up being like $90.. Got it, gutted it out just wanted the shell. Built a sub box for a Kicker solobaric 8 I have had for many years, can't kill that thing! money well spent.. built a platform around the box to match up to the bottom and rear of the center console, used some old plastic (I am a plastic fabricator) for the radius on the front, built a little area for an inside of the center console under the lid. Hit it with some spray adhesive and carpeted what needed to be covered. I made the console a bit taller than it was stock so it matched the height of the door armrest and was comfortable.
The console I got was light gray and my trucks interior is "dark slate grey" so I decided I was going to cover the center consoles lid with the seat back off of the jump seat. Its leather on the front and vinyl on the rear, I could have used leather but vinyl is easier to stretch and cover the plastic center console lid. Looked it up on youtube, found a video of a guy redoing his whole dash in vinyl so I gave it a go, and it worked perfectly.. Oh I had to take the damn jump seat out the bolts holding it to the brackets coming from the driver and passenger seat rounded right off. So I had to take the whole front seat assembly out.. got it out with some elbow grease and sweat and cut the damn thing out with the sawzall. Cut the brackets for it out as well and ground the edges down so I wouldn't cut my hand looking for whatever under the seat.. Sprayed all of the seat brackets with some satin black just for good measure.. The body of the center console was still light grey, so I found some plastic interior paint called color bond at summit racing that came in the factory interior color. I was kind of thinking this area won't get so much handling so it shouldn't scratch. This color bond paint is friggin awesome for painting plastic! I prepped the plastic by scrubbing it down with some alcohol little lite scuff with some 1000 grit sand paper, licked it with some flame lightly on the blowtorch to bring up any oils left from mold release or folks shining it up with armor all, and wipe it down with alcohol. Sprayed it with 4 or 5 light coats. I was thinking I'd let it cure for a week, I left it out for 20 minutes or so and tried to scratch some of the paint off in an area under where the cup holder snaps on.. I couldn't scratch through the paint! I tried harder still nothing, I was scratching hard on this stuff to the point I had indented the plastic a bit and the paint was still on there...LOL.. For once a product that lives up to it's name..(color bond)..
So I spent a little under $150 bucks on it VS $899 for the pre made one without cup holders. I already had the speaker I think they are about $300 or at least thats what they were back when I got it...LOL...
Anyway here are a few pics..
the ugly bits behind the scenes..
Covered with the console..
I left the paper clip on top light as my ceiling and pillars are light grey.. My watch rubs that area as well..
carpet in the truck is black, so I used black carpet..
In the truck.. looks pretty much like it came that way..
Been working on it a little bit here and there as parts I had ordered came in at night and on the weekends..
