Can anyone explain to me or preferably post pictures on how the lower shift boot is supposed to appear when under a consolette? I'm not sure if the boot goes on top of the carpet with a ring over it; boot under the carpet with a ring on top of the carpet or what. Thanks.
Boot and ring both go under the carpet. The carpet actually gets pulled up and attached to the inside of the lower frame of the consolette with two sheet metal screws. If you pull the top off the consolette, you will see two screw bosses to the left of the shifter. The carpet gets pulled up and folded over on top of those bosses, and two phillips head sheatmetal screws go through the carpet into those bosses. That keeps you from being able to see up under the console on that side and see the lower shifter boot and the shifter handle underneath the consolette. The '66 service manual has a good diagram of how it is put in on one of the pages near the back under "Accessories".
Wow, I never would have quessed that! Thanks. I see the bosses now. I have new carpet for this. I hope there is enough there to do this procedure.
It should look like this when you are done--can't see up under the consolette where the lower boot/shifter are.
I should only hope it looks like that! Nice job. I'm really glad you responded because that never would have entered my brain to do it that way and I would have had the boot visible underneath. I have to admit, it didn't seem right to me, but I couldn't see any other way to do it. As I said before, I only hope the carpet will lay that way. I mean, it must be made to lay flat on the tunnel, not pulled up and away from it. But thanks for the photo. By the way, I'm envious of the center console. I've got my eye out for one. One just sold on eBay, but it had some issues. I want a nice one. Doesn't have to be perfect, but...
If you haven't installed the carpet yet, you will be fine. When you cut the hole for the shifter, don't cut out the full hole to start with--start by cutting a front to rear slit centered right over where the actual shifter handle is and make it go from the front edge to the back edge of the hole in the floor. To the passenger side of the slit, go on and cut the carpet out to match the hole in the floor. The carpet to the drivers side of the slit, take it in your hand and fold it over towards the edge of the frame. Next cut the carpet towards the drivers side from the original slit at the front and back end of the slit. Cut it a little bit at a time until you get it to where it looks right and folds over to screw into the console frame correctly. I say to cut it a little at a time so you don't cut too far--if you cut too far, you will see the cut from the outside looking up under the edge of the console.
Excellent advice. Thanks. By the way, what did you cut it with? Carpet always seems to be difficuly to cut. I'm never really sure what the best tool is, knife, sissors, tin snips? Tom
I use a razor knife (what some people call a box cutter) with a new blade in it. Sizzors work good for detail work (like the final trimming on an edge).
Got it. I'm doing a conversion and this board has been a tremendous help. I started in the early fall and it has so far been nothing but one issue after another. I feel I've overcome some pretty good obstacles, though, and am actually to the point of beginning the install. But I just got the boot, which had been backordered, and that's why this question came up now. I like to test fit everything I can so I know what problems may be there before I start and that way I can get a clear sense of what needs to be done and how. Thanks again.
Where did you get your floor hump for the shifter hole? It is critical to the consolette fitting properly. The rear center screw that mounts the consolette to the floor goes through the floor just behing the hump. If the hump is too big (extends to the rear of the car too much), the consolette will sit on it and not fit right. It needs to look something like this to work correctly. I took this of my car after I welded in a new floor (from a donor car) and fabricated a new hump using a Chevelle reproduction console style hump as a starting piece (mine was all rusted out like the floor).
I am using the Chevelle hump also and just figured using it as is. What modifications did you make to your hump that you are referring to? The rear foot of the consolette seems like it is going to sit right on the back edge of the hump. Also, mine is a '68 GS so maybe the tunnel is different than yours?
Very Nice Brian, someday I'll have a nice console, I hope. Is your chrome ring missing? Most of the consoles I've seen it's missing. In fact, I just bought one thinking it was there and all that was there was the lower black ring. Here is a picture of what it looks like. If you didn't know it was supposed to be there, you'd never miss it. Ray has been looking for one for awhile. Wonder what kind of need there is? Anyhow, very nice! Rich
Wait until you guys put a consolette in. It'll look nice but rattle like a bastard. Take the car on the highway, and you'll think there's something wrong. This year I'm taking the full consolette out and going with a non-consolette boot. No more noise!
Two questions, Is it a nice console and do you want to sell it? Love your Avatar, I guess they make me smile to. I'm smiling just thinking about them. Thanks, Rich
After what I paid, this is not what I want to hear. What aspect of it do you think makes it rattle? Can't it be tightened up or isolated with rubber?
The chrome ring is there on my consolette--just hard to see it from the angle of that picture--the boot kind of shades it from the camera. No clue where to find one of those rings though. My lower black ring was missing and I had to fabricate one to replace it--it isn't visable anyway--just there to clamp the boot into place. If you find an extra one of the lower black ones, let me know and I will be glad to take it off your hands! I have had my car out driving it around on the highway and the consolette doesn't rattle at all--in fact, I haven't heard any rattles in the car so far. If you compare the picture of the hump in my car to your chevelle one, you will see that the chevelle one is longer towards the rear of the car and a little bit in the other directions. I trimmed it to match my original and the picture is the final result. The trans tunnel area of concern in your '68 will be the same as in my '65. Once I trimmed it to match my original, the consolette rear bolt goes into the floor and not the shifter hump.
You can see the chrome ring in this picture. I took this while assembling the interior to show someone why you can't use the ironing-board style center console with the GS style shifter. I sat it in there to take a picture and you can see how the handle hits the console in 2nd and 4th gear--that style console is made for the '64 and early '65 Skylarks with the 300 engine and 4-speed, which came with a Hurst shifter.
Rich I don't want to sell it. I spent over $600 putting together one good consolette out of 3 different ones. Given how rare they are I'm sure you understand. Ts-gs As for what rattles, well let me see what I've deduced: The bottom base rattles because it comes loose from the floorpan which makes the whole thing rattle. The top rattles from the two 7/16" nuts coming loose at the top from the road vibrations. And if the three studs which hold the metal ring and the chrome ring do not have the correct size speed nut thingy holdong them on, then the road vibratons will rattle the rongs loose and they'll create a noise as well. I did two years with this thing and it was enough. Paul
I have some suggestions for your rattling issues. Use thread lock and/or lockwashers on the nuts holding the two halves together. As for the speed nuts, my studs for the boot ring are missing so my fix for that makes mine different. However, a small dab of silicone will hold those in place after they are tightened down. Same holds true for the sheet metal screws for the base. Paul- Yours looks really nice! This is not meant as criticism by any means and I only mention it because it looks so stock, but shouldn't the knob be without a shift pattern? I thought console cars had a plain black knob because the pattern is on the console.
