I have a Bronco....

...and my garage is a mess.... so I think I qualify to post this write-up.

As usual, first thing is to make some templates. Templates need no much precision because you only use them to cut the piece of polyurethane foam which you are going to cut and grind to the final fit. In my case first thing I did was passenger side template and as I was keeping the original center console of my 86, the fitting between the new center console and the old one. I left drivers side and fitting to the dash for later.

Using the cardboard template as a guide cut a piece of foam. Be generous while cutting because you can cut or sand the excess material later to perfectly fit your needs. You can anyway paste small parts of foam with glue if you mess it, but it is better if you don’t because sanding the bonded parts is more difficult due to the different hardness between glue and the foam. I used contact glue and it gave me some problems (nothing big) while sanding, even waiting a couple of days to ensure glue to be dry. The advantage of this kind of glue is that after 10 to 20 minutes you can go on assembling the parts.
To place parts in position I used some foam supports that were later removed. This makes easier the adjusting of the individual parts with the dash and the original console. You’ll see that cutting and shaping parts is easy and fun at this point because foam is very “friendly”. For sanding flat surfaces use a piece of flat foam wrapped in sandpaper and for round edges shape some foam to the desired shape and also wrap it. Shaping at this point is a piece of cake.

Final shape, all parts glued together.

Some minor trimming is required to get a flat surface in the bezel

And there it goes...the bezel fitted in the console....

You can see in the pictures the different parts I bonded to obtain the final shape.

First approach in the vehicle...After hours and hours of sanding, cutting bonding and again sanding I got this. You can see that I tried to set the new bezel a little twisted, the same as the original bezel. This stupid detail gave me more than one problem, so if you are not crazy as I am please make it straight, it will be easier. You will also see in this picture that the new bezel is not perfectly aligned with the original one. This happened because the fu#&ing 4wd shift lever was in the middle of my way!!!! To solve this I moved it 15 mm to the right in order to get some more room for the lever (I didn’t want to bend it). You can see a detail of the slot in the next picture

Detail of the slot. This was the tough part of the job. Many tests and lots of coming and going until the final match was achieved. Later on I’ll need a dummy part to partially cover the hole you see in the picture.
Before fiberglassing the foam you can fill any holes or spaces between bonded parts with polyester resin mixed with baby powder. If you need it you can prepare the resin according to your supplier specs and mix it with baby powder until you get the consistency of the peanut butter. This home made Bondo is perfect for filling the holes and giving some shapes that are difficult to get with the foam. The gray lines you see in the picture is this filling material.

Once I was more or less satisfied I started fiberglassing the foam. Please follow the instructions about the proportions while mixing the resin because you can get a mix that will never dry or it can get dry before you are able to blink your eyes (both things happened to me) I recommend to try a few times with low amount of resin in small pieces of foam (you’ll have plenty of them at this point) until you know what you can expect from it. Don’t try to fiberglass all the console at once, pick parts and fiberglass them with small amounts of resin. Also be careful not to mix a large amount because it will dry before you finish the job. Remember that getting the foam shaped the way it is now took a long time, you don’t want to start everything again.
The first things I fiberglassed were the parts where the bezel is supported by the foam. I did so to avoid damaging these surfaces that are pretty thin. In these parts I used the thin fiberglass because it’s easier to work with it in these narrow places.

One of the places where the bezel goes.

Prepairing the mat

After placing the mat use a brush to apply the resin. You can apply 2 hands of resin and 2 layers of fiberglass and after that let it dry. Be careful with air bubbles trapped in the resin because they weaken the fiber and can appear as holes when you sand the part. Once it is dry you will need to sand it with a grid 120 sand paper before applying a second layer of fiberglass and resin. I used many layers of thin fiber because using heavier mat you get a rough surface that will require more filling and sanding to be finished

When fiberglassing around edges I found helpful to make some cuts to help the mat following the shape.

When you finish fiberglassing all the external part of the foam, places where the bezel will fit and the parts where the lever will slide, you will find that this damn console still looks like crap. You will need to sand the entire fiberglassed surface to get it even. Now sanding is not like sanding foam so is a good idea to use a sanding tool.

After sanding you’ll find many imperfections. These are to be covered with polyester resin (the one used by car painters to fix small dents or other body problems) or with home made filler in order to get a smooth surface good enough to be painted.

Painting is not within my skills, so after finishing the shape, I sent it to get painted by a pro. He used special polyurethane paint with a rough finish to get a surface similar to the plastic texture. You can see the result in the next pictures.

Final product with VHF in place. Gauges will be rady next week and in 30 days original burloak bezel will be here.

I don't like the end result in the slot for the 4wd lever but I'll try to improve it

Done. Changed the dash and installed the gauges. Also included a dummy ruber strip to give a finished look to lever slot.

I still need to drill a hole to place a new lighter because the old one and the ashtray are hidden by the console.