I have transferred the various bits from the old board to the new console board. Here I am doing a careful comparison of the location of the mounting holes. I tried to mount the console, but I couldn’t push the console far enough ahead for the mounting holes to line up without putting undo stress on the lower dash and the console itself. It looks like I will have to modify the mounting holes. A bit tricky because the console has to be far enough ahead so that the back matches up with the parking brake cover.
In the end I had to ‘oval’ the mounting holes. The rear one was the worst and is apparent in the photos. I used washers to help hold the console plate in place. Worked out OK – the parking brake cover/arm rest fitted fine.
The new shift boot is made of nice soft leather. Too bad it doesn’t fit the shift shaft very well. I’ll put a couple of stitches in it to tighten it up some. Also the ash tary was a super tight fit to the console. It will be difficult to remove. All in all the console plate was a bit of a disappointment.
Another disappointment was the light switch. There is a slight variation of the mounting holes. The switches are upside down here to compare the position of the mounting hole. The old switch on the left is slightly lower than the new one (or slightly higher if the switches are turned over to their normal mounting position). This slight difference means that the new switch couldn’t be mounted in the dash. The fit is tight and the new switch can’t be fited flush with the dash opening. I’ll be sending photos and emails to the sellers to let them know that their aftermarket product fitments are less than perfect.
All back in place finally. Just have to rel-install the seats. I still need to paint the rocker panels, rear window trim and steering wheel.