I need to fix my glove box outer cover. It looks terrible. Has anyone had luck with Gorilla Glue or anything else.



I am thinking about dieing my speaker covers on the dash black. If you have used Rit how has it held up? I would rather leave it alone if it won't look nice and stay nice. I would like to see a photo if you have one handy.

Thanks

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Central Iowa Fieros Central Iowa Fieros - Stie is under construction.

The console door can be repaired with gorilla or epoxy glue. As far as the speaker grilles, I would almost recommend recovering them with black fabric or you can remove the fabric and spray the plastic grille. This is mine without the fabric:

wal*mart has a fabric that works perfect. $1.50 a yard. and you dont even need that much.

I sprayed my speaker grills very lightly with some black spray paint and they look very good. I put on a couple of VERY LIGHT coats so as not to clog up the holes in the fabric.

I used PL Premium construction adhesive to glue my interior parts back to where they belong. It takes clamps with various pieces of wood, some careful thought, lots of time and patience. Make sure wood is smooth and there are no bits of dirt, debris on the wood (clamping surface) or it will leave a mark in the vinyl surfaces. Again I stress take you time, you can make it look perfect again if you are not in a hurry.

As for you speaker grills if you want them to perfect again may I suggest this:

http://rodneydickman.com/ca...h=24&products_id=216

Rodney's products and kits are good quality with nice instructions. It will look perfect again if you go this way and follow the directions. My speaker covers look brand new. Just as an added note: I also considered using some black speaker cloth that I already had but when I compared it to the dash color I thought it was too dark and really didn't look right. If your speaker grills were like mine you will find a small area of cloth on the under that is not faded and you can see what the original color looks like.

[This message has been edited by W Scott (edited 09-23-2010).]

I have had positive success with hot glue on my console. A bit of glue, and painters tape to keep it in place for about a minute. Not with my Fiero, but I used Gorilla glue on a piece, and found it difficult to keep from getting everywhere. Great stuff, but not pliable. With the contracting, and expanding of the material, the Gorilla glue stayed in place. I found the hot glue to be pliable enough still to allow for temperature differences throught the year. Good luck. Fixing the warpage is actually quite easy, and very gratifying.

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Hey Kenton, go to Mr Mike's website and see how he fixes the curls. I've got an electric upholster's staple gun if you want to use his method. Also, I've tried the black die thing on my converts speaker grills. I messed up by being too impatient and being to heavy with my coats. Now I have uneven, loose looking grill cloth. I'm going to re-do them someday by just replacing with black speaker grill cloth. I'd say try the spray die, but light coats, and let them dry thoroughly in between.

http://www.mrmikes.com/fieroquestions.htm
about two-thirds down the page

[This message has been edited by LAMBO (edited 09-23-2010).]

Thanks for the replies. IMSA GT, your speaker grill looks great.

The reason that I want to go black is that mine are becoming light enough to make a dim reflection on my window during the day while I am driving. If it was black it would not show up. I will check out the Walmart option. Does anybody have a photo of the speaker covers removed. It helps to see a part before I dig it out.

I have heard to put a ruler on the dash when prying up the cover so that the dash doesn't break. Is there a preferred side to pry from or does it matter?

If I get motivated and have the time later today or tomorrow morning I may try the hot glue option. Thanks for the offer again LAMBO. If my first attempt doesn't work out I will make the drive again to see you. Let me know when you have possession of your new convertible. That way it will be two reasons to come down.

For the grilles, use shoe polish. The kind thats in a bottle with a sponge at the top. It worked great for me, and didnt cost a penny!

Today I went to work. As I began taking everything apart I noticed that everything was coming apart on it's own. This is the shifter surround minus the top plate that actually bolts to the car. You can see that it was coming apart too.


This is my center glove box assembly removed from the car. I didn't even know that the skin was starting to come off of the skeleton on the back. The seats cover the sides causing them to not be noticable most of the time. The bottom was also coming apart. I fixed all of that too. A common thing that I found was that the skeleton structure seemed too big for the outer skin to cover it. It was especially true of the center glove box door.



Here is a side view of the glove box door coming apart. I found that trimming the corners of the skeleton a bit made recovering it easier.



This is a photo of how to remove the plastic container from the door. You also have to remove the center bolt at the bottom. Everything bolt was 10 millimeters.



I believe that part of the reason that they come apart in the first place is that the little plastic cord on the driver's side of the box snaps and lets the box open to the extent that the bottom of the glove box door binds in the hinge causing it to get crushed and brake free from the inner skeleton. After that it just peels upward.

Here is a photo of my broken retainer strap removed from the side of the glove box. (I wasn't even aware that they had these. My door never opened more than a few inches due to the bottom of the box binding. It used to open barely enough to look inside). Anyway, this used to be connected to the other end that looks just like it by a plastic cord.



This photo shows the piece reinstalled but with a nylon string to restrict the door from opening to the limit of the hinge. It is important to prevent the bottom the the glove box door from binding in the hinge area.



When I reattached the door I put washers between the hinge and the mount point to give it an extra millimeter of clearance. Without the limiter you can see that the door is now able to open quite far.



I used a combination of hot glue and staples on the door to hold the skin in place. It turned out very well and looks great. Time will tell how durable this repair is. If it fails I will spend some money and try something more extreme that will not fail.


Here it is reinstalled.


I wish there was an aftermarket center console available. When GM built these money wasn't a concern because they barely spent any producing them. They are very poorly made. Fit and finish were not even on the radar. The shifter surround piece is about 1/2 inch too narrow for the tunnel that it covers. I would bet that some started to brake even before they left the sales lot. If you know of an available aftermarket piece let me know.

[This message has been edited by RACE (edited 10-05-2010).]