So after reading about how to take the centre console off, I decided not to do it 21 year old Italian wiring and the idea of fiddling around with it worried me, so I managed to spend a few hours doing it in situ.

I used methalated spirit, my wife's makeup removing pads and lots of elbow grease on all the peeling rubber, after a couple not hours I had taken it all back to a plastic finish and then used silicone spray to get a nice finish.

Nice one
That's a really good 'unfinished' finish.

I would prefer no paint as there is less to scuff. You've inspired me to have a crack at mine!

Isopropryl alcohol is good for this and the handbrake console too. If you plan to paint, a pack of brillo pads with the chemicals work well. lots of elbow grease still reqd.That's halfords gloss black plus lacquer to match the centre console done by prev owner

I like the piano black. When I did mine, took me some time to come up with a finish that was acceptable to me. I could not for the life of me get rid of the orange peel when spraying the gloss black. In the end, there were so many coats of paint on, I rubbed it with fine wet & dry, & polished the hell out of it. I was at it for days, on & off.

I used VHT Hood Bumper and Trim paint on mine in June 2010 and it still looks good. Had no problems with "orange peel". Although I live in the sub-tropics, my cars are always garaged, and as we say here, the best carpark at the shopping centre is the one in the shade.

https://www.vhtpaint.com/specialty/vht-hood-bumper-trim-paint

Cheers Jonnboy54321, I plan to tackle the handbrake console next, it's also all sticky and horrible

Use oven cleaner. I've used methylated spirit before and it makes it SO much faster!

Does the methylated spirits get rid of the nasty stickiness? I lent my car to a relative and they had it valeted. I think the valeter used something funny on the interior and the centre consul has gone horrid and sticky.

I used Metho on mine when I did the console refurb and yes, it did remove the sticky.

Just done mine with Mr Muscle oven cleaner and the sticky surface came off really easily. Not repainted it yet though but hope to do it later today.

I’ve just completed doing mine. Will get some pictures up later.

Gone for a hydro dipped console (Carbon) and a high gloss handbrake.

Such a horrid job.

Just looked up hydro dipping
How tough/ resilient is the finish please?

Very hardy.

Most applications are used for external body parts. So they have to stand up to wear and tear.

Lots of people are dead set against ‘fake’ carbon look, however I think it looks ace and always say it’s dipped when people ask. Each to their own.

Hi Rus Any pics? I think I read somewhere you used A1 in Oxon. If so do they do a good job?

Will get some up for you. A1 Hydro Graphics we’re spot on

Hope this works ok....

Yesterday with TWO extracted consoles waving at me I took the plunge.

First one had been a complete basket case and untouchable after being left outside in the Orcadian tropics for many years (this donor coupe has been invaluable as a part source) - meths did a remarkably quick strip and it was all clean and polished within 90 mins, a dead cert to install in our project car. That is apart from some very light grazing under the clock which is annoying as the rest looks good. Hoping it might polish out somehow without looking even more obvious

The second was going to be a breeze therefore. Haha no such luck, after applying the meths as before the surface was left resembling a relief map like a badly-washed milkpan Could I remove this stuff?

Hours later I resorted to scraping as there was no way meths or anything else would get through and it began to look very messy, me cursing away just as instructed in the how-to

That is until I thought "acetone" and enquired after some nail-polish remover from Mrs Ed who produced some Boots moisturising pads for this purpose. Worked instantly!! Also finished her supply

Kick-in-the-teeth though, the nice matt black finish of the successful first console is nowhere to be seen as the end result is now blotchy white-ish/black all over so this one's a rattle-can job. Matt black 100 ml can was the way to go so when our February "shrinking" rain has cleared up the experiment will continue....

So, acetone looks like the best course of action to remove the rubbery gunk that is on the console? I would like to try the Plastidip finish, as per the tutorial here (sadly the pictures seem unavailable), but I'm unsure about the longevity of the finish...

I use some IPA "pre-injection" wipes to clean off one centre console, but the handbrake surround is taking a bit more effort. The success of one solvent over another may be a function of how much the original coating has aged or "weathered" so be prepared to try a variety of approaches...

I'm looking into the possibility of obtaining the pics for this..

This is the conclusion I came to

Agreed, the pitted finish that my second one came up with seemed immovable.

Then I remembered being daft enough to polish up a plenum some years ago, it took weeks. Got a lot of good advice during the process and learnt quite a lot also, especially never to do it again

Using a 380 grit wet-and-dry I was able to remove all the citrus stuff from the console eventually. I was quite glad not to keep going at it with acetone as it seemed to melt the plastic surface. Going through 1000, 1200, 1500 and 2500 grit in turn I've managed to get a passable surface on it now, with a final coating of decent paint restorer to polish it off.

Took a whole day

It does indeed. One reason not to use it on a motorcycle helmet visor Another lesson learned, so not repeated in the last 40 years!

Seeing as one of my examples had not turned out so well, revealing stubborn scratches still, a return to 1500, 2000 and finally 2500 wet n' dry did the trick followed by a machine polish

The resolution is not so great - what did you use for the finish?

Yeah, I was pretty pissed off when it transferred from my phone as it looks much better in the flesh.

I used dots of Menzerna Super Finish Plus, step 3, on a good quality foam pad, buffed up afterwards, then a light spray polish. This might have to be superseded at some point.

One for me to re-visit!

I found Mr Muscle oven cleaner (aerosol) is super to melt the rubber finish. Used on a couple of handbrake consoles to great effect. A word to the wise though - light coats of paint and many of them, spaced out. otherwise you get an elephant hide effect in a few weeks as it settles

When I had my motorbike, I painted the rear mudguard which came as unpainted black plastic. I used a plastic adhesion promoter spray, then sprayed with halfords matt black. It looked really good and the finish remained after years of outdoor use. So that's my plan with the console.

Good recommendation on the oven cleaner !

It's one of my jobs during Covid-19 imprisonment.

I finally got round to removing the handbrake console before my coupe went in for her respray and it’s taken me a few days to strip the coating off using acetone in the main. Now the weather is warming up this weekend I can move on to painting it with some satin black plasticoat spray paint.
Will post some photos once it’s done.

I found the handbrake console I had didn't come up as well as the centre console, it looks like a different material? The shine certainly came up well on the latter but not this - even after extensive wet'n'dry treatment followed by machine polishing there are faint cloudy patches visible. Likewise, the matt black spray is looking likely next...

Has anybody tried removing the handbrake gaiter which is kind of riveted on? Some of the "rivets" could be drilled out but many are difficult / impossible to reach? Or is the only solution to work around the gaiter?

I have just masked around it as can’t see a practical means of drilling out and re riveting it back together given the space constraints

I took the gaiter off. I drilled some of the rivets out and used the Dremmel for the hard to reach ones.
The problem I saw was that you cannot rivet it back due to lack of space.
I ended up using bolts with nyloc nuts to refit it.

I left mine in situ, it seemed like cutting off the head off one monster to have two grow in its place

I remember doing mine and would say it is impossible to avoid some damage to the plastic, but this should be hidden as it will be covered over by the replacement handbrake lever gaiter?
It was fiddly as hell, but I was pleased with the result and worth doing.

Since the rivets are not really rivets but more like a 4 pronged version of those old fashioned 2 pronged slit pin paper holders (you know the things, like this ) I wondered if simply straightening out the prongs might work? However as Simon suggests, another monster could be created (prongs might snap off, might end up making the "rivet" loose but still unable to extract, etc.)

The console came up quite well.

Good result Ashley, do you still have the two forward metal brackets that attach under the window rocker switches?

Thanks Simon, the strange thing is it had no brackets fitted when I went to remove it and no signs of where these may have been attached.

The brackets normally break clean off leaving little evidence of where they were once part of the handbrake console... they'll probably still be fixed inside the gear lever console part.

This. I replaced mine several years ago which came with the brackets intact - when I took my original off they were nowhere to be seen, and this is the one I've kept and recently refurbed. There's probably a way to fashion new brackets which I will naturally delegate to one of my partners-in-crime..

You can see the bracket in the pics below, plus the offending "rivets". The first time anyone tries to remove the handbrake console, they will likely snap off the bracket along with the plastic end piece which is very thin plastic. If you look closely you can see where this one is starting to break away...

Thanks for the photos, I will need to check once I get the car back.

I think those are actually rivets. I have 2 types of rivet at home. The usual ones which just bulge when you fit, and some others which split into 4 curled pronges when fitted. I can post a pic if I can.

Here we go. These are from my undertray where I repaired a section with thin plate steel and riveted on with the curly type. They look a close match to the console ones.

Very late to this thread, but rather than start another .....

Along with the Cam Cover, the centre console seriously needed a refurb as the 'rubber' had turned to 'goo' like it does! The last time I cleaned one of these consoles up, was the handbrake one and I seem to remember that was a job I really didn't want to tackle again.

That time I think I used Meths to strip it, this time I used Isopropyl Alcohol. So, with vinyl gloves (essential) and plenty of kitchen roll I had a go at cleaning up. Very surprisingly it all came off quite easily - it does just dissolve a little of the plastic surface, but not a problem, it just makes the paper 'dirty'. The IPA evaporates very quickly and leaves a pretty good surface for painting. I didn't even have to rub any of it down.

A couple of coats of satin black paint and I''m pretty happy with the results -

That's a nice finish.

I've left the ones I've done unpainted, just polished, but some definitely don't come out as well as others.

I think I was lucky with the gunge coming off pretty cleanly and the surface being good enough. I knew the paint, having used it on other things before now, so just went for it!

I agree that IPA is better than Meths, I used "antiseptic wipes" used for tattoos and injections which are impregnated with the IPA and the wipes just pick up all the black goo. Very effective on the upper centre console, but not so good on the lower part which is a more fiddly shape in places.

Here is another way, just cut pronged rivets out, cut each of 4 prongs with tin snips, push through all rivets, then replace them with small neat nuts and bolts with washers, easier incase any future work needed.
Then with sticky coating remove with brake fluid, put on suitable gloves, remove the section to be cleaned from the car, dab on brake fluid with a cloth, leave for 30 minutes, scrape off the mess with a plastic applicator, rinse with water then degrease panel down.
Sand down with mini orbital sander with 240-grade mesh type discs
Degrease again, blow off, tacky rag then plastic prime and spray topcoat off choice.
Sounds a lot but I do handbrake consoles in about 2 hours, doing this method from start to finish.
Brake fluid won't damage plastic but will break down the sticky mess.