BAWC Forums

Time for another arts and crafts side quest.

This is something that's been bugging me for a while. The center console was one of the first things I bought for the truck, long before I had any idea I was going to do this red interior swap. The stitching on the lid is a dark gray. I tried dying it red with a fabic marker, and it just turned an ugly brown.



I also tried ordering a new skin for it, but the one I got on eBay was cheap shit that didn't fit right. It's hard to find factory lids with red stitching, and when you do, they cost about as much as I paid for the entire console. So that's out.

I finally decided to just replace the colored stitching. When I took the lid apart to try to install the eBay skin, I found out the colored thread is purely decorative. There's a separate seam that actually holds the leather together. The colored thread doesn't even go through the leather. It's held in place by more conventional thread.



Finding the right materials was a massive pain in the ass. Even more so because I didn't want to buy 1000 foot industrial bobbins of thread. The staples were another nightmare. The skin is stapled to the plastic lid, but they're really short. Most of the tools that shoot those staples are air powered and expensive. The staples themselves had to come from the UK. The stapler is a lot smaller than a typical household stapler.



Installing the staples was another problem. They just didn't want to dig into the plastic. I eventually found a way to heat up the plastic with the hot air gun I use for electronics work. Heat the plastic, stretch the leather around the edge, don't lose tension on the leather while you fumble for the stapler, try to shoot the staple straight, all while burning your fingers on the hot plastic the entire time.





But hey, at least I saved a couple hundred dollars to make a little detail most people won't even notice, right?



This is why I never get anything done.

that looks real good. nice job

It looks great!

Jeff can do it all, electronics, mechanical, and now interior stiching.

Looks really good!

It doesn't matter if others notice as long as you are happy you did it.

alienviking wrote: ↑Mon May 11, 2026 3:19 pm It doesn't matter if others notice as long as you are happy you did it.

That looks like it worked out well. Funny how the smallest of things, that probably only we see, bug us.

Thanks guys.

Other random thoughts. Decided to re-key the console lock while I had the lid apart. Cheap little plastic POS with 3 wafer tumblers. Price for the service kit is about $80 fucking dollars. You can't buy the tumblers unless you're a locksmith and want to buy large quantities.

Vira listed my old rubber floor covering for free on Facebook. Someone came to get it yesterday. Said his was tore up. So that bulk is out of my garage and also out of a landfill.

I finally bought a bed divider. Should have done that right after I got the bed cleat brackets. It's a Chinese Amazon knockoff of the Ford divider for 1/4 of the price. That'll be nice to have.

you seem to have newer rigs in the yards than i do. im sure if you find 4-5 locks youll get enough random tumblers to match what you need.

That's exactly what I'm going to do. The glove box cylinder is common to a lot of newer Fords, so I'm going to just start pulling cores from Fusions. I took apart the one I have that works, so I know I need a #2 and two #4s.

This is kind of silly, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. The stock F150 console has some big vents in the back for rear seat passengers, along with some charging ports I wasn't using. I thought it'd be interesting to see if I could make a regular cab version of it. The panel from the Expedition is a bit different. No vents, rear seat climate controls, and some ports. It looked like a good mod candidate.

So I got this one, pulled the trim ring off, and made a blanking plate for it.







I think I'm going to use this satin metallic gray for the rest of the dash trim pieces too. I need to figure out why it comes out kind of grainy, but this was a good first effort.

that looks pretty good. i would keep the charge or any usb ports though to keep the cords hidden

The lower charge port is going to work because I have a plug for it. I didn't see any point in keeping the upper ones. It'd be an awkward reach, and I put my laptop bag back there, so I'd always be smashing them anyway.

I keep my phone cord in the front bin on the console, and I've got a plan for a nice USB charger on the dash for the times when Vira needs one. There's a 3rd cigarette socket in the bottom of the huge main console bin, so I can hide stuff in there if I need to.

The inside of my truck smells like spray paint.

That'll go away eventually. My Stealth smelled like paint for a week or 2 after I colored the center counsle carpets.

I know. It's just annoying. I'll try to give the next batch of parts more time to off gas before I put them in.

Need some suggestions from you guys. I'm finally getting back to the dash swap, and I'd really like to fix some damage before it goes in. It's got some gouges in the top, and the right side by the vent. I can't think of a good way to fill this in and keep a textured finish.





I pulled the leather parts off, so I have a lot of flexibility in how I go about this. I just don't have any good ideas at the moment.



It'd be nice if I could find a good Lariat dash with a blown airbag and then just swap my parts over, but that could take some time and would probably still cost more than I want to spend.

SEM makes interior coating that keeps that same kinda texture, only idea i have

This stuff? Could be an option. Hmm.

https://www.smsdistributors.com/product ... ting-black

i think so? it was an article on this guys s13, probably 15 years ago lmao. Cool dude does a lot of oem looking interior shit https://broadfield.wordpress.com/tag/s13/