Honda City '06 center console respray DIY

[ahmadbila]

AoA everyone...hope you're all fine..

well, my exams ended around mid december and since then im working day in day out on my car. Did a lot to restore it to the best possible condition. It is now 5 years and 215,000kms old car so it definately needs a good amount of care to keep it healthy. Recently changed the suspension etc n a lot more (posted in city fan club).

Update :- Today i compound polished the painted panels and now they are even more shiny and smooth. Thanks to @Vague_one for the advice and @Suzukialtomehran for lending me the compound polish

Now, the only part of interior that didnt look good were the silver panels on the central console and all 4 doors. Painted the door panels 2-3 days ago, but thats an easy job (opening n fitting back) so i wont be posting its pictures. Opening the console is a little bit harder then that plus one of our respected member in the city fan club (@rollaonbigmama) requested a detailed demonstration of opening the console... so here it is...
(I started this process at 10.30pm and fitted back all the stuff after paint etc at around 2am, thats 3.5hrs)

Start opening from the back end, open this screw, another one on the other side. After it, just pull this console upwards, there are two clips at the front end of it (where it meets the gear lever part) it simply comes off

This is what is revealed (please ignore the dust car is going for general service soon)


This round clip is to be taken off next. to unlock it, put a screw driver in the middle small round spot and push down. it will unlock giving a TIK sound.take it out then


Forgot to take pic here. next u have to unbolt the gear knob (unscrew counter clockwise) after its taken off, just pull the silver panel around the gear lever up... its fixed with clips, no screws. Then u ll see these two screws


Forgot to take the next pic again well, just take the ask try out and there is one nut behind it, unscrew it, pull the whole thing out, unplug the cigrette lighter and this is what u see, more nuts n bolts


(more coming)

[fawadakbarkhan]

thanks ahmad bhai... thanks alot... bus yahan se aagay waali pix ka muje intezaar hai very badly cz yahan se aagey main nhn jaa paya...

[ahmadbila]

After u have unscrewed all the screws visible in the last pic above, take this clip off (its located just besides ur clutch padel) mine was already missing

Now the frame of console is free, just take it out of its place and this is what is revealed. This cup holder compartment is now just lying at its place. pick it up from its place, no clips or nuts left.


I gave it a good wash first and sanded its surface a bit. Also note that the lower half it it seperates from it (to allow access to the nuts which free the silver cover from rest of the thing)


Also washed and sanded these parts using a high grade (thin) sandpaper


This is the view of cup holder compartment from below after removing the lower half.u have to unscrew the 4 nuts here to take off the silver lid

[ahmadbila]

here is the lid seperated from the rest of the body


I also unscrewed the "roof" of ash tray, this also serves as the sliding mechanism of the ash tray and i didnt want it to get hard after getting paint on it.so took it off. u can also mask it if u dont want to take it off.


Took this front "face" of ash tray off too, didnt want to get paint on the black part. once again , u can mask it too.


the next two pix are just to show u the sliding mechanism of the cut holder seperator. That cog wheel sort of thing is there ONLY to slow down the sliding motion and to make it smooth , just to give that "FEEL" of a well built thing

[ahmadbila]

Masked the small bits.I really wanted to save that small chrome lining on the cup holder lid. put masking tape on it, pressed it really hard with my finger nail into the chrome part and used a blade to cut the rest of it.

After spray painting the parts, i put them near heater to let them dry quickly.
I did 3 to 4 coats of paint, until i was completely satisfied with the finish. after every coat, put it in front of heater. This pic is after the first coat so lot of imperfections. actually after first coat, i sanded the cup holder lid again and resprayed.it hard caught some dust particles.

This is what finished parts look like (after paint and clear coat) did this part earlier yesterday. The clear coat is easily available at any good hardware or paint shop for 130rs.

[omer1982]

Great job brother, keep it up!!

[moizhusain]

Ahmed, that was some serious DIY stuff! Love the end result

[ahmadbila]

This is how it turned out after clear coat dried. Shine is not really visible due to dim light and bad cam. but still, i loved it

After taking off the masking tape... i loved this part!! Chrome surrounded with brand new shiny paint. for years, i ve been looking at this part, dull and scratched and now its like new


Fixing back the sliding mechanism of the cup holder seperator. You have to hook this end into its place and then drag it back it its place. there is another tiny , delicate spring sort of thing on the end to hold this into its place when the seperator is pushed into the lid

The frame that houses all of these parts. As it was easier to access all parts after its out of the car, i decided to clean it using turtle stain removed.


This is the gear shifter panel (fitted into the frame) which i missed taking pix of earlier. The cloth in it can be detached by unscrewing 4 nuts below it.

[ahmadbila]

Found out that this little bare metal strip started catching rust after i washed it! so i cleaned it and sprayed silver paint on it too. This piece is attached to cup holder compartment.

This is how the whole thing looks like after assembling


A closer shot... i felt as happy looking at it as kid in a candy shop


This is the view of gear level panel from below. u unscrew these nuts to take off the cloth sort of thing off.

[fawadakbarkhan]

ahmad bro, thats awesome.. just a great job... gonna do this to mine very very soon... coming back on thursday inShAllah...

[ahmadbila]

Before fitting everything in, i decided to clean this part too. But instead of turtle treatment, i made some surf solution with hot water and rubbed it hard... results were great!

Until yesterday, i thought that the small coin holder part besides the hand brake is the part of the whole things... but its not so i took it off and cleaned it throughly... 5 yrs worth of dust was clinging to it

[smashhud]

This is really a good DIY. Great effort Ahmad!! I was also able to open the centre console for my steermatic for a DIY. Now what i need is a Dashboard opening DIY :). I need to know how to get the default cassete player out..Maybe you can help

[ahmadbila]

And finally... the time comes to fit it all back...

and...TA-DAAA.... Operation central console respray successful

Btw, the cold weather is a killer! all the time i worked inside the car, i turned on the engine and heater to full ... while painting, heater was near me... that is absolutely necessary as u cant even hold anything properly at 2am with cold fingers

So, that was the best 3.5hrs i ve spent on my car until now... and as i have sprayed the clear coat too, the shine is awesome plus the paint is well protected and hopefully wont be scratched again.... Hope u all enjoyed it...

[smartdevil_striker]

Very Nice.....!!

[nacirmalik]

good work @ahmadbila......
i am also thinking to spray my civic console ...

[ahmadbila]

@rollaonbigmama
@omer
@muizhusain
@smashud

Thanks a lot to all of you ... good to know u guys liked the results and the DIY itself...

@smashud
u have to do all of this process and some extra things to get out the cassette player.here is how...

when u open all the stuff that u ve seen above in the pix, u have to unscrew nuts from 3 other places!
1) just below the a/c fan speed adjuster, there is a nut
2) The where the cigarette lighter is fixed, there are 1 or 2 nuts screwed from that place up into the whole piece that houses the cassette player. u ll have to go into and then up towards it to find those nuts (i havent seen em myself, just say a mechanic opening them)
3) Open the lower glove compartment. with force, menouver its stoppers from its place by applying force to left to take out the right stopper and vice versa. The glove lid will still be attached to its place but will go further down, revealing the a/c fan in front, ECU on left and on the right side, u ll have to find the screws that are bolted into the cassette player housing.

After all this, u will simply have to pull out the whole thing. it will still take some force as there are some clips... its a messy job! if u are confused about any of the above , let me know, i ll take pix and explain it to u...

[smashhud]

Thanks Ahmad for the detailed explanation.. I felt that it was a messay job and stopped :).. Well if you could take some time out and take some pictures then it would be really great help. Also is there any screw bolted from the driver side as well into the cassette player housing.. I think I saw one while inspecting.

[ahmadbila]

Thanks Ahmad for the detailed explanation.. I felt that it was a messay job and stopped :).. Well if you could take some time out and take some pictures then it would be really great help. Also is there any screw bolted from the driver side as well into the cassette player housing.. I think I saw one while inspecting.

I dont have my car with me right now, as soon as it gets home. I ll take pix and post em here. n no i dont think there is any screw bolted in from the driver side. The reason i know is because i was sitting in the driver seat when the audio system guy was opening my cars' console for some job last week. he was in the passenger seat and didnt open any nut other then those i have already mentioned.

[smashhud]

^^ Will be waiting. Thanks again.

[MAAYA767]

@ahmad bilaa sir what paint do u used?? i mean where from where i can buy that? which type of paint is that