348 Sticky Buttons

I have taken it appart. To take it out you have to remove the shift gate and the ashtray. Take out the two screws that hold the shift gate on and then move the shift gate aside. You don't have to take it off all the way. Then open the ashtray lid, take out the two inserts, remove the two screws that are found under the inserts, and then move the ash tray aside. Now that you have those out of the way you can take the control pannel out. The pannel is just held in place by pressure. Open the sides of the center consoles a little bit, you can get help for this. Now get a firm grip of the bottom of the pannel and slide it down enough for you to get ahold of the top of it. Then, still holding the sides of the console open, pop out the pannel. Once you have it out disconnect the wires from the back. Now you can take out the scrws that hold the control switches to the face of the pannel. To remove the sticky stuff you can use a razor to take off most of it. Then with the little bit that is left use goo gone, or something like that, and a scrub pad to get the rest of it off. If you like, hit it with some flat black spray paint to get it back to looking stock.

 

BE VERY CAREFUL IF YOU ARE REMOVING THE TOP PART OF THE CONSOLE!! It is very brittle and can break very easily, especially the real thin parts around the guages. The factory probably used some kind of adhesive for the ac box so use a lot of caution when prying it off the center console if you are cleaning up the buttons on it as well.

 

Goo be gone and a plastic razor will work wonders.