how do i change the glovebox assembly in a vn commodore.

[HSV5L]

Hi does anyone know how to change the glove box assembly in a vn commodore its the part that holds it in and the pin pushes in my assembly is broken thanks for any help cheers travis

[hi_ryder]

not sure what part of your pin or glove box is broken. you just pry out those plastic hinge pins with a flathead screwdriver, should drop right off....

[HSV5L]

yeah its the part on the dash pad were the pin goes is broken and the glovebox is hart to close cheers.

[Cheap6]

It's a pretty common problem. You used to be able to buy from Holden Spare Parts a little bracket bent up from sheet steel that was to be riveted onto the dash adjacent (LHS) to the now broken moulded plastic bracket that is part of the dash.

I'm not sure if can still buy that or not but it's quite easy to make something similar. I used some of the Aluminum angle - maybe 25mm x 20mm x 1.6mm, cut down? - that you can buy for a few dollars in a hardware store.

Two brackets, to the LHS and RHS of the remains of the moulded in bracket, is strongest because that puts the brackets in double shear.

Mock them up in card, like that from a cereal box, first, to get the dimensions, then it's easy to work the Al. with a file and hacksaw and drill the hole for the pin.

It also helps to make the surface of the bracket that contacts the dash a little larger than the existing moulded in bracket. You are limited in the width by the dash topology but you can make them a little longer.

On the RHS it can sort of wedge in between what is left of the old bracket and the lug for the radio/vent control surround screw.

On the LHS the sheet steel replacement from Holden extended around and up the vertical face of the dash but bending Al. is difficult without cracking it so mine doesn't. If you used sheet steel instead, that should be possible.

If using sheet, use material with a reasonable thickness otherwise your going to cut a groove in the pin with use - one reason why I used the Al..

I glued, using epoxy adhesive, the Al. onto the dash because I figured that holes for the rivets would be a weak spot and there is not much space for rivets without the vertical extension (which is where the rivets for the Holden part were). You could use both rivets and adhesive.

Drill the hole in the brackets and install the pin in the glovebox and brackets before attaching the brackets to the dash to ensure the correct location. Do one bracket at a time.

There are a couple of tricks to getting adhesive, in any application actually, to work well.

The first is surface prep.: rough both surfaces up with emery - that removes the oxide coating off the Al. - then clean with metho.

The second is to make sure that the adhesive slightly extends beyond the perimeter of the Al., making a nice chamfer up the edge of the surface that is vertical to the dash.

It also helps to round off the sharp corners of the new brackets on the dash side. See reverse taper fillet here:

Adhesive joints [SubsTech]

[hi_ryder]

i did my calais/statesman 2nd glove box (one under the steering column) with the fibreglass reinforced filler. just reverse taped inside the glove box with masking tape and trawled it over the missing, and damaged plastic with the filler, shaped it with sand paper, then found a drill bit the same size as the plastic hinge pin and drilled it out. worked really well and its super strong now. no more glove box hanging down and banging on my steel caps...

[HSV5L]

thanks for all the help guys cheers travis