Tauruses are one of ford's more popular cars, the SHO was a sporty taurus with a high output yamaha marine motor, bucket seats, center console, fancy rims, ground effects, and other features that distinguised them from a regular tauruses. The SHOs that vic owners are interested in are the GenII taurus SHOs which were made from 1992 to 1995. Most 92' gen II SHO's had an interior that was a carryover from the 91' model year. So you may wish to limit your search to 1993-1995 tauruses and sables. Cars are getting older now and often get declared a total loss by insurance companies over little fender benders since they aren't worth terribly much. Some regular ford tauruses and mercury sables were avaliable with bucket seats and center console that will work in the vic, but this was not a popular option and most you'll find have the standard split bench seating.
Color choices for the SHO consoles appear to be black, grey, and beige. Finding a SHO console in good shape in the desired color can be a time consuming task, I called around a dozen different junkyards before settling on one. One I got was black in color, from a non-smokers car, and the car still had all its windows and doors so the console wasn't exposed to bad weather before I got it.
Console was easy enough to remove, and suprisingly the brackets that retain the console to the floor were bolted in and not spot welded. When you go to the wrecking yard to get your console bring along a socket set, torx drivers and a couple screw drivers. Make sure to acquire all the retaining brackets for the console from your donor car, you'll need them to mount the console in your vic.
Mounting the console in your vic requires a little patience and persistence. First remove the ashtray and associated mounting brackets from your vic. Then try sliding the sho console into place. You'll find the drivers side front corner needs a little grinding to slide under the dash. The back part of the console with the door also requires a little trimming of the plastic at the bottom where the console rests on the transmission tunnel, the contour of the taurus center exhaust tunnel is quite different than the contour of the crown vic transmission tunnel.
Getting the mounting brackets mounted to the car is another issue. Some of the brackets will require bending and spacers in between the floor and bracket. Once you figure out how to mount the brackets, its time to use a power drill and drill some holes in the transmission tunnel. Self tapping sheetmetal screws work well for retaining the brackets. You'll need long screws for the front brackets because of the extra height added by the peice of plastic that distributes heat from the heater to the back passengers. No wires running on the topside of the transmission tunnel in my 98', but you may have some from aftermarket police equipment that was mounted in your car at one point in time. So look before you drill. Watch screw length when drilling into the floor to mount the console, i've heard from one unfortunate individual who required driveshaft replacement after using screws that were too long. Use too short of screws and the console mounting screws won't properly retain the console to the floor of the car.
Some people report sucess with the aftermarket clutter catcher console that walmart sells. The sho console has a more integrated look and won't shatter in cold weather if you close the lid too fast. See the pictures below for some genII taurus sho console install examples:
RocketCouch's 1992 LX (rocketcouch@crownvic.net)
Note: The front seats are not the factory ones, they are aftermarket
"Cobra Daytona Sport" seats reupholstered to match the red interior. The
console was dyed red and re-carpeted with red fabric to match the rest
of the interior.
1995+ police interceptor interior with bucket seats and black rubber floormat
GenII (1992-1995) Mercury Sable exterior
GenII (1992-1995) ford taurus exterior. Note: The above picture is of the base model, SHOs will have fancier rims, ground effects, fog lights, etc.
GenII (1992-1995) Mercury Sable interior with bucket seats and center console
GenII (1992-1995) taurus SHO interior
GenI (1989-1991) taurus SHO interior. Note the differences in the center console between the GenI tauruses and the GenII tauruses. If you're in a bind, the GenI console looks like it would probably work in the vic. Note the lack of enclosed storage space at the back of the console and the fact that the console does not touch the bottom of the dash. I've seen bucket seats and center consoles like the one pictured above in tauruses as early as the 1987 model year.
A taurus with the standard splitbench seating and no center console. Most of the Ford Tauruses and Mercury Sables you'll find will have this seating configuration.