Tired of that uncomfortable plastic armrest? Not anymore ..
oh so soft now..
Here's how i did it.
1. Get your self some:
- foam of your choice (fabric store) the stuff i used is a very firm type of foam, and is only and inch and a half thick
- vinyl, leather, or material of your choice ($10.oo per yard at a fabric store)
- Razor blade
- office stapler, or an actual staple gun, but use only 1/4 inch staples or they will go through.
- A heat gun or a hairdryer work too
2. Pull off your arm rest by removing the two screws at the bottom holding the hinge on. and wiggle the arch out carefully.
3. Remove all the screws, including the one hiding under the latch.
4. Trace the top of the lid with against the foam, give yourself about a half inch extra on all sides, you will be trimming some off later on .
5. Cut it out, then trim it at an angle, with a downward slope, your razor needs to be sharp for this. You dont have to trim it off at an angle but, it looks nice under the vinyl if you do..
6. place it on top of the lid now, and make sure theirs not any hanging over the edge, any protruding bumps or deep grooves will show through the vinyl, so cut it at clean as you can,.
7. Lay the foam and the lid down onto the vinyl, and cut an over sized square around the lid, to make it easy to work with.
8. now fold the vinyl up to the edge, and roughly measure an inch to two over the edge, what your doing is cutting enough to fold, and stretch into the lid so that you can staple it in there, later you will trim off the extra.
9. I have no pics of this part because i only had two hands ..
Once you have cut your pattern out, you can begin the folding and stretching process.
What you do is gently heat one side up, pull it into the lid, and staple it in, then go to the opposite side and do the same, then the other, and the the remaining side.
Once you have a staple in all sides, work your way around heating and stretching the material into the lid and stapling it in.
It wont look like its gonna work at first, dont be discuraged, It will work and the payoff is sooo nice.
When you have it all nicely stretched and stapled in and your satisfied with the look, screw the liner back on, this adds more strength to holding the vinyl together, as you can see.
Re-install the armrest into the car, and admire your own handy work.
Black vinyl matches almost perfectly, see you cant even tell, you can use any material you want.
.
Modified by happy240 at 5:32 PM 3/26/2007
Post Title: Re: (how too) Padded armrest write up (happy240)
Posted by: SketchyRollin564 at 9:57 PM 3/24/2007
Probably the first mod ill do to my car (if i get it before i turn 16). Looks pretty fun.
Post Title:
Posted by: le_ryan at 10:00 PM 3/24/2007
| Quote, originally posted by anti_flag_army » |
| im unclear as to how you stapled it? |
once you get the lid off, its very clear how you gotta staple it, (fold the material in, and shoot a staple into it. roll the lid onto the side to get leverage onto it.
Post Title: Re: (how too) Padded armrest write up (srpowered240sx)
Posted by: le_ryan at 10:03 PM 3/24/2007
| Quote, originally posted by srpowered240sx » |
| matching oem colors is for sissy girls. jk ryan!
|
Hey now . . Yours matches your interior alot more than you wanna admit .
Post Title: Re: (how too) Padded armrest write up (srpowered240sx)
Posted by: SketchyRollin564 at 10:05 PM 3/24/2007
| Quote, originally posted by srpowered240sx » |
| matching oem colors is for sissy girls. jk ryan!
|
Yours looks like a big fluffy pillow 
Post Title: Re: (how too) Padded armrest write up (happy240)
Posted by: srpowered240sx at 10:05 PM 3/24/2007
| Quote, originally posted by happy240 » |
Hey now . . Yours matches your interior alot more than you wanna admit . |
damnit, hes on to me. the secret cant get out, gonna have to kill you now.
Post Title: Re: (how too) Padded armrest write up (SketchyRollin564)
Posted by: srpowered240sx at 10:06 PM 3/24/2007
| Quote, originally posted by SketchyRollin564 » |
Yours looks like a big fluffy pillow |
dude, it so is.
Post Title: Re: (how too) Padded armrest write up (srpowered240sx)
Posted by: le_ryan at 10:12 PM 3/24/2007
| Quote, originally posted by srpowered240sx » |
damnit, hes on to me. the secret cant get out, gonna have to kill you now. |
2 
You gotta get past my army first.......
Post Title: Re: (how too) Padded armrest write up (happy240)
Posted by: Driftless240 at 12:57 AM 3/25/2007
| Quote, originally posted by Driftless240 » |
| Nice, are you still taking orders? |
I looked into it for you guys, for the cost to ship it to me and the $20.oo i would charge, Its much cheaper to have a local upolstry shop do it for ya, But i dont see what you guys just dont give it a try, its soooo easy, REALLY it is, just try it.
Post Title:
Posted by: Edub1 at 8:42 AM 3/25/2007
| Quote, originally posted by Edub1 » |
| Instead of carving the foam to round the edges, one could use a thin sheet of foam covered with a sheet of Dacron - or just use Dacron. |
Whats that?
Post Title: Re: (how too) Padded armrest write up (happy240)
Posted by: Driftless240 at 3:29 PM 3/25/2007
| Quote, originally posted by happy240 » |
I looked into it for you guys, for the cost to ship it to me and the $20.oo i would charge, Its much cheaper to have a local upolstry shop do it for ya. |
Yea but I know you do quality work, I don't think shipping would be that much from me to you, I am just up a little north and most likely willing to pay the dues... Think about it, Redlinegoods offers just a cover for like 30 bucks, so what the hey yah know?...
Post Title:
Posted by: le_ryan at 5:01 PM 3/25/2007
| Quote, originally posted by happy240 » |
Whats that? |
Dacron is like polyester stuffing only in sheet form. It is used in upholstery to make the edge of foam cushions round. You know how the front of a sofa cushion is round instead of square.
Actually, that arm rest could be done in Dacron alone.
Post Title: Re: (vroom-chirp)
Posted by: thenillaz at 5:49 PM 4/30/2007
| Quote, originally posted by vroom-chirp » |
once you get the lid off, its very clear how you gotta staple it, (fold the material in, and shoot a staple into it. roll the lid onto the side to get leverage onto it. |
| Quote, originally posted by thenillaz » |
| Yeah, that makes no sense. If I stample it on the outside of the lid the stamples will be visible, if I stample it on the inside the stamples will stick out and thus poking you. What do you mean when you take out the lid its very clear, theres nothing clear about it. Frustration! |
| Quote, originally posted by vroom-chirp » |
- office stapler, or an actual staple gun, but use only 1/4 inch staples or they will go through. |
You cant use long staples, I used regular office staples, and when pressed all the way down, the WILL go through, you gotta use a shorter staples, or just try not to go all the way through.
Post Title:
Posted by: anti_flag_army at 7:25 PM 4/30/2007
First off, did you do your door panels too? If you did, how did you get the fabric to go around the edges? the panel doesnt come off like i thought it did.
Did you do your glovebox as well? how is that done?
I plan on going to the fabric store to get some black material to do those things, i may do the arm rest while at it.
Post Title: Re: (anti_flag_army)
Posted by: le_ryan at 7:48 PM 4/30/2007
| Quote, originally posted by anti_flag_army » |
| really weird, i was just gonna dig up this thread to ask a few q's, and then there it was in my recent topics! First off, did you do your door panels too? If you did, how did you get the fabric to go around the edges? the panel doesnt come off like i thought it did. |
I didnt do my door panels yet, but i plan too, but i though there was a write up on it here somewhere.. if not ill make one when i do.
| Quote, originally posted by anti_flag_army » |
Did you do your glovebox as well? how is that done? |
I did my glove box too, its pretty much the same process, but here an article someone made on that.
http://www.nicoclub.com/articles.php?id=167288
Post Title:
Posted by: anti_flag_army at 7:50 PM 4/30/2007
If you use a big thick foam, its gonna be harder to work with, I used this stuff that is real thick, but its got a very low profile, its almost like rubber foam.
Like sr said, you can glue the foam to the lid first (or not, but it helps), lay the material down first, then the foam and lid, then heat up the material that your stretching, then pull and fold it into the the lid and shoot a staple in there, starting with one side (one staple) then switch to the other side same thing (one staple) then the other and the other, keep working your way around and do the corners last, they will require heat to get them to stretch in nicely.
I dont wann have you send it al the way here, its cheaper to have a local shop do it .
Post Title: Re: (vroom-chirp)
Posted by: thenillaz at 8:58 PM 5/1/2007
I already glued the foam to the lid with adhesive promotor, and was just trying to put it together all in my hands in mid air. I'm using a black suede material, and its just as think as the leather from the shift boot, kinda of thin compared to the leather I was sampling at the fabric store. I'm stealing your idea for the graphite color trim, and doing the rest of everything black, its gunna look freakin tits when I'm done. Thanks a bunch. 
Oh BTW the foam is 1 inch high density, the stuff you recomended I think.
Modified by thenillaz at 10:42 PM 5/1/2007
Post Title:
Posted by: le_ryan at 6:08 AM 5/2/2007
| Quote, originally posted by vroom-chirp » |
|
. Great stuff vroom.
Post Title: Re: (how too) Padded armrest write up (vroom-chirp)
Posted by: Uberck at 9:53 AM 8/3/2007
| Quote, originally posted by Uberck » |
| what kind of seats are those? |
s14.
Post Title: Re: (anti_flag_army)
Posted by: mike240 at 2:16 PM 8/3/2007
| Quote, originally posted by anti_flag_army » |
| i found the write up on the door panels. |
can i have that link?
Post Title: Re: (how too) Padded armrest write up (vroom-chirp)
Posted by: drunkNun at 4:39 PM 4/27/2008
| Quote, originally posted by vroom-chirp » |
You gotta get past my army first....... |
Well that should be easy since they're shooting at each other.
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