Thanks everyone! If anyone else has any cupholder mods post them up!

 

Ok, picked up the 91 4runner console (i think its a 91, bolts directly to the floor with 2 storage compartments which is WAY better than the TINY storage on the ones that go over a blower motor!!!!).
the coin holder & storage tray unscrewed so i've been working on what to do. Unfortunately I havent been able to find a prefab cup holder quite as unique as yours so I'll have to, once again, get CREATIVE!
I made one for my 1981 1100 Honda Goldwing that straps to the tank () and used a short section of PVC pipe to make it. Thinking about cutting out enough of the storage trayto fit, say, a piece of 2" thin wall PVC pipe (my coffee cup is smaller than yours) down through it, flush it at the top and then fill between it and the outer edges of the console, that way I keep the places for 3 switches in the future!
I'll keep you posted on the progress................
Thanks for the inspiration!

 

Nice! Post up some pics and let us know how its coming along!

I was originally thinking about capping the heater pipes and dumping it too..but my girl rides in the back sometimes and likes to keep her tootsies toasty lol

I never saw much use for the small storage either..maybe for a pen or something..but when I got a new Alpine I didn't want the ipod cable kicked around on the floor, so I hid it..Not the prettiest thing in the world right now, but I plan on gluing in some fabric to hide the hole and maybe figuring out a way to put the two unused switches in there as well..kind of like a hidden control panel.

Here's what they looks like:

 

Looks sick!

 

Nice....need one for my bench seat

 

I used to have a set of bench buckets for my s10 with some cup holders mounted on the front bottom almost on the floor. I'm not sure if it would interfere with the shifter or not but its worth checking out.

Or if you don't want to rip everything out, I've seen a roll of duct tape used on here..pretty clever.

 

No back seat in my pickup so "tootsie warmer" no worry!
I like the idea of hidden switches and the ipod in there is a great one too. I use my iPhone4 for extra tunes through the aux inputs on the back and I LOVE the hidden cable!!! I hate mine under the passengers feet.
BTW part of the reason I wanted to mod the removable section was that I retained the plastic around the shifters (mines an auto). still "figuring" on how I wanna do it...

 

Ok, here it is!
its not as smooth as i wanted but until i get some liquid plastic/bondo to work with it'll do. once I do the smoothing I'll hit both console pieces with Fusion primer and top coat with smoke grey to match the rest of the interior
OH, the console cover material was trashed and I never liked the height anyway so I glued together about 5" of dense foam, glued it to the top lid and wrapped it with some leftover material till i can get it to the upholstery shop for a proper cover.
I also took your advice on the AUX INPUT cable reroute. I will eventually reroute it to the cluster somewhere: I use the GPS on my iPhone4 while driving and its WAY safer and more convenient to lay it sideways between my speedo/tach.

 

Looks good

I am curious does your cup really stay in there??

With the rough roads around here I would need to keep one hand on the wheel and the other on the cup.

Having spilled more coffee than I seem to drink as of late

 

hmm... I would've figured out a way to make the hole smaller and smoother for that ipod cable

 

Absolutely! It's not tight but it fits very well on my stainless coffee cup & stainless water bottle. I guess in hindsight I could have left the PVC pipe longer but I don't do much off roading & mississippi roads that I travel are in decent shape.

 

Well I had originally just had a small hole drilled in it before I put fixed up the cupholder and ran the smaller end of the cable through it..But since I bolted my radio down I really didn't want to pull it all back apart to pull the cable back through so I just made the hole bigger for the ipod connector...I'll eventually fix it and cover the inside with vinyl or felt so you wont see it anyway.

 

That looks awesome. How come the 3rd gens have the parking brake lever there...

 

That little lightbulb went off again over the weekend, and I figure out a way to reuse the original holes for window switches. I got the idea from a similar post on here, only I think their use was for winch/light switches.

I picked up a little "ziz wheel" or rotary tool at autozone for about $25..it's not too bad, comes with a small buffing wheel which is pretty cool.

But I used the left hand spot next to the steering wheel, where the clutch cancel switch is. Pics explain it better than I can...

Heres the reused part from the center console:


Before:


Cut out the hole and fitting:


Seeing as that bumper repair kit worked so well last time, I used the same process:


From behind:


After it dried for a while, Switches still fit:


Now here is something most people won't even notice..I couldn't really match the texture that was on the rest of it so I masked off the spots I didn't want to sand and used 120 grit to smooth off as much as I could. I did it on both sides to make it match, and I really like the outcome of it.


You can still kind of see that texture with the wet paint, but after it dried I couldn't really see it:


Another angle:


Before I put it all back in..If you notice, while I had it out I cleaned up the crud out of the switches and used that buffing wheel I mentioned earlier to make them shine, and they look almost new


And their in! I still need to wire them up, but atleast I got the hard part out of the way:


Sorry if my pics are bad quality, I always use my phone to snap pics. I'll take some more pictures of it later..too dark out right now.

Let me know what you think!

 

I love that idea!! i need to find me a couple of those three pod things from the center console, and do that on both sides! i could do my offroad lights, amplifier, outside cab light, (still need to get and install the next three) floorboard light, sub woofer light, and an extra hole? i wonder if the little hole plug that came in my clutch cancel hole will fit in one of those? im pretty sure i have an extra of that piece that i can experiment on!!!

I have to ask, on the second from the bottom picture, what is the thing in the hole on the right side? my truck just has a little platelet thing covering a big empty hole...

 

Cruise control!!! I never could get it to work right..mostly there for looks lol

 

that is awesome.

you deserve this:

 

very talented, looks just as good as anything from a factory

 

Thank you, i have been wondering what kind of oddball switch would fit that hole for the past year and a half!

 

Looks like it came from the factory that way! Great job!