Recovering My Center Console Arm Rest (LOTS O' PICS)
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Recovering My Center Console Arm Rest (LOTS O' PICS)
So the previous owner did a crappy job covering the center console arm rest and it's been bugging me for a while now. I got some a couple days off and decided to take care of it once and for all.
It was made from some thick vinyl and a big hunk of square foam. I'm not sure what happened to the original pad but this is what I got when I took it apart.
You really can't see the foam pad, but it was an 1" thick piece of standard foam. So I went to my local Walmart (which I don't condone shopping at, but living in BFE you get it where you can), and I picked up some supplies:
1) Black "pleather" (vinyl stuff), I think it was like $2.50
2) Some thin white batting for a $1.50
3) Some E-6000 (or whatever adhesive, I just bought this because it was like $5 cheaper than Gorilla Glue, I think this was the major investment of the project at $4.50)
4) A roll of Duct Tape (Sorry no picture here. You can email me if your curious.)
So I started by molding the foam with some scissors and a razor blade. I was really wishing I had one of those electric carving knives. But it turned out all right, not that it matters to much because that's what the batting is for...
So then I proceeded to wrap the batting around each side using the E-6000 and some duct tape to secure it in place till it dried, I think about 10 min. per side.
And with all 4 sides glued up.
So this is where I'm at right now, up to this point I have about 2 hours into it, but 99% of that is watching TV while the glue is drying. I also had to iron the crap out of the vinyl to get rid of the creases. I'll take some more pics one I get back after it tomorrow.
It was made from some thick vinyl and a big hunk of square foam. I'm not sure what happened to the original pad but this is what I got when I took it apart.
You really can't see the foam pad, but it was an 1" thick piece of standard foam. So I went to my local Walmart (which I don't condone shopping at, but living in BFE you get it where you can), and I picked up some supplies:
1) Black "pleather" (vinyl stuff), I think it was like $2.50
2) Some thin white batting for a $1.50
3) Some E-6000 (or whatever adhesive, I just bought this because it was like $5 cheaper than Gorilla Glue, I think this was the major investment of the project at $4.50)
4) A roll of Duct Tape (Sorry no picture here. You can email me if your curious.)
So I started by molding the foam with some scissors and a razor blade. I was really wishing I had one of those electric carving knives. But it turned out all right, not that it matters to much because that's what the batting is for...
So then I proceeded to wrap the batting around each side using the E-6000 and some duct tape to secure it in place till it dried, I think about 10 min. per side.
And with all 4 sides glued up.
So this is where I'm at right now, up to this point I have about 2 hours into it, but 99% of that is watching TV while the glue is drying. I also had to iron the crap out of the vinyl to get rid of the creases. I'll take some more pics one I get back after it tomorrow.
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Day 2
Alright, so after lots of debating I came to the conclusion that the previous arm rest was a little to soft for me. So I decided to start over with a piece of particle board I had laying around. I first trimmed it to size.
I then sanded down the edges with some 60 grit sandpaper. (At the end I found out that my box plane worked pretty good as well. Should have tried it first.)
After covering once, I noticed that the metal plate needed to be recessed into the arm rest. This was kind of a pain in the ars, but once I was this far, I might as well go for it. So with a chisel and hammer I was able to chisel out the recess for the plate. I think it took me about 30min.
So then I reapplied the white batting for some cushion and stapled it to the back. The corners on the batting don't matter as much as the final pleather, but I tried to make it nice. It kind of takes some trial-and-error to get all the folds out of the corners but it turned out pretty good.
Then I did the same with the pleather, started at the sides and worked my way down to the corners.
Notice the top extra flap since I cut the excess too short. So I stapled the flap upside down and then folded it over itself with a small piece of cardboard to straighten the fold and boom...
Looks pretty good if I don't say so myself. Here's what it looks like installed.
Thanks for checking it out. PEACE!
I then sanded down the edges with some 60 grit sandpaper. (At the end I found out that my box plane worked pretty good as well. Should have tried it first.)
After covering once, I noticed that the metal plate needed to be recessed into the arm rest. This was kind of a pain in the ars, but once I was this far, I might as well go for it. So with a chisel and hammer I was able to chisel out the recess for the plate. I think it took me about 30min.
So then I reapplied the white batting for some cushion and stapled it to the back. The corners on the batting don't matter as much as the final pleather, but I tried to make it nice. It kind of takes some trial-and-error to get all the folds out of the corners but it turned out pretty good.
Then I did the same with the pleather, started at the sides and worked my way down to the corners.
Notice the top extra flap since I cut the excess too short. So I stapled the flap upside down and then folded it over itself with a small piece of cardboard to straighten the fold and boom...
Looks pretty good if I don't say so myself. Here's what it looks like installed.
Thanks for checking it out. PEACE!
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#9
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The red interior is something else that's for sure! Got to love the 80's. I'm thinking of painting the whole center console in black, what do ya think?
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