Upholster Your Armrest

[celica fanatic]

After upholstering my door panels and sun visors, I decided to try my armrest. I found that you can remove the rubber covering, so that if your material were to rip or you got tired of it, you can revert back to the original with no problems.

So, first you need to remove the latch, and all of the other screws. Be sure to use a tiny phillips head, you round the "teeth" off of the inside of the screw head, and you're pretty much "screwed".



The bottom with the lid piece removed. This was a black armrest, so I'm not sure why the plastic is brown. Oh well.


Remove the top rubber piece.



Break out your weapon.



Spray moderately. Too much, and your fabric will turn white, and be hard in that area. Too little, and when you put your arm on it, it's going to release.



The finish.



Installed:


Material used:



You can get it at walmart. $3.00 and something a yard. I bought 4 yards, and came out a little over $13.00. You can also buy vinyl in your color of choosing for $7.00 and something a yard.

The armrest has foam on it already under the rubber piece, but if you want it super soft, just glue more foam to it. Piece of cake.

 

[shonuff]

get a heat gun and heat up the corners and stretch it out so you'll loose the crease.

with fabric you have to heat it a bit to get it to stretch, careful not to burn it or the foam. vynl will stretch with just a hair dryer, dont take much heat.

and sometimes steam will take out the wrinkles too.


look my new job is already paying off




most OEM stuff uses a contact cement (so do we), coat both the fabric and the piece your gluing it to, then wait to cure (3-5min).  lay it down in the center and work your way out not stretching it until you go around the edge or to a corner.   then over time as it loosens up it wont be all bubbly like.







but looks good


got a installed pic?






ps: when ya gonna upholster some shoes?  

[a2ndopinion]

ps: when ya gonna upholster some shoes?