just finished my new armrest so i thought i'd share with you guys. the flash came out weird in all these and it makes it look a lot lighter than it really is. but here goes.

new armrest in brown leather


took me about 3 hours just to install the material on it and then mount it back on.

so now that i have that done, i now have 4 things redone in leather on my car that i'll bet sets me apart from all the other TLs out there

leather rear deck


leather headliner


and leather underneath dash thingy (just some random piece but i got bored one day)


the armrest is probably the last thing i'll do to the car before i sell it but i might redo my door panel inserts too since i'm kind of growing out of the way i made them 6 months ago.

 

looks good.. what did u use to do those replacements???

 

like the type of leather or how did i actually replace the old stuff? ahh, right now i cant think of the leather name but did have to special order it from a local fabric store because the stuff they sold was basically imitation leather and i wanted genuine. as far as making them...lots of effort and lots of time...emphasis on the words "lots". oh yes, lots of glue too.

i actually re-padded the armrest with 3 layers of foam so it's a lot more plush now as opposed to before where it had a thin piece of foam and then plastic. doing all those things was definitely worth it though because the finished product is so nice looking, it really gives it that little bit of extra luxury. leather trumps felt.

 

get the spray paint thats the same color as the seats and paint the new leather work, its nice tho, i dont think any first gens have that(HEY you see where the brake light is on the rear there- thats where i installed my rear view camera)**totally off topic** but its a nice mod though, hey look on the bright side, whoever buys it from you doesnt have to worry about cleaning the top off

 

it's actually really close to the color of the interior but i guess b/c i was aiming the flash right at it, it showed up lighter

the first time i did my rear deck, i patched the hole where the brake light was and just didn't use a brake light back there because i had one on my spoiler. i ended up throwing it away thinking i would never need it but then my sub made the deck rattle a TON because it wasn't secured down in the rear by the light so i had to order another one, rip the old material off the deck, unpatch the hole, and redo everything. ahhh well....

 

looks great..

 

lol, overall thats a tight mod man, I'm just lost in love with my tl, i do everything for her and she does everything for me if you know what i mean, for a first gen i get so much props that its now too normal to me...good luck man....1

 

Hi ya'll, how come I can't see the photos? I just see a box with an "x" . Can somebody help me reconfigure my settings. I'm not that computer savvy. Thanks.

 

I like that. Nice job!

 

Hey, man where you live? I might want to drop off the door panels and headliners...lol naw forreal...

 

heh, sorry, nowhere near GA. i live in WI. i actually wouldn't even do the headliner again if i had to, it was one process that i never want to go through again. i still to this day have no idea how the back of it near the rear windshield stays on. i had to cut holes through the metal roof and run zip ties through them and through the back of the headliner support bar. it's impossible to see them though, and it holds the headliner tight so that's all i care about.

the door panels aren't even that hard, it just takes a while to make the shape of your material into the shape of the original. then you just sew it together and glue it on again. voila!

 

Does anyone know where in GA I can get my interior done...? b/c the leather shows some age...

 

looks like cowboy leather.. too browny looks nice though,why did u do the top part of the ceiling for?

 

the leather isn't that light, if it was i would have opted for a different color. it's actually just about one shade lighter than the seats so it fits the interior well. the flash must have made it really bright because i took pics in the daytime and it looks almost identical to the cars interior.

i did the headliner because it's a nice accent and it's something you dont get unless you buy a mercedes/bmw/lexus and no other TL has it. the stock felt just feels cheap and when it gets dirty, it's really hard to clean. with the leather it just wipes right off. like i said before, leather trumps felt.

 

i was skeptical about the armrest but the rest looks so player!!

 

when i had my honda accord the headliner was leather so i can understand the advantages of that cuz all you have to do is wipe it off, the color is the main problem, overall the work is great it would have been so playa if it matched the interior color, the armrest you seriously want to reconsider doing over because it looks so not right, looks like you added some padding to it which it seriously needs cuz i lean to the right all the time when i drive so it looks like a good modification, nice work overall tho

 

nice nice

 

meh

 

^ Way to bump an old thread...

~Cheers~

 

with a very constructive comment.

i do hate those pictures though. my camera is absolute shit when it comes to picking up color qualities and such. the leather i used looks nothing like those pictures. oh well, at least i have leather instead of 10 year old plastic vinyl.

 

^ Compared to me, at least you have an armrest and a cup holder lid not gaping holes where they used to be, haha!!

~Cheers~

 

i have cupholders, but i do have the gaping holes because my flip-up lid decided to break about a year ago. it was bound to happen though, it's pretty flimsy. ebay has some for sale sometimes but it's for the entire center console, cupholders, etc., and i dont really want to spend $80 + shipping just for the lid.

 

Oh shit, I just noticed that you don't have the lid either, hehe. If I still had it, I probably would've taken it off anyway since I always have something in there. I've lost alot of stuff in the gap, though: pens, lighters, money... It's ok since I don't have a centre console anymore.

~Cheers~