Well as most of you may know VA got a blizzard a week ago today and it allowed me to finish yet another project on the RL. While they did not need the swap as they were intact they were very thin and to be a bit preemptive I replaced the pleathers with leathers. Looks pretty freaking good, color is spot on and I love the graining.

 

How easy was this? I need to do mine. Foam is flat and pleather is ripped

 

How do you remove the lids?

 

It's actually a pretty simple procedure and definitely worth going thru:

 

Hardest part was working with the leather since was so thick. Leather was an ebay special for like $15 shipped for both.

 

Where did you see it for $15, or did you get the synthetic leather from China? This is all I see. I need taupe.

http://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/171145155369

How do you attach the leather to the armrest? Staples? Never worked with leather before so please excuse my ignorance.

 

i would just assume spray glue, but where the leather gets tucked under the lid, how is it kept on when there is probably tension from the leather to pull it away or off the lid??

 

Spray glue and small staples. Yes I got it from China and it is real leather (ad says so and so does the smell and appearance) I was pleasantly surprised think theyre like $18 now cant post link from work as ebay is blocked. Its auto grade leather and real thick and the reason the staples are needed for added strength.

 

Nice results OP!
My driver's side armrest has a bunch of creases in it which may end up ripping at some point. Just like with RLERMAN, I have no experience working with leather so I was curious if this is something easy to do.

 

I presume your still referring to the center console as I have not looked at the driver door as I am aware thats another failure point and that would be custom cut leather.

The work I had done is not hard its just very tedious. The leather is very thick and being able to bend it and secure it without using staples I found was an exercise in futility. I watched all the videos on install on you tube and it helped but nothing is like doing it real life. Its way easier in video than it is when your doing it.

I tell you I wont try this again

 

Yeah I was referring to the center console lid on the driver's side. The passenger side lid is still intact. I'll check out the videos and hopefully it'll be something that I can tackle.

 

Here is the ones I bought

1 Pair Real Leather Center Console Left Right Armrest Covers for 05 10 Acura RL | eBay

 

looks good! definitely going to give this a shot. just a small rip on the driver's side for me but they only get bigger....

 

I sent my lids off to the Ebayer in Texas, and he did a fantastic job.

I initially bought the leather from him thinking I was going to tackle the job, but once I saw what was involved with the leather installation process, I removed my lids and sent them to him. Couldn't be happier.

Now if I could just get someone to do my glove box!

 

Do you have any pics of his work? Can you also provide the seller's name on E-bay

 

This is the guy I sent mine out to.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/171145155369?ul_noapp=true
Just had to wait a few days without the lids on the console. Well worth the wait though. I did mine in black. They look exactly like the pics on the ebay site. Tight and the stitching is exactly like that.

 

i ordered this synthetic version from ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/190981091020?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
the quality of the material is great. looks good and feels good. however, recovering the lids turned out to be more challenging that i expected. the hard part was getting smooth fitment around the corners of the lid. the material is nice but also thicker than the OEM material. takes some working. mine is not perfect but still an improvement over the worn out original.

 

I got my center console lids back from the E-bay seller. I treated it with two coats of leather conditioner before installing them back and hoping these hold up longer than the OEM version.

 

those look nice! i plan to do my own restoration of my lids.

 

So I was close to buying replacement leather, but figured I'd try and save a few bucks. Used this 1200 watt heat gun

and vinyl/leather repair glue i used for a rip on my leather seats. Here's a link but buy from somewhere cheaper..
PERMATEX Vinyl / Leather Repair Adhesive | West Marine

Used the heat gun and a screwdriver to separate the pleather and thin backing layer from the plastic. Only the edge is covered in glue. For mine I only separated the front half.

Used more heat and hand ironed out the bubbles with gentle stretching

added vinyl glue to just the underside edges while stretching and pinching..moved in 2 inch sections. heat makes the glue dry faster. Also spotted the corners with superglue. Here are the pics











removed the glue spill with some acetone



Touched up the stitching with ultrafine sharpie for that fresh ebay look