scottsan

I finally got around to replacing my Acura RL's arm rest and made a quick video tutorial about it. Hope it helps someone out there.

oo7spy

Didn't watch it, but thank you for contributing!

titomang

I'm sure this video will help plenty since there are so many 2G RL with this problem.

thomask

It's looking great. Didn't you want to add some extra foam for comfort?

08KBP_VA

Adding foam would decrease the amount of leather available for tucking on the precut panels so while ideal I dont think it could happen as theres not much extra to provide for a solid coverage and tack down.

OP - did you need to staple it in place? I did as the leather was very thick so I thought would add extra retention.

scottsan

Agreed on the foam. The amount of leather given was very minimal.

I think stapling would've made it better. I used a pretty strong spray (85?) and the plastic piece holding it down would be enough.

daze05rl

Thank you op! I've been driving around with the replacement pieces on my back seats contemplating if I should just get them done at an upholstery shop. After watching your video I feel confident enough to do it myself!

Supreme

iTrader: (1)

Great will be replacing the leather on my center armrest soon.

Any video for replacing the leather on driver's side door armrest?

rlx015

What is the quality of the leather? I know it looks like brand new piece, but in terms of issue reoccuring, do you thing it will bubble up again over the time if left on sun?

ex_hacker202

That video link doesn't show up in any of my browsers while reading your post, there's blank space, no text - perhaps because you made it a hyperlink from within this website? Luckily I hit "quote reply" instead of quick reply - it revealed the hidden YouTube link:



But that video shows the guy gluing the new vinyl to the top of the armrest, right on top of the foam - if you do that you'll never get a good repair again if the vinyl bubbles a 2nd time, like it did on my 2005 RL - in the process of replacing it myself, and the pro who did it the first time did not glue to the foam, just the underside. Anyone else glue to the foam? I think that might prevent all future bubbling because the loose vinyl on the top can't stretch over time, but like I said you're screwed if it needs done a 2nd time - since the first recover job lasted 10 yrs, I'm tempted to glue down the vinyl to the foam this time - car may not be running (or still owned) in 2033 - suggestions?

TonyCD

I got mine from an eBay merchant named "kar-designers" in Brownsville, Texas. The quality of the leather seems very good. More to the point, the original upholstery makes trouble because it is not leather at all -- it's thin vinyl with a fabric backing, from which it eventually separates. So it should never make the same kind of trouble as the original did (and I had a genuine Acura replacement fail before I went this route). I recommend it highly.

ex_hacker202

I just did this job on my 2005 RL, and while tempted to glue the replacement cover to the foam, I resisted, due to the problem you mentioned - you'll never be able to replace it again, the foam will get ripped off with the vinyl. I fact, the first time I had this done I paid an auto upholsterer to do it, and they were sloppy with spraying the adhesive, got some on the edges of the white foam, which then tore off while I was removing the old vinyl. Luckily I have scraps of all kinds of foam and was able to find a suitable patch, because it was blatantly obvious there was a gap in the foam when I test fit the new vinyl piece. I bought what was supposed to be "very high density" foam on Amazon in case I needed it, but I was able to compress the 1/2" thick sheet to a millimeter or two just with my thumb and forefinger - no way it would have been a suitable replacement for the original very dense white foam.

I did run into one problem I had not read about on any of these threads - you MUST trim the excess vinyl that goes over the edge and gets glued to the underside of the plastic lid - in some areas I had almost an inch of excess material, and when I tried to install the lid it wouldn't close because that excess vinyl was hitting the console and preventing it from closing at the same level as the passenger side lid. Took it back to the shop, used a razor bladed to cut off everything but what was glued to the inside side wall and then it fit like a glove. Well, almost - just to be "safe", I overdid the gluing bit - I staked all four corners where the vinyl bunches up with a hot glue gun - bad idea - the glue stuck out too high and also caused the lid not to close properly - that was a lit harder to remove than the excess vinyl. Although duh - just realized I could have used my heat gun to remelt the glue to remove it instead of using a razor box cutter - that wasn't terribly safe because of the direction I had to pull the blade, which was toward my opposite hand - a big no-no when using sharp tools, learned the hard way too many times to count.