Armrest limp and worthless? Here's the cure! My first DIY

Tools/materials:

-Unused (sharp) razor blades

-Philips screwdriver

-Pliers (not needlenose)

-1/2 inch high density foam sheet, a 2' x 2' square piece should be plenty but it's cheap and wouldn't hurt to get extra. available at jo-ann fabrics.

-3M #77 Spray Adhesive (other adhesives would probably work, but this worked quite well for me

And begin.

Take the existing armrest off, it's 4 philips head screws and it pulls off

Flip the armrest cushion upside down, then remove the screws from the (first) plastic trim piece

then under that is a sliding metal bracket with 4 screws to remove it from the lower plastic piece (sorry no pic of bracket, screws went into these 4 screwholes).
Two of the screws are accessible easily, two you'll have to stick the screwdriver through the tracks to get at, not hard

Finally you should have the armrest cushion with only one plastic piece over it, with 8 small exposed philips screws, undo these and you're down to leather & the frame.

 

Then you can pull up the glued down leather tabs one by one with the pliers, being very careful not to rip or tear the leather!


Then carefully razor off all the crud under the leather and on the plastic housing/frame, CAREFUL, this stuff is sticky, nasty, really hard to wash off, annoying, etc. wear gloves. do it over the trash can or a box or something.

 

Then spray an even medium coat of the super 77 adhesive on the plastic housing, and on the foam, in the area that it will mate to. let the glue on both the housing and the foam get tacky for 15-30 seconds before sticking the foam to the housing. you should be able to (lightly) stretch your foam all over/around the plastic housing, and razor off the excess, i did foam right to the edge, and razored just above the little plastic lip. be careful to razor all the way down to the edge though so you don't have any gaps of no foam.

adhesive:


foam:


foam wrapped on plastic:


Note I missed a little spot in the last pic there, I had to go back and redo it because I was hurrying.

 

Then reseat/recenter/rewrap the leather over the foam & housing, and spray some 77 adhesive on the leather flaps and the spots they'll be mating to, let it get tacky then hold them together for a bit to make sure they stick & stay. it would be a good idea (something I didn't do) to take a colored pen or a white out pen or something and trace the flaps before plier-ing them off so you have an outline of exactly where the flap should sit, if you don't pull them down enough you might have some gaps showing on the underside of the cushion. be careful not to pull any one spot too much so it compresses the cushion or leaves creases or wrinkles visible.

Then screw everything back together in the reverse order you took it apart, and voila! you have a new cushy armrest! This whole procedure will probably take about 1-2 hrs the first time but you could bang it out in 20-30 minutes if you were to do it a second time.


Ta-Da! Better than new, I'm very happy with it and it was pretty easy!

 

Nice, it's too bad mine is still likenew, otherwise I'd jump on this.

Good write up.

 

Know where I can get the leather to replace my factory leather??

 

not without buying the whole part, which would come with everything. you can order it from one of the acura dealers, it's about 150 bucks

 

I think I'm the only one that started cracking up when I saw the word "flaccid".


Great diy!

 

Thanks! Actually I couldn't stop laughing at the flaccid comment, that's why I used it.

 

This thread was a great help for me today. I bought a RedlineProducts console cover and some new padding and used this thread to help me with the job. A couple tips:

1. I think you can skip the step of removing the metal slider assembly from the plastic bottom panel. I followed the directions here but think that step can be skipped now.

2. I had a pretty easy time removing the old foam. Most of the residue was on the inside of the leather cover and I used a chisel to scrape it off the cover and base. After that I used some orange scrub and bartenders keeper to scrub the plastic base which did a decent job of getting the sticky stuff off. Did this work in the kitchen sink with no issues.


3. The foam that came with my leather cover was not big enough to go down the sides. I used batting (resembles cotton gauze but used for sewing) instead and it looks great. My Wife suggested this and she had some and it worked pretty well. The batting is easier to work with than foam and softens everything up. I used a piece big enough to cover everything and then cut it back so I could finally glue the leather down to plastic. You can also use this batting to stuff any places in the console that have a indentation.

4. I used the 3m double-stick tape to hold the foam to the top of the plastic base. I also used the double-stick tape to keep the batting down on the sides prior to slipping on the new cover.

That's it. I love the extra padding!

 

wow never heard of a limp wristed arm rest until now lol. Nice Write up there

 

I have this exact issue! Thank you for posting. Will knock this out in the next couple weeks. Quick question: My leather on it currently looks like Ray Liotta. Pits everywhere - I assume it's from the degradation of the padding, etc inside. Did your's have this and did it fix it?

Looks great and great job!

TIA.

Mo

 

Did this tonight. Took about 45 mins, thanks to your write-up. Preshiate it!

 

LOL, I like this.....nice DIY!~

 

Great write up. Thanks a lot, it saved me some money. My 08 had the same problem, done it within an hour. The only difference is that I used 1 inch foam to get it extra fluffy.

On the side note. Do it after a hot day so the leather stretches and flexes more freely.

 

I cant tell what you fixed. looks normal to me

 

Returned to normal is a state of fixed

There was no before picture, but some of us have the problem with the foam dry-rotting in the armrest on the console. So it winds up feeling like you are putting your elbow on concrete instead of an Acura. A great DIY on how to replace the foam inside.

 

What I'm trying to imply for the common man, is that you need to show your improvements.. Like you went from "this" to "this". Like a before and after picture.. Heck as far as I know, you just took a pic of a "normal" armrest. What's a "limp and worthless" armrest look like?

 

I haven't done this mod yet, but my armrest has gone flaccid. You can see an elbow indentation.

Crappy cell phone pic:

 

THIS IS A GREAT WRITE UP!!!
I vote 3G Garage

Im also guna try this during my christmas break.

 

I c... thanks for the pic. I wonder if the 3m adhensive will stink in the summer. And ya I was trying to figure out what a flaccid armrest is.. haha so pic.

 

Just what I needed. Thanks!

 

Great write-up! I took mine apart easily before I saw this how-to but then didn't know what to use to replace the foam.

 

Real good!

 

need to do this. mine is as hard as a rock.

 

Cheap and simple. Great diy

 

did mine just now:

hard as concrete. You can see a little bump in the middle, which is the plastic casting bump underneath the leather..so absolutely no cushioning. It was all flattened.


yuck:


now soft as a pillow:


thanks for the DIY!

 

Wow dude nice job!

 

awesome write up, I'm going to try doing this tonight

 

Well, I took this project on and got it done via this write up. It sure beats spending the $150 on a whole new console. I went to the local fabric store and bought a package of 1" thick padding, which is really too thick. I would suggest nothing thicker than 1/2" padding. I spent most of my time trimming the padding so the leather could be stretched over the arm rest. Anyways, I got it all together and it looks good. Actually, since the 1" pad does make for a nice soft arm rest now. Didn't upload a pic, as it really doesn't look any different than the ones already on here. Again, great write up. You guys rocked it out of the house with this one!!!

 

This is on my list of things I'll get to eventually.

Just wondering if anyone has done this using memory foam.

 

i think memory foam would only work if you had an elastic cover. If you use memory foam in this it'll just sag in the compressed areas. But to each his own I guess.

 

I plan on doing this this coming weekend. I have a flat elbow spot that needs to be taken care of. I have to find either more batting, or buy some foam from a craft shop. What thickness foam did you all get? Maybe 0.75 inches thick?

 

Wow. Totally doing this sometime this week. I can't believe I've never seen this before. Is this thread not in the garage?

 

Planning on doing this also. I knew that the armrest wasn't right but I hadn't put my finger on just what was the problem. Now I know and it's gonna bug me till I fix it.

 

Exactly. Mine is hard as rock. I bet the stock padding sucked to begin with.

 

get 1/2" like stated in the OP. 1" might seem like it'll fit but the leather goes on pretty tight. Also, you dont want it so thick to the point where it rubs the seats when you lift the center arm rest up. I got .5" and it slightly rubs the seat already.

 

SOOO true!

Great DIY SRT-11!

 

that's what I was wondering, whether it would pop back to shape once you took your arm off it. I don't want to be the guinea pig on the memory foam experiment, that's why I asked if anyone has tried it yet.

 

I second guessed it as well but there wasn't any 1/2inch in stock. I used the 1" and if you can get the leather to wrap around enough than I think it is well worth it. I actually cut a lot off the sides to the point that I don't really have any there. It has no negative affect on anything though as I don't rest my arm on the side of the rest.