Re-upholstering Armrest Lid, Write-Up

[KrashDH]

So after successfully re upholstering the armrest center console in my truck:

I've decided I want to do the same thing with the armrest lid in the car.
So currently it's an aftermarket lid that came with the leather top and foam, all as one unit.

Coming to find out, although the cover is ok still, the foam they used is garbage. I can feel the plastic through the foam.

I'm not an upholstery guy. What I don't know is what the best type of foam to use for this application. The foam in my truck was this yellowish pad that was shaped/contoured.

So for this armrest lid, my question would be the foam type to use. Some sort of high density, about 1" thick seems close?
Open to advice from any of you all that have done this before or done it in other applications. Thanks in advance!

 

[benmarks]

This doesn't really answer your question, but you could try this website:

Sofa Foam, Sofa Foam Replacement, Sofa Seat Cushions, Cushion Replacement

www.thefoamfactory.com

I have ordered replacement couch cushions from them, and they list the properties of some of the different kinds of foam they offer. There may be other similar websites with similar info.

 

[KrashDH]

This doesn't really answer your question, but you could try this website:

Sofa Foam, Sofa Foam Replacement, Sofa Seat Cushions, Cushion Replacement

www.thefoamfactory.com

I have ordered replacement couch cushions from them, and they list the properties of some of the different kinds of foam they offer. There may be other similar websites with similar info.

Yeah I've looked through all the foam sites, they really don't help unless you know what you're looking for. I guess what I'm looking for is something similar to seat cushion foam. It was the same foam that was used in the truck armrest lid. Just not sure what it is. Guess I could pull a seat cushion at a pick in pull, there's hundreds. But might be a waste of a seat.

 

[BobnOH]

Years ago I built a bench seat for my F-150. We actually had an uplostery supply store in town (pre-interweb). They were very helpful.

 

[KrashDH]

Years ago I built a bench seat for my F-150. We actually had an uplostery supply store in town (pre-interweb). They were very helpful.

Yeah I think I found a place that has high density foam but they want to sell an entire section of the foam which is like $30. I could buy 2 complete lids for that cost haha. But I didn't ask them about scraps.

 

[hskrdu]

Krash, if you decide on it, I'd be happy to go in on it with you to help cover costs. I'm thinking about adding foam to the armrest portion of the door cards when they get recovered, so that's the sizing I'd need.

 

[Zak99b5]

To contour and cut the foam (assuming you buy a block) an electric carving knife works great. I used one to trim down a foam mattress for my pop-up camper.

 

[KrashDH]

To contour and cut the foam (assuming you buy a block) an electric carving knife works great. I used one to trim down a foam mattress for my pop-up camper.

Yeah I have one of those and a cheese grater type shaver.
I bought the stuff in hopes of upgrading my motorcycle seat. It was going great until it wasn't. Now I'm trying to find out what type of foam the seat cushion foam is.

 

[KrashDH]

Picked up some high density foam today, the local crafts store didn't have any so had to go a bit further. There's a big enough square so in the likely situation that I screw up, there's more left. Should be able to attack this thing soon-ish, just waiting on the cover now.

 

[hskrdu]

Let us know what brand of material and what you think of it once installed!

 

[KrashDH]

Yeah for sure, I figure I'll keep this thread updated during the process

 

[KrashDH]

Ok Well the foam I purchased was 2" thick high density foam from Airtex. You can get it at JoAnn Fabric stores.
That being said, if you're doing the armrest, get yourself some 1" thick. I actually cut the 2" down to 1" with an electric turkey shaver.

Here's the link to the foam from JoAnn Fabrics

You'll also need one of these mill files. You can find them anywhere, most big depot stores, but here's the link to the one from Lowes:

Mill File

This is used for rounding the corners of the foam.

Now fair warning, this entire process took me about an hour. I kinda rushed it since I wanted to have it back in the car, plus this was my "test" article. I do have a pneumatic staple gun. I used T50 staples, 1/4" legs, pressure set to about 85psi.

First thing is you have to remove the lid from the console. Self explanatory.

Flip the lid over and separate the two haves with a flathead screwdriver. Be careful, the little legs are fragile that snap in. I only managed to break 1.

Here's what the aftermarket, cheap lid's underside looked like:

You need to remove all those staples.

Once those staples are out, you can remove the cover and take out the pitiful excuse for a piece of foam. No wonder it felt like my elbow was on plastic. Literally 1/16" thick:

I traced this piece of foam onto the new foam, although you could use the lid base too.
You need to have a flat bottom and top of the foam. Then you can round/blend the corners with that little hand mill.
You can see the original foam on top, then my traced piece, then the piece I shaped (remember I cut the 2" thick piece in half which is why there are 2 in the image):

Here is the finished piece of foam with the lid base for reference:

Since this is my test lid, I re-used my "pleather" cover. The new foam is WAY thicker than the old stuff, but it stretched enough and the foam compressed enough to let me re-use it. I started from the rear of the lid and stapled. Then I pulled the pleather tight up to the front and put one staple up there just to keep the material in place:

Working from rear to front, I stretched the material towards the center and forward, while compressing the foam against my workbench. I alternated staples on each side. Here's the result:

Final result off the car:

continued....

 

[KrashDH]

Final result installed:

Now, I did power through this project. I really didn't take my time shaping. I'm on the hunt for an OEM armrest now so the materials are higher quality (plastic at least). I'll likely go buy a couple sheets of 1" foam so I have a planar surface on both sides from the start. Then I can radius the corners. I'll spend some more time fine tuning the next version. As well, I have some leather with red stitching coming for this. It also should be higher quality than what's currently on there. But the padding is 100% better.

This was probably one of the easier upholstery jobs one can do, but gotta start somewhere. If you were to be doing this a lot, you'd want to invest in some better shaping and cutting tools. Although the electric knife rough cuts and does the trick, a knife made for foam would be way better. But I'm not an upholstery guy and don't plan on lots of these types of projects.

 

[BobnOH]

Nice work!

 

[Zak99b5]

Love the red sport seats. Had them in my GTi.

 

[KrashDH]

Love the red sport seats. Had them in my GTi.

Yeah PO put them in there. I wired them up for heating so it's great in the winter time.
They're about due for a bath though

 

[hskrdu]

Thanks for the write up and pics!

 

[KrashDH]

Well, went to the Pick-n-Get Hosed today. Of the 12 or so Jettas and golfs (2 of them) there was only 1 armrest lid. Didn't have a latch but that's ok.

Took it home, started the gentle surgery to separate the halves. Got them apart to find the rear tabs in pieces. OEM uses the rear most part as hinges, ie they don't snap in. Everything moving forward snaps in. Found out when everything was apart those rear hooks were imploded.

Guess I'm back to recovering aftermarket lids.

 

[benmarks]

Well, went to the Pick-n-Get Hosed today. Of the 12 or so Jettas and golfs (2 of them) there was only 1 armrest lid. Didn't have a latch but that's ok.

Took it home, started the gentle surgery to separate the halves. Got them apart to find the rear tabs in pieces. OEM uses the rear most part as hinges, ie they don't snap in. Everything moving forward snaps in. Found out when everything was apart those rear hooks were imploded.

Guess I'm back to recovering aftermarket lids.

I might have a like-new OEM leather one, but I'd need to go get it out of storage. I got a new one for the original armrest, but then I found the Audi-style "telephone" armrest for a MK4 on eBay, so I don't think I ever used the other lid.

 

[KrashDH]

I might have a like-new OEM leather one, but I'd need to go get it out of storage. I got a new one for the original armrest, but then I found the Audi-style "telephone" armrest for a MK4 on eBay, so I don't think I ever used the other lid.

What's the Audi armrest? I'd be interested in the lid if you're never gonna use it. I'm just reupholstering these things anyway so I can add more foam.

 

[benmarks]

Ok, I will look for it this week.

Some Euro MK4's came with cell phone integration that included a box under the seat to integrate with half and full-pixel Euro clusters. They also came with a wider armrest that's basically an Audi armrest from the same era, but with a MK4 mounting tower. Inside the armrest was a pop-out tray that had a docking slot for a specific model of Nokia phone. I originally read about it on the Vortex rare parts thread, but I never actually saw one for sale until a couple years ago when I stumbled upon one on eBay from a German seller.

I don't have a photo of the finished work, but I modified the pop-out tray to support an Apple MagSafe charging pick for holding onto and powering an iPhone. I also ran a USB cable into the armrest to hide all the cabling between the iPhone and the stereo so that it's all inside the center console.

The two armrest styles are completely different, so the lids aren't interchangeable. However, Audi armrest lids and armrest inserts like the cupholder add-on fit the MK4 armrest. There is also an Audi red LED for their armrests which fits perfectly and illuminates the inside. In this photo, the brushed aluminum latch is an aftermarket mod:

latch.jpg

• benmarks
• Dec 24, 2020

telephonearmrest

• benmarks
• May 13, 2020

 

[KrashDH]

Ok, I will look for it this week.

Some Euro MK4's came with cell phone integration that included a box under the seat to integrate with half and full-pixel Euro clusters. They also came with a wider armrest that's basically an Audi armrest from the same era, but with a MK4 mounting tower. Inside the armrest was a pop-out tray that had a docking slot for a specific model of Nokia phone. I originally read about it on the Vortex rare parts thread, but I never actually saw one for sale until a couple years ago when I stumbled upon one on eBay from a German seller.

I don't have a photo of the finished work, but I modified the pop-out tray to support an Apple MagSafe charging pick for holding onto and powering an iPhone. I also ran a USB cable into the armrest to hide all the cabling between the iPhone and the stereo so that it's all inside the center console.

The two armrest styles are completely different, so the lids aren't interchangeable. However, Audi armrest lids and armrest inserts like the cupholder add-on fit the MK4 armrest. There is also an Audi red LED for their armrests which fits perfectly and illuminates the inside. In this photo, the brushed aluminum latch is an aftermarket mod:

latch.jpg

• benmarks
• Dec 24, 2020

telephonearmrest

• benmarks
• May 13, 2020

So the whole unit bolts up to the mounting bracket?

 

[benmarks]

Here are examples of the Audi lid and armrest from an early 2000's Audi A4. Obviously, those are new parts and super expensive, but you get the idea. There are actually two different styles as well, so you'd want the ones marked as "for vehicles with cupholders located in armrest." There was someone on these forums who modified the Audi base with a MK4 base so that you could install the Audi armrest in a MK4, but I don't know if they're still active.

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-volkswagen-audi-parts/center-armrest-lid-leatherette-sabre-black/8e0864245p38m/

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-volkswagen-audi-parts/lower-armrest-assembly-swingdark-grey/8e0864207f26z/

 

[benmarks]

The difference is the detached metal part in this photo... I think. It might be the metal part from the hinge down, but I never looked into how to modify an Audi one. This is my VW one, so I didn't have to modify it:

armrestone.png

• benmarks
• Mar 5, 2022

 

[benmarks]

The part number is: 3B0867174A (and not 3B0867174 A94 where A94 is the color code.)

However, I have never seen one for sale before or after the one I found on eBay, other than the original photo on the Vortex thread.

 

[KrashDH]

Played around with a different pattern today while I wait on my other material.
I have a "camo" ish jacket that's in this same print, thought it would be cool to try out.

Although you can't see it, I added a layer of thin fleece over the foam for this one. Super plush now.

 

[KrashDH]

My red stitching pleather arrived today.

Took me about 15 minutes to do now including setting up my gun and putting everything away (once the foam was shaped, that probably took me another 15).

Here's the base, foam, and fleece pad:

And installed on the car. I tried to get the stitching straight because the piece of material I got, the stitching was all over the place like a drunk person painting the yellow lines in the road. This is the best I could get it:

Came out pretty nice.

One gripe...the plastic material these aftermarket lids are made of are really pieces of shiite. After removing the staples, I started laying down the fabric and stapling as I went. One of my staples came out easily and I was surprised because I knew at the location I had just put it in, I overlapped the old holes. Well, the impact/shock of the staple gun had basically cracked the shelf where the staples go into. I was able to get a couple more in at different locations and the plastic isn't going anywhere (held tightly by the fabric) but still a PITA none the less.

Next iteration if there is one, I'm going to try heating up the lid a bit so it's not so brittle when I staple. Either way happy with how this one came out, it's comfy, and it matches the interior pretty well.