ok i'm in the process of recovering the carpeted armrests in my 03 sedan with a black vinyl product.
did the back two came out great and really not all that hard to do.
pulled off the drivers side door panel and the back of the armrest is completely plastic welded in place.
on the back panels it was held in place by one plastic weld and the rest were metal clip retainers. it was very simple to seperate the armrest from the panel.
the front ones i'm not sure what to do cuz i know breaking and then replacing those plastic welds is a crazy pain in the ass. also from the backside it looks like the armrest is basically part of the panel where as the back door panels the armrest was a seperate piece.
what do i do? how do i seperate it? i really don't wanna go down the road of tearing the carpet off from the front side of the door panel and trying to tuck the new vinyl in cuz i'm afraid i'll never be able to get it to look right.
any help is always appreciated.
Cool, this was something I thought about doing, but has always been on the back burner lol. Post some pictures when you're done
Cavie Freak aka E-Thug wrote:Use a soldering iron to heat up the welds and pull it through. Then use the soldering iron again to melt it back in.
i'll get some pics up tomorrow of the visors and the back two armrests finished and the backside, then i'll take some pics of the backside of the armrests in the front. that helps with the welds cavie freak but i think the other half of the piece is basically part of the door panel, maybe i can slide it out after taking out the welds............
lolz, the pics are upside down, @!#$ it i'm not fixing that now.
i know i could have done a bit better job tucking the corners but it's without a doubt good enough for me, and a vast improvement over stock imho
so anyone got any idea's? like i said there's only the two plastic welds on the armrest the rest of it seems to be like it's incorporated into the door panel itself. i dunno if i can maybe just break those welds off then slide the piece out then slide it back in and use some self tappers to re attach it............... i'm at a loss here guys help me out lol
Looks good. But i have heard of some people just pulling the old carpet off, and using the carpet as a template and then just re-gluing the new fabric or whatever they use to the spot. I know taking it off will be a HUGE PITA. Goodluck tho, bc im considering doing this to both of the verts in my family.
Those plastic welds are going to be a pain... not too sure what the "right" way to do this is,,, but I would do what cavie freak said and melt the welds with a soldering iron to get them out... and improvise them back on... self tapping screws sounds like a good idea. Just remember to be patient and take your time. Good luck dude, I really like how your rear doors came out, plus sedans will always own coupes IMO.
lolz, thanks guys, i got something in the works for the fronts, pics should be up soon. i'll also post pics of the visors.
the rear deck won't be posted for pictures until i put new speakers back there.
so as much as i didn't want to do it like this i gave it a whirl as i couldn't figure out how to break the piece free from the door panel without causing permanent damage. so here's a picture of one of the front door panels with the carpet removed in place
a pic of the carpet and the new piece of vinyl (template if you will)
the spray adhesive i used on the new vinyl. seems to work alright
fitting the new piece in place. all that really needed to be done was using a flathead to tuck it into the edges. actually easier than removing the armrest from the door panel like i did in the back. overall pretty easy project and you already saw what the final picture looked like. i enjoy them
What did you use to push the fabric onto the panel, just your hand or what?? And to get it off, did u just pull it off??? Im really thinking about this now!! LOL
flathead screwdriver will tuck it into those grooves. and to get the old carpet off yeah just pretty much worked it out with my hands then yanked the old carpet out.
That seemed easier than expected... I love the low tech mods!
Cavaclysmic wrote:That seemed easier than expected... I love the low tech mods!
HELL YEAH!!!! Lol makes me wanna try this pretty soon lol
I definitely want to give this a shot now. Maybe I'll pick up some spare interior parts and see what I can do...
sndsgood wrote:what glue are you using? vinyl is a heavey material and if your not using high temp glue theres a good chance when the hot summer months come it will come unglued.
i was using some 3m stuff. seemed to work alright
3M Heavy Duty interior adhesive is the isht. I swear I could glue a baby to a wall with that stuff and I feel like Spiderman when I spray it.
Wow, just realized I posted in the wrong thread. Didn't mean to bring back an old thread, but oh well. Its good info and pics for when I do this.
