DIY leather arm rests

Curiosity??
What does WO offer for door panel inserts?

 

A piece of neoprene.............

 

I learned the hard way that leather works best. I first tried this mod with black vinyl and spray adhesive and the material just came up after a warm spring day, because it couldn't stretch due to the webbing /cloth material on the back. i recently re-did mine with black leather from the craft store and good contact cement from home depot. so far so good, its been 2 months, time will tell in the warmer months.

 

I went with stretch velvet just to do something different.

 

Hey Guys and Gals,

I just want to pass along my experience with this leather wholesaler: Brettuns Village. First of all, I ordered their Cowhide Leather Craft Panels, sold in sets of three, but shot them an email shortly after ordering. I wrote to request larger pieces, since they say they run "between 1 and 2 sq ft of surface area." Within five minutes (this was during normal business hours), I got a response from their manager. He asked what project I had in mind, so I sent him a picture of the arm rests I wanted to cover. He told me it wouldn't be a problem. This was on a Thursday at approximately 11 am. On Saturday morning (3 DAYS LATER!!!) the leather was delivered. And on top of the speedy shipping, I was sent a beautiful, single, huge 5'6" x 3' piece of leather!

If you are considering using leather for this project, I would order from them.

 

I'm gathering materials for this mod but am having a hard time finding 3M 90 Strength spray.

In my local city I have contacted Home Depot, three Rona's, and a Michael's Arts and Crafts and the strongest they carry is the 3M Super 77.

3M Super 77 has been used by others in this thread without much success so I'm wondering what could I use instead. During my phone calls I was told that LePage Heavy Duty spray was stronger than Super 77 and could work (Rona link, Home Depot link, LePage product link) or Krylon High Strength (Krylon link) but am not sure any of these would be adequate.

I'm looking for feedback on alternatives to 3M 90 and if I could use Super 77 (or any of the others above listed) in conjunction with something else. If it matters on material used, I will be doing this mod with an extra sheet from Wet Okole.

Thanks!

 

Keep an eye out for the Weldwood Contact Cement in an aerosol can.

 

Neat. Ive been kickin around doing this for a while now.

How well is this holding up? I did a headliner in my Jetta in suede using super 90 glue. It held up for a few years, then eventually started to sag. Im worried about the arm rest doing the same

 

I have used contact cement both times I have done this project and it has worked well. The first time was with neoprene, which started to crack dry out after a few years, and I recently did it with leather. The contact cement that comes in a jar or can with a little application brush hasn't given me any problems. Just make sure it's the extra strength stuff and specifies it's compatible the material your working with; in your case, with neoprene, I think the closest thing would be plastic.

 

Local stores don't list this product on their website, which is too bad, since it looked like a good alternative.

Good suggestion. Because I can't use 3M 90 strength spray I will do this mod in phases and see how one arm rest handles the adhesive and then move on to the others. As annoying as it would be to redo this later at least the melt points are only dealt with once.

 

@Blewter
When ordering from the place you listed, would just saying that I need a piece of 5'6" x 3' be enough, or should I mention that this is what the leather is being used for?
Aslo, how is it holding up? My main concern is the adhesive.

 

Hey, DrFunker. When you place the request I would just tell then what you're doing with the leather. That's what I did and got a super quick response from the owner. If you don't mind, if you do talk to the owner, let him know I referred you to his company.
As far as adhesive goes, I'm using high strength contact cement. This can be a bit messy, but it's holding up fine. If you can find the 3M spray adhesive (can't remember the product number) that a lot of people recommend, I'd go with that. I'm pretty sure you can order it on Amazon.
Let me know how it goes!

 

Very easy installation. I just finished, both sides took about a half an hour. I drilled out the passenger side melt points but found it easier to use a Dremel to grind off the points on the other side. This left me with more material to screw into.

 

anyone have any experience installing over a cracked arm rest? mine is broken and i don't want that to ruin my outcome.

 

Fix the crack first. That's what I'll need to do with mine.

 

Anyone have any idea how to do this with wood?

 

Hello everyone:

I did this repair with leather a few years ago when my armrest cracked. It held up well, but with the heat and time it cracked again so I had to redo the repair and have some updated information. Since I had the screw mod done previously it went pretty quick, but this thread was a great reference since it had been a few years.

I happened to be at Costco a couple of days ago and saw that they had a pair of neoprene seat covers for $15.99. the colors were black and grey which matched my Wet Okle seat covers so for $16 bucks, why not redo the repair with neoprene. I purchased two additional items, Liquid nails silicone adhesive and JB weld plastic weld epoxy stuff in a syringe thing. The plastic weld was used on the backside to fill in the cracks and sets in 5 mins, so while messy it can be done.

Then I cut up the seat covers and used the silicone to adhere it to the armrest with binder clips to hold it to the edges. I just cut out the whole panel of the seat covers so the neoprene was large and trimmed after affixing it to the armrest. Just make sure you leave enough so that there are no gaps once the armrest is put back in the door. The seat covers are black and grey, I used the back side so it would be black which seemed to match. of course, the passenger side i glued the wrong color out (grey) and had to redo.

The silicone is squishy so with the neoprene, it is very soft and looks pretty good. the downside is it takes a couple of days for the epoxy to set and a couple more for the silicone, so it is a weekend deal. Pictures of stuff for reference.

 

Nice writeup, but I would not suggest using a 3/8" bit to drill out the melty holes. I had to use washers for the #10 to work.

 

I used dremel bit and just carefully took out enough to break armrest free from panel. Leave maximum amount of post because washer will keep it in place and screws will be more secure.

 

Is the original fabric padded?
Just curious is the leather is less comfortable.
Dig the look though