DIY leather arm rests

I really like the look of that man! Good job

 

Damn I gotta quit puttin this off!

 

I did one door yesterday, used some fake leather & 3M 77 series spray adhesive that I already had. It is not sticking great. I am going again but this time rough up the plastic really good with some 80 grit sandpaper. I tried calling around this morning & could not find any real leather anywhere in town. I also might try to get the 80 series adhesive.

Something for everyone to watch out for is DO NOT overtigten the screws when you put it back together, I started to poke through on one. Now I am using some #10 flat washers to help prevent it from happeng again. I am glad that I did the back door first.

 

I did the mod with contact cement and it worked fine. I agree with you about the screws, to avoid them going through from tightening I put some contact cement on them and in the hole. This way they would stay in place without tightening too much.

 

I want to let everyone know what major problem I had doing this project. The original poster says to use a 3/8 drill bit and to drill out 1/4 of the plastic melted tab. I ruined three tabs by doing this. The problem is by the time the drill bit reaches the point of where the tab will break loose, the left over RPM of the drill bit catches the back plastic stem you need to re-install the sheet metal screws and wraps it around the bit. I tried using different speeds and still had the same results. I HIGHLY recommend using a dremmel tool and carving out the tab enought to where you can use your finger to pry loose the tab. It will leave the plastic stem in back intact for re-install. Tried the utility knife to carve it out and unless you have gorilla fingers good luck. Hope this helps.

 

^^ Yea, I used a utility knife the drill wasn't giving me the results I wanted. I guess I have gorilla fingers.

 

I brought home some 3m 2part adhesive from work, that should do the trick in the corners.

 

lol , now your making me look bad.

 

Yea same problem here #77 spray not working so good. Next morning My armrests are bubbling. Just going to take it in and have the upholstery guys do it for me.

 

make sure to wait a good five minutes after spraying, to let it get tacky....then apply the leather

 

yea I dont think i waited that long. Maybe a minute or so. I just took it to a local upholstery shop and the guy was very cool. We BS for a while and he ended up doing it for me with the professional grade adhesive for $10 bucks both sides. Worth it.

 

thanks a ton... lookin much better now!

 

3M 90 does really well, you just have to follow the application instructions ( mainly the tac time and temp)

I have put in probably 20 of these sets, adding a seam in them makes them lay down much easier with less stretching ( easier to glue too)

 

i have the panel off and drilled the meltpoints but they will not come off what am i doing wrong?!?

 

^^Read post #105

 

you have to drill a wide enough hole so that it breaks the entire melt point. At least this is what i experienced.

I had to actually cut in between the door panel and the arm panel melt point with a dremel cutting wheel.

Just make sure that you leave enough to screw back into as well as using something short enough so that it wont push through the door panel.

 

I used a sharp chizel and hammer and just chopped each melt point off...much cleaner!

 

i pretty much screwed that up big time the leather is all bumpy from the glue and i screwed up four meltpoints theres also a gap between the armrest and the frame around it now i dont know how that happend couldnt have gone much worse

 

Man, you got me scared to do this thing now.

 

Guys & Gals..... the dremmel is the way to go. Forget about drilling. Use the dremmel to sand and melt the plastic weld points off. After sanding for a few seconds, while the plastic is still warm, pull up on the tabs carefully and they will come apart and leave perfect holes for the screws. When you are ready to put everything back, use a cordless screwdriver to drive in the screws. BTW, I used Wet Okole Neoprene