2006 Tacoma drivers door arm rest broken

I have a broken arm rest on the driver side of my 2006 Tacoma under the fabric and I’m wondering if those leather covers you can buy would help fix it or if those covers are just really thin. I’m selling my truck and don’t want to spend the money to have some take the door off and do that repair work. I’ve heard it’s expensive.

 

Sub'd. I just bought mine and realized I have the same damage. It's not really visible under the fabric but I can feel the material underneath is cracked.

 

It’s pretty common. Not sure what Tacoma was thinking making that plastic that thin.

 

So what's the fix? Does the entire panel need to be replaced? Can just the broken part be fixed? If it's common have people figured out a cheap or creative fix/improvement?

 

You should just repair yours. It's up to you on how serious you want to be about reinforcing the armrest. Personally, I think he got a little carried away with the fiberglass. I'm sure just reinforcing the back side would be fine.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-repair-replace-door-panel-inserts.569634/

There's several choices for fabric onebay.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nk___c=1&_salic=1&_sop=12&_dmd=1&_ipg=200&_fosrp=1

 

Thanks @Muddinfun that's really helpful to see exactly what it looks like and what the issue is. My fabric is still in good condition and I'd rather not have to try and match the OE fabric and definitely don't want something that doesn't match. Based on those pics I bet you could melt the plastic like the OP and then add some fiberglass (or something else?) reinforcement to the back without even having to remove the fabric from the front.

 

I would think you could get away with just reinforcing the backside. Maybe use JB weld to glue a piece of sheet metal to the back side. What ever you use for reinforcing, make sure it’s not liquid enough to soak through the crack into the material.

 

I plastic welded mine with some stainless mesh, it's super strong now, you have to remove the door panel though

 

How difficult is it to get the door panel off? Total pain?

 

I did find a YouTube video on it. Doesn’t look too bad.

 

Literally less than a minute
2 screws and it pops right off

 

When you plastic welded the steel mesh did you put the mesh under the arm rest or on top?

 

Under, then got some black perforated material that matches the dash pad to replace the grey stock stuff

 

I said fuck it. Removed the panel and pop riveted a piece of 1/16" HDPE.

 

That’s awesome!

 

Corrected.

 

That has to be a joke. That's right where your elbow rests.

 

LOLOL! Muddin wins the internet for today.