The driver's left armrest (on the door) has always bothered me a little, basically because it's slippery, positioned wrong for my arm length (?), and... anyways my elbow / forearm is always slipping off of it. On long drives it's annoying, and I take a lot of long rides.
I looked on Amazon for an automobile "armrest" and there are a few... one hangs from the window groove.. but I didn't see anything I liked..
So, after thinking on this I figured I'd just make my own, and somehow attach it.
Now... My door vinyl is already damaged. It has one pretty big crack right across the armrest area. Taking that into consideration, I figured a little more damage wouldn't hurt too much..
But for those who want to preserve a perfect stock door, understand that this method of attaching an armrest will result in a couple small screw holes in the door vinyl.
-------------
First saw out a small wooden block, 1.5 inches square by 6 inches long. Round all the the exposed corners over with a rasp and smooth with some sandpaper. I used soft redwood and the rounding over was easy..
Then cover it on two sides and on it's ends with a firm foam padding. (I used a sleeping bag / ground mat material, 5/8 inch thick.)
Then wrap it tight in some appropriate cloth material. I used a piece of heavy drapery cloth... the color sorta matches because I purposely bought this drape material for my car's fabric needs, like my "custom" windshield sun shades.. (Walmart... "black-out" drapery.. maybe $11? I forget.) Fold the cloth all around the wood block like you're wrapping a gift, folding as neat and tight as possible.
I used contact cement to glue the foam to the wood block, and used it it glue the fabric onto the foam padding. Pretty quick and easy..
To attach the armrest, first thing to do is to position the rest so it does not hit the seat when the door closes.. and adjust it's position for your comfort..
Then remove the door panel.
The panel construction is not really strong.. mostly it's just injected, hard foam with no metal backing in this area. But it's strong enough to hold this armrest using 3 or 4 long, thin screws. I used 1-1/2 inch drywall screws. There has to be washers under the screws' heads to prevent them being pulled through. The screws need to be angled upwards a little bit. Tighten the screws just enough...
That's about it. I just returned from a 1,000 mile trip and I gotta say this is the best mod I've done as far as driver comfort goes. I didn't even notice it was there until realizing my arm's been resting on it for the whole time. And it really doesn't stick out visually.. I'm happy with it.
I looked on Amazon for an automobile "armrest" and there are a few... one hangs from the window groove.. but I didn't see anything I liked..
So, after thinking on this I figured I'd just make my own, and somehow attach it.
Now... My door vinyl is already damaged. It has one pretty big crack right across the armrest area. Taking that into consideration, I figured a little more damage wouldn't hurt too much..
But for those who want to preserve a perfect stock door, understand that this method of attaching an armrest will result in a couple small screw holes in the door vinyl.
-------------
First saw out a small wooden block, 1.5 inches square by 6 inches long. Round all the the exposed corners over with a rasp and smooth with some sandpaper. I used soft redwood and the rounding over was easy..
Then cover it on two sides and on it's ends with a firm foam padding. (I used a sleeping bag / ground mat material, 5/8 inch thick.)
Then wrap it tight in some appropriate cloth material. I used a piece of heavy drapery cloth... the color sorta matches because I purposely bought this drape material for my car's fabric needs, like my "custom" windshield sun shades.. (Walmart... "black-out" drapery.. maybe $11? I forget.) Fold the cloth all around the wood block like you're wrapping a gift, folding as neat and tight as possible.
I used contact cement to glue the foam to the wood block, and used it it glue the fabric onto the foam padding. Pretty quick and easy..
To attach the armrest, first thing to do is to position the rest so it does not hit the seat when the door closes.. and adjust it's position for your comfort..
Then remove the door panel.
The panel construction is not really strong.. mostly it's just injected, hard foam with no metal backing in this area. But it's strong enough to hold this armrest using 3 or 4 long, thin screws. I used 1-1/2 inch drywall screws. There has to be washers under the screws' heads to prevent them being pulled through. The screws need to be angled upwards a little bit. Tighten the screws just enough...
That's about it. I just returned from a 1,000 mile trip and I gotta say this is the best mod I've done as far as driver comfort goes. I didn't even notice it was there until realizing my arm's been resting on it for the whole time. And it really doesn't stick out visually.. I'm happy with it.