DIY trim wrapping, center armrest...

[Sublimewind]

Hi all,I promised some that I would outline how to go about doing some simple trim wrapping... Without getting too wordy, I have to say, glue tends to make a big difference on the final results.. I don't like rattle can spray glue.. I've never had any that stayed stuck.. It just gets brittle in the car... Anyhow, I went out and pulled the top of the center armrest and got to work.. 4 screws and it's in 2 halves... You can see that the armrest is solid plastic, they didn't even attempt to cover it with anything resembling comfortable.... lol.. Here are the materials to be used... This is getting a layer of 1/8" thick Closed Cell Foam (CCF) from Second Skin Audio but it could be anything really.. I also have a few sections of black vinyl, I've had them for who knows how long... NOW, lay the part on the material and over cut by at least 1" if not more, you never know when you need something to pull on... more on that soon... Lay the cut on the vinyl and cut the vinyl... CLEAN, the part needs to be clean before starting, i'm going to use some acetone, because I'm not concerned about stripping some of the shine off of the plastic, but beware, acetone melts plastic... lol.. Time to go outside to get started... But first, THE GLUE... Here is what I use... The gun is a 40$ cheap-o (not low tier, but not really car painting worthy) The glue can be found online at Yourautotrim.com IIRC... OK, I need to talk about spray guns for a second.. These paint spray guns may seem complicated, but they really aren't... There are 2 adjustment knobs one for QUANTITY of material being sprayed and one for FAN SPRAY PATTERN... The quantity knob, adjusts the needle in the nozzle so it opens or closes more or less when you pull the trigger ALL the way... Most guns like this have 2 trigger engagement points, AIR and SPRAY.. Air is just that, a stream of air and spray gives you paint/glue..The second knob adjusts the fan pattern... I should say it opens and closes the "fan" as you can go from 1.5' wide down to 1" wide with the adjustment and distance from the part... Test things out on some cardboard first, you'll get it.. Alright, outside we go... I set of some old MDF on my trashcan, threw some cardboard over and called it my "lab"...lol.. Lay the part out on the material, foam in this case... You will spray it this way first... HAVING THE MATERIAL OUT IN THE SUN AND WARM MAKES IT FAR EASIER TO WORK WITH... If you don't have sun, a hair drier or heat gun on low also works, or a heat lamp.. The vinyl and/or foam will both be easier to work when nice and warm.. Now it's time to spray... be careful you don't blow the parts away.. lol.. Set the gun for ~2" of "fan" Spray the parts down... Remove the plastic Spray the opening..Now the waiting game begins, this product recommends 5-10min of dry time for it to release enough solvents to properly work, this IS a contact cement.. treat it as such, though you "can" get away with some re-positioning.. Once the time is up, lay the plastic down on the foam... Start working the edges up... Stick it all the way around, you need to plan a little here, the material IS going to bunch in the corners, so you will need to pay attention to whats going on.Stretching the material helps a lot, but you have to be careful you don't go overboard with the semi-delicate foam, it's easily stretched though... The material is likely going to bunch in the corners, there is just to much to deal with... Now, trim all of the foam off, flush to the opening of the lid... Back to this picture... When you have a bunch like this, the best thing you can do is to, take your fingers and pinch the material together, a lot like you would when wrapping a Christmas present, you know when you fold the sides down and pinch the paper...Once you pinch the crease together, fold it over itself and off to the side of the fold about 1/2" cut through all 4 layers in a straight line... peel away the scrap and , if you are lucky, which i'm not so much, you get a FLAT seam that should come together well (It's a LOT easier to do this with vinyl, this foam tears easily)If it hadn't torn on me, it would have come together just like I said.. The other crease I got, you can see it's not cut that well either, which in this case, won't matter one bit, because the vinyl will be stretched tight over that area... Now, it's time to repeat with the vinyl.. Same process... Ok, now here is where things get REALLY tricky.. Vinyl usually only stretches well in ONE direction... Having it WARM helps it stretch a LOT... This is where you are going to have to stretch the crap out of it in places, but you can potentially stretch out ALL of the major creases from the vinyl (YOU CAN REALLY PULL ON THE STUFF)There is no good way of describing all of the process of stretching the vinyl into place, you have to work somewhat quickly on the parts that are stuck... you CAN reposition things
to a point, but it goes away fast... If you pull open a crease and stretch it hard enough, you can shrink the material enough to get the worst out, as I said... I'll show more in a few... Spray another layer of glue into the interior of the plastic, you NEED to fold the vinyl over the edge, or it WILL NOT stay stuck... Play the waiting game again, too soon and it won't stick because it's got to much solvent in it yet, too late and TOO much solvent is gone and it won't stick... you can pray over it with some more to re-activate it though... NOW, the real fun part starts, you need to fold and stretch the vinyl over and stick it to the first 1/2" or so of the inside of the plastic.. Your fingertips will hate you here, the little nubs of plastic aren't nice... Next is to trim it back, a brand new razor is what you need, I found a nice knife finally I can use left handed... lol.. Once you have it trimmed back, leaving about 1/2" of material inside, you get this.. A few wrinkles, if anyone has a problem with it, they can walk... Then you can put the guts back into the armrest, THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE EASY, the vinyl took up considerable space between the guts edge and the caps, edge, almost 1/8" so it doesn't want to go back together well, BEWARE OF THIS.. You can see so much room was taken by the vinyl, that the sides of the guts are bowed inward... It's not the greatest work I've done, but it's not for show, it's just for comfort, which it's MUCH better now... If I hadn't been in a rush, I'm sure it would have come out a little better, but I had other things to do...That's that, make sure you read and understand the various steps before attempting, or even do a test run on something around the house.. Once you have wrapping down you can find ALL KINDS OF COOL MATERIALS.. . I'm going to be doing a BUNCH of carbon fiber fabric in my Subie here soon, stay tuned... I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I have. My elbow is ALREADY thanking me.. Cheers,Aaron

[Jyik40]

Nice job... I've been thinking of something like this for my 09. The armrest beats my elbow up on rough roads.

[keithvibe]

very nice write up mang.... Why didn't you cover it in shag?? lol

[Sublimewind]

Quote, originally posted by Jyik40 »Nice job... I've been thinking of something like this for my 09. The armrest beats my elbow up on rough roads.Thank you..

[Sublimewind]

Quote, originally posted by keithvibe »very nice write up mang.... Why didn't you cover it in shag?? lolThank you Sir.... The shag is in the Subie, this was for the Vibe... Besides, it would be too "tickly"

[BC123]

Thanks for posting this modification. I just completed my own arm rest cover. Not West Coast Customs quality but MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE!

[tpollauf]

Excellent tutorial & write up I almost thought BC123 wrote this up as I saw his armrest mod posted in another thread just a few minutes ago. That spray gun is a true classic (or in your case a "clone" of the original classic) and is great gun for a variety of purposes. I have the original Devilbiss JGA gun, made right here in my hometown Toledo Ohio. that I bought 30+ years ago for a pretty penny. Getting back to this mod .... after a few good hot days out in the sun and several hours of arm resting taking place, those other wrinkles may go away. Drive in comfort from here on out ............