I finally shelled out and got a TopGaitor console / arm rest cover - black leather with red stitching. Judging from a few posts, it's a right bugger to fit and glue. Any tips and tricks? What glue should I use? How should I prepare the stock arm rest's plastic? What about removal of the armrest? I will do up a video after I get everything up to snuff, so others can learn from the experience. FYI - I plan on removing the console anyway, to tighten up the hand brake cable at the same time, as there is too much travel in mine.
From my experience unscrew the armrest off the centre console. You need to remove the bottom half of the armrest, it just pops off with a bit of pressure. Then unscrew the spring brackets off to make it a bit easier to work with. Find a glue for leather & plastic. The seller recommended UHU but couldn't find any so I used Loctite Gel. I found good as it didn't run but dried to be very thick & lumpy. I would suggest you glue down the key hole first as I couldn't line it up properly when I did the sides first & it's ended up looking stretched & not quite lined up correctly. Then glue down the edges of the leather one at a time allowing time for the glue to set before gluing down the next portion. Also only put glue on the underside of the armrest as any that dries thick on top will leave lumpy bits like with me which are visible on the front of mine. Also spoils the feel of the leather when you lovingly caress the it afterwards! Think I might buy another cover in the future & redo it when I run out of things to do up as I'm not 100% happy with how it turned out. It was only afterwards I thought the above way would have been the best way for me to have done it. You live & learn through trial & error I suppose. Just happy I could pass on my experience & that is of some use to others (at my expense!)
I managed to find UHU - in the first shop I went to! I'll do up a video over Christmas, when I'm bored.
Daihatsu Copen Center Console Gaiter And it's finally up - only took 24 hours to upload! Made a complete and utter balls of mine, by using far too much glue, so the UHU soaked through the leather. I imagine a black leather marker pen will help a fair bit - but right now I don't really mind.
Nice video. I enjoyed watching it along with your other video guides. I think with hindsight I should of only glued the edges that folded under the bottom of the arm rest as as you've said the glue has left lumpy bumpy bits. The parts under the gaiter that I missed with glue feel nice & soft & the bits that are glued down feel hard & rough. Maybe you should try some black shoe polish before resorting to a marker pen. I've tried marker pens on black leather before & they show up a bit navy blue rather than true black. All the best.
Yeah, I'd recommend that to anyone else installing the gaiter - glue the edges, and leave the main part glueless. Never thought of boot / shoe polish - might give that a try in a few weeks, when the colour annoys me!
After snapping the gaiter housing and my wind deflector "arms", I won't be touching the air vent rings for a while!
A time-consuming project. Skin - from TopGaitors Padding - a sheet of foam rubber hand shaped by me with a scalpel type knife(a long time to shape correctly) to about half a centimetre or so. Grommet - Couldn't find one on the web. This one has come from around a lock on an old office desk drawer! I had to chisel it off and reshape with pliers but a grommet is the ONLY way to hold the leather in position around the armrest hole if you have any padding. As with any reupholstering, you shouldn't directly glue the main visble parts. With the arm rest, use doublesided tape on the edges to get into position and then minimal glue if necessary. As well as the confort and appearance factor, the annoying clicking of the standard armrest has gone away
I'd probably have used double sided sticky tape. No ice scrapers required Shoe polish will probably wear off as its mostly just sits on top of the substrate to give a coloured shine. So be careful if you are wearing a long sleeved white shirt. Or blouse if thats your style. They should have made a handbrake gator and handle cover all in one. The cover would not then slide off as the ring would anchor it and give a smoother finishing look.
Number 6, just watching your gear stick gaitor video. Mine must have been taken off before I got the car, possibly to install the alarm, as my ring doesn't stay in place. So my gaitor just dangles down. Additionally my ring is split so even more reason it doesn't stay in place.
Thanks for the positive comments chaps Joeleow - see Page 1 of this thread for pics. I afraid I didn't take any during construction. Trustafox - as I mentioned, about half a centimetre maybe just a bit more. Cutting the foam padding was actually a lot of effort because as well as cutting it to a rectangle slightly smaller than the top of the arm rest I then had to slice it horizontally to the desired thickness (careful work with a scalpel blade) and then bevel off the edges so that when the leather was stretched over, it wouldn't leave an ugly ridge. Oh, and I reckon you need to clean your shoes a bit more often as shoe polish is the best way to treat (and slightly darken in my case) the leather and when it is given a good buffing it won't come off on your clothes
I'm sure you could get another one - I doubt they are that expensive, even from the dealer... You could probably make something yourself out of a cheap Argos ring and some wire!
well I got a new gaiter unit, so I didn't need to repair my flopping gaiter. I've added a photo. The piece is not fully pushed in place because I needed to drill a hole for the alarm light which I have done now but put it in a different location. Some of you might notice my gear knob is back to original, thats only while I mod my after market knob. That will be back in place in 2 days.
