Modified Drivers Left Arm Rest....

[jamesbalch]

Hello people!

I love this little car but one thing I wish I had is an arm rest for my left arm.....I know there is already one there (where the door handle is) but it is too low...I need one higher up. I constantly find myself resting my arm/elbow on the top black plastic piece that butts up against the window. It is rather uncomfortable. Also, I have found the interior of the Prius to be a little bit.....shall we say.....delicate? I have only owned the car two months but where my elbow comes to rest already has a tiny depression in it! I suspect that if I continue resting my arm there, I will have quite the dent in no time at all. That just won't do!

I did a search here for "Drivers side left Arm Rest" and all sorts of variations on it....never got a hit. So I figure to make one!

I plan to design one out of Balsa Wood for ease of fabrication, then fiberglass it for strength after I get the perfect fit. I then plan to mold black leather around it so it will be comfortable.

Who knows? If I do a good enough job and it comes out nice, I just may find out there's a market for it! Then I will remove the leather, give it to a mold maker and produce a few hundred high strength plastic ones for sale.

Anyone interested in seeing the finished product once I am done?

Oh yes....before I spend a BUNCH of time on it.....if anyone knows of something like that already out there....you'd tell me....right?

[ilusnforc]

I also have a hard time finding a comfortable position for my arms. I took the step up to a Prius from an Insight so I'm thankful I have a center console to rest my arm on at all, but the seat in the prius just seems too high for me being about 6' tall. I've been thinking about doing the height-adjustable seat mod using an '05 Corolla seat, but I have yet to actually track down a seat frame (plus I'm not looking forward to tearing up the leather, hacking up my seat frame and playing with air bags and sensors...). Anyway, if I could only lower the seat I'm sure I'd be much more comfortable. I'm not sure about the modification of the left arm rest though, I'll have to take a look at it to decide if it needs modification. Good idea though, good luck on the fabrication. It's great to have people around with the knowledge and skills to make our cars just that much better. Thanks!

[fshagan]

Having a plastic injection molded piece might be very costly. You could try fabricating a high density foam extender -- easy to shape and is already soft enough -- and then putting upholstery material on it. It might "velcro" to the existing one and the door side without too much trouble that way too.

[grasshopper]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jim B. @ Nov 17 2006, 07:41 PM) [snapback]351231[/snapback]</div>

Hello people!

I love this little car but one thing I wish I had is an arm rest for my left arm.....I know there is already one there (where the door handle is) but it is too low...I need one higher up. I constantly find myself resting my arm/elbow on the top black plastic piece that butts up against the window. It is rather uncomfortable. Also, I have found the interior of the Prius to be a little bit.....shall we say.....delicate? I have only owned the car two months but where my elbow comes to rest already has a tiny depression in it! I suspect that if I continue resting my arm there, I will have quite the dent in no time at all. That just won't do!

I did a search here for "Drivers side left Arm Rest" and all sorts of variations on it....never got a hit. So I figure to make one!

I plan to design one out of Balsa Wood for ease of fabrication, then fiberglass it for strength after I get the perfect fit. I then plan to mold black leather around it so it will be comfortable.

Who knows? If I do a good enough job and it comes out nice, I just may find out there's a market for it! Then I will remove the leather, give it to a mold maker and produce a few hundred high strength plastic ones for sale.

Anyone interested in seeing the finished product once I am done?

Oh yes....before I spend a BUNCH of time on it.....if anyone knows of something like that already out there....you'd tell me....right?
[/b]

I did two things to cure this problem for me.

1. The seat covers that I purchased came with a cover for the center counsel lid. So I just put foam under it the firmness that felt comfortable. You can’t even tell that’s it’s there.

2. This is a more difficult problem. What I did was to shape a very thin piece of wood (because it was lying around my garage) so that it was about a foot long, leading edge cut straight, trailing edge curved in toward the door and because I wanted to raise the arm rest, but still wanted access to the slot that I use on the armrest to pull the door closed, the width of the constructed piece was about 1 inch narrower than the existing arm rest. I then cut a piece of ¾ in thick firm foam and a piece of ¾ in thick less firm foam to match the shape of the wood and will clued them onto the wood later, firm piece on the bottom. I then used a door hinge that was rectangular on one end and long skinny triangle on the other end. You can find these in any hardware store. I bent the very end of the triangle end 90 degrees so that it would fit down into the slot in the hand grip on the door making sure that the other end of the hinge stuck up above the surface of the existing arm rest, about ¾ inch with the hinge bent parallel to the original arm rest. It was very easy and fit perfect. I then fastened the hinge in the hand grip using the same screw hole that holds the hand grip in but used a longer screw. Now all I needed to do was attach the rectangle end of the hinge to the wood with little nuts and bolts. Then I put everything together; cover it with material of my choice. Since the bottom of the constructed arm rest is about ¾ inch above the door arm rest, I used two pieces of wood dowel ¾ inch dia. & ¾ inch long and glued one on the bottom near the back of the new arm rest and one near the front. This takes up the space between the original arm rest and the raised arm rest. Because of the hinge, and the space between the two, I can reach out and slip my hand in the opening and the arm rest tilts up and that gives me all the room I need to use the original hole used to close the door.

I apologize for not having pictures. Unfortunately I am unable to post pictures anymore. Haven’t found the problem, it’s only on Prius Chat.

If you are not totally confused now, than you’re a better person than I.

[ilusnforc]

If you can email me the pictures I can post them for you.

[Ghostrider]

I cannot post the link correctly but take a look at bavauto.com and look for item 15112. It's a padded armrest that velcroes to the door.

[ilusnforc]

Pictures removed...

[prberg]

I find that the armrest is a little low as well. I think I might have put too much pressure on it and broke the plastic that connects to the frame inside the door. (If I push on the edge in towards the door the armrest will push inwards inside the door).

I'd love a more comfortable armrest (and seats for that matter as well... more legroom please!)

Good luck with your search.

-Peter B

[jamesbalch]

Seems as though there is some interest in this.....

I have procured 3'' X 3'' X 12'' Balsa blocks (I got 4 because I didn't know how many I needed to glue together and form to get the correct size armrest). Right now, I have no time to form the thing but I have taken one of the blocks and just placed in on top of the arm rest to get some sort of feel for exactly how high I need to build it. Surprisingly, it isn't too bad for height just the way it is. One of the drawbacks of having a taller armrest in that spot is that your arm does tend to hit it when you have to spin the wheel to make tight turns.

I am thinking that the finished product will look something like the letter "C", with the outside curved part squared off to meet flush up against the door. That way, I could also cut a slot in the bottom of the "C" to access the armrest handle...and also slide my hand/arm up to get access to the window controls.

So far, it's just in the planning stages. I will have some time after the first of the year to try to form something up.

I do wonder how similar the doors are in the previous Prius models....it seems that there might be some interest and if so, it might be cost effective to have a plastic mold maker buddy of mine make up a mold for me!

[nyprius]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jim B. @ Nov 17 2006, 08:41 PM) [snapback]351231[/snapback]</div>

Hello people!

I love this little car but one thing I wish I had is an arm rest for my left arm.....I know there is already one there (where the door handle is) but it is too low...I need one higher up. I constantly find myself resting my arm/elbow on the top black plastic piece that butts up against the window. It is rather uncomfortable. Also, I have found the interior of the Prius to be a little bit.....shall we say.....delicate? I have only owned the car two months but where my elbow comes to rest already has a tiny depression in it! I suspect that if I continue resting my arm there, I will have quite the dent in no time at all. That just won't do!

[/b]

When I first got my Prius, I often drove with my left elbow resting on the hard black plastic just below the window. It was beginning to hurt my elbow, but I continued resting it there since I've been driving this way for years. A friend showed me a padded arm rest in a catalogue for about $10. I bought it and it's been working great. Unfortunately, I didn't save the catalogue. However the arm rest on the site below is similar (perhaps a little better) for $20.

http://www.drivingcomfort.com/index.cfm?fa=p&pid=3429

Good luck!