Armrest covering

I believe that you are, like us, disappointed by the fabrics covering the armrests of the Prius.
We have covered ours with a washable, vinyl-like fabrics.

With ~10$, a lot of patience and this guide you should be able do it yourself...

Enjoy

[attachmentid=12194]

Thanks, loupitou06, and welcome to PriusChat! This is a great write-up, and useful even if you only want to remove the inner door panels.

Holy Cow!! very nice and detailed write-up, but I had no idea that you had to remove the entire door panel to recover the arm rests !!

great writeup
where can you buy bulk pegs?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(prius2go @ Oct 29 2007, 08:08 PM) [snapback]532183[/snapback]</div>

Thanks a lot, I'm glad I could help

I am not sure what pegs refers to but I assume your are talking about the vinyl fabric, we bought 1.2 yard * whatever width it was and we where able to cover the four doors, the central armrest, the first (*miserable*) attempt of door armrest covering without disassembly of the doors and some leftovers...

We bought the fabrics at Johans

Hope this was your question

I believe prius2go was referring to the clothes pegs
you appear to need a lot of them...

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(prius2go @ Oct 29 2007, 08:08 PM) [snapback]532183[/snapback]</div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(samiam @ Oct 30 2007, 08:48 PM) [snapback]532671[/snapback]</div>

LOL in the United States we call them "clothespins" or "clothes pins".

But maybe prius2go was kidding? I mean, you need a lot of them ... 24-30 ... but that's hardly a number that we would call "bulk" or that would require you to buy them from a wholesaler or a big box buying club store.

Anyway, in the United States you can buy clothespins at most stores that sell common household goods, including neighborhood hardware stores and "99 cents" stores. They usually come in a pack of 24 or more, for about $1 to $4. I don't know where they're typically sold in the UK.

Instead of vinyl, I covered my door arms and the console with chrome-tanned leather, med. gray in my Prius). I used a firm memory foam under the leather so that it would be more comfortable. The console was easy. Looks great, feels great (a LOT better than vinyl!), and looks like factory.

Pics or it didn't happen!

Re: Armrest

Thanks for the writeup on recovering the arm rest. What I was hoping to do is to hinge the armrest and make a storage space beneath it (as is standard on the Toyota Sienna van). I couldn't tell from your pictures so perhaps you can tell us - is the big bulge under the armrests filled with wires and electronics, or is there space there to make a storage compartment (assuming I can figure out a way to make either a hinge or removable armrest)?

:welcome: Welcome to PriusChat, Alt! There is some empty space below the outer arm rest. Removing and replacing the inner door cover is fairly easy, why don't you yank off the inner door and have a look? The instructions above are good.

If anyone is interested I covered the armrests using these instructions but got the covers on ebay from Priushoods and modified the procedure slightly to make it work. The covers from that company come with Velcro strips to hold the covers on so I took the Velcro off and straitened the glued areas that were folded over on the covers. I then used the same procedure written in this post except I used hot glue which will work without all of the cloths pins. There will be extra areas of leather that might need to be trimmed off but still not very difficult to do. Anyway seems to be a very clean install. I will try to post some pictures in the future when I get some time and figure out how to post it.

Chris

Just wanted to add my "Thank You" for an outstanding write up. One of the best I've seen on any subject. I want to do this on my '05 and this will make it a ton easier!

OOooooo. Shiny. And available in many colors.

Thanks, loupitou06
It's a great write up, and useful way to remove the inner door panels. By way of this method , I prepare to apply 3M anti vibration pads to reduce the noise.

Hello all,

My first post, so be kind. I just finished covering my armrests using loupitou06's instructions (Thanks!!!) and leather armrest covers from Priushoods on ebay.

Pics attached...1st pic is using velcro fasteners, 2nd is after covering the armrests properly. A sweet looking mod if I do say so myself. Now to do the center console...

Thanks for the photos. The armrests look great and so much better when they're reupholstered with leather (your and loupitou's way) than when they're covered and velcroed with leather.

Also, your choice of black leather for the armrests (and is your center console cover black as well?) is really the only way to go -- no matter if you have the gray or ivory/bisque interiors. The black is picked up by the other black elements in the interior and provides a nice contrasting two-tone look. I think the black armrest and center console covers look much better than if you were to get gray or tan covers to "match" your interior color. Here are a couple of pics showing my PriusHoods black leather center console cover in my gray interior:

[IMGLINK]http://priuschat.com/forums/attachments/gen-iii-2010-prius-accessories-modifications/20193d1259805465-sheepskin-seat-covers-033.jpg[/IMGLINK]

[IMGLINK]http://priuschat.com/forums/attachments/gen-iii-2010-prius-accessories-modifications/20216d1259874092-sheepskin-seat-covers-010.jpg[/IMGLINK]

Thanks, I think the armrest covers look nice too.

All the credit goes to loupitou though...I wouldn't have even tried except his instructions were so good. The scariest part is grabbing the door panels at the bottom and ripping them off the door.

If I were to do it over, I would order the covers from Prius Hoods 'unfinished'. The hardest part was slicing the glued/sewed hem on the armrest covers so you can get just enough extra leather to wrap around. If you could order the armrests cut, but un-sewed, it would be a much easier job.

Yes, my center console cover is black, just like yours from Prius Hoods. I can't find any information on removing the center console 'lid' so I can cover it. Any ideas?

Thanks,
ccbenn

The question was posed in Post #97 of this thread:

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...oration-leather-ebay-150-a-10.html#post842880

Start with Post #97 and try to follow the subsequent, intermittent posts and documents about the center console question. Note, however, that I don't think the question was ever fully answered.

I think you should feel free to send a Private Message to usbseawolf2000 and the others who were trying to reupholster the center console lid, and ask them questions you may have.

I also think that unlike the PriusHoods armrest covers, the center console cover installs tightly and looks fine when it's installed according to PriusHoods' instructions (mine is installed that way) because all the ugly stuff is out of sight under the center console lid.

If you ever figure out how to remove the plastic undercover of the center console lid, it'd be great if you were to post your findings.

Good luck.

Hey, BOO, I thought you were doing the leather thing along with us in the above thread. Did you decide not to? The sheepskins look good, though! Probably more comfortable than the leather or the cloth. I'd like a set in charcoal to save my leather and for the warmth in the winter (go to all the trouble to re-upholster my car, and now I want to cover it up! ).

As for the arm rests, I for one didn't bother to do them when I did the seats. The covers from Bartlett were vinyl. I plan to do the leather covers from Ebay but haven't gotten around to it.