2012 extended arm rest!

Ok this is really crude but I wanted to see if it would work.
Also I know someone is going to run with this and start selling on prius shop. They should at least give me a free one!

Basically I was tired of how when I have my hand at the 4 o'clock on the wheel, my elbow went into the cup holder. I did not want to go through the entire conversion to a pre-2012 center console so I decided to just come up with a plug for the cup holder!

Cost of material: $3 for a real scrap of leather. $10 for some Scupey clay, $2 for some gorilla glue, unknown for some padding I stuffed under the arm rest surface for some added padding.

All in all the thing works like I wanted, comes out very easy in case I want to use the cup holder, and does not affect the center console ability at all when I want to open it.

I could have make it a lot cleaner but it serves the purpose. Also, the surface looks really wrinkled but it isn't glued down because there is padding in there.

 

I decided to make another armrest "insert plug". This one I spent more time on! I speared the cracks with gorilla glue to make a really strong casing and also to prevent the clay from damaging the cup holder. I also used thicker leather and foam inserts instead of cotton for better padding. This also raises the surface a bit, the original was SLIGHTLY too low for me. Like before, this one just plugs right in and does not have any impact on opening the center console.

The materials were some leather, scupley clay, foam and gorilla glue.

ARMREST PLUG INSERT MARKII!!!!!

 

So how did I make it....
I bought a cup holder ash tray from Toyota and put it in the cup holder.
I then took plastic wrap and put a layer in the cup holder protecting all sides (I didn't want the wet clay to damage the cup holder because that thing is $100 from Toyota).
Next I took a 1.75 pound block of scupley and molded it into the cup holder. This time I extended up and out a bit to the desired height. I made an ashtray looking form with a raised lip around the outer most edges of the entire clay form.

Next I removed it from the cup holder (the "cracks are from the plastic wrap bunching up but it doesn't matter because it is hidden). After baking the clay for 15mins in the stove I pulled it out and let it sit for about half an hour. It was still pretty hot and could be molded a little so I pressed it back into the cup holder a few times to correct the shape. (scupley hardens up after it cools but it also expands a little when baked so you still need to get it to fit back in the cup holder and doing it while it was warm was the best time).

After it was totally cooled off, I took a dremel and smoothed out the back area where the center console would face to ensure it would fit properly. Then I cut pieces of foam and filled the "ashtray" top until the foam was as high as the lip I created (about a centimeter). Then it was just a matter of smearing it with glue and gluing down the leather.