SoDiezl350

Hello everyone,

I recently bought an 02 coupe that I am completely obsessed with but have found the interior to be lower quality than I would like. I had been looking at a lot of options out there but have found them to be either too expensive or not really matching my taste.

Being the big diyer that I am I decided that I would try to upgrade some of the interior bits myself before shelling out any big bucks for custom work.

Some of the work that I wanted to do included:

1. Wrapping the console in CF or leather
2. Reupholstering the armrest
3. Reupholstering the door panels

You can see some of the CF wrap in the pics but I'm primarily going to focus on redoing the armrest in this post. If people think it's worthwhile I might make a writeup for it, but it's straightforward enough to where this might be enough.

These are the tools & materials I used:

Perforated black vinyl imitation leather: $25/sq. yard on ebay
Yoga mat (replacement cushion)
Loctite spray on adhesive
1/4" staples and staple gun




This is the before shot. I had wrapped the active handling controller in silver CF but I didn't like it so I decided to remove it and wrap it in the same material as the armrest.




You can see the original leather on my armrest had gotten quite worn and needed reupholstering.

I first took armrest off of the rear console and began removing the staples that were holding it to the plastic piece. After I removed the staples I began prying the leather off but was disappointed to find the foam cushion underneath it had been glued on. The foam was not reusable and I would have to find a substitute. I considered not using a cushion but I decided that my comfort was at stake and I wanted to do it right.

I searched the apartment until I found the perfect substitute. I had a yoga mat lying around that I have never used in my life so I figured this would be a great use for it. I couldn't have hoped for a better material for a cushion. It's easy to cut unlike automotive foam and is very soft but returns to its original shape quickly.

Here is a pic of the arm rest and the cut up yoga mat next to it.



I cut it up so that it conformed to the arm rest and then glued it on using spray on adhesive.



I then cut some of the vinyl to approximately the size I needed.



I then trimmed the vinyl so that it just wrapped around the armrest and stapled it with a staple gun all the way around. The gun I used was barely strong enough to penetrate the plastic so I think I'm going to go back and use something more powerful.

The finished product:




In conclusion I am very happy with the way it turned out. I think that the perforated vinyl looks a lot better in person than it does in photos. For some reason the perforations reflect in a weird way that makes it seem like the the dimples are white inside.

The yoga mat worked out really well which I think is pretty funny. The cushion is a lot more comfortable than the one that came with the car!

Feel free to ask any questions or comments. My next plan is to remove the CF wrap on the console and sew up a custom pleather cover for that. I think I won't go perforated on the console and I'll use the rest of this material that I still have on the door panels.

1sickz51vette

Awesome write up, that's my next project to tackle. My interior on the 97' is pretty mint
except for one tear on the arm rest. Looks like a pretty simple project, thanks for posting!

rpm462

Nice job!

Vetteman Jack

Nice job and a good writeup. Thanks for taking the time to document your procedure.

steve8

Nice job.

jrose7004

You did good!

DeeGee

Great job

MSG C5

Nice job! In designing my interior mods, I have often thought about a perforated center armrest due to how much my arm is touching it. I plan to have perforated sections in my seat covers as well as on the steering wheel and I thought it would be a good match on the center console.

Your pics just helped me justify that idea. Thanks!

Jims79

Nice, I want to do mine now...

peter pan

Nicely done