Door arm rests

Well from the repair manual it looks like you remove the screw from the armrest and the rest just pops off. Although in the manual it just shows the front part of the armrest popping off. It dose not show how the upholstery part comes off. I cant find that part anywhere.

 

B Rad,
Any luck with the armrests?
I'm thinking about stuffing some more padding in there. The edge of the armrest has so little padding that I actually avoid resting my arm on it!
Can the upholstery (leather in my case) be removed and replaced?
Anyone else have experience here to share

 

I need help with this too!
Got the leather covers from priushoods, but no instructions!

I know someone out there has taken them off!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(barbaram @ Oct 15 2006, 04:08 PM) [snapback]333083[/snapback]</div>

Write to Robin at Priushoods - you should have gotten instructions.

 

The door arm rests are heat-welded to the rest of door panel, so they don't come off. Basically, plastic posts of the main door panel were stuck through holes in the armrest plastic piece, and then the plastic posts were melted and squished down, kind of like a rivit. So they don't come apart, and you would have to glue them back if cut them apart.

With quite a bit of effort, I managed to re-upholster the armrests with the leather from the Prius Hoods armrest covers. The Prius Hoods armrest covers are supposed to be installed with velcro, but it causes them to bulge at the edges and they look awful. I saw a post here a couple of months back that described taking apart the armrests to cover them properly with the leather, but he cut out half of the rivits to do it and glued them back. I managed to do it without cutting the rivits, but it was a lot of effort. I did manage to accidentally pop one of the rivits, but it didn't seem to affect the integrity of the armrest.

Basically, I cut off the velcro from the Prius Hoods armrests and then poked and prodded the leather edges into the gap between the upholstered top of the armrest and the body of the armrest. I first un-hemmed the glued edges of the Prius Hoods armrests where the velcro is to get a little extra length to make sure I didn't cut the edges too short.

Getting the leather tucked in the gaps took a lot of effort. It's not for the faint of heart, but by the third one, I ended up getting pretty good at it. After taking off the door panel, I layed it down on the dining room table to work on it. I used a flat bladed screw driver to genly pry open the gap between the bottom plastic part of the armrest and the cloth covered top part. Then with a blunt plastic tool my wife had for doing paper crafts, I pushed the leather into the gap I opened.

Again, it was not easy. I almost gave up a couple of times, but I perservered and it looks great.

Getting the door panel off is not too difficult. Most of it snaps off with a little pressure, but first you need to take out two screws and disconnect the power window/lock buttons.

The hard plastic power window/lock panel just pops off. It is held in with plastic snaps. Just grab the front edge and pull up. Once it is off, disconnect the wires to the switches.

There is a screw in the hand well in the center of the armrest that you need to remove.

There is also a screw behind the inside chrome door handle that you need to remove. It is hidden behind a little plastic piece that pops out if you pry on it with a screw driver. Getting that piece back in can be a little annoying because it has to be lined up just right, but it's not too bad.

Once the two screws and the switch wiring are removed, you are ready to pop off the door panel. Reach under the center of the bottom of the door panel, and you will find a raised area under which you can slide your hand. Now just give the bottom of the door panel a quick yank to pop the bottom snaps off. Now pop the snaps around the edge of the door panel until you get to the top.

On the front door, you will need to remove the speaker that is in the window corner. It just pops off, but be aware that there is a little metal clip that will probably remain in the door. This clip must be removed and placed on the matching plastic post of the speaker cover before you try to reattach it later. Failure to do this will push the clip into the door cavity and you might have to remove the side view mirror to get to it.

After that, you should be able to just slide the door panel up and off the door. You then have to disconnect a marker light, but that's pretty much it.

Good luck. While the results of what I did look great, it's not something I would recommend.

By the way, I have since discovered that the door panels cost around $600. You really don't want to mess them up.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Marlin @ Oct 16 2006, 09:13 AM) [snapback]333371[/snapback]</div>

I've done the Katzkin leather kit which included the armrest covers however I don't thinks these are leather and would like to replace them with leather armrests from Toyota. Do you think they're sold seperately?

 

Just painted mine by hand. Soaked with water and used exterior house paint mixed with fabric medium. A little rough to the touch but looks way nicer than the worn out original color.

Arm rest paint by Sezy posted Aug 1, 2017 at 9:18 AM

Arm rest paint by Sezy posted Aug 1, 2017 at 9:18 AM

Arm rest paint by Sezy posted Aug 1, 2017 at 9:18 AM

Arm rest paint by Sezy posted Aug 1, 2017 at 9:18 AM

 

I found a good video on recovering the armrest.