DIY armrest

Problem I have is my seat is raised 4" so most of the commercial cheapo armrests are too low and I expect the genuine zuki ones are too!
So I decided to cobble together my own hybrid - this is work in progress.
Here is what I want to join together in holy matrimony. The actual armrest was a tenner and it has a pullout drinks holder and lid blah blah blah. A couple of squiddies on some wood, this being the easiest to manipulate plus your actual centre console.



I'd seen one for about £50 which is for a Swift and appears to sit in the cup holder so I thought I'd go down that route. It's like making a couple of banisters or gigantic dowels. With a wood lathe this would take minutes so after a lot of shaping I ended up with this.



The next stage is to add a small platform for the box to screw on to then colour it all up.

Mmm so that's the way you do it, good thinking Batman ....................

Here we have the the banisters joined as one to make a lego part , a small top shelf added for the armrest to sit on and a first whiff of paint.

Second coat of paint and armrest on top ready to "drop in " to the centre console.



Like this!!


Solid as a rock, detachable with loads of storage under the lid, a pull out double cup holder at the rear which replaces the two lost and somewhere to hang a rubbish bag.

Remember my seat is 4" higher (so I can see over the bonnet! ) so this could be made much lower and thus look less like the leaning tower of Pisa.

Oh , top job John it's turned out very well I'm very impressed ..
Mmm I wonder, shall I start a bit of wood whittling also ...........................

Tadpole wrote: Oh , top job John it's turned out very well I'm very impressed ..
Mmm I wonder, shall I start a bit of wood whittling also ...........................

Thanks pal.

I expect if you have a wood turning lathe it'll take only minutes. The throw was too big for my metal lathe.

Using thicker wood might make it possible to contour the ends to more closely match the console's curves.

What I particularly like is I can quickly and easily remove it if I need the room.

Spot the difference.






Decided it was too high even with my raised seat so I lopped off 1.75". The armrest is now level with the auto selector lever and is about right.

Inch perfect it has to be, don't want you getting 'arm rest ache' John ..................