New Armrest

[digitech]

Spent Labor Day weekend working and putting together a center armrest for my "79 Spider. Obviously, I'm not much of a hand with upholstery but it's not too bad. The tan vinyl is quite close in color, just a little lighter depending on the lighting.

Also, after all the issues (and expense) I had with my recent running/dying problems only to find that the main problem was a voltage drop through my ignition switch that caused my voltage input to the coil to drop, I decided to add a voltage monitor contained inside the armrest. I had an old panel meter that runs off a 9v battery that I configured to monitor my battery and coil voltage.

[RRoller123]

Very clever!

[Divers]

I like it!

[dmwhiteoak]

What is the armrest out of or did you build it? I like it , I like it alot.

[digitech]

I made it, that's why it doesn't look very professional but it works. I made a box out of 1/4" hardboard and a top out of 1/2" MDF. I wrapped the box in a single layer of 1/8" high density foam, the white stuff they use to wrap TVs and other electronics with and then covered it with a black vinyl I found at JoAnn's Fabrics. I lined the box and top with a charcoal grey carpet like they used to cover speaker boxes with. The padding on the top is 5 layers of the same 1/8" foam covered with a tan vinyl from JoAnn's. That gave it just the right firmness for your elbow; the top has enough overhang so you can rest your arm on it while you hold the steering wheel but no so much overhang that you hit it while trying to shift. The whole thing is Velcro'ed onto the console so it can be removed; my console is new (not a cap) so I didn't want to mess it up with screw holes in case the armrest is ever removed.

The meter ass'y. is wired out through the bottom and under the console. I put in a 4 pin Molex to facilitate removal.

[dmwhiteoak]

I'v always thought that an arm rest was all that was needed to added. Will pursue this.

[oscardante]

I have really been wanting to install a armrest when I get my spider soon - this is a great design!!I will probably make USB and AUX connections to play my music while driving and have that inside it.