This is a diy write-up to get your un-openable armrest to actually open up in order to ALSO act as a storage compartment as in the non-ST model trucks:



Difficulty?
Everything, except the sewing is very simple. Remove this, remove that, rip this off, cut this out, stretch this, staple it, make it neat, put it back in. But, in between all these steps, there is a huge sewing step involved, which may push/test your skill & creativity level. If you could sew along a line, you're fine.

PLEASE READ THE FULL DIY BEFORE GOING TO STORE AND BUYING PARTS. 80% OF THIS CAN BE DONE ANOTHER WAY, AND WHILE READING, YOU MAY HAVE A BETTER IDEA OF WHAT YOU SHOULD GET.

Materials/Tools Needed:
[ul][*]3 Yards of High Quality Vinyl (any color you want...i used black to coordinate with future plans)[*]Standard Phillips Head Scredriver[*]T31 Torx (or a 17/32 hex, or even certain flathead screwdrivers - you only need to take out a few bolts)[*]Sewing Machine (or a Mom or GF or Wife with these cababilities)[*]Scissors (just to cut fabric...carpet knife will do also)[*]Staple Gun (a cheap-o might not have the power to drive through plastic)[*]Staples (SHARP POINTED ones would make it a lot easier)[*]Needle Nose Pliers (cause, if you use blunt staples, like i did, every other one doesn't drive through the plastic, and you gotta rip that staple out and try again).[*]3" door hinges (they are too big, but they make it easier to line up correctly...if you read on, you'll see why)[*]6 1-inch machine screws - i used size 10-24 (also a tap for those screws as well). SELF TAPPING/DRILLING WOULD WORK AS WELL. THE ONLY DOWNFALL IS THAT THEY USUALLY HAVE A HUGE HEX HEAD, AND PREVENT THE HINGE FROM CLOSING FULLY SHUT. what you can do, is use a self drilling/tapping screw to go ahead and make/thread the hole, and then take them out, and put the same type of screw in (but with a tapered head), so it neatly flushes up to the hinges surface.[*]6 3/4"-1" wood/sheet metal screws (any thing pointy - you want the heads (tapered) to match the heads of your machine screws)[*]Rubber cement (or some really strong adhesive)[*]Tin snips (or something with cabability to cut through fairly ridged plastic) [/ul]
Total Cost:
[ul][*]About $40-$45 (assuming fabric is $10/yard + cost of hinges and hardware)[*]There may be also certain costs if you don't have some of the tools listed above.[/ul]
Time:
It could be done in about 2-4 hours if you've got everything you need.
This doesn't really include the time it will take to drive to get fabric, and the time you may spend driving to a lady friends house equipped with a sewing machine.

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Step 1:
Locate Console (duh) and remove it (four bolts).

as pictured below, there is one bolt on the passenger side. Easy to get to.


on the other side, you'll only see one bolt again, but there are actually two more...hidden underneath the original upholstery.


to get to them, you'll need to open up that space (no cutting needed! it actually has a fastener holding it shut, and it basically pops right open). Anyways, once you 'open it up', you'll notice that the plastic part isn't actually attached to anything; it should be bent up and out of the way. This will allow you to easily remove the two remaining bolts.


after removing the bolts, the console pulls right out


alright, now it's out. take console out of truck. you will not need to go back into truck again, until you've finished your console. might as well leave the tools and hardware in truck too; you will not need until the re-installing of the console.

^^voila! console's out!

when i came inside, i noticed this greasy sumbitch still attached. make sure you don't lose it. if i knew it was there, i would've left it in the truck.





Step 2:
Remove original upholstery.

There will be no cutting/damaging involved. The original upholstery is designed to come on and off whole for the most part - if u decide to continue with this project, you'll be tearing the original vinyl apart to all hell in order to get the patterns to make the new cover - a "point of no return" is marked below in the write-up. basically, once you guy past that point, you will be damaging your console. but anything done prior to that big marking/disclaimer, can be easily reversed and it can be thrown back in your truck.).

bust the back open just as you did to get to those two hidden bolts in the first step. This closure uses those same closures/fasteners.


open up the next layer of the back. it's really easy. it's velcro closure. it's like opening up a diaper pretty much.


now, you just pull it off like a sock from the passenger side (the driver side is stapled within), but the fact that the passenger side is completely loose, is enough to make the whole thing come off. this is what you're left with.

^^ the original upholstery is one piece...and it is all off, except for one corner. i just cut it off, cause i know i am not gonna re-use it...but before you rip it off, read below:

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consider this point the point of no return. up to this point, everythign can be put right back together and installed, cause nothing was damaged or ripped. so, if you are already feeling this is over your head, then you can go ahead and re-assemble it in liek 10 minutes. otherwise, when we continue, we start tearing apart the original upholstery, etc, etc.
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Step 3:
Seperate the two parts of the armrest/compartment

after removing all the fabric, this is what you're left with.


if you lift up the top piece of foam, you'll notice some screws holding the top/cover for the compartment to the bottom section.

^^remove those screws with a phillips head.

when you take those screws out, you will now discover that dodge somehow uses the same console that they use in the slt/laramie/nicer models, but somehow found a cheaper method of just using it as a one piece, as opposed to just giving us a $.50 locking mechanism and a hinge.





Step 4:
Remove any tape and/or sticky crap





Step 5:
Make some templates

get your original upholstery, and start ripping the top seam (you want the top part). just give it a little stretch, and just slightly brush a razor blade or scissors to the seam, and it comes apart an inch or two at a time.


alright, here's what that last step just yielded:


use this template to trace an outline on the back of your new fabric (vinyl, leather, whatever). You want the outline to be generously bigger than the original top (as much as 6 inches all around if you'd like), cause we will be folding it under and stapling it.




Step 6:
Wrap the top piece.

Leave that template you just cut out face-down, place your top piece of console upside down on it, and pull it really tight around the bottom, and staple it. i used a ridiculous amount of staples, didn't see why not.

anyways, go all the way around and be sure to keep looking at the other side to make sure you get no wrinkles, especially on the corners. on the back part, you wanna stretch is past the recession that's made for the oem/factory hinge. also, in the front, you might wanna leave the mounting location for the latch open, because you may one day wanna buy the dealer latch, and just screw it in (same with the hinge that's supposed to be there). anyways, once you have it stretched over and stapled, cut away excess.


^^Top piece is done.




Step 7:
Make Bottom Piece Upholstery

Unlike the top piece, this piece has too much depth to just wrap around and over with one piece of fabric. the corners would look really bad because there would have to be a fold/crease. (I tried this like 3 times, and they all looked like butt) if you're cool with that, you can go ahead and pull it tight, and do exactly what we did on the top piece to the bottom piece. but i wouldn't reccomend that.

anyways, refer back to the original fabric. it is still pretty much intact except for the top flap. Rip the rest of these seams. trace exact replicas of all your pieces onto the back of your new material. THE DRIVER SIDE IS A LITTLE DIFFERENT THAN PASENGER SIDE (you'll remember that little closure thing you had to pop open in the first step of all this). i didn't wanna have to worry about that, because i thought the exposed arm would look kinda cool:


since i didn't wanna worry about it, i just made the driverside 'template' the same as the passenger side. of course, you wanna cut a generous amount extra on the top halves of your templates, cause we will, again, just wrap it over and staple it once it's sewn up.

now, you should have 5 pieces.
[ul][*]the bottom section[*]the front section (make two of them, cause one will serve as the back)[*]the passenger side[*]the driver's side (it's a mirror image of the passenger side)[/ul]

the front/back sections, and the two sides should have a few extra inches to wrap over the top. remember, be generous. give it a foot extra if you want. (there is no need to make the bottom section any larger than the original upholstery/template.) now, sew them together just like the original upholstery was sewn. it's literally like a big floppy jigsaw puzzle. you wanna at least double seam it...and remember seams go on inside. if you have someone like a grandma do it, they'll know that already. mine was entirely too tight, cause i used a zigzag seam, and it took up a lot more of the fabrics edge, but it only made it better in the end cause vinyl has a good amoutn of stretch and it made my bottom piece really really tight.




Step 8:
Upholster bottom piece

you should pretty much have a box now. throw your bottom piece in there, and you want it to fit in there pretty snugly. play around with it, and see that the whole surface area is nice and taught against the bottom piece of console. if it's not, mark the area, and have it sewn a little deeper. this may take a few trials. i went through like 4 yards of material before i got it right. if you're happy with it, do what you did to the top - stretch the fabric over, and staple it. it's a lot trickier with all the depth we're working with, but it'll be fine. i stayed right beside that channel that's on the edge. (also, keep in mind that the driver side might not be so tight and may look hollow, but remember we will be mounting that metal arm into the area when we put it back in...that metal arm will press it in nice and tight) i also left the latch hole open, for when/if i decide to purchase factory latching mechanism. and i put my staples right next to each other all the way around. in the back, i just stretched it over, and used some rubber cement to keep it taught for now (there's metal under there, so staples wouldn't do anything - and also, hinges are going to be installed here, so you dont' want staples in the way)



Step 9
Attach hinges to bottom piece

this part (pretty much liek the rest of this process) took me like 5 tries to get right. at first i used some small little decorative nickel hinges....i failed miserably. then i tried to use some not-so fancy small hinges...mounted them, but failed at alignment. this is why i said use 3" door hinges.


i attached the hinges to the bottom. alignment is fairly easy, because the hinge is big enough that you can put them the full depth of the oem hinge slot, and use the back edge to make sure it's straight (see green line)

there are some little 'nipples' in the mounting area on the bottom piece. if they are in the way of where you want to mount your hinges, you'll have to grind them down, or file them down, or something. for simplicity's sake and cause i was pissed after a week of toggling/failing ideas, i just but my hinges up against these nipples and that's why my hinges seem to be really centered. as long as you keep your hinges all the way into the little recessed area, and against the back lip of it, they're gonna be straight. if you don't understand what i mean, just look...it's easier to visualize than explain.
so, put your hinges in the spot you like, and mark the holes. these marks should actually be on top of vinyl, because in a past step, you were supposed to stretch over this little area. when you bought hinges at store, you should have purchased machine screws that fit into these hinges. determine what size these screws are, and drill & tap the hole right through the marks that you marked (it's a lot easier to do without hinges in place - make the holes while hinges are set aside). if you don't have the ability to drill a hole and tap the hole, buy a few self drilling tapping screws that are the same size as the machine screws you bought. this way, you could run the self-tappers in, then take them out, then easily screw in your machine screws - the reason you can't keep the self tappers in there is because they will have heads on them that are too big, whereas your machine screws will have heads that countersink into the hinge, allowing it to fully close. also, i only used two screw holes on each hinge, and didn't use the third. it's your choice what you wanna do.

bottom hinge attachment done.



Step 10
Attach hinges to top piece.

now, attaching the hinges to the top piece is a lot easier, because there is no metal inside it...so, any screw will do the trick. when you were at hardware store picking up your hinges and machine screws, you were also supposed to pick up some 'pointy' screws that had the same heads as your machine screws for matching purposes.
to mark the holes for the top, i fully attached my hinges to the bottom piece. then, i held the top pieace to it (again, remembering to bottom out the hinges on the back lip), verified alignment by using the hinge recessions, and marked the holes.

^^ the green lines are a representation of the recessions on both the top and bottom piece for the oem hinge. the recessions correspond to each other, so lining them up, will line up the whole thing.
anyways, after you mark your holes, i found it easier to just take your top piece aside, and get all the screws started. take screws out, bring it back over back over, and screw them back in, but with hinges on there.
here's where you should be, just prior to re-installing the console:




almost done. put console back in truck. don't forget that stupid little grease thing back on (http://img33.picoodle.com/img/img33/...Sm_08b77f3.jpg). you may also wanna use a razor blade to mark certain things...the pivot rods, and the mounting holes. i couldn't find them all, so, i just ran a screw through it where needed, and it was fine. it's a little tricky to get in there, but it's not too bad. it's just an alignment game.



Step 11Modify Plastic Bracket arm cover
Remember how the driverside of the original upholstery had that little closure device to hide the gray arm? and remember i said (back when we were cutting the template for the bottom pieace upholstery) that we are gonna ignore it, and make it look the same as the passenger side? well...that's what we did. it's no problem getting the mounting bracket on there, but when you come to pull down the cover for them, it won't fully recess over the black arm, because the fabric is in the way. using tin snips, and a file, i cut away the bottom face of this plastic arm, allowing it to have enough clearance to recess into the console & over the bracket without have the tight fabric in the way.
once you cut a good amount of the bottom face off, pull it back down over the bracket, and we're done.




Somewhere to put ****.





anyways, you may wonder that since i don't have a locking mechanism in there, it must bounce up and down a lot. it's doesn't at all.i dont' go off-roading or anything, but yea...it stays shut. it just sucks when i need to fold the console up (like...once a month)

this **** took me a few weeks, and like 454645645650 attempts. but i'm really happy with it. i really wanna get the factory latch though. anyways, my truck's at shop now, but when i get it back, i'll add a lot more pictures to the latter part of this writeup. after getting so pissed off, i wasn't gonna take a picture every 15 seconds like i did before.


Ram3rdGen

 

Looks damn good man....really damn good....and considering it was dirt cheap, I know several people will do it.

I'm going to throw this up in the DIY section...