People charge an arm and leg for e30 cupholders and aren’t all that great. I found an alternative…

Let’s get started:

Final Result:

This is the end result. It doesn’t cover handbrake, it’s placed where your arm naturally would rest, floats over heated seats switch and it looks normal unlike some wire. The armrest is brown here because I am in the middle of making the rest of the interior that brown.

Features:

-2 Cupholders -Adjusts from 0,1, or 2 cupholders( Cupholders slide into armrest -Supports lazy shifting with Armrest. -Wide enough for you and friend sitting shotgun.

1.) Find the Armrest

Grab one from a pick n pull (car Junkyard) for $10. It’s from a 90’s Volvo 850

2.) Learn How to Sew

You’ll need to learn how to Sew for this project if you don’t know already. Don’t be afraid to learn; if you learn how to know, you’ll be happy that you did later. I learned how to sew for this project through some YouTube videos. Here’s the link.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+sew

3.) Take it apart

They use torque bits but If you’re broke like me and don’t want to go buy some, Try to find a flathead that fits perfectly or some random allen key. You’ll want to put the cupholder assembly to the side, we’ll work on upholstering first.

4.) Cut the Seams

You’ll be using these old pieces of leather to trace your new material with for a great fit. You’ll find some of foam behind it, keep it. For this project, I used vinyl I got for about 10 bucks at Joanne’s fabrics.

5.) Trace, Label, Cut

****WHEN TRACING, make sure the good side is point in the same direction as the old.

make sure that when you trace the old leather, you give yourself not to trace poorly. Take your time for less fitment errors.

6.) Let’s start Sewing

Repeat the kind of pattern on the previous leather.( French seam). Practice makes perfect so I would suggest starting on small fabrics and then progress towards the real project.

7.) Put on the new clothes

Don’t forget to throw back in the foam. If your curves are a bit to big when you try to test fit it, you can fill it up with more padding like misc fabric.

8.) Spray on the 3m

Once you’re done test fitting to see how it looks and satisfied, go grab some upholstery spray Glue to glue it back on just like it was on there originally. Observe how it was done before. Install back on the cupholder to see how it all looks.

9.) Fix the broken plastics

If the cupholder feels are broken, you can go find some at pick n pull ( I don’t have a fix for it since mine had them. If you’re missing the hugging arms that hold the cup in, Zip ties will fix this!

10.) Install into your car

I tried to make it look like it belonged in the car by reusing parts from the car. For example, I reused this little compartment by replacing it a different way to make it look “OEM”. I used some hardware(nuts,bolts,angles) from whatever I could unscrew from my shelves, in the kitchen drawers, and what not. The plastic cracked on me when I was trying drill a hole in the compartment because I used a half-broken spade bit. Don’t do what I do and go get a real bit and tools. I only did so because I am on budget…

Remember to screw down the nut for the console after you add an angle to the center console for the compartment. I found some random arch thing in a pile of useless junk at pick n pull. I have no idea what it was used for before. Find something that you can attach the middle of the glove box to for ultimate stability. When mounting on the hinge again, mount it backwards so the armrest can sit further backwards to allow more room for handbrake. The pictures don’t show it but it should make sense.

11.) Re-upholstered it

After practicing with the cheap black material, I switched over to a nice brown I plan on redoing my whole interior with.

12.) Sneak peak of next project write up

Still have some extra material from the armrest? match it with your shift boot! I’ll write it up soon.

If you have any questions, feedback, or requests, let me know!