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December 25, 2006 11:29 PM

Help me repair a hole in the (vinyl? leather?) armrest of my car.

I recently purchased a '99 Ford Taurus. While otherwise free of flaws, there is a silver-dollar sized hole in the passenger side armrest (on the inside of the door), revealing some sort of white material underneath that looks like firm styrofoam. The picture here gives you an idea of the area that I'm talking about, except it's not a Saturn, and it's on the other side of the car (and there's obviously no hole).

Anyway, I understand that I can't really make it look like new, and that's fine - all I want to do is make it slightly less unsightly and prevent it from spreading. I was told a body shop could do this for "forty bucks or so", but it seems like the kind of thing that I should be able to do on my own. I imagine that there is some sort of patch I could buy at an auto parts store that I could slap on there. Does such a product exist?

Also, FWIW, the interior is a light taupeish tan. Color-matching is not the most important thing in my book, although I'd just as soon it not be, say, bright red.

For those of you who are playing along at home, this is the replacement to the '90 Taurus.

posted by rossination to Travel & Transportation (7 answers total)

That's a large hole for a DIY repair. Most large auto parts houses sell DIY vinyl repair kits, but you're probably going to spend 20 bucks on the kit, wind up with a fix that looks like crap, may or may not last and cost a lot more to have fixed right the next time. I'd either have a pro do it right or simply wrap it in colored gaffer's tape.

A good pro uses a kit similar to this and can create a near or perfect match of both color and texture that is very hard to detect.
posted by buggzzee23 at 12:04 AM on December 26, 2006

Best answer: Stop by a junkyard, and get a replacement trim panel or door arm rest. Most yards are connected to other yards in your region, or even nationally, by a pool wire (now often a private Web site), and can order the part you need from another yard, if they don't have your color.

A replacement door arm rest might come to $20 - $30.
posted by paulsc at 12:53 AM on December 26, 2006

Response by poster: Paulsc - how do I go about replacing the door arm rest, assuming I am able to get my hands on one?

Not looking for a step-by-step from you, obviously, but my point is that I'm completely clueless in this kind of stuff and wouldn't know where to start. Any info you would have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
posted by rossination at 1:01 AM on December 26, 2006

Door arm rests are usually held on by 2 or 3 fairly hefty screws, in fairly obvious places (like at the top end of the arm rest, at the curve where the arm rest down slope becomes the horizontal rest surface, and at the end of the arm rest near the edge of the door). There are often some fairly obvious plastic dress plugs covering the screws. Pry the dress plugs out with a thin screwdriver blade or a knife, and remove the screws with the appropriate tool (maybe an Allen wrench or a torx head wrench).

It's actually pretty easy to see how the door arm rest for your car is attached by looking at the one you'll use as the replacement. This is probably a 10 minute job.
posted by paulsc at 3:41 AM on December 26, 2006

Dittoing paulc. First look under the armrest. Several cars I have owned just had 2 or 3 screws, without covers, angled up under the armrest. Good luck.
posted by The Deej at 6:38 AM on December 26, 2006

Best answer: As someone who used to do this professionally (for auto dealership's trade-ins) I can tell you that it is repairable, but trying it yourself would probably result in something nearly as ugly as what you have now.

A professional repair involves two main steps: filling the hole and re-coloring the repair to match the rest of the armrest. Do it yourself kits are NEVER going to match the color properly.

In addition, there are two main methods to filling the hole. The one that I normally preferred involved using a heat gun to turn a toothpaste-consistency repair material into vinyl. You mentioned "hard styrofoam underneath". Danger Danger Danger! You probably know what heat does to styrofoam. It can be a very tricky repair. A "cold" method might be preferred.

I'd honestly recommend looking under Vinyl Repair in your Yellow Pages. If you find none, call a local car dealership (one with a big used car department) and ask for the Used Car manager. They'll likely give you a phone number for the person they call.

You might be looking at $50 or so for the repair. It might be possible to get a replacement armrest and have it installed for close to the same money, but you don't know until you get the estimates.
posted by spock at 2:29 PM on December 26, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks paulsc and spock. I sort of misrepresented the site of the hole - it's actually on the inner door panel itself, so I have a feeling that the junkyard route may be easier said than done. I'll check it out nonetheless, and, failing that, will take it to someone who specializes in fixing this business.
posted by rossination at 3:48 PM on December 26, 2006