Armrest Upgrade – Better Comfort, More Storage, Plus 9 USB Ports!

Words and Pictures by Alan Sykes

Have you ever wished that you had a centre armrest for the passenger and driver on a long journey, my wife said that her Figaro needed one, and she set me a challenge.

After carrying out a lot of searching for styles of armrests from ones mounted on the seat as per aeroplane style drop-down armrests, to the centre style fixed armrests, I decided not to ruin the seats that Steve Newbold had recovered for us, and I went for a fixed between the seat style armrest.

SOME IMAGES OF THE COMPLETED ARMREST

Looking on the internet, there are plenty to choose from, but it had to have the following characteristics:

  1. It needed to be a light close colour to the centre console, I chose Beige as this was the nearest colour I could find and if I needed to paint it, it would be easier.
  2. It had to be the right height (ish), somewhere close to the door panel armrests but the one fitted is around 25mm lower than the door armrests but feels perfect.
  3. Be the right width of 150mm to fit between the front seats which have a gap of around 155mm between them and also enable the driver and passenger to use it at the same time.
  4. Be located in the right position from a forwards and backwards perspective, the whole unit also slides backwards and forwards by 40mm, and the top arm slides forwards by around 60mm. We don’t need to move the armrest, my wife sits with the driver’s seat 2 clicks forward from being fully back, and I have the seat fully back and it’s perfectly positioned for us both.
  5. I tried to purchase an armrest that had as many storage features as possible. If you lift the top armrest, it has a mobile phone flat storage area. If you lift that storage lid up, it has another storage area which is a little bit larger than the original storage centre console storage bin, and if you lift the whole armrest up, you can still use the original storage bin in the centre console.
  6. The armrest also has two added benefits
    • It has 9, yes 9 USB ports for powering your phone etc (just power, no communication), 3 at the front of the armrest and 6 at the rear. Obviously, this feature is designed for kids in the rear of the car, but we all know that the rear seats are only somewhere to put your luggage on a long journey, LOL. The way this works is that you are supposed to plug a USB adapter into your cigarette lighter socket, and then run a USB lead to any of the sockets on the armrest, this allows power to be taken from any of the other sockets. I now have all the parts to power this, I just need to fit them.
    • The armrest also has an additional foldable cup holder which is hidden but opens up at the top rear of the armrest, and it’s a normal cup size!!!

Having located a suitable armrest that was intended for a different vehicle, I set about trying to maintain the use of the existing hinged lids base so that we could revert to the original if needs be, obviously, I didn’t know how this would turn out. I removed the rear centre console lid complete with the hinge and removed the top. Then as previously stated, the original hinged lid base was significantly modified to fix the new armrest base plate to the original hinged lid base plate.

FINISHING
The whole armrest was then taken apart, prepared for painting and sprayed with the Figaro Shop Interior Paint (the paint was almost as expensive as the armrest!).

This included painting the Vinyl top which turned out to be a bit tacky after painting. I gave the vinyl top 3 coats of lacquer that was left over from a previous seat refurbishment attempt, now it’s OK. At a later date, if it’s needed, I would send the top to Steve Newbold who said he can cover it with leather if required.  I do intend to line the storage pockets with some felt when I get around to it to stop the noise from bits and bobs floating around inside the three storage areas.

My wife Sue loves the armrest and says it looks like it came with the car, a happy wife is good to be around. 

SOME CLOSE-UP IMAGES OF THE COMPLETED ARMREST IN PLACE

The bottom two images were taken in the garage at night so the colour is not correct, the colour of the cup holder is also interior ivory

Images during the build and painting phase


WHERE TO BUY THE PARTS
Parts cost around £45 (Correct at the time of publishing) excluding painting.

The armrest that I chose – AliExpress
For Ford Fiesta 2009-2017 armrest box central Store Centre Console box with cup holder – AliExpress 34 Note, scroll through the pictures until you get to “Style E, Beige”, this is currently being sold for roughly £33. BUY HERE

Fuse holder for under the dashboard – eBay
4 Way Fuse Box for Standard Blade Fuses Holder ATO / Block 12v or 24v Car or HGV | eBay. BUY HERE

12V to USB power supply for under the dashboard – eBay
1PCS DC-DC Converter Module 12V To 5V 3A 15W Duble USB Output Power Adapter | eBay. BUY HERE

USB Male to USB Male lead (from the power supply to the armrest – eBay
USB Cable Male to Male 50cm 1m 1.8m 3m 5m Black A-A Hi Speed Lead USB 2.0 | eBay. BUY HERE

USB to USB right angle – plugs into the port at the back of the armrest and the USB lead plugs into this so that the USB lead is facing downwards – eBay
Note, this will not be needed in the future because I intend to cut the USB cable above, drill directly into the armrest box at a low level, and then pass the cable through a grommet, and then directly connect the +5V and 0V wires to the internal USB connection boards. I just need to work out the best way to do this while hiding the cable if possible.
2 pcs 90 270 Degree USB 3.0 SPEED Right Angle Angled Male to Female Adapter | eBay. BUY HERE

Published on 22nd August 2024