coupe arm rest <renamed thread>

a couple of comments from my vantage point. as we all know, its a great start and much better than not having anything.

1. the front of the armrest is 10" behind the back of the shifter console. so if the seat is all the way back, that is about 5" to 6" available arm rest (depending on bolster size). with the scheel 400s or the CSL scheel seats, there might be less. my seat will always be at the back of the sliders, so i have more access to the available space on the arm rest ... if there are any coupe drivers that are between 5' and 6', there seat might be farther forward and more in need of an arm rest farther forward. from an ergonomics point, i still need to measure the vertical heights (from the seat bottom to the top of the arm rest). this is slightly set by the travel of the hand brake

2. the interior leaves a bit to be desired. there is a shallow tray that has half of it flat and the other half is angled. the other half of the opening has a 'net' this is primarily to access the mounting point. my thought is to make a complete tray so you can reach everything inside when necessary ... for instance if you need to adjust the handbrake, you wouldn't need to remove the console. it would be nice to put a magnetic charge point on the tray to charge phones without a cord as well as have a USB cord plug (or 2)

3. the drink holder is made out of a 1/8" piece of plastic - probably not that strong ... and i tend to agree with somebody's post that its really in the way of the shifter. there just isn't a great solution to cup holders - my favorite is probably the one that attaches to the seat slider on either side of the tranny tunnel. still looking for an even better alternative.

4. i don't love the plastic as a 'finish' material inside the coupe interior. i kind of like the approach that Eric took on his - to wrap the leading edge with vinyl, making it thicker on the edges. wrapping the vinyl onto the angled surface and wrapping it into the handbrake channel will continue the 'finished' look. the rear joints are also 'expressed' - they run 1/4" past the rear panel. this makes it difficult to wrap the sides / back with vinyl. making the 'box' in a different manner would allow rounding the corners to be easier to wrap with vinyl (with a thing padding)

5. back to the handbrake - i want to play with the handbrake to see what could be done with the floor (rather than looking at the car carpet + the mounting strap ... or the the little piece of carpet that came with the unit. i think it might be possible to form a 'tray' piece that fits on each side ... whether that needs to have a curved / angled bottom or something to allow you to grab the handbrake ... or if the positioning of the handbrake in the bottom position can be altered. then we need to see how far the handbrake really needs to go up - i know part of that is the cable adjustment ... but i think the max angle of the Anton unit might be a little excessive. narrowing the slot for the handbrake might lessen the visual into the slot ... wrapping the vinyl into the slot might also help with this.

6. the shape of the back panel (angle) probably would benefit from study to see how to make it live into the coupe interior even better - without adding a ton of complexity for the construction process. in order to mount a rear hinged cover, it will need to be stronger than the plastic back can provide - perhaps some metal framework / hinge ... or some wood blocking inside to support the hinges.
 
rsporsche said:
a couple of comments from my vantage point. as we all know, its a great start and much better than not having anything.

1. the front of the armrest is 10" behind the back of the shifter console. so if the seat is all the way back, that is about 5" to 6" available arm rest (depending on bolster size). with the scheel 400s or the CSL scheel seats, there might be less. my seat will always be at the back of the sliders, so i have more access to the available space on the arm rest ... if there are any coupe drivers that are between 5' and 6', there seat might be farther forward and more in need of an arm rest farther forward. from an ergonomics point, i still need to measure the vertical heights (from the seat bottom to the top of the arm rest). this is slightly set by the travel of the hand brake

2. the interior leaves a bit to be desired. there is a shallow tray that has half of it flat and the other half is angled. the other half of the opening has a 'net' this is primarily to access the mounting point. my thought is to make a complete tray so you can reach everything inside when necessary ... for instance if you need to adjust the handbrake, you wouldn't need to remove the console. it would be nice to put a magnetic charge point on the tray to charge phones without a cord as well as have a USB cord plug (or 2)

3. the drink holder is made out of a 1/8" piece of plastic - probably not that strong ... and i tend to agree with somebody's post that its really in the way of the shifter. there just isn't a great solution to cup holders - my favorite is probably the one that attaches to the seat slider on either side of the tranny tunnel. still looking for an even better alternative.

4. i don't love the plastic as a 'finish' material inside the coupe interior. i kind of like the approach that Eric took on his - to wrap the leading edge with vinyl, making it thicker on the edges. wrapping the vinyl onto the angled surface and wrapping it into the handbrake channel will continue the 'finished' look. the rear joints are also 'expressed' - they run 1/4" past the rear panel. this makes it difficult to wrap the sides / back with vinyl. making the 'box' in a different manner would allow rounding the corners to be easier to wrap with vinyl (with a thing padding)

5. back to the handbrake - i want to play with the handbrake to see what could be done with the floor (rather than looking at the car carpet + the mounting strap ... or the the little piece of carpet that came with the unit. i think it might be possible to form a 'tray' piece that fits on each side ... whether that needs to have a curved / angled bottom or something to allow you to grab the handbrake ... or if the positioning of the handbrake in the bottom position can be altered. then we need to see how far the handbrake really needs to go up - i know part of that is the cable adjustment ... but i think the max angle of the Anton unit might be a little excessive. narrowing the slot for the handbrake might lessen the visual into the slot ... wrapping the vinyl into the slot might also help with this.

6. the shape of the back panel (angle) probably would benefit from study to see how to make it live into the coupe interior even better - without adding a ton of complexity for the construction process. in order to mount a rear hinged cover, it will need to be stronger than the plastic back can provide - perhaps some metal framework / hinge ... or some wood blocking inside to support the hinges.
Click to expand...
Agree on all points. My immediate reaction tot he area under the hand brake handle was that that is going to gather dirt and be hard to clean. Seems like a dished base that was covered in vinyl would work there.
 
All good points ( and thanks for renaming the thread - might make it even easier for chatgpt to track our progress!)
I agree on the back edge shape in its current form being harder to wrap. If we assemble the box with screws then could have a more conventional back to make it easier. I haven't dealt much with having a shop wrap something like this. Is it easier for them to wrap the whole thing as a box or to have each piece separately wrapped? If the latter then we either need to be willing to have a few external screws (likely black with the little sloped washer) or internal L-brackets.
Drink holder is a difficult one I agree. While I know that some would say "just don't drink in the vehicle", we know that this is something that will be asked and if possible it would be nice to add it in. I have the one that bolts onto the front of the seat slide. It works but is a bit far and is slightly in the passenger's foot-space. Eric's current version is simple. Not perfect but may be easier to have something thin like this or the Rinashi equivalent rather than a cup or well.
Regarding floor below the handbrake, no strong preference. Are you thinking that you prefer not to see the carpet because it looks more unfinished?
I also agree that ideal would be to have the leather wrap along the sides, but need to make sure that we account for any thickness it may add in this tight space. The stitching along the front is also desired by me and I suspect others.
In the end Eric made this and was able to sell it for $250. I asked him about materials cost and he wasn't sure, but I would guess it was about $125 in materials and outsourced items (the leather top pad, etc) and then the remainder was paying for his time and expertise. I'm going to suggest that we at least consider what our final price range is and that will help guide which parts seem to be the most critical in terms of cost/benefit. If Eric decided today to make his current box available again I would think that it would sell pretty readily to people for about $350-400. Things have gotten expensive, it's the only option out there, etc. Given that, and given the additional cost of materials, labor and skillset required with some parts requiring outsourcing, if you told me that you had a console that was leather covered, had front stitching, had a hinged top, had a power port or magnetic charger, etc, I would expect that someone would charge about $650-750 for that. Just the front console as two sides and a metal bracket for a non-AC car is $320 (after euro-USD conversion) from CS-Werk. Obviously don't need a full answer but may be worthwhile thinking about that endpoint and working backwards a bit.
 
More commentary from the peanut gallery -

As to height, I hadn't mentioned this before, but I thought Anton's height was quite good. Don't think I would change this.

Be careful cutting down the opening for the ebrake. Recall that as the brake pads wear, the handle needs to pull up further to get the same bite.

On the back panel, I had thought there might be additional room to go back further. Not sure I was going to dot his, but it was something I considered. Agree on the blocking for the rear hinge. I was thinking this would be required.

p.s. Look into the Ultimate Cup Holder:

20260503_134145.jpg
 
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