Armrests? Or no

[Skunksmash]

I'm still working on recovering my bucket seats out of an 89 suburban. Least I'm pretty sure that's what they're from. Anyway, many of you have used these very same seats to replace your bench seat, and I wanted to ask those of you who have, if the armrests get in your way. I recall my granparent's late 80's Ford van, and the armrests seemed to always be in the way. Then again, if I don't install them on these seats, there may be nowhere to rest your arms at all. I'm going from a bench seat to these, so that might not be much of a difference. Or maybe I can just put the inside armrest on, so that no one entering the vehicle ever has to flip up the armrest. But then again, it might be best to leave the inside one off too if you think about it. If you have to lean down to mess with the center console, or plug in your cell phone, or whatever, then you're going to be dealing with that armrest first. I'm not real sure which way to go here.

Aren't the door panels supposed to serve as some form of an armrest? They look like they are. The handle where you grab the door to close it from the inside looks like maybe it is supposed to be some kind of armrest. What is your opinion? Would you leave them armrests off, or put them on?

[bake74]

     Are you gong to run a center console ?  In my opinion and past experience, as long as the arm rest and center console don't interfere with each other, than I prefer arm rest.  Though I have taken the sides by the door off, they are useless and look funny in my opinion.

[87454westernhauler]

our western hauler has arm rests on the out sides of the seat and they are usless. but i would leave the center ones.

[Skunksmash]

That's kinda what I was thinking. I think you are supposed to just use that part of the door panel as the outside armrest. Maybe I'll just leave the outside ones off. If I ever want the outside ones on, I can always just put them on. Its just that once you make that hole in the fabric, there's no going back.

[78 Chevyrado]

What kid of tracks did you use to mount your seats in your truck?  I used susburban tracks and the seat ended up too high to comfortably use the door mounted armrest.

I LOVE my armrests, matter of fact I've gotten to where I hate driving anything without  two armrests on the seat. 

Love my 91 burban seats.  hate driving anything that doesnt have them.

[Skunksmash]

Sorry bout the late reply. Been real busy. So busy I have not yet gotten a chance to finish those seats lol.

But anyway, yeah I was planning on using the burb tracks that came on the sets. And I did decide to go ahead and just mount the armrests. At this point, I've gotten the seat covers, and the backs sewed up. But not installed on the actual seats themselves. So other than struggling for a few hours to get those covers on, all I have to do is sew up the armrests. I think I'm just going to wrap the arms in foam. Cause GM (or whoever built those seats for GM) just used some kind of spray in stuff that turned into black dust. How is the foam in your amrests Chevyrado? Once I'm all done, I'll take some pics of them and post them up.

[Captkaos]

I have 2 sets, one is still in good condition for the armrest, the other is just a cover over the frame.

[Skunksmash]

Yeah that's how mine were heh. Just a cover over the frame. Foam turned to some kind of black dusty powder a long time ago. It was all still in there though, got a nice dust cloud when I took them off.

[Captkaos]

That is what I am expecting when I pull them apart to recover.

[78 Chevyrado]

Softest part of my armrests is the fabric itself.  I thought like you, when/if i ever redo the seats, I want some padding under the fabric.  They're not so bad as to be annoying or anything, But i always put both of them down every time I drive.  I actually feel kinda naked when i drive another car without them.  just cant get comfortable without them nowadays...

[Skunksmash]

So yours are worn out too. My plan is to sort of wrap the plastic armrest itself with some half inch foam, maybe multiple times until it seems to fill out the new armrest cover. Which is going to be a bit of a pain, because those armrest covers don't have zippers like on some other vehicles. Hmm... might end up having to install zippers. How would that look...

Its definitely a problem. Cause otherwise, you'll be hand stitching those armrests on lol. Probly why GM used some kind of spray in foam to fill up the armrests.

[Skunksmash]

Or, I wish I could somehow know what kind of spray foam they used. Maybe something similar could be purchased these days so you don't have to use a zipper.