11/15/03
An Armrest

Work on my Ferrari interior has stalled again. Frank is trying to get another Ferrari’s interior done (can you guess who?), so my interior gets put on the back burner! Without my carpets ready, I can’t install them in my car, so I decided to work on the rear armrest.

A few months back, I covered the armrest with 1/2 inch foam, but found it too thick for the leather cover Frank will make. The problem is the foam on this armrest varies in thickness, so I can’t just cover it with one piece of foam. The foam that is attached to the steel armrest has to shaped.

I first decided to try and glue bits of latex foam over the deteriorated sections and sand it to a smooth finish. I used this method for the rear seat cushions, but found it didn’t work well for the armrest. I couldn’t get the finish smooth enough for it not to show in the leather cover. This shot is before I began sanding, but trust me, it didn’t look much better after sanding!

I decided to use some harder foam to get the desired shape and surface smoothness, and this worked out much better. I kept some of the foam underneath, so it still had some resiliency, but the hard foam was much easier to shape.

Not having my carpets done is not all Frank’s fault. His primary sewing machine is acting up, so it’s getting serviced. Not knowing when it’ll be back up and running, I decided to take matters into my own hands. A friend of mine’s, also named Frank, father is in the carpet business. He’s semi retired, and works out of his house binding carpet for residential homes. I asked Frank if his father can do work on my carpets, even though they go in my car. He felt pretty confident his father could do it, so I’m going to give it a shot. I’m giving a piece my Frank did, along with the parts that have yet to be bound, and we’ll see what he comes up with. I’ll let you know what happens!

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