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Jun 24, 2021 | 10:34 AM

#6 (permalink)

nation99

Joined: Mar 2021

Posts: 36

Likes: 4

From: MI

Re: My answer to the lack of cupholders

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSK

Can you provide a material list and maybe photos of the brackets

So, as I stated earlier, I wanted to have two cup holders and I looked at many posts here and other places to get ideas of the best options. I did see some things that looked pretty nice, but I really didn’t find anything that suited my needs and did not require some mechanical attachment and thus would leave holes in trim pieces.

I felt that by attaching them to the seat frame, the holes would be unnoticeable unless you were standing on your head and if a purist someday wanted to, the holes could be welded shut, ground and sanded smooth and repainted.

Since I’m a woodworker hobbyist, that is the material I chose to use for the brackets and baseplates. I made the brackets from a 2x4 and the baseplates from ⅜” plywood. The brackets have an angle to match the angle on the seat frame and are attached with sheet metal screws. The angle is such that when the baseplates and cup holders are installed, the cup holders are plumb. That angle for the passenger side is about 50 degrees. On the driver’s side the seat has the ability to tilt for your comfort, so that angle will be dependent on how you adjust the seat. For me it worked out to be about 35 degrees. You can play around with those angles until you are comfortable that your baseplates will be level and thus the cup holders will be plumb.

I wanted to be able to easily remove the cup holders since I probably would not use them for short drives which would be most of the driving I will do. To that end, I decided to use a mortise and tenon type of attachment between the brackets and the baseplates. By making the mortise first, I could pretty easily adjust the size of the tenon to fit snuggly yet allow for easy removal. I used a ¼” straight router bit in my shaper and created a mortise slightly under the thickness of the baseplates and gradually removed material from the baseplate tenon area until I had the proper fit.

You’ll note that there are two different designs of baseplates. For my purposes, placing the cup holder in the center of the seat frame seemed to work best. My wife preferred hers to be nearer the door on the passenger’s side.

The cup holders themselves were purchased from Amazon. Search for “YH Poker Yuanke Stainless Steel Drink Cup Holders” or use the cup holder of your choice.

In the pictures you’ll see that the cup holders are attached to the baseplates and there is a spacer between the cup holder and the baseplates. The spacer is made from thin-walled PVC pipe that has an O.D. of about 4 ¼”.

These particular cup holders required that the mounting hole is first counter bored and then drilled through for a proper fit. I used a 1 ¼” speed bit to make the counterbore and then drill though with a (I think) ⅜” bit.

The spacer and baseplates are covered with a black vinyl material. You may decide to use something else. So the length of the spacer will be somewhat determined by the thickness of the material used to cover the spacer, as the covering material is folded over the top of the spacer. I attached the cup holder to the baseplate and measured to determine the length of the spacer allowing just enough room for a snug fit of the covering material.

The vinyl was attached to the spacer with a spray on kraft adhesive. It is kind of tacky pretty soon after it is applied so you don’t have a lot of time to work with it. I placed the seam of the vinyl in an inconspicuous area since upholstery is not my strong suite. Before attaching the baseplates to the spacer/cup holder, I painted the baseplates to match the color of the vinyl. I attached the baseplates to the spacer/cup holder and trimmed the vinyl to fit around the tenon portion of the baseplates. I then wrapped the vinyl around the baseplates and stapled it to the bottom of the baseplates.