Passenger seat armrests

So as VW forgot to add the armrests to the passenger seat, and when asked about them I was told that VW no longer fit them to passenger seats!!!!???!!!
That's funny cos they are fitted to the driver seat!

Anyway, sourced a pair on ebay not cheap £150 but they are at least double that OEM The only difference is the armrest part is vinyl where the OEM is cloth. But we will be having the seats recovered anyway so no matter!

I forgot to take pictures as I did it but there are as expected videos on youtube

So
Tilt the back of the seat towards the front so you can access the first piece to undo, which is to separate the front cloth from the back cloth, in this case its a long plastic U shaped piece the length of the cloth, pull the two apart (watch your knuckles!)

Now turn the backrest back up and into recline mode, this enables you to pull the front cloth through the gap

Move the backrest back up again enough to free the back of the cloth and you should see some of the sponge under that there is a plastic cover held by two plastic T fixings (they brake easily but can be replaced with standard interior panel fixings etc) remove them and carefully fold up inwards to give you more access.

Now carefully pull up the front and back until it shows some metal wire ( on the front of the seat) and the the cloth is attached to it via a soft metal ring. Remove the rings I used a pair of mole grips to open them enough to detach from the seat cover and the wire,

Pull up the cloth again carefully till you see the hole in which the armrests attach in the sponge

Now initially the video I looked at gave the impression that the brackets go on the inside of the backrest frame.They dont! They fit on the outside of the frame Doh!

Carefully pull up the foam to enough to access the bracket holes the forward screw goes through the frame and is bolted from behind. the rear is a welded on nut which you just screw in from the outside. I did this one first, loose enough to fiddle about with to get the forward bolt through and then tightened them.

Now you need to put the seat all back together,bit fiddly but not a problem just reverse of what you've just done.

You will see the bracket head just poking thru behind the cloth, I used a very sharp stanley blade to cut a small enough hole to allow the bracket head to show through the cloth, then all is left to do is attach the armrest and bolt in!

I would suggest that if your keeping the OEM cloth or have already re upholstered  the you need to either melt the cloth where you cut or a small bead of glue along the edges as I'm not sure if it will fray in time. Doesn't matter to me as we will get them reupholstered later>

Reads worse than it is honest! Overall took me about 30 mins to do once I had it sussed so add 15!