Volkswagen Golf Mk V Arm-rest Retrofit Instructions First off, you need all the details from your car data sticker to ensure all of the bits for this kit are the right colour etc. Thanks to Alan and Martyn at VAGPARTS for sorting out what I needed! Tools you’ll need are a Torx bit screwdriver, a small socket set driver, a rubber mallet or similar (explained later!) and some dextrous work with you fingers… 1. When the kit arrives, this is what you’ll see…

Don’t be daunted, it really is quite straightforward, and if you’ve ever built an airfix kit, you’ll be fine!! 2. I decided to try a dry assembly run before messing about removing bits from the car, so the following pictures show how some of the bits go together which might save you a bit of head-scratching. The air vent fits into the housing from the rear, and requires a bit of glue to hold it in place on the lugs in the housing. I used 5 minute epoxy, but superglue doesn’t appear to work!

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The next 3 pictures show how the rear cup holders fit into the main arm-rest base. Although you’ll need to remove it again for assembly in the car, it’s useful to know how it fits.

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3. Next take the arm-rest and hinge assembly and slide it into the slots in the arm-rest base. It will only go so far under hand pressure, which is where the rubber mallet comes in! There are some lugs that need to engage in some holes in the base frame,

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and the only way I could achieve this is by GENTLY and repeatedly tapping the armrest hinge until the lugs had engaged. I did this with the base on the floor, and wouldn’t be something you’d like to do whilst in the car.

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4. Next I offered up the plastic outer cover and fiddled with it a bit until it fitted properly. Again, useful for later on when you do this in your car!

It secures with a couple of screws, one on each side.

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5. These next pictures just show how 2 parts of the actual padded arm-rest clip together and fit onto the hinge. The fabric part clips to the top of the hinge assembly, and then the plastic under-tray fixes to the underside of that.

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6. Final bit of pre-assembly is to work out how the air duct routes through the armrest base. However, the duct shown in the picture has nothing to attach to forward of the handbrake in the car, so is actually surplus to requirements. The ducting coming

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back from the dash area of the car is fitted at the factory when the arm-rest is specified as an option. It undoubtedly could be retro-fitted, but I wasn’t going there!! I’ve included it here though in case you decide to make the rear vents in the arm-rest fully functional.

7. Now take most of it apart again (apart from the arm-rest and hinge assembly – I don’t know how you’d get that apart again without breaking it anyway!) and head out to your car. This is what my car looked like before and, if yours is similar, there should only be 3 torx screws to remove before you can lift out the old cup holders etc.

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8. With all that out of the way, I offered up the handbrake gap roller cover which is part of the new arm-rest, to see how it would fit and to work out how to get it over the handbrake lever without unbolting anything.

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Note: Don’t actually screw it into place at the moment, as the pic above just shows how it fixes to the arm-rest base.

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Note: The above pic is just a “dry run” to work out how I would fit this part once the base is in place.

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10. Now, holding the arm-rest base from the rear, tilt the base as pictured and feed it rearwards over the handbrake lever until it is sitting in position on the central tunnel and with the screw holes lined up. Just be careful you don’t scratch anything!

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11. As well as tightening the screws identified above, you will now need a socket wrench or similar with a torx bit to tighten up the screws at the rear of the base.

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12. With the base fixed, you now need to place the handbrake gap roller cover over the handbrake. This is a bit fiddly, and you need to make sure you don’t pull the rollers out of the guides like I did! You can push them back in again though! You need to angle the roller cover as shown and then work it back along the handbrake whilst moving the hole in the cover along until you can place it in the correct position on the arm-rest base. Fix the screws as shown below and also earlier on when you “dry assembled” it.

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13. You can now attach the plastic outer cover to the arm-rest base, as practiced earlier on in the comfort of your house!

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Again, you need to feed it backwards over the handbrake lever.

Secure at the back with 2 more torx screws.

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14. Now offer up the rear vent assembly. This clips in from the top and is properly secured by the rear drop down cup holders which you’ll be fitting at the next step.

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15. The rear drop down cup holders slide in as shown and are secured by 2 torx screws which are accessed after you open the cup holders. This also stops the rear vent outer cover moving.

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Now clip on the plastic outer cover.

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16. With all that done, you now need to just fit a couple of other bits in the storage bin under the arm-rest. You will notice that the arm-rest adjusts on a ratchet and needs to be opened all the way up before it will go down to its lowest position again. The armrest itself also adjusts fore and aft.

This is an air vent assembly, but as mentioned earlier is not functional due to the ducting issue, but if you don’t want to lose anything from the bin into the central tunnel, it needs to be fitted!

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The rubber mat just drops in.

17. And that’s it! The following are just some pictures of the finished article including the rear cupholders.

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