A while ago I installed a fold-down arm rest to my drivers seat in the van, and it's been a bit of a gamechanger!

So I’ve decided to add one to the passenger seat, but this time film it and show how to install a generic, universal armrest to a car or van. Hopefully it’s helpful to someone, as when I opened the box, there were no instructions!

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0:00 - Intro
0:33 - What comes in the box
0:52 - Opening up the seat
1:22 - Attaching the mount to the seat
2:54 - Attaching the arm rest to the mount
4:05 - Adjusting the the arm rest

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This is what comes in the box when you buy an arm rest; get the armrest itself, a metal mounting point and a bag of fixings.

Make sure you’ve got the correct armrest for the right or left side seat and the correct mounting point.

When it comes to my seat, as you can see I have no zips or obvious access points to remove the fabric seat cover, but there’s always a way in!

At the bottom of the Nissan seat, there’s a plastic attachment which you just need to separate, and then there are two clips attached to the metal frame of the seat to remove.

With these loose, push the flap of fabric from the back of the seat to the front. You can then start rolling up the fabric to expose the foam and frame of the seat.

It is a bit tight, but eventually you’ll be able to see inside and find the holes we’ll be attaching the armrest to or, in this case, I made a mistake when filming and I’m pointing to the holes you DO NOT attach the arm rest to.

On the Nissan NV200 it’s the lower two holes with the wavy metal attached in between them you want.

We’ll be attaching this metal mounting point to these holes, which will require some fixings. Different suppliers include different fixings, but this set came with 2 u-bolts, two standard bolts, one headless hex bolt, 6 nuts, 6 bits of wire and a plastic cap to cover the attachment point.

On the Nissan NV200 I used the mounting point on both seats.

On my van fabric cover is physically attached to the chair foam, which only provides limited access, so I used a strap to hold the foam and fabric out of the way.

It was then time to attached the arm rest mounting point to the seat and I used the standard bolts for this.

Unfortunately the holes in the mount were two big for the heads of the bolts to sit flat and securely so, in lieu of having any washers, I screwed on a bolt right up to the head of the bolt, and this enabled it to sit flat.

Tightening them on us the corresponding nuts provided, I grabbed a 12mm hex socket and tightened them up.

Removing the strap, I could pull the foam back down and then cut a hole in it for the mount to fit through.

I could then pull said fabric down and refit it fully.

Once the fabric was in place and over the mount, I used a sharp blade to cut an X so the metal could poke through, and it was then time to add the arm rest.

In order for the arm rest to be attached, it needs to be sat in the right position, so I used the strap again to pull it further on the mount to where I wanted it to be.

With the screw thread on the metal mounting point exposed through the arm rest opening, I could screw it in and then tighten it properly with a hex or allen key.

I won’t pretend this is easy, but it’s all about getting the bolt lined up at the right angle for the thread.

The final part of the install was to add the plastic cap to cover the opening which, again, is a little fiddly but once on just finishes off the armrest nicely. Lastly, I could put the van back together and re attach the bed behind the seat.

If you’re wondering what happened with the other fixings that came in the box, I assume that they are to be used on other vehicles as I certainly didn’t need to use any of them for this install. - it’s a universal armrest suitable for many makes and models afterall.

So that’s how to install an adjustable universal car or van arm rest

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#Vanlife #NissanNV200 #LensOfJames

DISCLAIMER: In this video, I am in no way stating that this is the proper way to undertake the conversion of a van, however after research and experience using the van, I believe this to be the way that is best suited to my van and the way I intend to use it.