How To Separate The Rear Cup Holder For Painting or Repair

2work

Well Known Member
United-Kingdom
Hello all,

You may have seen on another thread that I recently acquired a Swing Rear Cup Holder. Thank you again. Duncan @DuncanA2 for assisting with this purchase. It was a bargain priced item that came with full factory fittings and fixings. Amazing.

Those of you who have stumbled upon my Project OEM thread will know it has a Twist interior that already sports a brand new (last year) Rear Cup Holder from Audi Tradition. Additionally you may have seen my Project 250 thread and notice it has a Soul interior.

Therefore this ‘new to me’ item needed to be attacked to end up with something that seamlessly blends into the interior of 250.

Some of you will feel that this is a little sacrificial so you may need to look away and just come back at the end as the following process does involve the Dremel, although I’m quite skilled with it these days.

First up I’ll remind you of what we’re starting with here which is from this thread.

Straight out of the box last week:
C20FD488-0F45-4F31-B30D-01C457FDECBD.jpg


81556FF7-96C7-43D9-9E83-154BE32E3012.png

Who doesn’t love seeing a Rear Cup Holder eh?

Factory front bracket with OEM fixings:
BA132282-35E9-4AF8-B08B-7974FC8558CA.png


Factory rear bracket with the OEM metal clips:
EE38A4AA-35C8-47B8-B47E-A5AB2212DEDA.png


I’m sure you’ll agree that it all looks rather splendid but this is what it originally looked like fitted in Project 250:
82108695-4991-484E-A2A5-2B237DB70B4C.jpeg

I think you’ll concur that it just looks odd and out of place, although it matches the Swing leather interior quite nicely.

Therefore it had to be dismantled for perfect coverage of paint both inside and outside.

This is where the some of the complete purists will want to look away as the process involves my trusty friend, Mr Dremel:
08A20FA0-BE7D-4067-B2DA-04D47FCB1219.jpeg

If you fit a smaller stone wheel you'll leave no trace of the surgery you're about to embark on.

Continues on next post…
 
The Rear Cup Holder is of a rather simple design and comes apart quite easy. the main plastic covering and the storage bin is just pushed together and finally adhered by melting points on the base. This is where the Dremel comes into play.

Here's the base of the housing and you should be able to see where I used the Dremel as I was not very steady with it. I'm positive that if I had to do it again I could achieve a much tidier finish, but it is of course always out of sight so no tragedy:
90D272E4-780C-4B98-8501-90335B229A0E.jpeg

For the main cover to be detached you only have to gently grind the 5 plastic melt point along each side. Visible within the yellow rectangles. To detach the black storage box below the 2 doors you need to grind the 4 melt point within the red rectangle. Please ignore what looks to be a melt point within the blue oval as it plays no part in this process. To grind the melt point I fitted a stone wheel to the Dremel which worked perfectly.

A few close ups for you.

The sides with the 5 melt points:
C80311C4-5B94-4A15-8B26-A75FCA0ED940.jpeg


70A2F6A2-3A33-4D05-A80E-5AD188434EB0.jpeg


And the 4 melt points for the storage box:
735B8DF6-75EB-4BB6-BDE7-E79DFC3EBFA7.jpeg

The storage box must be removed to withdraw the 2 doors for full painting. If you're just repainting with the same colour due to wear marks then this box may not have to be removed. Obviously depends on the condition of the paint on the 2 doors.

Once these melt points are grinder back (which will only take you 2 minutes from start to finish) the outer covering will just come apart if you pull open the 2 sides when the whole thing is upside down. Its quite strong so don't be afraid. If its not coming apart easily then there might be a bit more of the melt points to be removed. Note you must ensure that the 2 doors are part open

The storage bin just pulls out from the top. Note the 2 doors must be fully open.

Continues on next post.....
 
This is the main cover removed ready for cleaning and painting:
060F5DAB-76D8-4821-87D5-F3F192D41AF0.jpeg

The protrusions highlighted within the pink rectangles are the reason the 2 doors must be part open before removal. These protrusions sit below the doors and you could easily damage something if you try to remove the main cover with the doors closed.

Next up is to fully open the 2 doors and remove the storage bin, just pull it from above and it'll easily come away. If it doesn't then maybe there is still some of there melt point to be further grinder. Heres the storage bin out of the housing:
F8774DC1-7BFD-4293-B0F2-5665466B4E3D.jpeg


You should now have something that looks like this, hopefully yours hasn't got 20 years of animal hair and grime:
61FD4C29-B741-4C10-B2EC-946E0A143866.jpeg

Now take a picture (or use this picture) so you can get the springs back in around the correct way. It really is a simple system.

Next up is to remove the 2 doors. just squeeze them and they'll come out nicely. Do not lose the 2 springs, keep them safe for later on as I guess these will not be available for purchase if they go flying across your work space.

Doors removed for cleaning and painting:
223747F2-2775-469B-8096-2B15F8368A61.jpeg


Your housing should know look like this:
14B08909-26D2-413F-AEE8-5098C472246F.jpeg

Time for a deep clean me thinks! The 4 rubber cup retainers can also be removed by pulling them up. Do not wash them in hot waster, I did and now need to find someone with a flocking kit to recover them as I washed some of the covering away. Might just leave it though as they aren't too spoilt.

As brave as some of you might think I am to have a go at this, I cannot take full credit. John @johnyfartbox gave this a go a few month ago and shared the pictures with me. Without his knowledge I probably wouldn't have purchased this incorrectly coloured item. Thank you John.

Continues on next post.....
 
Moving to the painting stage. If you've been brave enough to follow the above steps then I'm not going to explain how to paint plastic as its probably well within your ability.

As for preparation I just washed the main cover and 2 doors in the sink with warm soapy water. Rinsed with clean cold water and left to dry. You can speed the process up with a heat gun just don't get too close. I also ran a Tack Cloth over the exterior surfaces to pick up any final debris.

Then went ahead with the product of choice (Thanks again Erling):
4A08FB39-B308-42AA-B164-97D3AB693BEE.jpeg


I didn't take any pictures of the underside painting. I gave the inside 3 light coats and that was it. I did use the heat gun in-between each coat as wanted this task complete during my lunch break. Next was to place the doors on a box to elevate them and paint the exterior. These received 4-5 coats again with the heat gun (on the low setting) between each coat. Here's how they turned out:
6B4FF788-7097-464B-937A-C7D4D60F28DB.jpeg


Simultaneously I painted the underside of the main housing. it received the same 3 coats. Then placed on a box to elevate it for its transition to Soul Black. Same as the doors, it received 4-5 coats plus what was left in the tin. Possibly another 1-2 coats but cannot remember now. It looked like this once I'd run out of paint:
E6092563-B993-4A51-82A4-8A65DF7A9474.jpeg

Looked great from where I was stood.

I only waited 10 minutes (after a a few passes with the heat gun) to reassemble the whole thing. Form start to finish it was about an hour. Really simple if you're handy and brave!

So within some 60 minutes you can go from this:
82108695-4991-484E-A2A5-2B237DB70B4C.jpeg


To this:
0D48A826-41DB-4475-A0CE-6354A7AEC925.jpeg


And if you didn't lose the springs during the removal process you'll have 2 fully functional doors:
D7FFBA7D-45A5-4A88-944B-E757D084422F.jpeg

If you look close you'll see the flocking thats washed away on the top right rubber cup retainer, very annoying.

The assembly process is obviously all of the above but in reverse order. Remember when to have the doors part and fully open. The whole thing will push together and hold together perfectly without adhesive. if you're content you've got the finish you was after then just drop a dab of your favourite glue just for peace of mind. Don't use too much as you just never know when you'll be driving another A2 that has a different interior colour.

That's it. Good luck with your projects.

I'm alway there if you have any questions.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
Great write up Tom, you have saved me the task of doing it.
When I did it, I didn't glue the outer casing at all because the outer casing naturally wants to clamp itself to the base, but I did lightly glue the storage box back in place.
Just to add, I lightly sprayed some lithium grease to the opening gears for the doors on the cogs.
 
Looks great Tom! I sprayed up one of my new space floor boxes at the weekend with the Volico paint and they have come up really nicely.

Ben
Nice work Ben,

The Volico product does cove well doesn't it?

What was the start colour of the box and what coloured Volico did you use. Did you use the Volico Clear Coat? Did you take the latch mechanism on the underside of the lid apart for total paint coverage?

Be interested to hear what colour paint you used and how it lasts on this item that can receive some abuse, mine certainly do from 2 boys in the rear of the A2's.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
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