I had a hard time finding a good guide and pictures for fixing the cup holder so I decided to make my own.

Tools and materials needed:
Grinder or file
Vise Grips or pliers
Dial or Digital Caliper
Drill with drill bits- I used a 1/16" bit (.060) and 17/64"(.066)
Screw Eyes- I got "National" brand size 214

1) The screw eyes i picked out are slightly smaller than the diameter of the cup holder hinges. The reason is that i wanted a nice and snug fit with minimal slop. You need to drill them out with the 17/64 drill bit. This also gives you more contact area against the plastic.

2) Take measurements of the hinge height location, preferably with a caliper.

3) Grind the old hinges down until they are flush with the base.

3) If you got the same screw eyes as me, you will need the 1/16 bit to drill pilot holes. Otherwise use a bit that is slightly smaller than the thread. Drill the pilot holes at the intersection where the grinding marks meet the the unscathed plastic and .175" from the bottom.

4) Screw in one of the screw eyes until it is between .460" to .500" high from the top of the screw eye to the base. I set mine at .460"

5) Screw in the second one to the same height, but then back off slightly so it is at a 45 degree angle to the first screw.

6) Insert the side with the 90 degree screw eye first. Then press in the second side. Once it's in, use pliers to rotate the 45 degree screw eye back to 90% in the clockwise direction.

7) You may need to do some final adjustments before you put it back together

Once it's done, it feels very strong. I probably don't need to do this, but for peace of mind, I will also add some epoxy to the exposed threads for extra strength.

 

Nice writeup!

 

Good job, thanks for highly detailed illustrations as well

 

Thank you for taking the time to post write up and post pictures!

Looks like a great fix!

 

Nice job - Lol, I wish you could fix my ashtray-door that well - a replacement is ridiculously expensive and about an hour of disassembly/reassembly since there are two screws on each side of it (both center console-box and shifter area needs to be removed to access)

 

Another way to reinforce the area is to use crazy glue and baking soda.

The process was explained in a posting by someone who does propeller repairs on ultra light aircraft.

apply the cyanoacrylate adhesive to the joint, sprinkle baking soda on area, wait a few seconds, blow/brush off excess, repeat as required to build up area.

It worked very well when used to repair an alignment tab on a tail lamp housing. The baking soda acts as a catalyst and filler in the presence of cyanoacrylate.

 

Wow! You sir, are a genious! I am doing this as soon as I get some free time!

Also very cool info on the baking soda/super glue. I am going to try to remember to use that some time!

 

This is the way to do it, I have repaired one in this manner before. Sadly I always forget to take pictures when I'm doing stuff, otherwise I would've posted about it.

Well Done.

 

I wonder how well the cupholders will work for me now considering I threw the springs away when I recovered it in leather.

I suppose I could always pull it open since the hinging function would be restored.

 

I finally installed the cup holder in the car and it worked great. If you use epoxy to reinforce the screw eyes, you will need to leave about 1/8" gap from the bottom of the cup holder, otherwise it will not assemble properly. I found out the hard way and had to file it down.