Fiberglass Cupholder

I have a 1991 Chevy S10 Pickup truck, 5-speed manual transmission. There was always one thing about this vehicle that I never understood, and quite frankly, despised. For some unknown reason, Chevy decided to not include cupholders...in a stick shift. Well I was completely fed up with trying to balance my beverage while shifting, so I decided to make a cupholder. The costs for the project were less than $30.00 as I already had most of the materials.

I decided to attach the cupholder behind the center section of the bench seat. There is not bottom, so the bottles and cups actually rest on the back of the seat itself. It is a minimalistic design that looks great and really adds to the truck.

Step 1 Creating a Base

The first thing that I had to do was to decide on a good size for the cupholder. I did not make any measurements, but I rather based it on the sizes of the cups and bottles I most frequently used (gatorade or chick-fil-a for example). Once I had a ballpark figure of size, I looked for a piece of MDF (medium density fiberboard) that I could cut down. Using a miter box, I was able to do this with ease. I then sanded the edges of the MDF smooth so that there were no sharp corners.

I then drew two lines from opposite sides to one-and-other. I further subdivided the length into quarters, such that i would be able to have 2 cups fit (see pictures). Using the largest hole saw I possessed, I cut out two circles from the MDF. I then used a soup can to trace the final size I wanted the holes to be. Using my Dremel with a sanding drum, I sanded the openings up so that the can could easily fit through the openings.

In order to attach this portion to my truck, I needed to attach a base to this. I had some left over poplar wood, so I chose this as it is a straight and strong wood. For support i cut a small triangle, put it under the center of the cupholder portion as seen below, marked the excess portion, and cut it so that it fit flush.

After I had all the pieces of the base organized, I glued them together using standard wood glue. I then clamped the three pieces together and allowed them to cure overnight.

Comments

[bigblackbronco]

want to save some time on this step?  you can mix the resin and bondo, I like about 1 part bondo to 3 parts resin, and use the MEKP hardener as directed. should be around 48 drops for 4 oz of mixture.  this will make a "pourable mixture to dump over your piece.  It is self leveling and requires very little sanding once dry... I use this technique on subwoofer boxes and amp racks... you waste some of the mixture (as it will run off the piece and onto your plastic) but it saves a LOT of time.

[weasel999]

 how strong would resin covered fleese be without the wood????

[marshnt]

wont the third seat b wasted

[abadfart]

ya and hot coffee between your legs in a paper cup while sifting is a bad idea... it leaves some nasty burns in a bad place.

[sarah_ashley4113]

WOW I forgot how much time this took to make. But it looks amazing and works perfectly. glad you thought to make it.