Introduction: How to Make a Cup-holder for a Smart Car

About: I rather like "to make" than "to consume". I've been programming for iOs for a while just to see if I can. I love making cases and pouches for my gadgets, but currently it seems I'm running out of projects. Bu…

I recently bought a smart car to be a little more environmentally friendly. I've looked at the cup-holder specificallly made for the car (remember, European cars have stuff like that as extra features you have to pay for). After reading some smart forums, I found the following statement:
"The smart cup-holder is good for shuttling drinks from the take-out to the office, but if you want to have a cup of coffee while driving..."
I'm used to having real cup-holders fitting real travelling mugs, not just one that sits right below the dashboard or one that only holds cans or small plastic bottles. So I thought it's time to make one on my own.

Step 1: Finished Cup-holder First

I start with the end just to first show, where in the car the new cup-holder will go. The ones familiar with the smart car will know, that right below the little square compartment of my cup-holer sits a coin-holder. Hey, who needs that?
As you can see, the cup-holder provides easy access to your latte, americano or whatever you prefer.

Step 2: Creating the Cup-holders Foundation

The foundation of the cup-holder is made of sturdy cardboard. The material should already support the cup sufficiently.
Please excuse that this step is not actually step by step. I was in the middle of making the holder when I thought that this would make a nice instructable. The following indicates the steps I made.

1. I wrapped a piece of cardboard around my favorite cup which forms a cylinder. I taped the ends to one another. To make it more robust, I wrapped another piece of cardboard around the first one and secured it with tape, too. I used the inside of the cylinder as a template to cut out the bottom of the cylinder (once cut, put it into the cylinder and secure with tape). I then went to my car to see, where exactly I want to install the cylinder. I decided that it needs to go just in front of the coin-holder, because otherwise, it would have been to high.

2. The little boxy compartment is actually just to hide the coin-holder and to give the cup-holder a better hold to the gear shift lever box. Measures for the size of the box were taken while checking where the cylinder needs to go (see step 1). Cut and tape a piece of cardboard to form an open box and attach to the cylinder (I used tape, but any other glue or staple might work, too).

3. The cylinder and box will give you the approximate length of the outer casing. Wrap a big piece of cardboard around the already assembled parts and fixate with tape and staples at the top. Leave the ends a bit longer as you will mark where to cut the casing in the car.

4. Check the fitting of the cup-holder in the car, and mark the final length and height you desire (I made the sides overlap the transmission tunnel, as I didn't want to screw the cup-holder into a brand new car). I decided to go round at the end (which made it more complicated than I liked). After marking, cut the outer casing and finish off with adding the rear part of the casing, closing the gap between the gear shift lever box and the boxy compartment.

For a better view on some of the details, check the secondary images of this step.

If you use the cup-holder just like this, you'll save a lot of work. I found out later how much work step 3 and 4 is going to take.

Step 3: Papermachee the Cup-holder

This step was very tedious. But it adds a lot of strength to the cup-holder. Be careful with the glue, as to much water will corrugate the sides of the casing.
Be careful with the little triangels between the cylinder and the little boxy compartment. This is a bit tricky as there is no cardboard (at least in my design).
Wrap the papermachee around the edges of the casing, but don't add too much as you measured the size without the papermachee. And you'll want to put the cup-holder over the gear shift lever box later.

Ok, this step was not really very much step by step, but I think almost everyone will know papermachee. I know that the color of the papermachee looks strange, but this comes from being too impatient to wait for the layers of papermachee to dry ;-)
So I recommend: take the time to air dry your cup-holder to avoid the nasty color.

Step 4: Making a Smooth Surface

Ok, this step took much more time than the previous one. But the papermachee (due to rushing the drying process, etc.) didn't have the smoothest surface. If colored nicely, it probably would have looked good, but I just needed to have it more perfect (ok, sometimes I regretted adding this step).
Putting filler, putty, or whatever exactly the name of the stuff is, that you use to fix dents in the car won't need much explanation, I guess.

So here are just some general hints:
- don't prepare too much filler at once, it dries fast.
- be careful at the edges of the casing the filler, once dried, is very hard and may scratch the gear shift lever box if you fit the cup-holder as is.
- despite the above point, I recommend test fitting, as the sides of the cup-holder may have bowed in. Once you put the filler and it gets hard, you can't adjust the sides any more. I did put a plastic box between the side flaps to ensure proper width of the casing.
- sand smooth the surface in between steps to see where you still may need filler.

The pictures show my cup-holder being test-driven to grandma's house. (Ok, the picture was taken while parking on grandma's driveway. Don't take pictures while driving if you are in the driver's seat.)

Step 5: Adding Self Adhesive Fake Leather

To make the cup-holer look better and to ensure, that the edges won't wear out, I decided to put some self adhesive fake leather on (first I thought I'll paint the cup-holder gray, but decided otherwise as there is just enough gray plastic in the car already).
You can take any material you like. I went with the self adhesive stuff as I think this is fairly easy to put on.

Ha, ha. I thought ;-)

In general it is, but here are the general things to consider:
- The sticky fake leather doesn't really stick to the papermachee within the boxy compartment and the cylinder (so either put filler there, or use some glue that will hold the material you plan to put in. Be careful with the choice of glue as mine caused the fake leather to bubble a little).
- You must wrap the fake leather around all edges of the casing to make it look good (wrapping the stuff around was tedious).
- There is a top part with cut outs for the cylinder and the boxy compartment, a part for the casing (just like in step 1), and there are fake leather inserts for the cyilinder and the boxy compartment.

I've added some "seams" with my black sharpie. I just like the looks more. It looked a little boring without.

I've also added some foamy pieces to pad my cup.

Ok, if you measured correctly, the cup-holder should now fit perfectly. Mine didn't hold too much. So I've taped it to the shift gear lever box. Tape doesn't stick enought to the lever box, so I will have to rethink screws or so. Due to the design, the fitting is ok. But I must advise, if the fit is not tight enoguh, don't risk a coffecup between your feet while driving. Just imagine you have to break really hard. If you have any second thoughts about the cup-holder properly holding your cup, use some save fixing method.

I hope you like my cup-holder for the smart car, and if so, drop me a comment.