1985 C10 - Cup Holders

When I bought my C10 Silverado, I knew there were a couple of things that I wanted to do to the truck. One of those was swapping the bench seat for buckets and console. A lot of people like the bench seats, but I just prefer buckets.

I was going to go with one of the big name seat companies, but I was browsing FB Marketplace one evening and a set of 88-94 Chevy Low-back Buckets and Console popped up for sale and they were about two and half hours from where I live. I was able to make a deal with the guy and went and picked them up early on Monday morning. And the bonus was, they matched my truck.

The interior swap turned out pretty good and I love it. I have some plans to reupholster the seats, but that's for a future article.

The subject of this one is those cup holders in the console. I had forgot how much difference the size of cup holds had changed in the past 40 years. They were not designed for large cups back then.

So I started on my journey to get bigger cup holders in the console. My first thought was to have someone 3D print it, but there were a few things that made me not go this route. The cup holder insert has at least 2 different arcs in it. There was also 2 spots underneath them that it would hit if the cup holders were too big and I had to deal with those even with the route that I took.

I started out by trying to do a flat panel that would replace the insert and drop 2 stainless cup holders from that jungle website. The downside to this was that I would lose the slot behind the cupholders and I wasn't sure I was willing to do that.

My next thought and the route I took, was I hit the old auction site and found a different insert so that I didn't mess up the original one. I found an insert of a different color and started there along with a couple of stainless cup holders.

The line that is around the cup holders was the perfect line that I needed to Dremel out with a bit to remove the cup holders from the insert. The stainless cup holders then dropped in with a little more massaging with the Dremel.

I did have to take a grinder and flatten out where cup holders overlapped a bit. A grinder with a sanding disk and a file took car of that.

Then it was time to make it match the rest of the interior. I ended up going with the Colorbond system that included the Adhesion Primer, Color, and Clear coat. I ordered the Garnet color and the matte clear.

After getting the final coats of clear on the insert, I let it hang and cure before messing with it. Although this paint/clear dry to touch in about 45 seconds, I wanted to set for a few days before messing with it too much.

The color doesn't exactly match, but I think it's close enough to match and if I find one that matches closer, I can scuff and repaint it.

I am going to use a couple small dabs of silicone to hold the cup holders in the insert so that they can't come out too easily. But all in all, I think it turned out pretty good.

I have a few more small projects on this truck that I will also be creating articles for here. So check back often!