Hi,

This is how I fixed/repaired and reinforced (and even added a little top foam) to my 98 Saturn S series SC2 Center Console Armrest/Storage Door/Top/Lid which was cracked and broken on top under the rubber cover and also a broken latch.

It is a bit delicate and tricky to disassemble without breaking it, but kind of fun and well worth it instead of watching hours and hours of my brain numbing tv.
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WHY THE TOP OF THE ARMREST USUALLY BREAKS IN THE ELBOW AREA AND NEEDS REINFORCING TO STOP THAT:
-The top shell is made of plastic, and for needed strength, it transfers the top arm/elbow weight loads down onto the strong rigid bottom piece, through its sides and it's internal plastic towers.
However there just aren't internal plastic towers in the main area of the top shell. In fact there are only 4, only where the designers needed screws for attachment reasons (3 back hinge plate screws in and 1 screw in front).
So no towers in the main elbow area, especially when someone eventually uses their elbow to lift and shift their body weight, allowing too much downward flexing of the top plastic surface, which then cracks and propagates can even snap the top shell in half.
The simple fix is to add more internal support towers/material.

WHY THE LATCH USUALLY BREAKS/BECOMES DETACHED:
-The spring latch breaks because it has weak plastic molded ears for it's shaft and when the armrest is repeatedly slammed shut, they can break off. Once an ear breaks off, the latch becomes unseated or can even fall out of the armrest.
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ARMREST/DOOR DESIGN CONSISTS OF:
1. A nice black rubber outer top & sides cover piece.
2. A top piece plastic black shell which is under the rubber.
3. A bottom plastic ridgid piece with snaps into the top shell with locking fingers.
4. A spring latch which will not come out until the top and bottom pieces are separated, unless the latch's shaft weak plastic ears have broken off over time(see how to repair using a nail).
5. 4 screws (3 are for the hinge attachment).
6. A metal arched arm to control how far open the lid goes.
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HOW TO REMOVE THE ARMREST FROM THE VEHICLE:
1. It's not necessary but you can lift out and remove the whole armrest lockable box from the vehicle by removing the 3 internal bottom screws at the bottom of the box.
2. Remove the 4 underside armrest lid screws using a small tore bit(a very small flat driver might also work). This will also detach the metal hinge.
3. With the hinge detached you can swing the armrest back further then normal so that the arched metal hook arm will come out of it's slot(it has a hook shape on its end).

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HOW TO DISASSEMBLE THE ARMREST:
1. Use a larger flat screw driver to temporarily flex open-up some in a spot, the gap/seam where the molded 1 piece rubber cover tucks inside over the edge of the top shell.
This will allow you to pull the rubber lip out here in this spot.
A small screw driver or hook pic may help you to carefully pull the rubber out in the area where you are using the larger flat screw driver to open the gap.
Work slowly to not puncture or tear your rubber cover. Plan on removal around the metal arm lastly.
2. Now repeat along the entire perimeter, removing the rubber edge til lastly where the metal arm is.
3. Remove the now detached rubber cover up over the metal arm so as not to damage the rubber slit/hole the metal arm goes through.
4. Now see the exposed top access holes(painted red in pic for you to see) on the top shell rim. Insert a small pic/screw driver straight in and down to release the internal plastic locking hook fingers one at a time.
Once you remove your tool, they lock again so pull the halves apart slightly there as you go, to keep the unlocked unlocked.

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SPRING LATCH HINGE REPAIR-IF BROKEN:
If its weak plastic hinge/ears have broke over time from repeated closing, I fixed mine by.
1. Find a kind of long and thick metal nail(about as thick as the broken ears).
2. Cut the nail tip off if it is too long to fit inside the lid pocket where the plastic ears were.
3. Carefully drill through the latch in the center of where the ears were before they broke. Wrap the latch with a rag so you can safely hold it. Start by using a small drill bit and drill from both sides so your holes connect. Then drill through the small hole with a larger and then larger drill bits until your nail can fit in the hole.
4. Inserted the nail. If the nail hole is too loose, while in place, super glue/baking soda around the nail where it enters the plastic.

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REPAIR DAMAGE TO THE PLASTIC ARMREST TOP SHELL(Now that you have the 2 pieces apart):

1. Flex and find all cracks and propogated broken plastic commonly in your elbow area. Look on the inside to identify the crack area as well.
2. Slightly open the cracks while applying super glue(not gel) to the exposed mating surfaces. Apply both inside and out. Then hold the cracks back together for a minute to bond.
3. Now on the inside and then top side, wet the cracked line and a bit beyond with super glue (widely, about 1/8"). Then sprinkle the wetness with ordinary baking soda, enough to absorb and react to the wet super glue.
This instantly forms a strong crystal like bond that can help make the break perhaps as strong as it was before breaking.
4. Only 1 application of baking soda should be enough for the top, you don't want to be able to feel the repair line through the rubber when done.
For the bottom/underside, again wet the crack with super glue and sprinkle with baking soda.
If you get baking soda on the tip of the glue bottle, you may need to insert a needle or small nail into the tip to clear it to flow again(pliers can help get the nail in and out).
5. Now blow off any extra baking soda.
6. For any broken off plastic pieces, super glue back together and hold for 1 minute. Then wet the break seam with super glue and sprinkling with baking soda.

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REINFORCE ARMREST WEAK AREA (SO IT WON'T JUST BREAK THERE AGAIN):
Note: At the end I will mention an alternative reinforcement method I think might work for well for a severely damaged armrest shell or where maximum strength is needed, using fiberglass and resin.

1. See how the shell underside has 4 screw towers but no towers in the elbow area. We will be adding 4 to 6 additional towers around the elbow area.
2. See attached picture with 4 plastic ribbing intersections painted red in the elbow area, showing where to add a minimum of 4 additional towers for support.
3. Grab some Penny coins (or what other material you choose to use for towers).
4. Place pennies next to and match the height of the cover's single front screw-tower(by the latch). Stack the pennies etc. till they are about the same height as the front screw-tower and observe how many are needed in the stack.
(Note: Pay no mind to the 3 hinge-screw towers what are shorter then the front screw tower, as they are in a small area where the bottom piece is shaped differently just for them).
​​​​​​​5. Super glue press together for 1 minute, pennies to make 4 to 6 separate additional tower stacks that are as tall as the front screw-tower.
6. Super glue each tower into position over the intersecting plastic rib by wetting both mating surfaces and press together for 1 minute.

REASSEMBLE ARMREST:
​​​​​​​

FOAM:
A nice addition I did, I had some nice 1/4" thick dense white packing foam from something that came in the mail. I held it on top and trimmed it with a utility knife along the armrest top's small inset area/channel.
I then added some sticky glue and placed the foam cut out there. So now my armrest has some padding under it's center.
But caution if you do this, don't try to add padding outside the small inset channel area or thicker than 1/4" padding.
Because otherwise the rubber cover either won't fit back on or will be too tight and its retaining lip will tear over time.
I know this because my first repair I added thin carpet foam but I went past the channel area and then my rubber cover was too tight and I put it on anyhow and over time, it started to tear the retaining lip here and there.
The rubber cover wasn't designed for foam underneath and there is a risk of that the flexing could possibly cause the rubber to split on top over the years. But my old rubber didn't after 4 years.
The risk and benefit is up to you to decide.
(See white foam scrap in pic)

Reattach the armrest/door to the hinge reusing the 3 screws. Don't quite fully tighten until you have side to side centered the door with the box and front to back centered for the best latch catching action. These latches are low tech finicky, mine only catches if pushed on or if the door is kind of slammed, but that works well for me.

PS:

If any of the snap locking fingers broke when you were separating the 2 pieces, use super glue to hopefully reattach the finger.

BEFORE YOU SNAP LOCK THE BOTTOM PIECE, DON'T FORGET TO INSTALL YOUR SPRING LATCH AND RUBBER COVER!

Once you place the bottom piece into the top piece and push in, they lock together.

I strongly advise against gluing anything permanently together so you can no longer take the 2 plastic pieces apart in the future. There's no gain of strength to do that and then you can't fix anything in the future if the need arrises.

=
Method 2, I see possible:
Either brush onto the broken plastic top, fiber glass resin mixed with its activating hardener(follow their directions) and then place in the still wet resin add a trimmed to size fiber cloth and then brush the top of the cloth with more resin.

Limp fiberglass cloth and resin are very weak on their own but when combined, they are very strong when cured and I've seen this method on YouTube to repair some Saturn's broken plastic behind a door panel armrest.

The rubber cover does have a little slack and should cover and hide such a repair if you do not use too much of the repair material. If you came down the sides with the cloth, it would the molder rubber would possibly/probably then not fit back on.
In fact the cloth might only fit in the inlaid area on the top of the top piece without causing problems.
Learning to work with fiberglass can help you repair more things, another tool.
Resin with cloth hardens like a rock. You won't want to leave any lumps whatsoever. One cloth should be plenty. Fiberglass mats are even thicker, I doubt they would fit under the rubber cover.

ALTERNATIVELY, placing resin and fiberglass INSIDE the bottom of the top piece might be the way to go as long as you don't go crazy and interfere with the bottom cover locking snaps and sides.

In hindsight perhaps this is what I should have done and if my armrest breaks again, I will do the fiberglass cloth. In fact even though my old one was pretty broken up, the fiber glass cloth method would probably of repaired it.

=
Well it took me like 3 hours to figure out and do all this. It was like a puzzle/game and I'm sure glad I did it instead of wasting my time watching a movie on tv.
Working with physical things in our reality is pretty cool and now I have a fixed armrest again.

Take care!

 

Nice fix and write up, man. derf, you should make a sticky out of this one!

 

Thank you

Hmm how do I make a sticky?

 

You can't make it a sticky, Jim. Only an administrator can do that and derf is the main cheese here.

 

Nice writeup.

Ever think about making a side business restoring these? People have been looking for replacements for these for years. I've never seen anyone actually repair one of these broken armrests.

It is indeed sticky worthy. I would ask the following:

Could you please write up the actual steps you executed as sequential numbered steps that follow an introductory brief statement about why they usually break? I am all about mega detail, but without knowledge of the mechanics of this, most people will not understand it coming out the gate.

Note that you can insert pictures in line with the text by hitting the picture of the picture in the tools, to the right of the paper clip. Just upload them one at a time wherever they make sense.

Stick to what you did from start to finish at the top of the post. The warnings are of course fine.

Once you have finished the description and pictures of what you have done, then start a section that says possible alternate approaches. This way people who just want to do it can read top-down through the steps and be done. Others who are interested can keep reading. People have a very short attention span.

Do all this in a post in this thread. You can edit it as many times as you want. Then post in a separate post below it that it is ready to be stuck. I will then delete all these other posts except the new one and sticky it. Much cleaner this way.