Good lord, if there is one universal shortcoming upon which all Avalon owners agree, it’s the inevitable deterioration of the interior (inferior?) chrome trim. As is the typical experience for other Avalonians, the chrome trim of my cup holders began to peel and separate, catching on every Styrofoam coffee cup and more than once, slicing finger-skin and demanding a blood sacrifice.
I’m happy to report there’s a fix within easy reach. I grabbed a roll of this off Amazon: VViViD Gloss Chrome Silver Vinyl Wrap Adhesive Film Roll Air Release DIY Sheet (1ft x 5ft). I’m seeing now that there’s a cheaper option that’s a little smaller. You don’t need much at all.
To remove the cup holders, raise the lid of your console, and just work the clips up at one end and the rest will follow. It was easy. My Avalon has LED connections, which I had to remove. (See image below.) To disconnect, you see the little tab facing us in the photo? Push that back, and slide a little screw driver down into the grey housing and it will release. Don’t sit there pulling like a fool as I did.
Here are some more photos showing what you’ll encounter:
There are six little Phillips-head screws keeping the two cup-holders. Remove them and you will see the two chromed plastic rings that we will address. They’re either well-stuck or lightly glued, so just peel them up and you can work on the rings.
I tried first to flake off as much of the peeling chrome as I could manage, and then used a sanding drum in a drill press to smooth out what was left to give a reasonably smooth surface. The vinyl film we’re putting on is very thin and I was worked it will reveal imperfections.
Once prepared, just cut and peel a strip of the fiddly chrome vinyl and work it in there, smoothing as you go. I had to make many relief-cuts (sort of like tabs on either edge of a strip I was working around the inner circle) and didn’t really know what I was doing, but even so, one came out perfectly, and the other a little wrinkled. It’s easy enough you can just keep trying until you achieve the results you want. Mine came out as you see below, and believe me, it was well worth it when I used it the very next morning and there wasn’t that God-awful scratch of chrome-on-cup that had been grating on me for a year.
