1960-1963 arm rest - WHERE TO DRILL THE HOLES
 

DISCLAIMER: I take no responsibility if you drill holes that don’t line up. Work slowly and carefully. Measure twice before you drill a 1/8” pilot hole. Check to make sure the 1/8” holes you drilled line up with the corresponding holes in the door before you drill it out to the larger 7/16” size.

I believe the information I’m giving here is accurate, but then again we are talking about 50-year-old trucks.

My 1963 C10 had a factory armrest on the driver side door. The passenger side door panel did not have an armrest. I decided to take some measurements and share them with the folks on this forum.

I used simple tools to make my measurements. I recommend that everyone get a set of calipers for your tool box. They are wonderful tools for the job when you need them. A set of calipers usually consists of inside diameter, outside diameter, and straight calipers.

I used a straight caliper (see photo) to find the location of the holes in the door panel for the armrest. I kept the tips of the caliper on the flat surface, but up against the edge of the ridge that outlines the center section. My measurements are shown in the photos below.

To test the accuracy of my measurements, I duplicated the same measurements onto my passenger side door panel by using the caliper and a steel ruler. I marked the spot where my measurements told me to drill a hole. Before drilling, I put my door panels face to face and checked to see if the holes matched. They did. Hooray!

After cleaning and painting my door panels, I reinstalled them on the door and as you can imagine, the holes lined up with the corresponding door holes.

I ordered new armrests. I also ordered caged nuts that I will spot weld in the corresponding square holes in the door.

Re: 1960-1963 arm rest - WHERE TO DRILL THE HOLES
 

Accessory arm rest kits came with a paper template to take all the guess work out of it. The factory may have had a metal or heavy plastic template for multiple re uses.

Re: 1960-1963 arm rest - WHERE TO DRILL THE HOLES
 

I took both panels off put them back to back and drilled through the two holes from the drivers side. Maybe a little extra work but easy enough no measuring either.

Re: 1960-1963 arm rest - WHERE TO DRILL THE HOLES
 

Awesome write up of your work. Glad to see it posted. Thank you.

Re: 1960-1963 arm rest - WHERE TO DRILL THE HOLES
 

Are you saying that new arm rests come with a template that shows EXACTLY where on the door panel to drill holes so they line up with the caged nut holes? Or does the template just show how far apart to make the holes so the line up with the arm rest?

Did the holes you drilled line up with the caged nut holes? This picture shows the hole for the caged nut lines up with the panel hole.

Re: 1960-1963 arm rest - WHERE TO DRILL THE HOLES
 

I just installed mine last week. I installed the cage nuts, put the armrest bolts in the nuts and left them stick out a little bit. I put dabs of grease on the bolts and lined up the door panel. I punched and drilled where the grease spots were. Lined up perfectly. Took me less than an hour to do both doors.

Re: 1960-1963 arm rest - WHERE TO DRILL THE HOLES
 

Clever! Well done.

Re: 1960-1963 arm rest - WHERE TO DRILL THE HOLES
 

If I remember right that template just gave bolt centers. Mine is a '66 so no captured nuts on the passenger side. The supplied bolts were a tad too long and hit the window so they needed to be trimmed

Re: 1960-1963 arm rest - WHERE TO DRILL THE HOLES
 

I did the same as curvedglass only I used paint. Make sure you drill a big enough hole because it is really hard to line everything up.

Re: 1960-1963 arm rest - WHERE TO DRILL THE HOLES
 

Here is the templet