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Leather Interior Tips
My mistake!
Here is my first major mistake with regards to modding.
Last month I decided I would like leather seats for my car. After much searching I found myself what seemed to be an excellent
condition leather trim. In my haste to buy I only checked what the leather was like and not each part!
Upon delivery of my new trim and 600 quid later I decide to go through it. Not only do I find that there are no rear headrests,
but there are no front headreasts, the doorcards are a terrible effort at a re-cover. And it turns out the whole thing is
a re-cover. The rear bench is from a compact, it doesnt even fit! This was over 3 weeks ago, and I am still waiting for the
"promised" replacement trim!
Below is a checklist of what to look for so you dont make the same mistake!



Overview
1. Check the leather! If its in the dark get it into the light. Ask what year of car it has come from. If the leather doesnt
look like its ever been sat on, this should raise question. Used leather should have creases in it. If it hasnt ask why!
2. Check the back of the front seats. Some post 96 leather interiors have those nets on the backs where you can stick your
maps and driving gloves.LOL.
3. Check all of the doorcards. Look closely there should be no creases in the leather nor should there be bubbles in them.
Most of all check for tell tale staples where the leather has been stuck over! Also check for gaps, the insterts are glued
onto the cards, therefore there should be no gaps in between!
4. Check the rear bench. Look at the stitching and seams, these should not be raised. Look at the underbelly, ne re-covers
will look new! Shiny hooks etc.
5. Rear bolsters. These are made of sponge, leather needs to be glued on, if there are staples they have been recovered, also
check the hole where they fit to the car, it should be neat, in line!
6. Rear seat backs, again check seams etc, also check the neatness of the holes where the bolts go at the bottom. Finally
check the sides, these look like leather on the cotton interiors but is actually vinyl. These should be leather too!
Only once you are fully happy hand over the cash. Make sure the wear of the leather matches the date of the car! Make sure
it comes with rear headrests, breakers like to sell these separate as they are sought after.
Dont make the same mistake I did!




Steps 1 & 2
Check Leather and look at the back of the front seats!
This is the passenger seat, apparantly it came from a 96 coupe!
Didnt the person have passengers?
The leather is unmarked and mint.
The drivers seat is in better condition!
Note the back of the seat, it does not have the net,
and see the angled shape to it, this interior was said to
be post 96! Warning though, some post 96 seats do not have the
nets so just use this as a guideline as it is
probably a popular option!



Step 3
3. Look at the doorcards! Check for creases,
bubbles, bad workmanship!
Look at the pictures here. Also look behind the door handles, lazy people may have just stapled the leather down rather than wrapping it. They did on these!!



Step 4
4. The rear bench, check the stitching, seams,
look underneath check how old it looks!

On the left picture, the left bench is geniune the right is a re-cover, see how the seams on the genuine are deep whereas
the re-cover's are flat!
On the underside, the re-cover looks new!




Step 5

5. Rear seat bolsters. Check these for dodgy workmanship, the leather should be glued down not pinned or stapled. Check guide
holes at the bottom. Should be cut neat and tidy. And should line up properly!

The left side shows the genuine article!
The right side shows the re-covers!
See how bad the re-covers are?!




Step 6
6. Rear seat backs. Check stitching, seams etc. Look at sides, make sure they're not vinyl. Look at guide pins, the leather
around them should be neat!

Look at the left picture. See the two different materials, leather on the front and vinyl on the side. To the right is a genuine seat, with leather!



Carpet Change = Nightmare!
Thinking of changing your carpet?? Well unless you have a warm garage where you can take the ENTIRE interior to pieces dont even bother! Its an absolute nightmare of a job! Having purchased a new cranberry coloured leather interior the only only way it will work in my car is if the interior is totally black! As I had a grey carpet and cream headliner its gonna need changing! Easy job? No! I bought a new black carpet from FAB direct, a well known BMW breakers based in Gloucestershire. Very helpful guys and sorted me out with one straight away and its was delivered the day after! 4:30pm decide this wont take long go out onto the drive tool box in hand and begin the process, after removing most of dashboard it becomes apparant that the carpet was put in first and there is no way it will come out without taking a blade to it! Wrecked a good carpet!! Finally get it out, and have to cut my new carpet to get it in luckily its hidden under the dash part! Also it was from a later model car so some fittments were slightly out of line(yet more hacking!) Finally at 11:30pm the carpet is in and the car is re-built, kind of! I think I have left one of my blower vents above the glove box under the carpet?!? D'oh!
So there you go, 7 hours it took me on a cold windy night. Like I said before if you have the time and place to do it and dont mind the time consuming effort thats ok! But if your buying leather interiors, get one that matches the original upholstery, not the other way round! If i'd have known what I was about to undertake I would never have even bothered!!
Check the pics out!





More Leather!
After 7 weeks of hassle with these idiots over the re-covered leather interior I finally managed to get my cash back!
A while ago, Kul,(E36coupe.com) added a Red leather sports interior from a T reg coupe for the bargin price of £500, not a
soul batted an eyelid, not even me. I even said I didnt want it, and continued hunting for a black interior. Then Johnnyrob
said he would like it and may swap the interior over, if I bought the red one and did a swap with him! The plan was going
well until I had to go to Warrington BMW for a part. And what did I see? A metallic black M3 with red leather interior! I
fell in love with it and was straight on the phone to Kul, and also rather sheepishly e-mailed JR about it too. Fortunatley
JR was none too fussed and said no hard feelings. So off I trundeled to Leicester to pick it up! And here it is!

The red goes so well with a black car! But I did have to change the carpet over(see above for the disaster!) to make the colour
work, I am also going to change the headlining over to black and get my doorcard inserts re-trimmed in the same colour red
as the seats!
So watch this space for more improvements!





Mudflap's: Good or Bad?
When I first bought my car in December last year, it only had one mudflap on it.
Now after some debate over whether I should remove one or replace 3, I decided to go for replacement as the sill was looking
a little rusty on the front, and these were a good cover up!
Having heard a few stories of them being rust traps lately, I deciede to take them off to give em a clean and clean behind
the sill's! Lo and behold what do I find! Rust!
The passenger side sill has gotten worse! I wish I had never put them on now!
The flaps are not too bad on the back as they are on the bumper, which is plastic so cannot rust! These are also good for
big tyred cars which kick up spray! But do not look that nice!
But I would definatley suggested not to put mud flaps on your front sills, and to take them off if you already have them!