Front seat upgrade

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peterpilot
Posts: 122
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:41 am
Location: Johannesburg South Africa

Front seat upgrade

Post by peterpilot »

Hi Guys,
As my '85 635 I found last year, disappointingly did not have Ricaro or sport seats in it, so I have been keeping my eyes and ears open since.
Luckily I managed to swop my original black seat covers and side panels from my 1981 6 (which have been in suit cases in my garage since 1999) with a generous BMW friend, for a pair of 3 series TI Coupe, sport seats.
They were in serious need of a re-upholstering, so I bit the bullet and committed to changing the all-blue interior of my car.
I decided to go for a two tone dark blue and medium grey interior as the blue carpets are like new, and all the other blue bits are good.
As the previous owner had the seats and side panels all re-done, the color match was not perfect, so that also bothered me.
I had half a hide of dark blue, from when I made my new fibre glass speaker pods and bought a full hide of medium Grey from the same aircraft interiors company.
As the 3 series is narrower than the 6, I had to do some intricate work (Cutting and welding) in modifying the mechanism to position the seats 33mm further outboard. Also, the mounting rails were too long and they had to be shortened and the fore /aft rack had to be shortened by about 20mm. They were suitably fully electric and after plugging them in, everything worked perfectly.
I have done the door panels, rear panels grey, lower dash sections and still have to do the centre console
Not original, but what do you think?.....I'm very happy.
Attachments
Old Interior
Old Interior
IMG_5410.JPG (716.27 KiB) Viewed 5385 times
New Interior, door
New Interior, door
IMG_5448.JPG (382.29 KiB) Viewed 5385 times
New interior, Front
New interior, Front
IMG_5446.JPG (493.35 KiB) Viewed 5385 times
1981 635 CSI Euro Manual
1985 635 CSI Euro Manual
1998 540 I Steptronic
2004 K1200 RS
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billy635
Posts: 96
Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 10:31 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Post by billy635 »

That looks GREAT!..Any other plans for the car? Show us pics of the rest of the car.
BMW E24 633
BMW E24 635
Bmw E39 535
Project Build viewtopic.php?t=18874
jkcma

Post by jkcma »

Peter,

Those seats look great. Well done. Could you share more details of your seat project? Those look like e46 sport seats? What did you do exactly in modifying the seat mechanisms? How much cutting and welding is involved? Are the electric plugs compatible? Do they plug right in with no modifications?
I have a hard time finding a pair of e24 sport seats, so your option is another alternative.

Thanks,
John
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olympia57
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Joined: Thu Sep 13, 2012 1:47 pm
Location: Ireland

Post by olympia57 »

I looked at and turned down several blue interior cars as I personally didn't like that colour .
I have to say that your retrim lifts the whole interior and brightens it considerably making it a pretty nice place to be .
Nice upgrade and retrim ...Congrats . =D>
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peterpilot
Posts: 122
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:41 am
Location: Johannesburg South Africa

When Blue turns to Grey

Post by peterpilot »

Thanks Olympia57,
Yes, as I said in my first post on the subject, I was a bit nervous at first about the two tone, but it turned out great and was a pleasant relief. The carpets are so perfect that I had to stick with them, and therefore retain some of the other blue trim. I am looking forward to completing the centre console and rear armrest etc in the Grey. (posted a better pic)
My '81 model had a black interior when I got it back in '98, and as I prefer lighter interiors I did the under dash panels and seats in grey. Looks great too. I'll post some pics.
You will see that I did something unique on this old six in terms of the dash and the "wood" inserts in the recesses and on the top of the arm rests etc.
The speaker housings on the doors are actually Fibre-glass mouldings I made and covered in the same seat leather. None of the original door panel is harmed. Good sound in the front too.
Nice to share this stuff with you guys.
Attachments
Front Ctr.JPG
Front Ctr.JPG (27.4 KiB) Viewed 5135 times
Front Rt.JPG
Front Rt.JPG (28.81 KiB) Viewed 5135 times
635 Rear seats.jpg
635 Rear seats.jpg (15.22 KiB) Viewed 5135 times
E36 Compact seats.JPG
E36 Compact seats.JPG (20.65 KiB) Viewed 5135 times
1981 635 CSI Euro Manual
1985 635 CSI Euro Manual
1998 540 I Steptronic
2004 K1200 RS
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olympia57
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Posts: 1389
Joined: Thu Sep 13, 2012 1:47 pm
Location: Ireland

Post by olympia57 »

MMmmm ...
That looks very interesting PP .
When I get started on teh E24 I was intending to see if I could gently introduce some wood effect to the interior.
I've did it on several cars ( and vans ) in the past and have been doing wood effect steering wheels for owners of another Marque I drive for some time now.
Is the inlay real wood or paint effect ?and if possible a few more photos please.
Here's a wheel that I wooded . It was originally a carbon fibre effect .
Image

And the interior of another car I did .
Image
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peterpilot
Posts: 122
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:41 am
Location: Johannesburg South Africa

Front Seat Upgrade

Post by peterpilot »

Hi John, Yes these E46 seats are nice but as I said before they need to be moved outboard by 33mm to be positioned away from the centre console and of course the driver's seat directly behind the steering wheel.
If you are not one, or if you do not know a good friend who can spend a day on each seat to do the intricate mod (cutting, measuring, welding) on the support mechanism, then it may cost a few bucks. Also, the rail at the bottom has to be shortened as well as the fore/aft rack. It is one hell of a job. It can be done; just have to find the right person to do it.
The work on the support legs which are attached to tubes which rotate to lift and lower the seat have to be done so accurately or else it will all jam up during operation as they move through an arc.
The electrical side was easy in that the controls are integral with the seat, so one only needs to pick out the negative and positive from the original plug under the seat and plug it into the E46 wiring. I am not sure why, but the memory feature does not work on mine. Probably missing some memory system. This is not serious though.
However, I will eventually connect up my original seat controls as well, so that either can control the seat.
I am guessing that E34 seats would be a better bet, less work!
1981 635 CSI Euro Manual
1985 635 CSI Euro Manual
1998 540 I Steptronic
2004 K1200 RS
User avatar
peterpilot
Posts: 122
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:41 am
Location: Johannesburg South Africa

Post by peterpilot »

Hi Olympia 57,
Your work is absolutely beautiful man! Well done!

I did not use genuine wood. I had this sheet of thin Formica (or equivalent), mat-finish at the time. It really livens things up and simply attached with a minute amount of silicone, so it can be easily removed if required.
I would think with your craftmanship and experience you could use genuine timber and clear coat it. I would look great.
I must admit that I am one of those (unlike many enthusiasts) who is happy to tastefully improve a (classic) car by doing these little touches but I make sure that these mods can be easily removed without damage to the original spec so as to retain the value.
Keep up the good work.
1981 635 CSI Euro Manual
1985 635 CSI Euro Manual
1998 540 I Steptronic
2004 K1200 RS
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