German cloth supplier

[bradnic]

Antex-Case GmbH in Mönichgladbach appears to manufacture alot of bmw cloth.

Looks like they have all the houndstooth and plaid (überkaro) cloth!
EDIT: but not the Silber Uberkaro unfortunately, which seems to be the main M3 and vert plaid interior you see online.

here's a screenshot of the houndstooth + plaid options.


and here's the corresponding original samples from the interior color codes thread


EDIT: removed listing per request. these suppliers move volume and won't take individual orders.

[Cletonius]

Sample request sent. I'm curious on their pricing, I've found uberkaro and many of the others elsewhere for a decent price.

[tonerrrr]

Gimme da grau!

[bradnic]

Sample request sent. I'm curious on their pricing, I've found uberkaro and many of the others elsewhere for a decent price.

Hey Josh that's good to hear! Was under the impression this stuff was really hard to find. I was searching for info on ubekara and stumbled on some info in one of the South Africa forums. Was really surprised to see the catalog online!

[Ray Smoodiver]

I was part of the SA attempt to get the uberkaro.

It doesn't match sadly, and it is all sold out.

[bradnic]

Yeah the supplier has grey, not the silver BMW used right?
I figured you were involved since it was an SA E30 site ;-)

I would think that just like Erik Johnson's Repro Evo cloth you would need to place a large order to get stuff back in stock - 100 meters or more.

So what happened with that South Africa group buy anyway? Did you not get enough buyers?

[Cletonius]

If you guys want to get uberkaro I will be ordering yardage the first week of January. I can get the charcoal as well as the tan, I have posted sample chip pics and am told it's in stock ready to ship.

[bradnic]

Link? Is it the same supplier?

[Cletonius]

Link? Is it the same supplier?

No link, I found them in a phone listing and have done everything via email/phone. It's a different company.

They're trade only also, I had to furnish documentation before they would even send samples.

[bradnic]

I updated the first post. If you need more info shoot me a PM.

[Ray Smoodiver]

Yeah the supplier has grey, not the silver BMW used right?
I figured you were involved since it was an SA E30 site ;-)

I would think that just like Erik Johnson's Repro Evo cloth you would need to place a large order to get stuff back in stock - 100 meters or more.

So what happened with that South Africa group buy anyway? Did you not get enough buyers?

South Africa via New Zealand ;)

There was only a few metres left of the Uberkaro, and the samples sent out were in between the two grey BMW colours - not quite light enough for silver uberkaro (M3 special edition cloth) and not quite dark enough for the anthrazite (318iS / SA 325iS cloth).

Turns out someone was following the thread along and got the jump on the chaps on the forum and bought the stock out from underneath them - underhanded, but nothing you can do about it.

The company decided not to make any more unless it was stupidly large amounts (100m+) which would have been a logistical nightmare to setup as a group buy.

[bradnic]

thanks for the detailed reply Ray.

South Africa via New Zealand ;)

really? saw this posted on a ".za" forum. Lots of terrific E30s in NZ that's for sure. Or are you in NZ? thought you were an SA guy..

you confirmed my suspicions on minimum order volume. no wonder this cloth is so hard to find. I was told by my interior guy that the braun/tan houndstooth I purchased was the last 7 meters his supplier had. I bought all of it so I could have some spare.

Still it's good to know there's a manufacturer for all the different plaid and houndstooth (except the silver uberkaro). Getting a new supply would require one heck of a group buy for sure. probably better for someone like Blunt or Levent to make the commitment.

[Cletonius]

Turns out someone was following the thread along and got the jump on the chaps on the forum and bought the stock out from underneath them - underhanded, but nothing you can do about it.

The company decided not to make any more unless it was stupidly large amounts (100m+) which would have been a logistical nightmare to setup as a group buy.

This is why you don't tell people where you get your rare stuff from.

Wow, that's a hard sell on the 100+ meters. Too bad everyone flakes, it wouldn't be too bad if you could get 12-15 guys to commit to an interior's worth.

[bradnic]

Yeah I'm sure Erik Johnson went through the same thing with his repro Evo cloth. Unless you have 20 people confirmed with deposits or something you would have to be willing to take a risk on inventory. and that 20 people number is PER FABRIC.. Maybe that minimum would be lower if you committed to multiple fabrics, say 75 vs 100m each or something.

assuming you'd go grey and tan on both ht and plaid that's 80 interiors worth of material.. as to retail value I would assume people would expect to pay more for real OEM cloth. Erik used to charge $75 a meter for his Evo replica cloth, 5 meters needed for an interior right? I know I paid more than that per meter for my OEM houndstooth.

so bottom line, you'd need to find a lot of people willing to pay a premium of say $500 or so each - and they'd still have to buy material for bolsters, headrests, door cards etc too!. best to leave something like that to folks that sell in volume.

[Ray Smoodiver]

really? saw this posted on a ".za" forum. Lots of terrific E30s in NZ that's for sure. Or are you in NZ? thought you were an SA guy..

you confirmed my suspicions on minimum order volume. no wonder this cloth is so hard to find. I was told by my interior guy that the braun/tan houndstooth I purchased was the last 7 meters his supplier had. I bought all of it so I could have some spare.

My car is 1 of 506 from South Africa, was 1 of 2 brought into NZ from new by BMW NZ - long story, I know. All those mint cars are in SA, but we've got some sweet ones in NZ as well!

This is why you don't tell people where you get your rare stuff from.

Wow, that's a hard sell on the 100+ meters. Too bad everyone flakes, it wouldn't be too bad if you could get 12-15 guys to commit to an interior's worth.

It's an especially hard sell as that of the SA 325iS cars, not a hell of a lot got the Uberkaro cloth, so of an initial run of 506 cars, you'd be offering to maybe a third of that, not accounting for cars that had been written off or had swapped to leather.

By my reckoning, you'd sell MAYBE 35m of cloth to SA? It only takes 3.5m of cloth to do an interior as per factory specs, so the challenge would be to find 10 people that wanted to do their interiors in the first place.