Rear seat upholstery compatability

[Andy.B]

Here is the situation:
My 87 325 coupe came with a tan houndstooth comfort interior. Every piece of the interior has some damage, either a small tear, stain, sun fading, etc. I have been slowly converting the interior to black leather/vinyl.
I have changed the door cards in the front, and the side panels in the back, and swapped the driver seat with a black e46 seat (it was available, and the original seat had exposed metal), tossed in black floor mats, and installed a set of leather e-brake and shift boots. I still have to figure out the biggest pieces; the remaining seats.
I would love a set of black vert seats for the front, but in western NY e30's are rare, and shipping is outrageous. If I had sport seat frames I would get new upholstery, and install it myself, but I am blessed with comfort seats. My plan is to continually hit the u-pull-it yards all summer until I find some suitable front seats to use (recaro's out of a vw perhaps).

My question is about the rear seats:
I have hog-rings and the appropriate tools, as I have replaced the seat leather too many times when I worked as a tech at a Land Rover dealership in the past.
Is the seat upholstery from a cloth interior interchangeable with the upholstery from the vinyl/leather interior? Do the wire pieces embedded in the seat foam match up?
Since shipping is prohibitively expensive on a complete rear seat setup, could I have someone remove the vinyl upholstery pieces from the foams, and just mail me those?


TLDR: Can I install the vinyl upholstery from the rear seat cushions of a leather/vinyl interior on the cushions from a cloth comfort interior?

[Andy.B]

Has no one ever tried this before?

[bmwman91]

I think that as long as the rear seats are of the same type, you should be fine. Some were the molded foam material, and some used a metal frame and some sort of organic fiber. As long as the donor car has the same type as yours, you should be golden.

[Andy.B]

I just bought a set of rear seat upholstery pieces in black vinyl from fellow r3ver nebulous123.
I will post pictures of the process of installing them, and outline any issues if they don't match up properly.

[Andy.B]

Easy job. Back seats look great. Anybody else looking to fix to their rear seats: swap the upholstery. Much cheaper to just ship the cover, rather than the entire seat. If you can tie your shoes, you can replace the seat fabric.

[dogsbark26]

Wow, good to know Andy. Where are the pictures you promised?

[Andy.B]

Wow, good to know Andy. Where are the pictures you promised?

I wasn't paying enough attention when I took the pictures, and left the camera on manual, with way too slow a shutter speed. The pictures are unrecognizable. I assure you, if you can manage to use a pair of pliers, you can do this job.