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    Seat Options

    Looking for some opinions on how to handle my seat dilemma. I have an 88 325is with factory leather sports seats, bronzit exterior. All of the seats, front and rear, are slightly worn and need reconditioning. The driver's seat has a few holes where the leather has worn through and needs to be recovered. Also, my interior is tan with tan, not pearl beige leather.

    So here's the dilemma; What's the most cost effective way to get the seats in good condition, and, in the alternative, would black "racing seats" look bad or out of place with the tan interior?

    Scenario #1 - Find a good used driver's sport seat ($50-150, any color would work, possibly even passenger side) for as cheap as possible, then leatherique all seats to recondition and color match. Cost $200-350. Pros - original matching sport seats in good condition. Cons- need to get lucky on the replacement seat purchase, lots of labor with leatherique, still have heavy seats.

    Scenario #2 - Recondition seats with leatherique and get driver's seat recovered. Cost - $450. Pros - see above Cons - expense, labor, weight.

    Scenario #3 - Replacement racing/sport seats. Cost - See ebay - $350+. Pros - new, lightweight seats. Cons - can only find them in black or other wild colors, won't match interior, quality may be questionable unless major money is spent.

    So, what's the word? Do I try to salvage my current interior and keep the stock leather or go with aftermarket black?

    #2
    I'd say option #1. There was a thread a month or two ago from someone who had done a great job reconditioning.

    If you would only reupholster one seat, you have to assume that its not going to match perfectly (color, texture, stitching, etc.), so you might as well just look for a close match in option #1 and save some $, time and frustration.

    There was a recent thread about inexpensive after market seats last week or so (the ones with ACS stitching).

    You keep mentioning weight - I'd love to see a weight comparison of the manual sport seat vs. aftermarket seat that has the same adjustment options as OEM one AFTER brackets are attached. I'm curious myself, but suspect there wouldin't be much of a difference unless you went to very expensive seats, but then why wouldn't you just reupholster both front seats.

    Option #4 - If adjustability isn't an issue, get a nice set of cloth non sport seats for the street and set of proper racing buckets for the track.
    A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do- Walter Gagehot

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      #3
      These are my Black Sport seats of my 325is...when I bought the car the setas were in grey color, a bad paint. the exteriro color was bronzit of the car as well, so the really color of the seats was beige or so...ugly color for me...

      I painted it in my body shopp with a special leather paint....of corse I took of the old grey paint and the painte din black..

      the door panels are now in black painted too...these are 1 year old pics btw...the setas looks like if it were new and looks identicaly at the pics showed here.








      The other option is, go and search for sport setas at Ebay, I got a set of two brand new, never installed with new sliders(included for $135 or so, for both + shipping.

      I was going to put them in my bimmer, my Jeep had to get those first since the stock ones went to hell and now is for heavy Off ROad use... will take pics of later and will post them here.
      Euro M3'87 NogaroSilver/Euro E34 M5 '93/Porsche 993 TT 97' Euro/Porsche 993 Carrera 95' Euro/Skyline R33 GT-R

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        #4
        Scenario #2 - Recondition seats with leatherique and get driver's seat recovered. Cost - $450. Pros - see above Cons - expense, labor, weight.
        I probably wouldn't waste money recovering seats. The padding by now has got to be getting pretty worn. I know my passenger seat is a hell of a lot more supportive than my driver's seat.
        -Brandon
        '86 325es S50
        '12 VW GTI Autobahn DSG
        '03 540i M-Sport (sold)
        '08 Jeep SRT-8 (sold)

        For sale:
        S50 TMS chip for Schricks

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          #5
          depends on what you want to do...do you want your car to be a track rat, or just be a daily driver that looks stock on the inside but well kept up?

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            #6
            Originally posted by Beej '86 325es
            Scenario #2 - Recondition seats with leatherique and get driver's seat recovered. Cost - $450. Pros - see above Cons - expense, labor, weight.
            I probably wouldn't waste money recovering seats. The padding by now has got to be getting pretty worn. I know my passenger seat is a hell of a lot more supportive than my driver's seat.
            When reupholstering, its easy enough to add new HD foam and new padding. I did when I redid my seats, and now the drivers seat feels like new (vs. falling into an old bucket!). I even put in some lumbar support :mrgreen:
            A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do- Walter Gagehot

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              #7
              here is...



              More pics...--> http://www.r3vlimited.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4343
              Euro M3'87 NogaroSilver/Euro E34 M5 '93/Porsche 993 TT 97' Euro/Porsche 993 Carrera 95' Euro/Skyline R33 GT-R

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