Unofficialbmw.com

[85-325e]

As many of you know, I have a fraying rear cloth bench seat for which I cannot get the fabric. Because 99% of the time that I'm in the car and the Black Shepherd is in the back, I always have to cover the rear seat anyway.

Two years ago, I bought a beige leather rear bench seat in great condition with headreats and the armrest on eBay that I always planned to dye... But I was always worried about the piping or if I could even get the color close...

Well, with the fraying of the back of the rear bench, I finlly decided to dye it. It took me a while to get most of the stuff I needed bacause I had to order all of it. The Navy Blue Feibings leather dye was a sickly blue on this leather, so I ordered some Marine Corps black and mixed them. To test different ratios of blue/black, I bought some ink syringes with markings on the side and mixed away.

The color I came up with isn't perfect, but I've ordered some charcoal gray Meltonian, which is a leather polish/dye that gets rubbed in, and that will give me almost the perfect color... I think it came out nicely,a nd while I'm not totally content with having mixed materials in the car's interior, the front seats are covered with sheepskin, and the back side panels have no fabric anyway. This is the best solution I could come up with for the time being, until I can either find the original fabric or soe replacement seats in perfect condition. These aren't in the car yet, but I'll get them in sometime over the next few days!

Here are the implements: The Navy Blue and Black dye, the bottle of dye I mixed, a brush, some "special" conditioner, and the syringe:



Here are the original seat components:



I did a headrest first, just in case I screwed it up. Here it is after the first dying, before the second coat, in contrast to the originals:



Here's the set after it was all over. i was VERY pleased to find that the dye also dyed the plastic piping!!!







After these are polished up with the slight gray color, they'll lose the purple look, which was augmented by the flash as it was getting dark. These are actually a VERY close match to the original vinyl in the back panels!!!

Whatdoyathink???
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Cosmo - 1985 BMW 325e, Single Owner, 265,000+ ORIGINAL miles and still going strong! But now on the East Coast and the salt air corrosion is eating my beautiful car alive...

[Quincy56]

I think the purple is sort of psychedelic
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92 325ic - Isabelle
91 318i - Oscar - RIP
89 325i - Otis - RIP

[85-325e]

Quincy, you're so funny! Peace, Love & Woodstock Man! 40 years ago last Saturday. The New York Thruway was CLOSED man! lol

The camera flash makes it look that way. In daylight, it looks almost identical to the original seat color... perheps a tad too dark... but it was feast or famine... One coat, buffed, was way too light, and two coats were a tad too dark. The charcoal gray Meltonian will give it a more steely color, which should match inside exactly.

At least it's a good temporary solution. I'd REALLY like to find the original fabric, but I bet this leather seat will be cooler for SHadow than the fabric too... at least when we're moving...

TTY soon Quince!
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Cosmo - 1985 BMW 325e, Single Owner, 265,000+ ORIGINAL miles and still going strong! But now on the East Coast and the salt air corrosion is eating my beautiful car alive...

[maxinjaxin]

nice job. I would love to find some seat like that.

[85-325e]

Keep checking eBay. The ones with armrests don't come up as often, but they do come up...

and thanks!
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Cosmo - 1985 BMW 325e, Single Owner, 265,000+ ORIGINAL miles and still going strong! But now on the East Coast and the salt air corrosion is eating my beautiful car alive...

[85-325e]

Howdy...

Well, the Meltonian leather cream finally showed up on Friday, and I had a chance to clean up the seat. The Charcoal Gray Meltonian gave the seat a slightly gray tone, which matches the interior exactly. Cleaning the seat up with the cream polish removed the purplish residue from the dying process... Here they are:

Here's how it looked before the buffing & cream polish:



And After...




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Cosmo - 1985 BMW 325e, Single Owner, 265,000+ ORIGINAL miles and still going strong! But now on the East Coast and the salt air corrosion is eating my beautiful car alive...