[SounderMN]

I have a black Z3 with standard seats. The interior is tan, tan and more tan. The only thing black is the cupholder console between the seats. I think it's a lot of tan. I just ordered some M seats and plan to get them recovered. I'm thinking of covering them in tan with black inserts, and I plan to get them without the stitching across the middle. They'll have a finish like the black ones here: http://leatherseats.com/Z3_leather_kit.asp in the video. I think those seats belong to a forum member, and I like the way the stitching is done... much prefer the look to the stitching across the middle of the seats.

So, how do you think these will look in the tan interior? Tan with black centers, and I'll get extra leather to do the door inserts in the matching black. And, I'm thinking of a black leather armrest from LeatherZ. I did use the leatherseats dot com color configurator located here design.leatherseats.com to preview it and I think it looks good. Sorry, I can't post pics yet or I'd copy it and include it here.

All opinions welcome! Am I getting in too deep thinking I can pull off the door panels and recover the centers?

 

[SounderMN]

Yeah, if you have pics to share that would be great!

I have the black M seats on the way, but don't think it would look right with only black seats and everything else tan. So I will prob wait until I get the seat covers to install them. When it's done I'll post pics too.

 

[SounderMN]

I found a thread where someone dyed their seats in the exact pattern I'm considering. Now that I saw this dye job (blue to tan) I'm undecided if I should just dye or spring for new leather covers.

 

[SounderMN]

Maybe I will try that first. But I think the black seats may look odd in a tan car.

I do appreciate everyone's feedback. This is helpful.

 

[SounderMN]

They look nice.

 

[SounderMN]

A friend has done this several times on 3-series cars. He said it's not as hard as it may seem. I think I'm going to give it a shot. The panels are held on by melted plastic that will have to be cut off. I'm going to try cutting them off flat to remove the panel. To put it back on, I'll attempt to use a small screw into the plastic with a large fender washer to grip the panel. If that doesn't work, my friend says you can attach the panels using windshield adhesive. He claims this works far better than any other type of glue because it's more permanent. I've read that other adhesives can let go after a year or two because of heating and cooling of the panel and the glue. I would like to do it in a way that if I ever remove it again, it won't destroy the panel, so plan A is the screw and washer method. I'll take some pics to show how it goes. I'll probably give it a shot in a few weeks.

 

[SounderMN]

I wasn't clear. You do have to remove the panel. Once it's off, cut the plastic "heads" to remove the leather covered panel. I think you'd mess up the backing of the panel if you tried to pry it out and cut behind it.

 

[SounderMN]

Yes I do want to sell them. They are now out of the car. Make me a eeasonable offer and I'll ship tomorrow.

 

[SounderMN]

I completed the seat recover work. I think it came out great. The leatherseats.com covers are really nice. The leather quality is excellent. It's high quality auto grade leather, has a nice feel, good texture and fit well. There are a few more areas of bunching than I expected but it looks great anyway. I think I can work some of those out just by moving the leather around on the foam... Working it.

 

[SounderMN]

I can only seem to upload one photo per post. Notice that I chose not to get the double stitching like the M style, but more plain like the sport seat style. These are M seats. I think it's more classy this way, a little less sporty. I think it fits the "tuxedo" image of this car.

 

[SounderMN]

I finally finished the interior work. The seat covers took a bit of massaging and a few days in the sun, but the wrinkles came out for the most part. They look great now. This spring, I removed the door panels and covered the inserts with the same black leather that is on the seats. Recovering them wasn't as hard as I thought it could end up being, and I'm really happy with the outcome. I think it looks nicely tied together, without being too much on the two-tone theme. I may do one last thing, which is beige leather steering wheel tabs. Beyond that, I think it's easy to get carried away with too much two-tone.

 

[SounderMN]

Thanks. I found a pic of yours here: http://users.belgacom.net/bmw_z3_gallery/interiors/interior_beige_black_gr.jpg. Looks like yours are kind of reverse to mine. Where mine is black, yours is mostly tan and vice versa. I like it! Thanks for the idea to change that center portion of the dash. I'll look into that!