[smallseafishie]

I got a set of powered, and heated e90 sedan interior for cheap from a junk yard.

To sort of keep the alpine white on coral red theme like my e92 335i, I'm redying these junkyard e90 seats from beige to coral red.

They're going to be installed in my e30 project.

I decided that I wanted to document my progress in case anyone ever decides to re-color their interior.


I've placed an order for a leatherique re-dye kit. I've taken a little snippet of my e92's rear seats for a color match of coral red to send to leatherique.

As I wait for the order to come in, I've decided that should go ahead and work with the plastic trimming pieces on the seat.

Here is the seat installed in my e30.


All power the power related stuff works. Haven't gotten the heated parts to work yet, but it's a work in progress.

Seat bottom removed in preparation for re-coloring.




This is the rear of the seat. At the bottom, there are two little "buttons" that need to be cut off. Just buy new ones to replace when you're ready to re-install (They're $0.60 at the dealer).


Just take a pair of dykes and clip them off.


This is the rear panel removed. I will be re-coloring this to black.


First task is to remove the netting. On the back there are several melted tabs that need to be clipped away to remove the netting panel.




Just take some small pliers and clip around the edges.


After clipping around the ten little retainer things, the net will pop right out.




Remove the net and prepare for recoloring. Just take a small flat head and pop it out of the clips.


I'm using duplicolor vinyl and fabric redye. I've used it to redye the rear parcel deck on the e30 with great success so I'm confident it'll turn out well here too. This will also be used to re-dye netting and the back covering since the back covering appears to be of a vinyl material that is glued on to the plastic. The pictures are after 1 layer. I did 3 layers for each letting it dry 15 minutes in between each coat.





Here's the plastic piece that holds the net. This piece is plastic so it's getting primed for black spray paint later on.


more to come....

[HK8888]

[iBoost]

Nice!! Post more pics of the whole car please! I've always wanted to pick one up

[skatenc123]

love to see this happen.

[rollinstone157]

Wow! Very cool! Just so you know, the red die won't be as potent as their other dies, due to environmental restrictions (old red die was more environmentally damaging, but more effective/stronger) so you might need more for the seats than you would if you were dying them any other color. But regardless, you're starting with a beige seat, so that's going to be a big help with this. Good luck!

[smallseafishie]

Originally Posted by rollinstone157

Wow! Very cool! Just so you know, the red die won't be as potent as their other dies, due to environmental restrictions (old red die was more environmentally damaging, but more effective/stronger) so you might need more for the seats than you would if you were dying them any other color. But regardless, you're starting with a beige seat, so that's going to be a big help with this. Good luck!

Yeah I've heard that too... As long as the color match is good, I think I'll be OK. I bought the 32oz kit so I should have plenty of dye to do a couple of coats. Even if it's not a direct match, there's no other coral red in the car to compare it to. It'll just have to match to itself. I'm just hoping it's kinda close to the coral red in the e92.

As with any other paint jobs, prep work, and light coats.

[smallseafishie]

Originally Posted by iBoost

Nice!! Post more pics of the whole car please! I've always wanted to pick one up

Pick one up! They're pretty cheap fun toys. I paid $800 for mine. I found it as I was just browsing through random craigslist postings.

5spd, alpine white on red sedan. It runs pretty well for it's age. It was a no brainer.

I'll definitely post more pictures of it when I wrap up this project!

Here is a picture of the e30 right after I picked it up with my other Alpine White babies.

[mashimarho]

^

[smallseafishie]

So the paint has dried. The netting looks great. A little crispy at first but it loosened up nicely. No flaking so far. The back panel looks really good. I've been playing around with paint colors and found the duplicolor semi gloss black closely resembles the OEM black of the car.

Back panel done.


Netting done.


Side trim panel done.


black pastic net holder thing... done


Comparison shot of OEM seat trim and spray painted trim.


more to come...

[mapleridge]

great work. thanks for sharing. I can't wait to see this finished.

[spool twice]

use an airbrush for the last couple applications of dye, it'll come out smoother. I did Black to Cinnamon on my last E46 one time, came out amazing and suprisingly easy to do, just time consuming.

some tips if you needed it:

Remove the dye thoughly so the the new dye can soak through effectively so the color and finish will last

Do light coats

Avoid using a foam brush, it'll create air bubbles

Allow enough dry time if you're doing it on colder weather

[smallseafishie]

Originally Posted by spool twice

use an airbrush for the last couple applications of dye, it'll come out smoother. I did Black to Cinnamon on my last E46 one time, came out amazing and suprisingly easy to do, just time consuming.

some tips if you needed it:

Remove the dye thoughly so the the new dye can soak through effectively so the color and finish will last

Do light coats

Avoid using a foam brush, it'll create air bubbles

Allow enough dry time if you're doing it on colder weather

Did you post a thread on e46 fanatics? I read about 2 cinnamon and one LSB color dyes. It's not that cold here in Atlanta so I think I'll be ok.

I plan on using a sprayer with a compressor.

Yeah it'll be a bunch of light layers with time in between for it to settle.

[dwells]

Ace work thus far, looks great. Having seen the thread on E46F and how well this is going, I'm getting more and more tempted to redo my interior.

[spool twice]

Originally Posted by smallseafishie

Did you post a thread on e46 fanatics? I read about 2 cinnamon and one LSB color dyes. It's not that cold here in Atlanta so I think I'll be ok.

I plan on using a sprayer with a compressor.

Yeah it'll be a bunch of light layers with time in between for it to settle.

m3forum.net, I'm tempted to do it on my E92, but I'm loving the black with space gray

[jackass1]

I have the saddle brown interior and want to dye it coral red. I'm to much of a lazy ass to do it myself. Any ideas what type of business would do this?