[jordanl5182]

Hi All,

Just wanted to share my little project as I couldn't find anything similar anywhere. Now it probably wasn't the best way to do it and I'm still not finished, but here goes.

Having a CIC system sitting there was too much to resist, so I decided to fit the thing on saturday. One problem though was that I didn't have the centre console trim...and finding one for an e93 in piano black proved to be quite hard to find. I like the look of the leather centre console and after seeing Jammy's (big thanks for helping with an issue i was having with my CIC installation), I decided to try and modify my CCC console with some fibreglass and a Dremel.



As you can see, it's definitely not straight swap!



Now I've never used fibreglass before, but thought I'd give it a go.



Bought this stuff from toolstation for £9



And got to fibreglassing...





Let it all dry and had a go with the Dremel on sunday.





Then completely messed up one side



So I put some more fibreglass on and managed to fix it mostly







This is how far I've got so far. I thought about painting, but I like the leather look...waiting for the leather to come and I'll post up some more progress.

[Phil99z]

Nice work and good for you!! Can't wait to see the finished article. Good luck!

[RajB]

Excellent little DIY.

I really wanted the leather CIC trim jammy had as think it would have looked spot on against the M3 CF leather trim I have now purchased.

Look forward to the progress once the leather turns up.

[Waspo]

Originally Posted by RajB

Excellent little DIY.

I really wanted the leather CIC trim jammy had as think it would have looked spot on against the M3 CF leather trim I have now purchased.

Look forward to the progress once the leather turns up.

Excellent DIY Raj (so far) looking forward to the finished article.

['V']

That looks brilliant, good job. It'll look great when finished

[jordanl5182]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

The leather arrived today...I thought I ordered 1m of the stuff, but I got this in the post:



There must be about 5m there! Anyway, I couldn't just leave it sitting there. Here is a close up of the grain, it's obviously not real leather, but its quite a stretchy material making it really easy to work with:



Armed with a pair of scissors, a stanley knife, some clamps and some fabric adhesive, I got to work:















I couldn't find some needle nose pliers to pull the leather as tight as I wanted around the controller and roof switch so it looks a bit loose around them.







And the finished article:





It was slightly tighter than before when refitting, but that's to be expected. The only real issue I'm having is that the ashtray doesn't open and close perfectly every time because there are two layers of the leather that are catching very slightly...doesn't really bother me, but I'd like to get it perfect.

I'll try and get some better pictures tomorrow in the daylight, but I'm really pleased with the results. Hopefully this will inspire someone to save a bucketload of money and do this themselves.

Tools used: Trim removal tool, Dremel, torx screwdrivers, paint brush, scissors, stanley knife, clamps

Spent: £8.40 for the fibreglass.
£20 for the leather (I'm sure this could be found cheaper).
£6 for the fabric adhesive.
Total cost: £34.40

[AWBimmer]

Looks amazing mate - modding at it's finest to a budget!!

['V']

WOW!!!! Awesome DIY and turn out great. Well done fella

Like the leather too, was it difficult using fabric rather than the stretchy vinyl?

[gaza01]

RESPECT!!!
Great diy and great result

[Iyrix]

Great job! I guess you went from a single button, not the dual button controller?

[gangzoom]

Looks great!

[Waspo]

The dogs gonads!!

[magic77]

looks great, out of interest where did you get the leather from. was thinking of doing similar to my trim on the f30

[dy63]

good on ya!

[jammy78]

Nice diy!

How have you secured the controller in place?

[jordanl5182]

Thanks for all the kind words. I still haven't had any good light to take decent pics.

In the past week, I've done this, LCI rear lights, CIC retrofit (almost done, but now bought myself a Combox). The only thing I really want is an M-Sport steering wheel and then my modding is done for a long while!

Originally Posted by 'V'

WOW!!!! Awesome DIY and turn out great. Well done fella

Like the leather too, was it difficult using fabric rather than the stretchy vinyl?

I think it is a vinyl...it was quite stretchy.

Originally Posted by Iyrix

Great job! I guess you went from a single button, not the dual button controller?

Yeah it was a single button, but I thought the dual button controller has the same footprint?

Originally Posted by magic77

looks great, out of interest where did you get the leather from. was thinking of doing similar to my trim on the f30

Got it off ebay, can't find the link now, but if you just search for 'vinyl leather car trim', something similar should come up

Originally Posted by jammy78

Nice diy!

How have you secured the controller in place?

The controller fit quite snugly and doesn't move at all...I haven't really needed to secure it, but I might buy a bezel to make it look a bit more OEM.

[dy63]

you had any update on this or have you completed it? also do you mind sharing where you got your leather vinyl from. link would be great!

[jordanl5182]

I did complete it...It's a bit lighter now when I leave work, so I'll try and post up some good pics.

I ended up buying a bracket for the idrive controller as the buttons weren't quite right (stuck a little) for £30 from BMW...looks perfect now. (Part Number was 51169169999 if anybody's interested - it holds the controller in place perfectly and gives a bit of breathing space when cutting the hole for the controller.)

This was the 'leather' I bought, although it seems the price has gone up from what I remember. It's good stuff and really easy to work with:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2812646257...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[JulesM]

Thats's a great effort, I'm pretty sure I wouldnt have risked my own piano black centre!

[ahmedb]

Amazing work, really impressed with the cut out to CIC template.

I would happily post you my CCC centre console trim to you and pay you to do the CIC cut out for me

[Divotmaker]

Awesome job!!! I find myself in a similar situation and may go the route you have taken. Thanks for the post.

[AnthonyR]

Well done, great work