Help! Matching magma leather? (large pic)

[EricP]

I have recently started to get bothered by the damage on the side bolsters of my car.. this picture is about 4 years old and my seats are in basically the same condition. I'm glad they haven't gotten too much worse, but I am wondering if I can do some patching/dying on the side bolsters without scuffing up and re-dying the whole seat. My seats have some cracking along the sides of the upper bolsters but nothing terrible.. a little dye could fix it, but the drivers side bolster appears to be nearly worn through. I will take a detailed picture later, it may have even been repaired before.. I just don't know how to tell.

Have you guys had any luck patching and color matching magma? Is that what color this is? It's been a while since I checked. I spotted this page in another thread and am wondering if any of these colors might be good with a repair kit:
http://www.leatherworldtech.com/AutoColorChart.aspx?make=BMW&catID=3

I have searched for leather repair, magma interiors, leatherique, and I can't seem to find some of the old information I remember seeing so I am looking for help. I just don't know if I can simply re-dye some areas or if I need a repair kit.. etc etc. Please post up some experiences and any pictures you might have of before/after! I am especially looking for some spot treatments and not whole-seat as I am too much of a weenie at this point to do that.

http://junk.zenblue.net/m3/zymol/m3_interior_wide.jpg

[dcardenas]

No experience working with Magma, I just want to point out what an amazing color it is. Wow!

[EricP]

No experience working with Magma, I just want to point out what an amazing color it is. Wow!

Hehe, thanks! I like it too, I really want to preserve it.

[missionhcky09]

I noticed you said something about leatherique. Don't they have color matching? Also, I attempted to do this but it was IMPOSSIBLE to find any color remotely close to modena so I just redid my whole interior. You can buy the leather from bmw but it's extremely expensive and comes from Germany so I was told it takes sometime.

[VonDeLinde]

i have magma i was told u cant rematch that marble look

[EricP]

i have magma i was told u cant rematch that marble look

I have heard that too, mine don't really seem all that marbly though and am just looking for an average color match for these small spots. Thanks for the info.

Just called leatherique, they have magma color and told me what years it was used on M3's and everything.... uhhhh...... order time! :) I just wasn't listed online. Sweet! I will let you know how it goes. Edit: And they totally threw in the other products for free with the dye because they are "also bmw enthusiasts" that don't want to see an M3 go to waste. Whether or not this is fantastic customer service, marketing ploy, etc.... works for me. Awesome! I'm already satisfied and I haven't even used it yet! hah.

[WTFPENGUIN]

how did the product work, Im thinking of ordering tomorrow

[libravcs]

If its a daily driver, the fix will last about 6 months or so. Permanent fix is to take it to a shop where they can replace just the worn sections, or source the oem leather from the dealer and install it/have it installed. Issue there is the new leather wont match the 10+ year old leather 100%. So you may end up going with an all new custom interior of your choosing for $1k from www.leatherseats.com (http://www.leatherseats.com).

Oh yeah..one new leather seat kit (for ONE seat) from the dealership is about $1200

[EricP]

I repaired the worn spots on my side bolsters, trying to carefully blend it in... you can't really tell unless you look really closely. The color match is nearly perfect but my leather around it is pretty dirty so it's ever so slightly different. Is it 90% better than a frickin white-looking near hole in my leather? You betcha!

I will repatch the sucker every 6 months if I have to. Looks good enough for me.

I also used it to touch up some cracks on the sides of the seat, now they don't stick out as bad either. I just had to be careful to only dye the cracks, wiping excess off, using water, etc so that I didn't re-dye over the top of the side of the seat. Leatherique recommends a tiny paintbrush for such details.

[xhale]

Do you have any after pictures? I'm thinking about doing the same thing to mine... just wondering how it came out.

[VonDeLinde]

i would love to see it

[EricP]

I wasn't taking this picture for this thread, should've used a tripod with this 10 year old POS camera but I was bored.. but basically unless you inspect the leather with it about 4" from your face, the slight color variations EASILY blend into magma leather. I'd say it was a 90-95% match. I will go get you the real comparison picture now because this one alone would look deceptive.

http://junk.zenblue.net/m3/seats.jpg

I know some of you can probably do better, the leather was still a bit dirty I am sure and I didn't do the entire bolster so blending the color was a bit of an issue, but keep in mind these pictures are taken with a bright camera flash and unless you are looking for the repair you will not notice it. It catches the flash in almost all of the pictures which is kind of unfair to the repaired area :P Also keep in mind what it looked like before... bordering on total destruction and a hole. I'm not sure if I got the dye in a couple cracks nearby or if that is just the lighting again or if maybe those also needed some treatment. I figure I can always touch it up as I go.

Overall I am pleased with the results and glad to not see any white spots on my seats where the leather is trying to wear through. I'd say I gave it probably 3-4 coats allowing a only a few minutes in between to dry because I am impatient. For now it beats buying new seats because I wouldn't have the balls to do the whole thing and am not sure it would match the door panels. Maybe someday it can have racing seats.. but I would need another DD.

http://junk.zenblue.net/m3/seats2.jpg
http://junk.zenblue.net/m3/seats3.jpg
http://junk.zenblue.net/m3/seats4.jpg

[questURE36]

Wow, looking at how nice those look makes me glad I sprang for cheapo seat covers for mine...There is a shop here in CT that can replace the leather and match it well. My drivers seat is in bad shape, despite using conditioner once a week and only 47k miles so I decided to replace the cover with a new one. I am going to save the leather to reuse in case the passenger one needs repair. Also, another idea is to find a mint rear magma seat which are easier to get, use the leather from that to repair your drivers.

[kaefer]

Drool....excellent condition Magma is so nice. Good job freshening up the seats.

My '98 sedan came with an excellent condition Magma interior...well...actually the drivers side front seat is "very good" while everything else is "excellent".

I've decided to pull my stock front seats out and I'm replacing them with a pair of Recaro SRDs. I'll miss the Magma leather but I love SRDs!

[zipaquira]

Drool....excellent condition Magma is so nice. Good job freshening up the seats.

My '98 sedan came with an excellent condition Magma interior...well...actually the drivers side front seat is "very good" while everything else is "excellent".

I've decided to pull my stock front seats out and I'm replacing them with a pair of Recaro SRDs. I'll miss the Magma leather but I love SRDs!



KAEFER - what will you do with your Magma interior once you install the recaros?

[kaefer]

KAEFER - what will you do with your Magma interior once you install the recaros?

I've considered selling some or all of the pieces. Send me a PM or email if you're interested!