Replacement leather for the standard Z3 seats is readily available, but the leather for the Sport seats and /M seats has not been. As most of you know, the Sport and /M Sport seats have much larger bolsters than the standard seats. As a result of that, they do require hog-ring style attachment to the seat frame in the center areas.
Several months ago, I sent my worn-out seat leather and my seat foam pieces to LeatherSeats.com in Oklahoma City. They used those to develop leather patterns for the Standard Sport Seats.
LeatherSeats.com is well-known for providing high-quality replacement seat leather with outstanding craftsmanship. The materials are as good as or better than original and they come with all of the original “hidden” components such as attachment points. They also offer a wide array of upgrades such as higher-quality leather, upgraded stitching, upgraded components such as full leather instead of vinyl on back, and a wide array of color choices for both the leather and stitching. I opted for up-graded perforated leather inserts and higher-quality “Ecstasy” full grain Italian leather.
They produced a YouTube video of their work on my new seats:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH2VEautI7g[/ame]
Actually, if you do a YouTube search on “LeatherSeats.com BMW” you will find their videos on both the standard Z3 seat and my Sport seat.
Since they had the foam anyway, I had them refurbish parts of it that were deteriorating. They started by steaming the foam to restore it to its original shape and regain its softness. They had to do that to develop the leather patterns accurately. They have another YouTube video on the foam-steaming process if you want to try it at home.
Their foam repair was much better than I would have done, which would have been a simple cut-and-replace job. They wrapped the wire frame with batting to keep it from cutting into the new foam (something BMW missed), they replaced the broken-down foam pieces, and they reinforced the bolsters with scrim foam with a nylon skin. If you want foam work done, talk to Tim when you place your order.
Eric developed Sport Seat patterns from my seats, but since I had chosen a perforated leather insert, we decided to use the /M Seat seam style around the shoulder area. That provides a visual frame around the center insert material that the Sport seat lacks, since the shoulder section on the Sport seats extends to the edge of the seat back. He would have been glad to re-create the entire /M seat pattern, but I thought that would look phony in my non-/M roadster.
Now that they have patterns, they can offer Sport Seat replacement leather as a standard item. According to RealOEM.com, my Sport seat foam part numbers are 52108410323 (Seat) and 52108410324 (Back), however the numbers imprinted in them are 38642 (Seat) and 48222 (Back), so I'm not sure exactly what is the correct foam number for the Sport seat. Whatever it is, Leatherseats.com has the patterns to fit the Sport seat that I sent them.
I’m not 100% positive the Sport Seat leather will fit the /M seats. The two look very similar except for the stitching and seam placement, but the best I can determine (again from RealOEM.com), the /M seat foam are part numbers 52102693070 (Seat) and 52102693085 (Back), so although they look alike, they may not be. They do share the same frame.
If you need /M seat leather and the Sport seat pattern doesn’t work, you can still have LeatherSeats.com fabricate new covers, but it will have to go to Eric in the patterning department. That will take more time and cost more. He can work with just the old leather, but since leather stretches and moves around a bit, he can do a better job with the old foam as well.
I have the new foam and leather installed and couldn’t be happier. The seats are soft and comfortable and certainly better than they were originally.
As a do-it-yourself project, it’s somewhat daunting, but not bad. I’m glad I had the professionals do their professional work while I did the rest. Here are some more tips for the do-it-yourselfer if you want to take this on:
- Even if you have a local upholstery shop do the work, there is a significant amount of non-upholstery work that goes into disassembling the seat. You need to remove the base, plastic trim, seat belt attachments, etc. There is easily 4-5 hours of labor in that work for two seats.
- To remove the plastic back, you pull out the two plastic push-rivets at the bottom, then slide the back upwards to release two hooks at the top. To remove the sensor in the back, push the plastic rivet pins through and recover them later.
- It helps to photograph the bottom of the seat before removing the base. There are a lot of wires, connections, and ties that need to be re-installed correctly to prevent pinching a wire. Luckily, most of the wires sort of “remember” where to go anyway.
- The back foam piece is held to the frame with four giant hog rings, more like steel bands, that wrap round some red steel rods imbedded in the back foam. These were hard to remove and got seriously distorted in the process. I replaced them with two zip-ties each.
- Although the seat leather is attached with hog rings, I used zip ties instead. They were quite easy to work with.
- The plastic pieces that go on the bottom sides of the seat are installed with two screws that go through the leather into the seat pan. Be sure to mark these as you install the seat leather. At least photograph the holes in the pan so you can locate them by feel. Failure to do so might require a complete disassembly later. The holes are not where you expect them. This is experience talking here.
- I replaced the seat belt guides while I was doing this, even though mine weren’t broken. No sense in re-installing old guides after all of the work of switching leather.
Last edited by Blacklane; 04-11-2012 at 08:53 PM.
How much did it cost to have all the work done?
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I bought a set of the seat covers they sold before.
Ended up returning them and dealing with a dispute via paypal.
The covers I got lacked the straps that hold the backrest in place.
I would love to find a cover alternative, but so far my experience was not very good.
They sent me a replacement bottom seat cover set, but no backrests in exchange for the return. I still have them, not sure what to do with them though.
White is Right, Steel Grey is OK, but Estoril is the only color that truly matters.
I like Coupes.
My bill from LeatherSeats.com was $1300 US. That included the leather ($700), an upgrade to full-grain Italian Ecstasy Leather ($200), an upgrade to perforated inserts ($50), the foam repair ($100), and custom patterning work, which I'm sure they discounted so they could offer Sport Seat patterns that nobody else seems to offer. I got the impression that they would be offering this pattern in the future for somewhat less than what I paid, since the custom patterning work should be done.
Mpire: I just finished installing my seat covers and they absolutely included every attachment point and Velcro that the original covers had. In fact, where BMW used thin cloth, LeatherSeats used foam-backed Vinyl cloth. As you can see in the YouTube video, they look great. I wish I could post some good pictures here, but I am only worthy to post thumbnail-sized pictures.
There was an e-bay seller called "Leather-seats.com" (with a dash) that sold really cheap leather. Maybe that's who you worked with.
I had previously bought non-sport seat leather covers from LeatherSeats.com only to find out that I don't have non-sport seats. Those seat covers were also very well-made and I would have been happy to use them. Those weren't the Italian Ecstasy leather and I can say that the Ecstasy is a huge step up in quality.
Last edited by Blacklane; 04-12-2012 at 11:22 PM.
Blacklane,
Did your Z3 have seat heaters? If so, were they glued to either the leather or the foam?
I am strongly considering installing the same leather kit, but want to make sure I have the same seat as yours so that the patterns match. The 2002 Z3s had one of four seat styles. (www.GAHH.com has a diagram of the 4 styles.) http://www.gahh.com/product_info.php...219c7ab0d3889a
(Then click to enlarge image.)
Which number style did your Z3 have originally?
Ahead of time, thank you.
Seems like quality product... I have Sport seats but they are still in good condition. If I was in the market for covers I would consider these...
Phil
Any more pics of them installed? I quite like the look without the horizontal lines. Its what I like about the sport seats and the M seats.
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Looks awesome. Need me some cinnamon seats. Not spending that kind of loot though.
Pretty cool - I like that style (sans-ribbing, plus perforated inserts)- and the pricing isn't horrendous. Thanks for posting- one more thing to add to the wish list.
- dan
Dude.... good call. That accent throughout the interior on your car would be
OP, thank you for sharing. As our cars get older the seats are obviously one of those things that will see a lot of wear and tear regardless of the use of the car. It's nice to know that there are options which will retain the OE look and feel while allowing some customization as well as a 'refresh'.
Last edited by clintjg; 07-17-2012 at 09:23 AM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
2002 Alpine White w/ Black 368 (<OO \(||][||)/ OO>)
Power: Custom Exhaust w/ High Flow cats, CSL headers, built, low-compression Supercharged and aftercooled S-54, ViPEC standalone ECU, Vortech V2 Si trim
Driveline: Euro 6 speed, 3.64 diff w/ 40% Lockup, Rogue Octane SSK, UUC Red TME kit, UUC Stage 3 LTW Flywheel/M5 Clutch, SS Shift Knob
Suspension & Brakes: TC Kline True Match Coilovers 500f/500r w/ adjustable camber plates, Racing Dynamics sways, Custom front sway endlinks, ATE fluid, UUC/Willwood BBK 6 piston f - 4 piston r , Slotted E46M3 Rotors, Stainless Lines, Strong Strut, IE Subframe & adjustable rear trailing arm bushings
ICE & Misc: Projector Z's w/DDE & 5k HID, 19'' Gold HRE C20's, Custom Aux pwr outlet, footwell lighting, ACS Splitters, Areo Sideskirts, Custom gauge pods, Z8 Start, Pioneer AVIC Z3, Clarus Components, 10" RE Sub in a Mister-X Enclosure, Alpine PDX 4X150 + 1X600 Amps
Coming soon: and a visit to Randy Forbes
Hey Blacklane, how are the seats holding up? How about some pics to polish off this thread?
They still look and feel fantastic. The leather is certainly higher-quality than the OEM leather.
I can't beleive I haven't taken any pictures of the seats installed. I'll post something soon.
Here they are a year later. Installed plus 1 year.jpg They absolutely look and feel great and even still have that "new leather" smell when you get in the car.
Very nice, I have to get some of these--but now the question is whether to customize or keep it stock, and if to customize, what to do?
Wow, the combination of the perforated inserts and that stitching really sets it off. Seats look great man!
You live in Oklahoma City. That's where these seat covers were made. You could save the shipping cost.
Bring this back from the dead besides the company above anybody else sell good sport seat covers in leather. Had bought a set from Ridies.com but they canceled my order.
Thanks
John
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I just picked up a set of ratty M Roadster seats last night to have a set of custom covers made for them by Graham.
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Thanks for the heads up il check them out.
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So far tried multiple companies and nothing... any guidance would be appreciated
Thanks
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Thanks its seems like no one has them anymore.
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Forget the covers, show me someone who sells replacement foam for a decent price!
Zed's dead baby. Zed's dead.
Forget the foam, where's the black Oregon leather when we need it (for us standards)?
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