Well, time to dig this back up. Stage two: Interior.
I've got a black, early non-airbag dash to put in (along with replacing the leaky heater core), and the black center console etc. Rear door sunshades. Also a set of electric, memory sport seats that will have the heaters added into.
Plan is to have the seats redone and dyed chestnut brown, or some other brown IDK. Black dash, console, etc. Black door card tops, brown lowers with some black to divide it up. Black carpet. Headliner will be dark grey suede/alcantera.
I'll start with the dash swap and dying the carpet. It's all parchment now, so going to any other colour should be fine.
Any tips on placed to get leather dye in specific BMW colours? I'm finding a lot of leather repair places, but I'm totally new to this....do wanna DIY as much as I can though.
1994 550iT/6 : 2003 330i/5
I had great results with Leatherique when redoing my daily's parchment interior. They can match any sample you send if it's not in their BMW catalogue. I recommend something like the Elekta Hazelnut if you're into dark browns.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1995-bmw-m5-2/
I used leathereque as well.
The secret is do do lots of thin coats with a small sponge and use a big car cleaning size sponge to smooth the coat to eliminate lines. This way u still see the grains on the leather. I woonder if u can get the leather covers. I’ve got a lead on some sport seats so may need to revisit the dyeing again.
Btw the v12 is awesome. It’s not the most powerful engine but it sounds great and even the starter motor is cool
Last edited by GazM3; 04-06-2018 at 12:42 AM.
BMW’s
90 E34 M5
84 E24 M635csi standalone ecu with coil on plug
94 E34 540i/6 SC 5-17psi Flex fuel/standalone ecu
97 Z3 2.8
97 E36 M3 euro SC still u/c
OTHERS
11 Audi S5 APR stg2
19 Volkswagen Amarok V6
Or even better, thin coats with an airbrush if you have one. I borrowed a nice one from a friend and it came out beuatiful. I did my DD with parchment as practice. I want to eventually do my Alpine touring in Hazelnut and Black.
Well this thing is still going. I did the interior a few years ago and am finally getting things wrapped up. Been daily driving it the past few weeks and every day I take care of another small issue. Finally got the rear door panels on, just waiting on some clips so I can put the sunshades in.
I did swap to early mirrors to get the big, crummy late ones off the car.
Fixed the center vent temp selector by trimming the center light tube down so it didn't kick the wheel back down.
Still trying to figure out a head unit, but it's been okay just cruising with the car noise.
Little photo dump since it's been a while. Turns out these cars like being driven and this one actually drives pretty well.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Last edited by slammin e28; 11-29-2022 at 11:48 AM.
1994 550iT/6 : 2003 330i/5
My, oh my, I did not know this thing was here. That is one beautiful machine, sir, inside and out (probably looks even better cleaned up ).
Awesome car, awesome thread. I have a 4.6 V8 in my Touring but a V12 is the daddy for smoothness.
Interesting aside about the centre vent - my cold/hot wheel gets sticky/rebounds back down - is that what yours was doing?
Eh, the paint is pretty shot. It cleans up okay, but really just needs new paint. Roof clearcoat is totally gone. Some places on the body need to be straightened out too lol.
Not that smooth. The DMEs are from an auto car so it likes to lope at idle. Sometimes it will smooth out and then it's realllll nice. There's also the getrag rattle because of the idle and my 15lb flywheel. Running ATF in the trans now, but thinking about changing it to RP Synchromesh.
Yes. The wheel would spring back down/up to the middle. I had no real heat as a result. The light tube inside becomes stiff and will do that. I tried to make more room for it, but ended up snipping it short. I should have taken pics but....yeah....
It still illuminates the little white - in the wheel. It's not hard to take the vent assembly apart. Getting the vents out of the dash I found to be pretty frustrating though.
1994 550iT/6 : 2003 330i/5
I've had that struggle getting the vent out - four old credit cards worked for me - as has a little 3-in-one oil accurately squirted either side of the wheel.
I'm lucky that I also have a V12 for smoothness - a 5.7 in my E38.
It sounds like getting the paintwork sorted is your next mission - good luck.
Love your leather - really jealous. Also reminded I have that same steering wheel waiting to be put in - looks great!
Ahh makes sense! I'll try that next time.
Yeah, paint/body work. I'm no good at that, so it'll be a while while I save some scratch to get it done.
Ofc my next mission is m73/6sp into my black e39t. Gathering parts, still a lot to go though.
Thanks!
I need to get the blank for where the buttons used to be. The horn I was either too dumb to get to work or too impatient. I ended up swapping the wires in the connector for the BC button on the turn signal stalk...like where my old range rover had the horn. Works great and now I can run whatever wheel will fit (1994+ column) and not have to dick with the slip ring.
Last edited by slammin e28; 12-06-2022 at 04:44 PM.
1994 550iT/6 : 2003 330i/5
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