L seats review

[dnbmbimmer]

Hi All, I had earlier posted that I would be reupholstering my 328ic sport seats with the leather covers from L Seats. So, my verdict is that I am pleased with the L Seats product. Please read on for details.
The two front seats were $299.00 US, shipping another $28 to 58271. For that money I wasn't sure what I would be getting but posts on other forums had positive reviews. Most negative posts were due to the companies bad communication.
My experience had no issues with the order or communications with L Seat. They did take about 2-1/2 weeks to arrive but I was in no real rush anyway. I did get the free leather swatch first and their silver grey was the closest they had to my dove grey interior even though they also had a dove grey listed. The color itself is NOT a perfect match for the OEM seats, but it's pretty close. I had thought to spray my rears in case it was a really bad match but I don't think I'll bother as it's close enough. If I was uber picky I would either do the respray or get their kit for the rear (another $299).

The leather itself is grainier than the OEM leather. I don't mind this but some may. I believe the leather is also slightly thicker, not a bad thing. Over all I have no issues with the leather. L Seat glues/sews in a 1/8" foam pad all over the back of the covers. This can take up some of your irregularities in your seat foams BUT is also harder to get the seams to lay flat in corners. This was a slight problem in a couple of areas but you CAN work around it. There were a few places where the stitching wasn't quite as nice as I would have liked but these turned out to be non-intrusive. You should inspect your covers if you buy from them to make sure they are ok for use. I'm really not sure how much quality checking they do, maybe I got a average or above average or less than average set...how would one know?

I will be posting a full install youtube and will let you know where it is.

ALSO, I do have one OEM seat cover in good condition if someone wants to buy it..maybe $50 plus shipping.

Don B

[gc325is]

Do all the need parts to install come with the new covers? And does it take 3 hours? I can wait for the movie.

[dnbmbimmer]

Hi, you only get the covers but all you really need for "parts" are hog rings and assorted tools for the rest of the install. I also has some seat gears/motors to repair so did this at the same time so, no 4 hours is not going to do it. There is a learning curve to doing the work but my youtube video should help. I'll also post the dialogue in this forum. I would estimate a seat only job as follows: take out seat 1/2 hr, unfasten bottom seat 15 minutes, unfasten back rest and headrest 15 minutes, R&R bottom 2 hours, R&R back 1 hour, reinstall bottom and top in seat 1/2 hr, reinstall in car 1 hour. So the total PER seat is 5-1/2 hour with no extra jobs added. I don't really think this is realistic though as you will probably have to fix something else as well as doing a re-lube on the seat mechanisms. There is also a plastic tube piece which goes around the metal tube at the rear of the seat which is almost always broken on these cars. You cannot buy this plastic piece so I had to use vinyl tubing to replace mine. I would count on having to do this on your car as well and yet another time sucker 1-1/2 hour. You may also have to do a foam repair unless you are buying new foam, again more time.

I would take my time installing the leather to make sure its as good as you can possible make it.

Don B

[wgknestrick]

Hi All, I had earlier posted that I would be reupholstering my 328ic sport seats with the leather covers from L Seats. So, my verdict is that I am pleased with the L Seats product. Please read on for details.
The two front seats were $299.00 US, shipping another $28 to 58271. For that money I wasn't sure what I would be getting but posts on other forums had positive reviews. Most negative posts were due to the companies bad communication.
My experience had no issues with the order or communications with L Seat. They did take about 2-1/2 weeks to arrive but I was in no real rush anyway. I did get the free leather swatch first and their silver grey was the closest they had to my dove grey interior even though they also had a dove grey listed. The color itself is NOT a perfect match for the OEM seats, but it's pretty close. I had thought to spray my rears in case it was a really bad match but I don't think I'll bother as it's close enough. If I was uber picky I would either do the respray or get their kit for the rear (another $299).

The leather itself is grainier than the OEM leather. I don't mind this but some may. I believe the leather is also slightly thicker, not a bad thing. Over all I have no issues with the leather. L Seat glues/sews in a 1/8" foam pad all over the back of the covers. This can take up some of your irregularities in your seat foams BUT is also harder to get the seams to lay flat in corners. This was a slight problem in a couple of areas but you CAN work around it. There were a few places where the stitching wasn't quite as nice as I would have liked but these turned out to be non-intrusive. You should inspect your covers if you buy from them to make sure they are ok for use. I'm really not sure how much quality checking they do, maybe I got a average or above average or less than average set...how would one know?

I will be posting a full install youtube and will let you know where it is.

ALSO, I do have one OEM seat cover in good condition if someone wants to buy it..maybe $50 plus shipping.

Don B

So you didn't do any steaming of the foam? IMO, this is probably one of the most important steps to insuring a wrinkle free, quality job with seats of this vintage. If you have access to a steamer, I'd highly recommend it so we can really see what is possible with these covers. Very little info out there on them anyways. Pictures are key, and I'm sure the whole community will appreciate your time and effort. If these are a 7/10 or 8/10, I'm sure they are a great value solution for most people over the Autoberry's.

[dnbmbimmer]

I did in fact steam my foam well before I put the covers on. I also steamed the seats after the new leather covers were on. There wasn't a huge difference but I was pretty happy with the results before steaming anyway. I have photos of everything but I will probably have to do several youtube posting due to length. In terms of a score I would give them a 8/10, one pt being deducted because the color is not an exact OEM match and one pt deducted for all the other non-oem matters (grainy leather vs smooth and some other really nit picky stuff). See photo attached. Don B.
DSCN9720.jpg

[CblockM3]

I’ve been curious about these, thanks for doing the write up!

[Deus Ex Machina]

I have a set of Vaders I plan on covering with these. It is too bad they don't have matched colors to factory. If they had factory tan and Modena they would sell a lot more covers.

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