Swap seat cushions?

[JRowe]

I’m just purchased a 98 2.8 - silver with tanin red and black interior. I’m doing a mini restoration on it and got it for just $2500. It needs a few things though - a new top, shocks and struts and refurbished interior. Other than that, it’s in pretty good shape and drives well with 120k miles on it.

So my question is about swapping the drivers side seat cushion for a passenger side. The seat bottom is the only part of the seat upholstery that’s in bad shape with holes in three of the bottom panels.

I can find plenty of used passenger seats in good condition, but few drivers seats without paying too much. So, it it possible to just use the seat cushion from the passenger side and put it on the drivers side frame?

Thanks and I plan to start a more complete thread on my ongoing project.

[Blacklane]

You can't swap the backs due to the seat belt guide, but the bottoms are identical.

It is a lot of work to disassemble the seats to do this. Easily four to six hours for each seat. Be sure to photograph each step since they are really complex.

Given the effort involved, I recommend you just get new leather. Really, the leather that BMW used was pretty poor to start and replacement leather is readily available. There are lots of threads here on the topic.

[Bob M]

Based on where the holes are it may be repairable . I had a cut on the middle panel seat surface. It was about an inch long. The first leather shop I took it to they wanted to sell me new seat covers. When I went to the second shop he told he could move the seat material forward and resew the seam. I have the non sport seats. If you look at the center of the seat bottom it has three seams. He closed the hole by moving the seam forward. It was brilliant. He charged me $100 and I took the seat out.
It ended up being a double win as I cleaned the contacts for sensor under the seat, I also fixed the rocking at that time

[Jshearer33]

Has anyone swapped a comfort bottom seat cushion only with a sport seat cushion on an e36? Sport seat replacements are hard to find but plenty of comfort seats used on the market. Would like to keep the seat backs, as they are in good shape.

- - - Updated - - -

Has anyone swapped e46 or other model sport seat bottom cushions into an e36?