Interior Restoration

Here's a quick test area I've done (somewhere out of view) as you can see the leather underneath has not been dyed at all! So the bad job is actually a good thing :lol: It's just going to take a really long time to pull it all off.

seats.jpg
 
So the seats were effectively "painted" very strange.

I'd imagine the stitching will be more difficult to remove the colour from?

I personally prefer the champagne colour to dolphin grey.
 
Yeah the stitching is the most difficult bit, but it does come off with some careful persuasion. I think it will take a day or so to do each seat. I just need to wait til I have a free weekend as I don't particularly want to be driving around with camouflage seats :lol:

I agree that champagne is a lovely colour, but trust me these seats don't do it justice. I'd rather have OEM looking grey leather than slapped-on Dulux champagne :oops:
 
Fitted an illuminated ZHP knob today, hard to get a good photo but it looks great :)

zhp.jpg

As you probably know BMW don't make an illuminated one, so this is custom made. If anyone else is interested, here's where I got it from:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171095309779
 
It definitely feels genuine, and they only cost around £50 so the seller makes a pretty good mark up on the lighting add on.

It was very easy to fit, I tapped in to the 2 wires that power the ash tray illumination.
 
I nearly got one of these when i picked mine up... But at the time it was £26 for the zhp from soper vs £80 for the illuminated one from ebay... Shame as the illuminated one looks cool :thumbsup:


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I don't think there is a block to plug this in to in the Z4, and the knob didn't come with one anyway so I soldered it. I had to add a good 30cm extra wire as you need quite a lot of slack to get the cigarette lighter console out and do the soldering. I then zip-tied the slack wire to the gear stick under the gaitor.

But it's a very easy DIY job, the 2 wires to tap in to are very obvious and easy to access.
 
I wired mine into the Hazard Light switch as this lights up with the side lights.
Pushed the 2 wires into varies pins while the side lights where on until i found the correct ones, then BINGO

Loving your work on the interior!! :thumbsup:
 
Same knob/supplier I used.

I bought a plug and wiring tails from the dealer though so I could just plug and play which also leaves my original knob as new.

///M had the socket already of course. :wink:
 
edd_jedi said:
Jonny essex said:
Your right about the seats, OMG!!!!
Click to expand...

Yeah it's a real shame. I can't fault him for trying, but they look like they've been painted rather than dyed (I believe he even used a spray gun which set alarm bells ringing!) I've dyed a set of seats before in an old E36 and it took days of building up very, very watered-down layers of the dye, and the result was really good. Patience is key! If these weren't so buggered I'd give it a go myself, but I don't think it's going to be possible to get the dye off because there's so much of it.
Click to expand...


The passenger seat back was done with spray gun but I ran out of aerosols.....
you'll notice that looks far better.

and a bottle of water emptied itself in the passenger well...at least I think so, I noticed it wet about 2 days after I purchased it.
I used a wet vac to suck most of it up but as your aware the carpets are like sponges.
 
New seats collected and fitted today! Unfortunately it took so long that it was dark by the time I finished, so I'll get some proper photos tomorrow. But for the time being, here's a sneak peak:

interior.jpg
 
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