I really wanted ///M seats from the day I purchased the Z4. Somehow they seemed the ‘right’ seats Vs the much more armchair like sports seats. I recently sat in a model in the dealers upgraded to M seats and steering wheel and it felt a world different, so my decision was made.
Next up was the desire to go ‘red’ - Dream Red to be exact as having Sterling Grey paint I though it would really set it off and felt the black on black interior was a bit too Germanic and dare I say Audi/VW/Porshe like.
I also love the electric memory seats. I share the drive with my wife and we have the seat in very different positions, so the fully automatic on key opening is a joy. We’ve had it on the X5 and it makes our lives so easy.
Finally - heated seats. It’s cold in England at times and again the good lady loves heated seats. Roof down too it’s a great help as I can at least keep one side warm
The biggest issues here were:
1) ///M seats from BMW were out of the question due to £££’s
2) Dream Red ‘M’ seats on the second hand market are rarer than hens teeth
3) Electric, memory, heated, red, ///M – well I’d be waiting for ever…
So I decided to make my own.
Firstly a bit of luck and I managed to buy some mint condition 2005 Dream Red ///M seats….wow
The next stage was looking through the online parts catalogues it became apparent that there were many common components, so it seemed likely that I could do some switching around to make what I wanted.
So here we go:
Take my pair of 2003 electric sport seats – dismantle them
Backs off
Wiring loom out, pads sensors, etc.
Trim off
Squabs and pan base off
Take a pair of ///M manual seats – dismantle them to the same level
Stir it all around on the floor a bit and start to rebuild from the components
Manual base
Memory electric base
Add the red squab, pan bases and backs onto the electric bases (It was fairly easy once I knew how, but I made hard work of it as had no idea what I would have to dismantle, had not done it before and the TIS is not really designed to support this sort of dismantling work)
This gave me my new seats and I rebuilt remainder into a perfect set of black, sport, manual, heated, seats.
The end result is I have ‘///M’ sport seats, heated, electric, memory, in Dream Red - something that I doubt I could acquire otherwise.
New control panel
Interestingly the weight difference is minimal as the only extra weight is 4 motors/actuators, less the manual controls. I did some weighing and estimate I added a total of 10kg to the car.
I perhaps just need to change or recover the door cards to complete the transformation, but they are serious £££’s new, so we wait or find a local upholsterer.
The look IMHO is outstanding against the grey paint and dark leather/brushed aluminium interior and driving pleasure a quantum leap forward. :driving:
The end result
Now all I need is the MFSW to arrive and I’m almost finished (for now)
Post script – the error I made is to move the car with the passenger seat out. This triggered and airbag warning that required BMW to reset the system :headbang:
Next up was the desire to go ‘red’ - Dream Red to be exact as having Sterling Grey paint I though it would really set it off and felt the black on black interior was a bit too Germanic and dare I say Audi/VW/Porshe like.
I also love the electric memory seats. I share the drive with my wife and we have the seat in very different positions, so the fully automatic on key opening is a joy. We’ve had it on the X5 and it makes our lives so easy.
Finally - heated seats. It’s cold in England at times and again the good lady loves heated seats. Roof down too it’s a great help as I can at least keep one side warm
The biggest issues here were:
1) ///M seats from BMW were out of the question due to £££’s
2) Dream Red ‘M’ seats on the second hand market are rarer than hens teeth
3) Electric, memory, heated, red, ///M – well I’d be waiting for ever…
So I decided to make my own.
Firstly a bit of luck and I managed to buy some mint condition 2005 Dream Red ///M seats….wow
The next stage was looking through the online parts catalogues it became apparent that there were many common components, so it seemed likely that I could do some switching around to make what I wanted.
So here we go:
Take my pair of 2003 electric sport seats – dismantle them
Backs off
Wiring loom out, pads sensors, etc.
Trim off
Squabs and pan base off
Take a pair of ///M manual seats – dismantle them to the same level
Stir it all around on the floor a bit and start to rebuild from the components
Manual base
Memory electric base
Add the red squab, pan bases and backs onto the electric bases (It was fairly easy once I knew how, but I made hard work of it as had no idea what I would have to dismantle, had not done it before and the TIS is not really designed to support this sort of dismantling work)
This gave me my new seats and I rebuilt remainder into a perfect set of black, sport, manual, heated, seats.
The end result is I have ‘///M’ sport seats, heated, electric, memory, in Dream Red - something that I doubt I could acquire otherwise.
New control panel
Interestingly the weight difference is minimal as the only extra weight is 4 motors/actuators, less the manual controls. I did some weighing and estimate I added a total of 10kg to the car.
I perhaps just need to change or recover the door cards to complete the transformation, but they are serious £££’s new, so we wait or find a local upholsterer.
The look IMHO is outstanding against the grey paint and dark leather/brushed aluminium interior and driving pleasure a quantum leap forward. :driving:
The end result
Now all I need is the MFSW to arrive and I’m almost finished (for now)
Post script – the error I made is to move the car with the passenger seat out. This triggered and airbag warning that required BMW to reset the system :headbang:
I don't think there's enough material to do the job.
