What have you done to your car today?

[Scott Naylor]

A little seat makeover for Christmas. Matching door cards next.
26F60900-FD51-4CF6-8BCF-6D14552148AF.jpeg

Nice one Ben, you seem to be a bit of an expert in this area of leather seat restoration. Please do share what products and detailing you've undertaken? I think these are new Sports seats to you bought on this forum?! Happy New Year btw

 

[deltasierra]

Had a good day today

Changed the water pump and thermostat on my 07 Z4 - N52 engine, I had a car lift and access was very easy, much quicker than expected, then filled up a bled the cooling system, worked first time. I had time to change the front discs as well, a 40min test drive completed the days work, well 4 hours anyway, many thanks for the hints and tips on the forum.

 

[Zedebee]

A little seat makeover for Christmas. Matching door cards next.
26F60900-FD51-4CF6-8BCF-6D14552148AF.jpeg

Nice one Ben, you seem to be a bit of an expert in this area of leather seat restoration. Please do share what products and detailing you've undertaken? I think these are new Sports seats to you bought on this forum?! Happy New Year btw

Yes indeed.
These were a fairly rough set of manual/heated seats acquired on the forum. First up a good clean (rails and leather) with a household detergent. A toothbrush helps with the rails. Then a light sand down and touch up of all the scratches and worn areas, mostly around the side bolsters using Furniture Clinic leather repair kit (black leather repair paint lightened very slightly with the white tint). Finally a good coat of dubbin all over restores the seats from “fairly rough” to “good”.

Having then fitted the seats, I decided to colour them. Again, give them a clean with a household detergent which gives just as good a result as using the recommended alcohol prep / leather cleaner. Then a few coats of leather repair paint in
Walknapa Syrah Blue, drying off with a hairdryer in between coats. Take care around the edges with a fine paintbrush. Wait a week for the paint to properly cure, then re-dubbin.

Almost, but not quite, a very expensive upgrade for less than £50 and a few therapeutic hours in the garage.

 

[jock156]

Hi Zedabee, which household detergent?

 

[patriot66]

Took my Z4 for its first MOT today since fitting the Infinitas Supercharger last March. Very pleased indeed that it passed with no advisories

 

[TOMGREEN413]

....Wow I didn't know you could get a supercharger kit for the Z4...looks fast !!

 

[Robster68]

20230104_165153.jpg
Took my Z4 for its first MOT today since fitting the Infinitas Supercharger last March. Very pleased indeed that it passed with no advisories 20230104_163336.jpg

Nice looking inspection pit there and the cars not bad either

 

[patriot66]

....Wow I didn't know you could get a supercharger kit for the Z4...looks fast !!

https://infinitas-automotive.com/en/supercharger/

 

[patriot66]

20230104_165153.jpg
Took my Z4 for its first MOT today since fitting the Infinitas Supercharger last March. Very pleased indeed that it passed with no advisories 20230104_163336.jpg

Nice looking inspection pit there and the cars not bad either

 

[Usel]

I have now finished covering the dash trims and centre console with the leather pieces from JF customs on ebay. I took the car out for a spin yesterday and seemed an ideal time to take a shot of the interior. Please excuse the floor towel but anyone with a beige interior will understand.



Whilst I had the centre console remove I also re-coloured the arm rest, handbrake, gaiter and shifter leather. Whilst I am lucky that my car came extended leather and new england colour leather on seats and door cards the interior has always seemed a bit of a mis-matched parts from a parts bin. Here, from an older photo, you can see the arm rest is different to the hand brake sleeve, which is different to the handbrake handle, and then the gaiter and shifter different again.



Just to show the mis-matched parts further, below is a before and after on the door cards. Horrible caramac plastic door handle parts and grey handle, chrome door pulls and a different silver grey window switch. All replaced except the for the window switch so the parts are the same colour.

 

[MikeyH]

They look great, were they easy to fit?

 

[jock156]

Good work Usel!

 

[enuff_zed]

I have now finished covering the dash trims and centre console with the leather pieces from ZF customs on ebay. I took the car out for a spin yesterday and seemed an ideal time to take a shot of the interior. Please excuse the floor towel but anyone with a beige interior will understand.

20230104_114500.jpg

Whilst I had the centre console remove I also re-coloured the arm rest, handbrake, gaiter and shifter leather. Whilst I am lucky that my car came extended leather and new england colour leather on seats and door cards the interior has always seemed a bit of a mis-matched parts from a parts bin. Here, from an older photo, you can see the arm rest is different to the hand brake sleeve, which is different to the handbrake handle, and then the gaiter and shifter different again.

Screenshot_20230105-104553_Gallery.jpg

Just to show the mis-matched parts further, below is a before and after on the door cards. Horrible caramac plastic door handle parts and grey handle, chrome door pulls and a different silver grey window switch. All replaced except the for the window switch so the parts are the same colour.

20210402_203851.jpg

20210402_203847.jpg

If those are the trim panels you picked up from me then they definitely went to the right home.
I can almost hear [ref]jock156[/ref] raiding his piggy bank and looking for your address.

 

[ljcollingham]

Great transformation Usel, looks really fresh.

I've recently bought and installed leather gaiters & trim covers from the same / similar ebay seller:

 

[Usel]

They look great, were they easy to fit?

Short answer = No

Longer answer = Never done it before so started with the headlight switch trim. Came out ok, if doing it now, I could have done it better. Really tight to fit it back on over the switch. Centre console was next and came out the best, you can really stretch the leather, so imo that almost looks oem. The part is really labour intensive to fit but easy to re-fit to console. Passenger trim was the final bit to be done and was really difficult getting the stitching in the right place, was a wider area to stretch so was harder to make it look smooth. There is an oem one on ebay for £145, should have bought that tbh. It was easy to fit and not labour intensive. Whole job is many many hours for a noob. Worth it for me though. If you have done a mewant steering wheel then that was really really easy in comparison.

Really long answer= Wants its own thread really and seems a few posters have done it before, which I used for research, but they have not given hardly any detail about how they did it. Bigwinn has done the centre console and a guy earlier in this thread has done all 3 trims many many pages ago.

 

[Usel]

Good work Usel!

Thanks

If those are the trim panels you picked up from me then they definitely went to the right home.
I can almost hear [ref]jock156[/ref] raiding his piggy bank and looking for your address.

They were indeed, thanks enuff

 

[Usel]

Great transformation Usel, looks really fresh.

Looking really good, I wanted a piano black look without the glossy and the very hard not to scratch finish. In hindsight I could maybe have lived with piano black dash trims and leather centre console. I'd recommend the centre console to most people if they can live with the idea of ripping most of the interior to pieces to replace it. :evil: I have never done a job like this before and usually I'm the person who realises how something comes off properly once you've snapped all the fittings off

Your headlight switch trim looks better than mine

 

[Robster68]

Out with the old,in with the new.

 

[ljcollingham]

Great transformation Usel, looks really fresh.

Looking really good, I wanted a piano black look without the glossy and the very hard not to scratch finish. In hindsight I could maybe have lived with piano black dash trims and leather centre console. I'd recommend the centre console to most people if they can live with the idea of ripping most of the interior to pieces to replace it. :evil: I have never done a job like this before and usually I'm the person who realises how something comes off properly once you've snapped all the fittings off

Your headlight switch trim looks better than mine

Thanks, I actually think your covered trims look far slicker than mine.
I bought the centre console leather and a spare ebay panel and once covered ready to fit, discovered just how much interior tear-down was required and so listed on ebay and it sold within a couple of hours. I then could not live with the aluminium factory panel amongst the black and so set about covering the interior in taped dust sheets and plasti-dipped the centre console in black before then covering in aliexpress sourced carbon trims on top :roll:
I now just have the matching knee pad leather covers to do and the interiors complete...

 

[dxh]

Passed its first MOT under my stewardship, with two advisories about corroded rear springs, got it booked in for that and rear dampers at the end of the month.