::..:: Thinking of putting leather seat covers onto an (originally) cloth seat base

[rob101]

I have had a look at leatherseats.com and they have some nice leather coverings to refurb the seats. I am wondering whether it is possible to recover the cloth normal seats with leather and whether anyone has done any recovering in general with the leather seats in the e34?
I have a quick look at real oem (http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=HD52&mospid=47375&btnr=52_0163&hg=52&fg=10) and it seems you need to get extra side bolsters but apart from that the seats seem to be identical.

[Morgenster]

I just swapped from cloth to leather and they are the same in build.
I'd watch it though. You'd have to figure out how to apply the leather without having it flop out of place in crevices and stuff.
Sean & Johan's site has a left to right transplant which includes re-upholstering the seats. It's e32 but gives a good idea about how to.

[RobPatt]

to spiff up leather, colorplus.com and leatherique.com...

for oem type seatcovers for mucho bucks... gahh.com and www.worlduph.com

and also www.iggee.com for more look alike seat covers...

and my favorite.... www.wetokole.com for custom designed covers good if you're a surfer or watersports bubba in your BMW.

good luck.


I have had a look at leatherseats.com and they have some nice leather coverings to refurb the seats. I am wondering whether it is possible to recover the cloth normal seats with leather and whether anyone has done any recovering in general with the leather seats in the e34?
I have a quick look at real oem (http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=HD52&mospid=47375&btnr=52_0163&hg=52&fg=10) and it seems you need to get extra side bolsters but apart from that the seats seem to be identical.

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

I have a decent set of leather seats in pergament.

If you are interested, I 'll disassemble the seats and send you just the leather and arm & head rests

[rob101]

unfortunately bob, my interior is black so i was thinking of going either jet black or Dark Charcoal. which one is sean and johnann's site there are so many german e32 sites!

edit found their site http://bmwe32.masscom.net/

[rob101]

I just swapped from cloth to leather and they are the same in build.
I'd watch it though. You'd have to figure out how to apply the leather without having it flop out of place in crevices and stuff.
Sean & Johan's site has a left to right transplant which includes re-upholstering the seats. It's e32 but gives a good idea about how to.
I was reading a few things on the subject and they mentioned sewing, how did you solve the problem with keeping the crevices in place?

[Morgenster]

I was reading a few things on the subject and they mentioned sewing, how did you solve the problem with keeping the crevices in place?

That's the problem. I didn't swap the cloth. I just swapped the seats,
so sorry. But I do think it's do-able since there's plenty of
professionals doing this for the ricer market in Belgium (which is
sadly big).

I imagine you'd have to find a way to tie down the seams in an even way
and sowing seems the way to go. That requires some fine motor skills, a
special needle and some very sturdy thread (dental floss like).

If it's
any consolation: if you carefully dissassemble the cloth seats you're
bound to figure out how to do it but by then you're deep in it and have
to go all the way so it's a risk. Reverse engineering is what helped me
get the headliner out of my car and back in orderly as well as fixing
some other parts. Not everything can be found in manuals ;) .

In two weeks I'm probably going back to work on mine and I could take a
look at my old seats for you if by then you need more answers.

[Robert K]

I am thoroughly convinced that leather really is a terrible automotive seating surface. In the summer, it is terribly hot, not to mention sticky once your back and legs begin to sweat because your skin can't breath against it. In the winter, it is freezing cold and will suck the heat right out of your body if it's near freezing out.

It is for the reasons above that the very first thing I ordered when I got my 1991 535i about seven years ago was a set of sheepskin seat covers. They are the opposite of what is described above. They can be somewhat warm in the summer, but at least your back and legs can breath a bit. In the winter...well, they're heaven. They don't feel anywhere near as cold as leather and heat up pretty quickly from your body heat.

We just bought my wife a 2004 Honda Accord. We intentionally passed on a couple of nice cars we found just because they had leather. I think we are so used to thinking of leather as a luxury item, that we give more creedance to the thought of leather rather than the realities of leather.

Something to think about...

Grace and peace,

Robert K
1991 535i (with very comfy sheepskins)

[rob101]

Yeah, I can't really say i totally agree with that my e28 has leather and I like it alot. one thing i hate is sheep skins.:p no offense
just looking at this webpage http://www.leatherseats.com/installation.asp
I'd say that the seams in the centre of the seat around the grooves in the cushions are hog ringed onto a metal rod within the seat base. can anyone confirm this?
here's anotherhttp://www.evnut.com/prius_seat_heat.htm

[Paul in NZ]

i like the leather too..and it is actually very very easy to keep nice.You dont see many cars as old as ours with nice cloth seats...

[PScalfano]

Rob, those wetokole seat covers look nice. Do you have any experience with their product? How's the quality / fit?

[Tiger]

An Australian who hate sheep? ;o) Boy is there a joke following this... LOL

[rob101]

An Australian who hate sheep? ;o) Boy is there a joke following this... LOL
i took the sheepskin off my e28 rear seats, revealing 22 yr old leather that had never seen the light of day.
boy was I chuffed.

and no i haven't had any experience with wetokole covers

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

i took the sheepskin off my e28 rear seats, revealing 22 yr old leather that had never seen the light of day.
boy was I chuffed.

and no i haven't had any experience with wetokole covers


Wet Okole (wet ass) are from Hawaii, mostly for surf mobiles.

They are okay, but mostly come in floral Aloha prints