E39 supercharged 540i (should have bought an M5 addition)

In reply to peanutpckrupper :

Man I've been fighting the seat problem for two weeks.   It has the base seats now. They suck. I really don't want to spend $1,500 on 25 year old m5 seats, and there is nothing available locally.  I ended up buying these.  I'll dye the vinyl to match.  Eventually I'll reupholster the rear seats to match.  Maybe for the time being I'll reupholster the baby seats in hounds tooth.  

might be too busy keeping the houndstooth but Porsches seem to pull it off with the same color combo. 

Interior is starting to come together. The bare spots in the dye are covered in trim once everything is assembled.  This was way too much work but it's looking great.  I tried brushing it on with a foam brush but couldn't get a consistent finish. I switched to a spray gun but that didn't work either.  I ended up doing the first coat with a foam brush and then wiping the next coat(s) on with a rag.  Hard to get just right. You need to apply and then quickly smooth the entire area in one sweep right before it dries.  Otherwise the color won't be consistent.  The leather is much softer than it was before and not at all sticky or shiny like some have reported.  
 

This is coming along great! Thrash it together and bring it to cars and coffee on Saturday

Well, they were out of the hounds tooth but a pair of the suede version arrived today.  They're great!  Of course I need to dye them but they are the perfect balance of sport and comfort for my goal.  I think they look right at home in the e39 too.  Dying them is going to be a really challenge due the suede insert.  Hopefully the sue doesn't bleed into the suede. I'm going to figure out new headrests too.  They're the one part of the seat that just looks cheap.    

First coat on

suspension also started trickling in

I just put the recaro version of that seat in my e30 and damn are they comfortable but you're right the headrests look like an afterthought.

The color swap looks professional. Nice job!

I love this interior color choice for the change. I had a 97 540i Sport (6 speed) in black with the tan interior that I bought used back in the mid 2000s with low mileage and I would have loved to have a cinnamon interior. I also love magma and modena that came on the E36 M3. Those seats look really nice overall, a nice swap for the base seats. The BMW power seat adjusters always break in these cars and you end up with one side moving faster than the other.

My car ate the catalytic converters up before I got to 100k miles and I owned it at a time when I had few resources for DIY and there were no good aftermarket alternatives so I dumped it off. Also keep a close eye on the cooling and oiling. The valve cover gaskets like to leak, the valley pan gasket likes to leak and it is a huge PITA to get to it. If you don't get to the valley pan gasket soon enough you'll find the water pump blows up in protest of any air getting into the system. Then there is the usual plastic coolant overflow container that likes to blow up as well.

Time has healed my wounds on that car. I can now look back fondly on it for the driving experience, which is magnificient, but at the time all the issues that cropped up stressed me out.

I had the two piece wheels on my car.

I think my favorites though were these that came on the later year sport cars.

In reply to Harvey :

Fortunately the previous owner replaced all the seals including the valley and valve cover gaskets so I'll be good for a bit.  The cooling systems do suck.  The previous owner replaced it and then I replaced it when the tank started to weep.  I decided to ditch the whole setup and eliminate all the plastic with a metal impeller and this all metal kit from zionsville.  It was way to much money but with the supercharger an upgrade was in order.  
 

the first seat also came out well. Few spots to correct on the suede but I'm really happy with it

What brand did you end up using for the dye? It looks great.

Seats are done minus touch ups.  I ran into a hurdle with the plastic grey interior parts, the dye doesn't stick so I had to cover them in leather which was a bit of a pain. Now on to the suede headliner which was easier than I thought it would be.  So.  Much. Work. I won't to go back to work racecar land where there isn't interiors.  
 

The interior build is almost done.  I just knocked out the suede headliner and pillars which was stupid easy.  You can wrap parts in suede with some spray glue in minutes.  I did screw up the sunroof in one corner but I can't stop now.   The seats have proven incredibly frustrating.  The Sparco sliders jut bolt flat on the floor leaving the seat with 0 rake.  I bought a kit to angle them but that only gave it about an inch of rise.  I'm now $1,000 into seat mounts (sliders, angle mount, and e39 adaptors) and will still need to fab something to make it right.  In the photo below it's just sitting on the floor but once raised up it looks in place.  

peanutpckrupper said:

What brand did you end up using for the dye? It looks great.

I'm also interested after the sort of results you are getting, I might be able to just re-dye the seats in my NSX to original color rather than have them recovered.  

In reply to Box4VIR :

I may be blind.. but what seat model is this? I've been looking at picking up a Sparco R100 since they seem to be on marketplace often. But this is cool. 

In reply to EchoTreeSix :

Its a Sparco Sport Classic seat.  They just released them.  I like them but they are definitely made for wider humans.  I'm a wide guy (6'3" 200lbs) and I barley tough the bolsters.  

Well the car is on the ground and running!  Just an unbelievable amount of work.   Doing the interior, supercharger, 6 speed swap, coilovers, along with a pile of maintenance was a big nut to tackle at once.  I haven't driven it yet, some small things still to do, but I'm super happy with the ride height and the stock wheels look better than I thought they would.  I'll probably upgrade to M parallels eventually but these don't look out of place on a lowered car.  As it sits it looks stock, which I appreciate.  

That dye job looks amazing. What is it?

Dusterbd13-michael said:

That dye job looks amazing. What is it?

 

Thanks, it's Leatherique 

Box4VIR said:

The interior build is almost done.  I just knocked out the suede headliner and pillars which was stupid easy.  You can wrap parts in suede with some spray glue in minutes.  I did screw up the sunroof in one corner but I can't stop now.  

So, how did you deal with the sun visors and roof lights/console?

The interior transformation is nuts! The seats look great in that interior. 

In reply to Gammaboy :

I think I'm just going to buy black ones...Not ideal

Whew, finally wrapped up.  Its running a bit rich at wide open throttle so I'll need to get some tuning done but otherwise its on the road.  I'm really happy with it, the supercharger has a healthy amount of power, certainly not modern levels of M power but plenty.  I particularly happy with the BC coilovers, and the 6 speed swap.  Now I need to clean up the exterior and repant the front and rear bumper

Man that's a lot of work crammed into a tight timeline. Badass though, nice work

I wasn't liking the dark headliner at first, but with everything put together it's overall looking really good inside. It's definitely a q-ship with those wheels. The sport wheels or m parallels would spice it up a bit.

In reply to Box4VIR :

How are you liking those seats? I'm looking at putting a set in my 2002, and first-hand accounts are hard to come by.