Friday, April 13, 2012

when i bought my e21, the back seat was particularly bad, someone else that was interested in the car walked from it because the back seat was bad...when i used that information as a price adjustment, i drove away with the car...

today, the engine has been extensively rebuilt, stainless steel intake/exhaust valves, dual valve springs, forged-high-compression carved pistons, conversion from fuel injection to twin weber dcoe's, a new coolant system, 5 speed conversion, oversized front/rear sway bars, new 323i trailing arms and disc brakes, NOS BBS lowering coil springs front/rear, front suspension rebuild, euro sheetmetal, grill, 7'' single H7's, bmw motorsports front valance-and-early '77 valance with euro-front bumper, recaro front seats, and retrofitted e12 rear seats have always been the goals, or restoration highlights i wanted to see happen with this car...it was a beautiful day today and i have some time, i went to the garage picked up 2 sets of e12 rear seats that i had pulled out of a local junkyard...i washed the 2 best seats...let them dry on the back porch in today's sun...and after sometime drying i applied kwki black leather dye...here are some pics...there is only 2 coats of dye in these pics, and i have begun to stain the center console...

fresh from the barn looking, grey e12 rear seats before cleaning...


i used dish washing liquid, and warm water to clean the seats of years of gunk and stuff...
light brown center console was the best i could find in terms of condition...before i began the dye process i also pulled a few extra pieces to use as test tries...the black dye covers the light brown fine...


you can see the comparison between the original grey, and a skimmed coat of leather dye on the seat on the left....
after the skimmed coat dried, i applied a fully covering first coat...again, compared to the grey...

2 coats of dye applied liberally....