[xlr88r]

Gah!

At the risk of repeating myself, the beige... is... everywhere! At this point I was faced with beige lower front seat trims, rear console, rear air vents, and ash tray. I tried painting the lower seat plastics in 2 different ways, but neither look especially good. The rear console/air vent surround sprayed up OK, but it was still apparent that the surround itself was pretty battered underneath the fresh lick of paint.

While BMW's soft-touch plastics are aesthetically nice when brand new, they just don't hold up well in the long run. As painful as it was, I ordered a new rear console.

The front seat plastics (the trim around the controls) added up to a touch over £150 for both sides, just £15 short of what I paid for the interior itself! Yikes. Will scout around on eBay and at the breakers to get those, but the air vents I was - begrudgingly - happy to order new.

[Tambohamilton]

M539 restorations (check YouTube) quite often spray paints trim with satin black paint (not sure exactly which). Granted he's normally just touching up already black parts, but the finish always seems at least passable

[xlr88r]

Originally Posted by Tambohamilton

M539 restorations (check YouTube) quite often spray paints trim with satin black paint (not sure exactly which). Granted he's normally just touching up already black parts, but the finish always seems at least passable

Ah thanks, will take a looksee. "At least passable" would be a step forward for the passenger side seat trim, as that looks awful right now! That bad, that I bought a used trim from eBay a couple of days back. As to how they come off I don't know - have watched a couple of videos and read through the PelicanParts post, but it seems to be a bit of a pig to take off. While I could get slightly heavy handed removing the original one, I don't want to break any clips if possible. Although it's just a small thing, I can see this being a bit of a pain when I get to it!

[xlr88r]

On top of the beige, another thing posed a headache during the refit: CIC controllers don't work with CCC. Everything apart from scrolling is OK, which is real shame. I think the Saddle Brown and Satin Silver trims are a great match; there's a lovely contrast between them and a the now (almost) black interior.

For the time being, while I search for a Satin Silver CCC controller trim, I'll use the CCC controller trim from my old E90, which I wrapped matte black a while ago. For the keen readers, that's the same wrap as I've just used on the climate surround, so at least there's a bit of harmony through the centre of the car.

While I was there, some LCI bits found their way in...

Thanks to good old eBay, I picked up a faulty LCI climate panel and the cheapest LCI headlight switch I could find. Neither are plug-and-play on pre-LCI cars, so I took them and the originals apart, and swapped the knobs over. Kinda pointless, but definitely nicer to look at than the plain plastic ones in the pre-LCI cars.

It's the little things:

[xlr88r]

Some very-nearly-done pics!

For a few days I drove the car this way, with iDrive I couldn't scroll through, and a missing rear console. These pics were taken at the start of October. It's largely the same in there now, albeit the CCC iDrive controller is in place, the new rear console is in, and a couple of other bits have been tidied up since. I still need to add another coat of paint to the front seat airbag covers though. While the seats were out for recolouring, I did think about perhaps changing the airbags but thought better of it: really didn't want to start playing with parts like that unnecessarily!

All told this has been a really nice challenge and I'm over the moon with the results. It was daunting initially, but as the first bits of trim started to come (sometimes unwillingly!) out it became quite obvious what to do next. Our cars are logically put together things, and working on them is rewarding and genuinely fun as well.

Without further ado, those very-nearly-done pics I promised:

[jacbo]

this looks really great. Brown with the black just goes so well IMO. nicely done

[xlr88r]

Originally Posted by jacbo

this looks really great. Brown with the black just goes so well IMO. nicely done

Cheers! It's been a long old slog (am NEVER recolouring seats ever again!) but definitely worth it. There's a list of small snagging bits to sort out - lower front seat plastics, seat airbag cover paint/replace, and it would be good to find a Satin Silver CCC controller trim - but that aside it's about done...

...until the round things under the arches get some TLC

Phew!

[Tambohamilton]

PM me your email and I'll send you a pdf of the factory manual for removing the lower seat trim

[xlr88r]

Originally Posted by Tambohamilton

PM me your email and I'll send you a pdf of the factory manual for removing the lower seat trim

Ah you superstar, thanks so much! PM incoming. Would be great to replace these properly as there are so so many clips under there.

[Tambohamilton]

Will see to it later - left the pdf on my PC

[xlr88r]

Originally Posted by Tambohamilton

Will see to it later - left the pdf on my PC

Thanks so much, Tam! That's really useful. I had no idea that BMW guides went into such specific detail. Seems approachable... hopefully! If it works out, I'll post pics of the trim I tried to paint just for comedy value - it's hilariously bad

[Tambohamilton]

No problem. Let me know if there are others you need.

Yeah, they're proper. Just about fool-proof

[xlr88r]

Originally Posted by Tambohamilton

No problem. Let me know if there are others you need.

Yeah, they're proper. Just about fool-proof

Just about fool-proof?

Challenge accepted!

Thanks again for this one. Have just unlocked the car, bunged a cloth in the tailgate catch (to save crawling through the car if the tailgate closes), disconnected the battery and removed the seat. Here goes!

Oh, dug the Dremel out as well. The new trim doesn't have a cut out for the lumbar buttons so that'll need drilling out.

[Tambohamilton]

Ha, I know, I test the guides quite thoroughly too

[xlr88r]

A big thanks to Tambohamilton for the seat trim guide. That's another little snagging item ticked off the list, well, on one side anyway. No pics of them in the car just yet as it's getting dark already. Ugh. Winter is coming.

It's bye-bye to these badly painted monstrosities, and hello to some actual, proper trims...

...which of course were from a coupe, and so needed some careful work with the Dremel so the seat belt could actually anchor on to the seat base. Anyway, done!

[xlr88r]

Snag list item #1.

When I first test drove the car I was keen to give the Logic7 stereo a decent workout, as, from reading around, they're apparently a decent setup.

Not so with this. There was a distinct lack of anything happening in the low hundreds of hertz, irrespective of how much I played with the bass and treble and EQ as well. This just had to be sorted. After unbolting the front seats and sliding them back, I found a very crispy, rusty, and at some point soggy looking passenger sub. The driver's wasn't much better, pointing at some level of historic water ingress. I took the subs out and hooked them up to an old Technics amp in the spare room. Nothing, dead as a Dodo.

Time to find out where the water was getting in. I trapped some kitchen paper into the bottom of the door jamb and set the hose on it, starting at the bottom of the door, then checking the paper for wet, before moving up. When I was at the window trim line, there was a slow but definite trickle coming in from behind the door card. Vapour barrier it is!

Ordered a few metres of butyl tape and set to work. It's messy stuff, but has done the job. After sorting that, the known-to-be-working L7 subs from my old E90 made their way in.

Turns the volume right the way down...

Flattens the bass, treble, and EQ...

Centers the fader and balance...

Turns the volume up...

Whoa! That's better. For a factory fit stereo inside the second 'smallest' car from the BMW range at the time, this is pretty a awesome setup and works well inside the spacious Touring cabin. Phew! Glad it wasn't suffering amp or other issues elsewhere.

Please enjoy these pics of a drip from the vapour barrier and a poorly looking sub...

[xlr88r]

Snag list item #2.

After 10 days or so of driving the car with no rear console/air vent/ash tray trim in place, I bit the bullet and ordered new ones. Gulp! While they didn't quite add up to the cost of the interior as it was listed on eBay (£165, before I swiped everything else) they weren't far off.

But, having been so chuffed with the rest of the interior, I couldn't bring myself to either fit a battered used trim, or the original one I'd tried to spray. In fairness, the colour and evenness of the sprayed original trim was OK, but you could tell that it was really battered underneath... darned soft touch plastics!

Some shiny new bits and them fitted too:

[xlr88r]

Snag list item #3.

These vaguely circular objects of peril. If anyone's so bored that they've read this from the start, they'll probably remember that there was a real wobble from the front at about 50-55mph. Looking at the original wheels, it became clear as to why this was.











The horror!

- The fronts were on new ditch finders, which probably didn't help.
- The fronts were littered with wheel weights and likely out of balance.
- The fronts could be warped as well, come to think.
- The rears shared one good and one very iffy Bridgestone Potenza.
- The rears were either great, or terrible, with 2 cracks and acres of corrosion.

These just had to go.

The hunt for a new set started. I wasn't a fan of the ride on my E90 after stepping up to 19s, so 18s it was. After spending the best part of 2 days travelling around the Midlands, I amassed two sets of redacted wheels.

Why 2 sets? Quelle suprise for a factory E9x wheel, one set was cosmetically good, but both rears had welded cracks. Nicely welded cracks, but cracks all the same. The other set had better (but not good) tyres and were, crucially, crack free. I dropped the best 4 off for a refurb and sold the remainders at a net loss. Quelle suprise again.

As to what the wheels are, watch this space

[Tambohamilton]

Originally Posted by xlr88r

Snag list item #3.

These vaguely circular objects of peril. If anyone's so bored that they've read this from the start, they'll probably remember that there was a real wobble from the front at about 50-55mph. Looking at the original wheels, it became clear as to why this was.

The horror!

- The fronts were on new ditch finders, which probably didn't help.
- The fronts were littered with wheel weights and likely out of balance.
- The fronts could be warped as well, come to think.
- The rears shared one good and one very iffy Bridgestone Potenza.
- The rears were either great, or terrible, with 2 cracks and acres of corrosion.

These just had to go.

The hunt for a new set started. I wasn't a fan of the ride on my E90 after stepping up to 19s, so 18s it was. After spending the best part of 2 days travelling around the Midlands, I amassed two sets of redacted wheels.

Why 2 sets? Quelle suprise for a factory E9x wheel, one set was cosmetically good, but both rears had welded cracks. Nicely welded cracks, but cracks all the same. The other set had better (but not good) tyres and were, crucially, crack free. I dropped the best 4 off for a refurb and sold the remainders at a net loss. Quelle suprise again.

As to what the wheels are, watch this space

Oof, nice...!

[jacbo]

Oh dear... no surprise though i suppose. Seems far too common for BMW wheels.

Hopefully you got some decent tyres now as well

[M-technik-3]

Originally Posted by jacbo

Oh dear... no surprise though i suppose. Seems far too common for BMW wheels.

Hopefully you got some decent tyres now as well

Happens when you run run flats. Tires and wheels get heavy and hitting a pot hole the shock gets transferred to the and cracks.

Days of cars be light and nimble on their wheels have gone by with all of our sensor and nannies protecting us.

Sad seeing your wheels like that.

[xlr88r]

Originally Posted by Tambohamilton

Oof, nice...!

Delicious, eh?