Somewhat OT reconditioning and dying seats? Esty?

[Ray_73Turkis_OH]

I am restoring a 96 318ti and am looking at a set of sport seats in a 1995 318ti that is in a salvage yard and one of the windows is out.

There does not appear to be any damage or holes in the seats but they are dirty as sin and the leather on the one by the open window is fairly stiff. The seats are black with leather side bolsters with cloth centers.

If it works out, I would clean them and dye the cloth and leather all black.

I was wondering if you had any thoughts on the feasibility of reconditioning the leather and then dying it black.

If I use some form of oil (neats foot) to recondition and then try to dye them would the dye stick?

Thanks in advance

[esty]

based on my experience, once the leather is dried and cracking, it's stage 4...no treatment will undo the harm caused by the sun & weather...

dying fabric is iffy...most are synthetic and don't do well with dyes that are readily available...i've tried several times with bad results each time

if there is any magic out there that i don't know about, i'd love to find it...good luck

[Chamonix72]

I used this product on the E24 leather rear seats I bought. I dyed them from a light blue to BMW Marine Blue. Not great, but certainly passable.

http://www.leathermagic.com/Pages/lthrrecolrkit.htm

Here is the BMW color chart.

http://www.leathermagic.com/Pages/BMWcolrchart.htm

As for fabric? No clue.

[Mike Self]

do they have any e-30s? I'm looking for a pax side power window motor for my newly acquired E30 318is...anyone??? Also a right tail light for a plastic bumper E30.

mike

[eastsidebimmer]

I'm not an expert on the 318ti, but I had an early E36 318is and it had leatherette/vinyl seats. I've found from the E36 cars I've seen that this material holds up much better than the leather, but it does split. My opinion, hope they are leatherette, clean them well and treat them with vinylx - If I'm wrong and they are leather with cloth inserts, take the advice above.

[ahlem]

Leatherique was mentioned recently on an M3 forum as working well. You may be happier staying with the original color.

[esty]

for dying leather the best is SEM Color Coat...it's made for leather, not vinyl...is available locally at most auto paint stores and is a lot less expensive than the other product mentioned...spray on will give you a much much better finish than anything you have to brush on...brushing will cause unevenness in the color finish

maybe i misunderstood the question...if the leather is already dried out & cracking, i'm not familiar with any product that will restore it...there are quite a few snake oils out there that purport to rejuvenate dried, cracked leather but buy at your own risk