Finishing my Dad's 2002tii-Legacy Project Story

[John_in_VA]

1 hour ago, Conserv said:

With due respect to @landon, I don’t believe a 15-year-old price is predictive of a 2022 price. 

 

Don't forget the DC area tax!  You might pay less if you go to Berryville or Winchester, but just like the boom in work for home improvement contractors the past two years it seems many folks have car projects that are putting the trusted body shops & interior guys here (Lim's, for example) months behind.

[Conserv]

You can spend more than $4K re-doing your interior, and you can spend less than $4K re-doing your interior. I suspect what’s most important is getting what you want, for a price you’re willing to pay.

 

There are lots of great discussions on this forum about re-doing, replacing, and restoring ‘02 seats. If you haven’t, you might want to read through a few of these to see the issues those before you have grappled with.

 

Two companies are most mentioned when it comes to “ready-made” seat covers: World Upholstery and GAHH. Both receive consistently favorable reports from forum members. GAHH might have an advantage in authentic appearance — and perhaps even in finish quality — but the differences are minor. Here’s a discussion of the ready-made seat cover issue:

 

 

Another big issue revolves around the “horsehair” cushions (a.k.a., gummihaar, in German) that underlie the covers and give the seats their shape, feel, and firmness. These pads deteriorate over time and — depending where your cushions are on the downhill slope — the replacement pads are available, but enormously expensive. A set of four, two for each front seat, was $1,500 six years ago, and is now approaching $2,000. Of course — counter-intuitively — the older your car, the better the condition of the cushions might be: square taillight used terrible quality cushions. Round taillights used better quality cushions. Foam rubber is a frequent substitute for the expensive horsehair pads. Some are fine with that; others object to that furiously.

 

Here’s a discussion of seat cushions.

 

 

Third, the interiors wear unevenly. Drivers seats show much more wear than passenger seats and passenger seats show much more wear than rear seats. But… the tops of rear seat backrests, if exposed to sunlight for decades, are often dried out and cracked. Regardless, look at your interior carefully and assess whether everything needs replacement, or simply components.

Lastly, for now, consider your goals for the car. Is originality, or original appearances very important, not important at all, or somewhere between those two poles?

 

I’m not saying the proposals you received are fabulous or terrible. I’m just suggesting that you should know what you’re getting, and whether it fits your goal.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

 

 

[BarneyT]

I used this guy for pre-made seat covers, they did a great job and  i had a local guy install…

[SydneyTii]

12 hours ago, BarneyT said:

I used this guy for pre-made seat covers, they did a great job and  i had a local guy install…

Almost makes me want to ditch my Recaro’s….. almost, that is until I sit in them!

[fjord-tii]

If you haven’t already done the carpet, the best time is when all the seats are out. 

[bimmer_b]

On 4/5/2022 at 5:43 PM, Conserv said:

 

Thanks for all the info! I appreciate it. For this car, I'm probably just going with what came in the car. I had some E21 Recaros a long time ago I had thought about putting in but decided I wanted to keep the originals instead. 

 

 

 

 

[bimmer_b]

Just some more updates, ordered suspension and sent my steelies out to get powder coated so hopefully that will all be on soon. Also found the momo steering wheel I have been wanting for over a year and missed out on buying, but found randomly on ebay the other day. So I'm super excited about that. 

[Lorin]

Steadily improving ! 
 

Unique steering wheel choice, I haven’t seen one of those in a 2002 before. 

[bimmer_b]

7 minutes ago, Lorin said:

Steadily improving ! 
 

Unique steering wheel choice, I haven’t seen one of those in a 2002 before. 

Thanks, that's honestly why I like it. I saw it in Ben Lau's 1600 a while ago (although his was more dished) and have wanted one since. Funny story is that I saw one for sale a year or so ago and was on the fence about getting it, so when I did decide I to buy it , it had already sold. Then randomly I googled the description on Saturday and saw the exact same one for sale again on ebay that I missed out on so obviously had to buy it. It's a JPS version, I think its pretty cool and haven't seen many others like it. 

[Lorin]

Didn’t notice the JPS logo, extra cool!

 

 

[bimmer_b]

I feel like a lot of you will appreciate this photo and subject matter haha

[JC Orosa]

Happy Friday!  Nice!  Was this in Leesburg?

 

I am planning to go to Katie's tomorrow.  It should be a nice morning.  Maybe I'll see you there.

 

There's also Cars and Cigar's in your neighborhood tomorrow afternoon.  I'm not going to that due to another family commitment. 

[bimmer_b]

23 minutes ago, JC Orosa said:

Happy Friday!  Nice!  Was this in Leesburg?

 

I am planning to go to Katie's tomorrow.  It should be a nice morning.  Maybe I'll see you there.

 

There's also Cars and Cigar's in your neighborhood tomorrow afternoon.  I'm not going to that due to another family commitment. 

It was at Warrenton, I'm leaving for vacation tomorrow so won't make it to Katie's, but will try to get to one when I get back and have all my new suspension on. Have a great weekend

[JC Orosa]

16 minutes ago, bimmer_b said:

It was at Warrenton, I'm leaving for vacation tomorrow so won't make it to Katie's, but will try to get to one when I get back and have all my new suspension on. Have a great weekend

Have fun on your vacation.  Stay safe!  TTYL.

[bimmer_b]

Also just got this pic back from the powdercoater.