replaced the sport seat backs on my M roadster, finally

[antennahead]

Finally replaced the damaged seat backs on my M Roadster yesterday, they were damaged by the original owner who scratched the velour/fabric off the headrest area removing and attaching the straps on the windscreen (unbeknownst to me at the time of long distance purchase, as the out of town dealer failed to disclose this ) Anyway, a fairly easy, but time consuming and tedious project.

You remove the plastic covers at the bottom of the seatback exposing a torx screw on either side. Then remove the 3 screws holding the seatbelt guide and remove. Once the torx screws are removed, the entire back slides off the brackets. You have to be careful if you have heated seats, as the wire is attached to the bottom, but enough slack exists to turn the seat around to work on it. Here comes the tedious part...................... the leather that wraps the sides of the seat and around into the back of the seat is actually tucked into the seatback. There is a plastic strip sewn to the edge of the leather that painstakenly is pushed tightly into a "U" shaped channel that runs around the edge of the entire seat back. Removing the leather was not bad at all.................. stretching and tucking it back into the new replacement seat backs was. The entire process for both seats took about 4 hours. You have to be careful not to damage the leather or the material covering the seat back. I used a very old sheetrock spackling tool that is worn down very smooth, about an inch wide and thin yet stiff, to press the plastic strip into the channel. There is a small groove on the plastic strip that you can catch your tool of choice on to push it into the channel. On tight curved areas I switched to a flathead screwdriver, but that doesn't work as well for the flatter areas, as the space between the channel and plastic strip is tight. Once the leather is all tucked back in tight, flipped the seatback around and re-attached it to the brackets, then rebolt the seatbelt guide. Now I look new again

Kudos to BMWPartsSource.com for very fast service and a decent discount off retail on the seatbacks. Patrick the sales rep was also available via phone to make sure I was ordering the right parts. Other than the fabric being scratched off, the originals seat backs are in great shape. These might make a good project for someone who wanted to remove the velour fabric for example, and try some 3M Carbon fiber DI-NOC Vinyl on the plastic backs for a carbon fiber look. I thought about doing this myself, but decided I wanted the stock look.

John

[Twisted Six]

Originally Posted by antennahead

Finally replaced the damaged seat backs on my M Roadster yesterday, they were damaged by the original owner who scratched the velour/fabric off the headrest area removing and attaching the straps on the windscreen (unbeknownst to me at the time of long distance purchase, as the out of town dealer failed to disclose this ) Anyway, a fairly easy, but time consuming and tedious project.

You remove the plastic covers at the bottom of the seatback exposing a torx screw on either side. Then remove the 3 screws holding the seatbelt guide and remove. Once the torx screws are removed, the entire back slides off the brackets. You have to be careful if you have heated seats, as the wire is attached to the bottom, but enough slack exists to turn the seat around to work on it. Here comes the tedious part...................... the leather that wraps the sides of the seat and around into the back of the seat is actually tucked into the seatback. There is a plastic strip sewn to the edge of the leather that painstakenly is pushed tightly into a "U" shaped channel that runs around the edge of the entire seat back. Removing the leather was not bad at all.................. stretching and tucking it back into the new replacement seat backs was. The entire process for both seats took about 4 hours. You have to be careful not to damage the leather or the material covering the seat back. I used a very old sheetrock spackling tool that is worn down very smooth, about an inch wide and thin yet stiff, to press the plastic strip into the channel. There is a small groove on the plastic strip that you can catch your tool of choice on to push it into the channel. On tight curved areas I switched to a flathead screwdriver, but that doesn't work as well for the flatter areas, as the space between the channel and plastic strip is tight. Once the leather is all tucked back in tight, flipped the seatback around and re-attached it to the brackets, then rebolt the seatbelt guide. Now I look new again

Kudos to BMWPartsSource.com for very fast service and a decent discount off retail on the seatbacks. Patrick the sales rep was also available via phone to make sure I was ordering the right parts. Other than the fabric being scratched off, the originals seat backs are in great shape. These might make a good project for someone who wanted to remove the velour fabric for example, and try some 3M Carbon fiber DI-NOC Vinyl on the plastic backs for a carbon fiber look. I thought about doing this myself, but decided I wanted the stock look.

John

Shoot me a PM with a price. I might make molds of them for full cf lightweight backs. They are pretty heavy for reinforced fiberglass .

[BlackMoupe]

Originally Posted by Dark Schnitzer

Shoot me a PM with a price. I might make molds of them for full cf lightweight backs. They are pretty heavy for reinforced fiberglass .

You don't get enough credit for being AWESOME

[Twisted Six]

Originally Posted by SSKE92

You don't get enough credit for being AWESOME

I keep telling the GF that, but she'll have none of it, lol

[cliffhopper]

What's the part number for these?

[antennahead]

Originally Posted by cliffhopper

What's the part number for these?

52107918097 Backrest, left SCHWARZ (item # 1 in the pic)
52107918098 Backrest, right SCHWARZ (item # 1 in the pic)