I have been meaning to tackle the interior of my M Roadster for a long time.
Convertibles have a hard life when it comes to their interiors.
I bought mine with 60k in 2009 and in good shape. The interior material quality is early 90's and had room for improvement. It came with a rare RAID airbag steering wheel and some knock off AC Schnitzer pedals.
I added LeatherZ door panel arm rests and center console lid in black Alcantara. I put in a ZHP shift knob, the missing voltage gauge(joined by a boost gauge), updated '00+ headlight switch and other small trim upgrades. I also converted the drivers side knee panel to the euro panel which is cleaner/slimmer and look and got one covered in matching leather. I also did a full audio install a couple of summers ago.
That brings us to my winter project.
One of the first issues were the seat bushings. In all E36/7/8 cars the rubber turns to goo and it allows the seats to move on accel and decel. So I took them apart and put in the resin bits that take up the slack.
Next I had a commonly busted AC button and cracked shifter plate around the button.
So the plan was to buy a new ac button and repair the shift plate($180 at ECS tuning and WILL break again). But I wanted to do something a bit different. E36/7/8 M cars were offered with two tone interiors like this:
I wanted to do a similar color break, but not use COLOR to break things up, but materials...the material being Alcantara. The plan is for the dash, door panels, seats and console to deviate from black Nappa the same way the oem does but using the suede. It will be subtle and very OEM+. In some places I plan on adding contrast stitching in silver to pull a bit of exterior color into the interior.
I am not about to buy a sewing machine and try my hand at the seats and dash pods. I wanted to tackle the center console. I started out slow, got great results and built up my confidence. The key was keeping the material taut and knowing how to make the right relief cuts in corners.
I love how thin the material is and so the transitions, openings etc are super crisp. It came out better than pics, does not look like an amateur job. The repairs to the button surround are invisible as done from behind, the suede makes it look like new.
Then I went and put on my console/cupholder which was a large lump of black plastic. It seemed out of place now. So in I went with the suede.
I am left with this issue:
The arm rest looks faded and tired(its now 6 years old). I also dont want it this material anymore, but black Nappa with silver stitching*my brake and shift boot will be the same). So a local friend is going to make that for me.
I also got spooked seeing my car listed as a classic on my usual BMW parts database. So I ordered the matching euro glovebox which I will recover in black Nappa.
I will finish the project by having the seats, door panels and dash done by a pro. The end result will be closer to what you would expect from an modern M car with an extended leather package. There will be almost no plastic to touch, everything being Nappa and Alcantara. But you can go overboard with that stuff, following the OEM breaks, it should be subtle enough.
Well, that's my winter project so far!