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Car Forum / BMW Cars / September 2005

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E36 Interior panels - Long and rambling  ;-)

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Wayne K. - 30 Aug 2005 21:43 GMT
Hello All,
  The interior panels (Doors, wall panels by the back seat, headliner, and
rear deck) in my E36 1993 325IS are driving me nut! They look like crap. The
material (Vinyl?) on the doors looks to be in decent shape, however it is
coming off of the backing board AGAIN! (I use "board" in a very Tongue in
cheek fashion. That stuff seems barely stronger than cardboard.)  :-) I got
a quote for replacements from the dealer - @350.00 EACH! I brought the door
panels to my local BMW Stealer's highly recommended upholstery shop about
1.5 months ago, and for $200.00 they peeled the vinyl off, and re-glued it.
Well it's coming off again, and they won't do anything for me.
  I took my other BMW (a Black on Black 1999 M3) to a highly recommended
upholstery shop (Not the dealer's recommended one) They matched the
aftermarket headliner material in my M3 so that he can put similar material
into the 325. The material looks like the perforated leather / vinyl you see
used on tennis shoes. (Looks like a Band Aid to me) This stuff is THICK and
STRONG. It makes a WAY nicer headliner than that foam backed polyester
material crap. The only complaint the upholstery shop had was that the stuff
is so much heavier that they have to glue the hell out of it to make it
stay. Hmmm... More glue.. I'm okay with that. :-)
  Anyway, the point is that I'm having them re-wrap the door panels, back
seat panels, back deck, and headliner all in the same perforated Leather /
Vinyl material all for about what it would have cost me to buy two new door
panels from my local BMW Stealer.

Hmm, Go Figure.  Have any of you had a similar situation with the door
materials coming off? It just seems the glue has given up the ghost.

Well that ends my rant for the day.  :-)

Thanks for "listening",
Wayne K.
Malt_Hound - 30 Aug 2005 22:18 GMT
> Hello All,
>    The interior panels (Doors, wall panels by the back seat, headliner, and
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> Thanks for "listening",
> Wayne K.

Sounds good Wayne.  And it wasn't all that long or rambling...  ;-)

The *only* reservation that I would have with your modification is that
it may detract from the worth of your car in some small way.  But I'm
guessing that if you are going through all this trouble to do a top
notch repair like this, you probably aren't looking to flip this car
soon, so that point is likely moot.

It would be supremely cool if you could get some before and after pics
posted somewhere for sharing.  I'd really like to see how this comes
out, especially the headliner.

Signature

-Fred W
Toys for sale, Hey get your toys here:
<http://users.adelphia.net/~fredwills/>

Wayne K. - 30 Aug 2005 23:56 GMT
<MASSIVE SNIP>
> Thanks for "listening",
>> Wayne K.
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> posted somewhere for sharing.  I'd really like to see how this comes out,
> especially the headliner.

Fred,
  Thanks for the input. No, I'm not into the whole flipping thing. I'm more
of a long term kind of guy. I do have some pictures of the 'before' as I was
pissed at the original upholstery shop for their shoddy work. I'll get some
nice pictures of the 'after' when I get it back from the shop. I'm putting
17" M3 rims on it too. No, not because I want some Feaux M3. I'm putting
them on there because I had them from a previous E36 M3 and the ones that
were on my 325 were bent.
  From what I've seen of the parts they have don so far is that they
actually had to cut the vinyl and sew it to wrap it around the map light
areas. They said it would have pulled back off like the other vinyl if they
had not. I'm okay with it. They did it in a VERY nice fashion. They are also
going to embroider the BMW logo and name in dark blue and metallic silver on
the inner panels on the doors. For FREE no less!

-Wayne
IcemanMax - 02 Sep 2005 13:56 GMT
I've had the same problem on My Euro '94 M3 (with full genuine Alpina kit),
my upholster here in Italy has replaced the old thick vinyl with a much
thinner one on the panels (it is some kinda fake leather used for clothing),
now it stay well sticked to the panels.
Ciao
Max

> <MASSIVE SNIP>
> > Thanks for "listening",
[quoted text clipped - 33 lines]
>
> -Wayne
 
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