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Subject: E38 740iL front seat leather restoration project Author: DavidC (moderator) : member since December, 2003 : 12931 posts Posted on: 2004-02-02 18:43:37

Last year, the front leather seats and armrests in the center console were quite worn in my '97 740iL, so I hired an automotive leather restoration person to come over and see what he could do. The results were and remain fantastic, even after a full year of wear and tear! The seats have retained their nearly-new look and all the scuff marks, impossible-to-clean dirt in the cracks, discolorations, etc. that were there before remain completely gone.


Front passenger seat. Its hard to tell from the photo, but the front portion of the seat and the outside edge next to the door are worn and in fairly bad condition (no tears, though).


Closeup of the front passenger seat (before restoration).


Closeup of the center armrest showing wear and discoloration.


The first step involved cleaning the leather with a series of degreasers. I'm not sure exactly what chemicals were used, but they smelled absolutely horrible and the guy told me it could cause nerve damage if inhaled...


This is the part that you don't want to watch. He used 220 grit sandpaper on the entire surface. It looked really scary but it didn't harm anything, believe it or not.


A gray filler compound was used to fix small cracks and imperfections in the leather surface. Though it wasn't necessary on my seats, he said that fairly severe tears and holes can be fixed, too.


After matching the color of the seats using the rear headrest, leather dye was sprayed onto the surfaces. Several light passes were taken, allowing the dye to dry with a hair dryer aimed at it in between coats.


After everything dried, a relatively soft brushpad was used to rough up some of the areas to eliminate any shiny spots and give the surface a nice matte finish.


The finished passenger seat. It looks even better in person. Much better than any of the used seats I had considered buying from salvage yards.


A wider view of the finished passenger seat. The seat back was done, too.


The restored center console armrests.


The finished driver's seat.


A wider view of both front seats after leather restoration.

The process took about three hours and cost a whopping $335. However, this was the best solution next to installing new leather, which would cost about $1200 per seat (from a BMW dealer) plus labor.

If you've thought about buying new seats or replacement seats from a salvaged vehicle, restoring your existing leather may be a better option. It doesn't look shiny or plastic or painted. I am very pleased with the results, even after a full year.

Other leather seat projects that you may find useful:

E38 front heated seat retrofit

E38 rear heated seat retrofit

An E23 leather seat restoration project

David Cecil
Lexington, KY
Titanium silver '01 750iL, 92k miles
Oxford green '97 740iL, 184k miles
Alpine white '92 750iL, 95k miles (for sale)
Charcoal gray '86 735i, 101k miles (for sale)

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E38 mods: Factory nav retrofit, widescreen display, XM satellite receiver in place of CD changer, custom Valentine1 stealth interface to instrument cluster, BimmerNav bluetooth, factory xenon headlights retrofit, heated seats x4 retrofit, StrongStrut tower brace, crystal clear taillights and corners, M aluminum pedals, stainless steel brake lines, billet aluminum throttle bushings, staggered 18'' M-parallel wheels with Kumho Ecsta LX rubber, quad brake lights conversion

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