MyE28.com

Hi from the East side,

When I had an E21 323i in 1984 there were aftermarket glass etching kits available in the UK from auto parts stores. I used one of these to etch the registration number (SFH 153W) onto all six glass pieces.

The sales pitch at the time in the UK was to etch your registration number on the glass to make it harder for chopped stolen car parts to be sold on. The same principle would work more accurately with a VIN.

I currently have an 1985 Zobelbraun Eta (B310 KMO) which came with clear glass. I have five pieces of green sun dim glass from a parted out 1987 E28 (D823 KKO) which has been etched with this registration. I will have to find some form of etching kit to obliterate the original registration etch in due course.

My Zobelbraun Eta is at 89K miles but is no where near as clean as yours.

Great work well detailed in this thread, which I always look forward to reading.

Thank you.

Regards,

Mick

Setting up to dye my seats.

I had no problem removing the front seats; slide the seats back, remove the front mounting bolts, slide them forward, remove the rear bolts. Tilt up, remove the wiring plug(s), lift out the seat.

I was a bit challenged removing the first armrest. I did not realize that this little gem was behind the nut, and what an odd nut it was.







I did not realize that the washer was even there, much less its purpose to lock down the nut. The second armrest I tapped down the locking tab before removal of the nut




I was pretty dissapointed to find that I could not remove the electrical wiring that powers the headrest in the rear of the seat. I messed around with that for a while, removed the motor to see if the wiring was removable; it was not.




Wiring looks to be soldered into the motor. There is a connector on the seat bottom, but it is of a size that would not fit through the channel where the wiring goes into the seat back.



I encountered some problems removing the rear seat back; I did what the Bentley said, remove 2 (count 'em) bolts, each on the bottom outside of the seat back. I tried to get the seat to pop up, and no go. Came here and found there are two more 10 MM bolts to remove, one behind the armrest and one below it, shown below





I found this historical artifact under the seat:




I don't have any place in my house for dyeing seats, at least none that I could use and stay happily married. I always thought I could use the lift for a table with a little scrap plywood and OSB; it will do nicely I think.





As with everything else e28, there are several tutorials of how to do this posted here on the board. I'll try to document my progress.

And now for the Rejuvinator Oil

Rejuvenator Oil by hbay80, on Flickr

The seat bottoms soaked up the most oil, probably owing to the fact that the most wear on the dye was there. It will be interesting to see what happens after it sits for a time. I did the treatment on a set of seats on my '84 eta and they turned nearly white, looked like saline seep.

sail_or_drive wrote:Rejuvinator Oil

What brand did you use? This stuff?

https://www.amazon.com/Leatherique-Reju ... =ceklog-20

That's the one. I had leftover oil and "prestine clean" from my first e28, about 1/2 bottle. I used it for the first part of the process. The 4 bottles to the right are a kit I ordered some time ago and have never gotten around to using



The Rejuenator Oil bottle started to leak so I transferred it to a vegetable oil container (far left).

With a suitable pin extractor you can remove the pins from the plug and pull the cable back through the hinge core in order to be able to remove the head rest motor from the seat back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE2_ktvHqG8

Regards,

Mick

First off, thanks Ordinator for the tip on the pin extractor. It worked like a charm. Here are some pictures of the final product. I took them inside the garage with a flash, that may account for the "lighter than it looks" color.
I am "satisfied" with the results although I am sure no one will mistake them for new.

Spent some time replacing the vent lines from the charcoal cannister to the filler neck and subsequently cleaned the trunk.




Hit the liners with the bissel; they were a few spots on them and a remarkably large amount of dirt.



The trunk pre-cleaning:



After, simple green and a touch of spray wax.





The Spare. This tire appears to be the original spare. It is holding air, but I suppose I am playing with fire having a 30 year old spare. It does look like a new tire......



The Finished Product, and no gas smell.

Car looks very spiffy.