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I'm jealous too, I need to keep my eye out for some creamy/beige leather seats

Yeah im dead happy with them!!! Been scouring ebay and e30 zone for a fair while looking for somthing similar, and to get them with the E21 runners already fitted is a Brucy bonus indeed. Plus Mobster did a cracking job of cleaning them up real nice.
From what i gather, lightening leather is a very long and painful process so as you guys say im better off looking at getting the rear bench covered and the door cards stained.

DrGonzoPOW wrote:Yeah im dead happy with them!!! Been scouring ebay and e30 zone for a fair while looking for somthing similar, and to get them with the E21 runners already fitted is a Brucy bonus indeed. Plus Mobster did a cracking job of cleaning them up real nice.
From what i gather, lightening leather is a very long and painful process so as you guys say im better off looking at getting the rear bench covered and the door cards stained.

How about having the Recaros retrimmed in cloth to match the existing interior?

I don't know the first thing about dyeing/staining/colouring in, but I think it would be a very hard job to match all the different fabrics and plastics on the existing rear bench, front and rear door cards (including the handles and door pockets), not to mention the carpet!

When Jules (previous owner of my 323i) got his Recaros he had them retrimmed, not the original BMW fabric but a very close match, you wouldn't notice unless it was pointed out. I can find out where he had them done and the cost, would have been somewhere near Sheffield, is that do-able for you?

Original thread from when Jules got the Recaros. "Sheffield Trimming Company"

http://www.bmwe21.net/forum/viewtopic.p ... highlight=

They look pretty awesome! Cheers, ill look into that

Its going to be a slow process and the weather is being a bitch but im gonna start posting up the work for the engine swap. Ill leave most of my annoying questions to the other thread and just have some pictures going on here.

Anyways. My first step is moving the battery to the boot. Pretty straight forward although i need to find some kind of sealed plastic block to mount the cable ends to. Using an E30 cable and running it through the cabin and under the seats.
Up underneath the glovebox

Pulled the rubber seal out and just cut a slit in the top to feed the cable through

Then the rest through the cabin and under the seat tunnels

Just need to take out the rear seats and pass it through near the seatbelt openings but its started pissing it down so will have to wait.

Really fantasic seats, Ive always said to myself, the paint work is in great nick, how do you do it? has it been resprayed ?

Yeah, its deffo had some paintwork done to it at some point and the front left wing has been beaten back into shape so im guessing its had a smash somewhere in its life. Its in good nick at the mo, but all the leaks it has are becoming a big problem. The interior is all good and cleans up nice. Just sold those Recaro's cuz im going back to the stock seats as i think they look really nice. Got a hell of a lot to get sorted on it this year and its gonna cost me for sure.

Quiet at work today so did a bit of prep work on the engine (got them to let me store it there for now ) I found out that im very good at taking things off, just hope it works the other way round when it comes to it!
Torque convertor and drivewheel off, took some facking doing as they were all lock-tightened in. My backs deffo suffering after it. Wonder if they'd be worth flogging on Ebays?


Oil cooler off nice and easy. Is there an attachment for the oil filter on the E21 engines that would screw into where this came out?

Any my windschutzscheiben-dichtung came too, woo hoo! Half the price pretty much of the orrible dealer.


Gunked all the block afterwards, that stuff is awesome. Just need to autosol the head with a drill and mop now and it'll look pretty sweetables.

Good work & well worth the effort!

Another wet horrible weekend means no go on the engine or sunroof repair once again. Did get round to a couple of smaller jobs though. Fished out the 323i calipers (did i get them from you Rob?) and set upon them with the dremel. I did some standard 320 ones a while back. I took them to bits and put new seals on before sanding and painting which turned out to be a bad idea, so this time i just left all the old stuff on as it does'nt matter if they get torn or painted anyway.
Spot the difference?

Took best part of 2 hours just for 1 caliper. With about 30 years of rust i couldve spent a whole day on one, it was never-ending.
Used some false hope liquid on it and gave it another rub down with wet'n'dry before cleaning with white spirit

Quite happy how it came out to be honest, just gave it a lick of primer after that. Never gonna cook the brakes so should be fine with the heat

One more to do now but ive got a headache from all the crazy chemicals so thought id take a break.
Patched up the rusty edges of my sunroof panel too. Just used some liquid metal and gold hammerite. I like jobs like this where you can be messy cuz it will never get seen!

Gave engine another going over with Autosol, its turning out quite nice, just hope the swine works after all the effort


What colour should i go for on the calipers? Red always seems a bit chavvy i think.

Paint them gold

Black!

Black for the rocker cover too but scrape it off the raised lines & lettering.

How about a gold rocker cover ? Might look pretty cool. Will prob keep the calipers dark as the wheels that will hopefully be going on will show them a bit. Maybe gun-metal style grey ?

Red, like Mr Murrans was, would contrast well with gold.