Seat Fabric / Seat Disassembly

[CirrusSR22]

Does anyone know if the seat fabric is glued to the seat foam at all? I have some dirty cloth seats that need to be cleaned. I'm just wondering if I take the seat apart will I be able to remove JUST the fabic? The plan is to put it through the wash machine. Or at least be able to scrub it much better that I could while it's still in the car. Thanks!

[CirrusSR22]

The answer is you can completely remove the fabric and put it in the washing machine. It works wonderfully! The fabric came out of the wash looking brand-new almost. I used a "Little Green Machine" first but it just didn't cut-it. Just note that some areas of old foam (a very thin layer which is sandwiched between the seat fabric and a thin piece of backing fabric) will come apart in the wash. Pretty minor drawback compared to how well it cleans up. Only the driver's seat foam fell apart because it was already beat up from normal seat use.

You will need a hog ring pliers and a bunch of hog rings to reassemble the seats though. Also, order 8 new clips that hold the seat bottoms to the frame. You will most likely destroy the old ones removing them. Part #52108130678

#6 Here: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...08&hg=52&fg=10

[familytruckster]

Any before and after pics? I've known that the fabric is removable, but never considered tossing in the wash. And my car is still kinda nasty even after about 7 hours of steam cleaning.

[CirrusSR22]

I didn't get a very good picture of the dirty seat. I really didn't think it would turn out this well. You can see some of the dirty seat in these pictures. It was nasty.

--


Then after the cleaning. The lighter sections in this pictures are just sunlight.

[familytruckster]

Wow. I might just have to pull mine out.

[96cali]

impressive! BTW you can order new foam for the seat bottom by itself.

[b.u.ti-ful]

This thread

[E36Wes]

OMG that came out really good!! I want to do this for my TI but I have fabric in the middle of the seat and leather on the bolsters. Is it still doable??

[roadrash]

Originally Posted by E36Wes

I want to do this for my TI but I have fabric in the middle of the seat and leather on the bolsters. Is it still doable??

I'm going to take a wild guess that putting leather into a generic washing machine would be a "bad thing to do."

But, hey, if you want to be the first one to try it, be sure to document the process and post up before & after pix!

[CirrusSR22]

I have the leather bolsters on my other ti. Yeah, I doubt putting leather through the wash would be good. If you were to remove the covers, you probably could hand wash the center sections well.

If anyone is looking for them, I found a pair of hog ring pliers at a Midwest version of Cabelas or Bass Pro Shop called Gander Mountain. They use hog rings to close ends of big tubes of sausage. It was in the meat processing section. $9.99 and they had a bag of 100 rings for $4.99. I also got another bag of 150 rings at a local auto upholstry shop for $4.

[E36Wes]

I kinda wish the dealer still provided the fabric for special order. I love the design on my seats. I may be reupholstering my interior like i did in my e30. It comes out looking so dope!!

[familytruckster]

Originally Posted by b.u.ti-ful

This thread

Stacks?

[tiFreak]

Originally Posted by familytruckster

Stacks?

rocks

[cultureslayer]

You can buy special leather safe laundry detergent for the combo seats. They sell it at horse supply places for washing riding pants. While there pick up some quality conditioner to use after you wash it. The conditioner may darken the leather some, so plan on cleaning and conditioning everything. Use saddle soap on the parts you don't wash.

For non-leather seats, buy some Kids 'n' Pets from Target or one of the many other places that sells it and put some in with the wash. It's in the carpet cleaner section through, not with the laundry stuff. It is an enzyme cleaner and will do a lot for old stains and bad smells. You can also use it while steam cleaning. I even used it to get cat pee smell out of concrete (long story, pet sat a pee-er).