Some days you just get lucky...

[Sam Cogley]

While visiting family, I spent a few days haunting the self-service junkyards around St. Louis. After finally getting the steering rack freed from a Grand Am GT, I wandered through the rest of the GMs towards the imports, looking for any odds and ends that might be useful on my DD BMW 318iC. Something caused me to stop and look at a rather boring Chevy Lumina, probably that the front seats looked odd for the car. Turned out they were a set of Recaro LXFs! The seat covers need to be replaced, and one side of the thigh bolstering needs a bit of repair on each seat, but the frames are solid, the sliders work well and they don't have any weird smells. Can't beat $65 for a pair of seats that sell for almost $900 each new - without the slider assemblies, which cost over $100 each. Hell, I can probably sell the mounting brackets and get my money back.

My 77 currently sports the heavily modified black leather sport seats from my last Eagle Talon TSi AWD, but the frames on them are a touch too wide to fit well between the transmission tunnel and the trim behind the door. While the leather covers are still (somehow) in excellent shape on the 77's original seats, the foam is broken down and they were never very comfortable or supportive even when new.

Now I just need to decide if I want to do the new covers in black leather (which is correct for the car) or a nice black fabric. I'm leaning towards the fabric at the moment, but there is a good leather supply store about a mile from my house.

 

[mrvette]

Sam, I been a junkyard hotrodder for decades, nothing better than a nice day out in the fields looking for FINDS.....much less my object of desire...damnit man, that sounds almost sexual....shit...:harhar:

but the very best find in seats was a set of white leather 60/40 split front seats and the rear seats from a Caddy, to fit perfectly with NO mods to my '73 GRANDVILLE convertible.....THAT was 5500 lbs of rolling Poncho, top down and cruising....

Taught my kids to wear seat belts in that car....typical young short folks not paying attention....shot the ex a glance and said hold ON, hit the brakes at 60 mph....two bumps on the seat backs and up comes the plaintiff scream....DADDY!!!! so they on the footwell/floor....

my reply...'THAT's why you wear your seat belts!!! DAMNIT!!! from then on it was click/click CASE CLOSED.....

:devil:

 

[Sam Cogley]

I think I've come to a conclusion - black fabric for the seating surfaces, black vinyl for the sides and back. Make it look a bit like the optional leather/cloth seats available in 77, and it will breathe easier than leather. With the A/C dismantled, it gets hot enough in that black interior. Not sure what to do about the headrests, as it sits the front and back are one long piece of cloth. Maybe split it in the middle.

 

[mrvette]

I think I've come to a conclusion - black fabric for the seating surfaces, black vinyl for the sides and back. Make it look a bit like the optional leather/cloth seats available in 77, and it will breathe easier than leather. With the A/C dismantled, it gets hot enough in that black interior. Not sure what to do about the headrests, as it sits the front and back are one long piece of cloth. Maybe split it in the middle.

Convertibles do NOT like black seats, dark saddle is quite enough....

that sunlight will broil my ass....

:devil:

 

[Sam Cogley]

I think I've come to a conclusion - black fabric for the seating surfaces, black vinyl for the sides and back. Make it look a bit like the optional leather/cloth seats available in 77, and it will breathe easier than leather. With the A/C dismantled, it gets hot enough in that black interior. Not sure what to do about the headrests, as it sits the front and back are one long piece of cloth. Maybe split it in the middle.

Convertibles do NOT like black seats, dark saddle is quite enough....

that sunlight will broil my ass....

:devil:

My DD is a 1992 BMW 318i convertible (a very rare car, there were only 4,069 convertibles built with the US-spec 4-cylinder engine from 1988-1992 - the Euro 318iCs got cooler do-dads, but the inferior M40 engine. Go figure.). Mercifully it has a very light beige interior. Oddly, while more "high-tech" options were available on the 4-cylinder convertibles in the European models, they got a detuned version of the engine. Usually we have to suffer with less-fancy powertrains.

 

[clutchdust]

That would definitely be a nice find. I've stumbled across a couple good things in our local bone yards but nothing of that quality. Make sure you post pics once they're recovered.