Leather repair and restoration specialist Paul Ford

BMW M3 Front Seats Refinished To Original Colour

Auckland upholsterer, Ross from Stu's Trim Shop, sent me 2 front seats of an M3 BMW, to be refinished.

Here are some 'before' photos sent to me by Ross ...

2 front seats before starting
close-up of drivers seat before
discoloured panels drivers seat
cracked leather bolster
cracking on seat base
leather finish worn away

The problem I'm faced with finishing part of an interior, is trying to get it to match in with the rest, which is usually faded, discoloured and quite different to its original colour.

As an analogy, this is like being sent a door off an old car and being asked to repaint it so that it looks good when it's refitted. It's never going to be a perfect match.

Being warned of this outcome, Ross's customer still wanted to go ahead as the remaining trim didn't look 'too bad'. So I found some un-exposed leather which was the original colour, and did an exact match to that.

Here are some 'after' photos of the finished job ...

finished front seats
refinished seats from a different view
cracking no longer visible
close up of finished drivers seat
Photo of completed job

As it turned out, when the seats were refitted back into the car, the colour match was virtually identical. I love it when that happens ... although, sometimes I do hold my breath!

Everyone involved was extremely happy with the end result!