Quote:
Originally Posted by X5 Meister
Good to note. I've seen them in person before and the leather matched in color and grain. Like you said what I think you might be seeing is the difference between used and new leather. A friend of mine who is single has a 6 month old 5 series he got new and uses as a daily driver and the passenger seat has been used maybe 2-3 times. In bright sunlight you can already see a difference between the two seats due to the wear; it sort of wears away the grain if you know what I mean.
Anyway, the note about the backrests, what was so troublesome about their removal/installation that caused the damage to happen?
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Exactly, in my old e39 I replaced some wood trim and the grain didn't match up and the color looked off, and it was because the wood trim wasn't part of the same batch during the original processing. I look at it as 3 year old leather versus new leather, there is going to be a difference.
The backrests are composed of two parts. From the picture you can see parts #8 and #9. There is an upper lip on part #9 that part #8 lays above.
In my installation, I bent part #8 on the drivers side. I was able to remove the two brackets on the upper portion, but the two clips that are towards the middle, where a pain to get unhooked. I pulled on it pretty well and my hand placement wasn't right, so there was a breaking point there.
Then I also bent part #9 on the passengers side, the metal clips at the top go over a metal bar in the seat. You kind of have to pull up and out to get them off. While I was pulling up and out, again, most likely the wrong hand placement it bent.
None of the pieces broke clean threw. It was much more like how you snap balsa wood, that it splinters a little bit but meshes right back together.
In putting the seats back together, part #9 is the hardest, because you have to get those metal clips back over the metal bar. There are two clips at the bottom of the seat which you can remove, clip the top portion, then the side clips and then put the bottom clips back together.
I didn't do that portion since I still need to finalize the power source, I just popped the top panels back on instead of having to fight to remove everything again later on. You can't even tell the bottom portion isn't even properly attached.