Seat leather heating to shrink

[oztme]

Hi All,

I was watching a show called "Megafactories: BMW" on discovery channel yesterday, and it was about how the make the new X3. In the section on seat manufacture, it showed them fitting the seat leather etc., then "baking" the seat at 180F for a while (20 minutes?). I think this was to tighten up the leather.

My question: I have a 2006 E53, and replaced all the front seat leather covers last year, and cushions, with new factory genuine leather + parts. The shop that fitted the leather didn't do a great job of tightening the leather. Also, 6 months of my, er, significant weight (), the leather has stretched a bit. So, I was wondering if heating the leather somehow, might be a method of getting it to tighten up.

The shop that fitted my new leather, said that it's hard to get as taught as the factory does, even though they have the right tools (hog ring tools etc I assume).

Given that the factory heats leather to shrink it, has anyone tried doing this on their older seats?

I have the original seat leather than I could try it on perhaps.
Any experience/knowledge here?

Cheers + thanks,
Scott.