So I'm going to start a not so random place to chronicle the build of the 242. To kick it all off, I've just finished the first stage of the interior. I've posted pictures of the BMW seats already, but here they are installed.

At first, this job was suppose to be relatively simple. Condition the seats, build some brackets and get power to the seats and tracks. Easy. As with most things I do, things got out of control. Let's see, where to begin.

First up, build the brackets. The 240 seats and the E36 seats look very similar, and should just go right in, right? Here's a shot of the brackets.



Now, all this was happening at temperatures well below freezing, so I tried the passenger side (I was still driving the car around with one of Greg's seats) and if it all worked, build two sets and get it over with.

On to Greg's warm, cozy garage and the installation of the drivers seat. Install went fine, but I just wanted a little less height. The seats were a tad to high for me, Greg was comfortable, but I need a little more room.

Now getting more height out of a seat means that the mounts have to go down. Where did I put my grinder and cut off wheels? Oh, found them. A lot of cutting and hacking later and I came up with this...



That's 1 X 2" tube welded almost all the way around... That should do the trick. This of course took a couple hours and meant that I had to walk home and get the rest of the installation done today. Good thing Greg lives close.

Here we are all finished and tidied up - many thanks to Greg for his assistance with the seats - they are lighter than many power seats, but still not light. Comfy - you bet, heaters work, power adjustment works, and support in a 240 seat! New front carpets care of Alex's 244. You'll have to wait to see the rear seats.

They look like the belong.




Nice lights.



When you flip them forward, the seat releases from the base and pivots forward, giving more room to enter the back seat (dogs will love this feature).



On to stereo and door panel construction.

nice install

I should plop some bimmer seats in my vovo too

very nice

DAYUM, I thought my Mazdarati seats looked and worked well, but those are PIMP

Bling.


they look factory... and that carpet looks pretty swell too

man now im starting to think of better seat options for the 245

Yep, that looks about right. Slick.

Yes, so far so good...tonight I got the bottom of the new rear parcel shelf done. Some fiberglass will be applied after I get the rest fabricated up.

Those seats look stunning, nice work!!

Here we go again. I had a fun week getting more interior parts updated, fixed and just generally looking a little better. The original stereo system install left a little to be desired in terms of technical sophistication (lots of twisted wires and tape) and little missing details like speaker grills to give things a finished look.

I was intrigued by Alex's fiberglass work and decided to give it a shot - it was cold as hell, so I needed something to do inside. Note to self, no more fiberglassing in the hose. It still stinks in here.

Anyway, on with the show. First up was trying a few mounting positions on the old deck lid (fitted with 1/2 particle board) using some MDF rings that I cut. Here's what I came up with. Cut, sand, fit - done.



With that complete, on with the fabric part. An el-cheapo Peavey Mart fleece blanket was sacrificed (it won't be keeping any hobo's warm this spring).



The the entire thing was soaked with a litre and a half of Can Tires finest fiberglass resin. Messy, stinky and generally not good for you. The results are pretty darn good. On with a couple of coats of filler to correct some of the differences in fabric tension. This is my first try.



Close-up. Note the vent holes - should be enough to keep the heater functioning and the CO2 out of the car.



After this was finished it was covered in leather. No time to take pictures during the process. Needless to say, the old cow was beat, pulled, and prodded to get it into this shape. Looking good.





Now, on to the car. It was nice and warm today, so the seats and the speaker panel went into the car - Getting closer to done.





These are the new rear seats from Alex's 244 - the bottom was redyed, the back was fine. Conditioned and soft as butter.



That's it for now. I've got to do the door panels - but if the weather is going to hold, I'll be getting on the 122.

What can one say other than
Absolutely awesome Craig.

Thanks Ian - it was a lot of work, but I needed to figure out how so that I can use the technique on other projects. I just noticed on the one photo of the panel taken on the foot stool that the leather looks more wrinkled than it actually is - darn lighting.

lookin very nice!

Awesome Craig.

good to see my little project inspired you to give it a try. and as you can see it has some pretty nice results. Which actually reminds me that I have a sub box to finish making so I can finish that project thread I so long ago started.

Worked like a charm - a very stinky charm. I don't know what I'm going to make next, but I've got a dash for the wagon "project" that I'm dreaming of and a few other things that needed this sort of fabrication (the use of fleece does give a whole lot of new meaning to the word FABRICation) technique.

I've still got to rebuild the door panels and get the dash leather covered. Then other than a few little odds and ends (the odd cracked part that is unobtainable) I should be done the inside of the 242 (damn, still need a good name for this thing).

Thanks for the original post.

Name it Steve