1995 E36 upholstery

May 12, 2007 10 Replies

The upholstery on the car is all messed up. The leather on the doors is tightening and bubbling up. And the inside of the rooftop is peeling away at the sunroof and front and back windows. How do I get this fixed. I would do it myself if its easy but I don't even know where to begin.



Is this a common issue with older BMW's?



Any help is much appreciated.



Thanks



I dunno.... I 'd be thinking an upholstery shop... eh?

And if you find a shop and get it restored, try maintaining the new leather by cleaning and conditioning it at least every 4 months.

Tom K.

Has it really got leather on the doors?

Good question Dave. Usually it is a polyamide material that looks very much like the same material as the seats. In fact it states this in the brochures

The bubbles in the door panels is common, and there is nothing I've found to fix it other than replacing the panels. The problem is, if you get used panels on eBay, odds are they are only slightly better than what you have, and if you get them from the stealership you will need to mortgage your house.

Depending on the the actual problem with the headliner, you can glue it back into place.

The problem is, you don't know where to begin ...

' The trouble with that plan is, the leather is really rubber.

I know this is a very subtle difference ...

If its leather then mink oil, etc. will work. If rubber, then BMW's GummiPflege should protect it. Either way, if the OP hasn't maintained it, I'm not surprised its falling apart!

Tom K.

>

I've just done my 'other' car and this may help. You can't glue it back in place neatly. It has a material which is foam backed and the foam disintegrates. Glue would show through the material itself without the foam backing to act as a barrier. But it's not a difficult job to fit new fabric once you've removed the former. The material isn't expensive either

- although I've not tried to get a match for BMW stuff.

Inner door panels should not need not need to be "maintained".

It's common on the E35 that the material pulls off of the backing board. Even well maintained cars can develop the problem.

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