Baseball vs European Stitch

[bavbob]

Having my Italvolante wheel redone and was asked if I wanted baseball vs European stiching. Anybody know pros and cons or is it just a matter of preference? This is not an expensive wheel, if it was, I would stay as original as possible.

 

[Mike Goble]

Baseball stitches work better for the curves...

 

[Stevehose]

Are referring to the cross hatch pattern like on leather Petris? I think baseball stitch looks more "American" and cross hatch more "European"

 

[bavbob]

Yes, he seemed to infer that baseball stitch is more robust than the european.

 

[Keshav]

Rob,
my 2 Cents worth, ask someone here with a similar wheel to send pics of the exact stitching and have that copied.

Keshav

 

[bavbob]

Turns out my wheel had a cover over the original. Original is Euro, cover is baseball so going back to Euro which is classic BMW.

 

[Markos]

Turns out my wheel had a cover over the original. Original is Euro, cover is baseball so going back to Euro which is classic BMW.

I would have responded but it sounded like you weren’t interested in originality. You don’t see many steering wheels with baseball stitching. The CSI sport wheel had an X stitch. Pretty much all BMW’s from the late 70’s onward have a euro stitch.

The italvolanti wheels had some spectacular stitching. The photo below shows the stitch well due to the light leather. I recognize that concrete back drop from this FS listing...

 

[bavbob]

Markos, your comments are always welcome. I am a purist and try to stay as original as possible. I sent Chris the image above and he can reproduce it and will, but stated that black stitching on a black wheel, the beauty of the stitch will not be appreciated as much. As my original wheel was recovered and was trashed, the original stitch type was not discernible. I had looked at other black leather Italvolante wheels and for all my naivety, it looked like simple European stitching.

Sadly at my age, with each new fact I learn, I lose one but I do not know what fact I have lost. This car will end up making me an expert in E9's and ignorant wrt everything else in life...... crazy idea, BMW enthusiasts nursing home ?

 

[Markos]

Markos, your comments are always welcome. I am a purist and try to stay as original as possible. I sent Chris the image above and he can reproduce it and will, but stated that black stitching on a black wheel, the beauty of the stitch will not be appreciated as much. As my original wheel was recovered and was trashed, the original stitch type was not discernible. I had looked at other black leather Italvolante wheels and for all my naivety, it looked like simple European stitching.

Sadly at my age, with each new fact I learn, I lose one but I do not know what fact I have lost. This car will end up making me an expert in E9's and ignorant wrt everything else in life......

Hi Bob,

Happy to chime in. I’m actually recovering mine now also. The original stitching is a bit silver/bronze. I want to say that I elected to go with Black because most people would just assume that silver/bronze is incorrect. Post some pics when you all all wrapped up! Pun intended!

 

[bavbob]

Will do.

 

[autokunst]

Sadly at my age, with each new fact I learn, I lose one but I do not know what fact I have lost. This car will end up making me an expert in E9's and ignorant wrt everything else in life...... crazy idea, BMW enthusiasts nursing home ?

That sounds like a great idea to me. I suffer the same fate. Things that I learned about my car/e9s in general are already gone as I learn new things about the car. Or are they the same things...