back in the day it was around 200 bucks (2012 ish). today that same piece is probably 300 to 350 for the same piece.
so here's a question for anyone with stock seats in their car
- Thread starter rsporsche
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$200 seems like a great price, I suspect many of us wouldn't be too unhappy to get something this solid for about $350 today.
Jon, I believe you but the Orange Book part numbers don’t show any discernible difference between no sunroof and sunroof. The numbers for the horsehair seat pad shows 811 753 as 2800CS up thru 3.0CS USA 2240134 and 2250066, 819 107 remainder of 3.0CS, and 833 321 as the MY 74 which has a longer lower seat cushion so only three options.
The frame number you list as 825445 and 446 shows as the back of the seat L and R but if it means the entire frame then: 812 560 is early 2800CS, 811 707 is 3.0CS USA from 224 0134 and 2250066 as above, 812 095/6 L and R shows remaining 3.0CS and 825 445/6 as USA MY 1974.
Another mystery from BMW!
if we could create an even better looking one - vinyl wrapped and slightly better functioning, it would have to be 400 to 500 to make it feasible. bottom line is everything is more expensive these days due to tariffs + shipping ... not to mention what anybody thinks is reasonable profit for the risk. for me its liable to be a one-off for starters and see what i can incorporate ... especially for the sliding / hinge mechanism. would love to find a nice lid that could just be recovered ... especially without sewing. that of course might not be realistic.
i honestly don't know how you would track them in the orange books since the sunroof model is not really differentiated in those books (by VIN)
say hi to Eric for me
It would be seat structure or the horsehair pad.
i would bet on the pad ... nobody wanted to make alternative seat structure for fun if they could solve it with a thinner pad.
Scott -- one thing I thought about, and your prior post seems to start down this path, is whether I could find an existing armrest/cover that could be used.
At a certain point the question becomes whether it's easier/cheaper to have a frame built into which a more readily available hinged part can be implemented, like the one you posted earlier, or something like this..probably would need to look around to confirm the right width, length, etc but may be worth considering. Also then comes the question of coloring - I believe that Anton's had the armrest in the interior leather color which makes it look more customized and perfect but obviously comes at increased complexity - is my red the same as your red vs someone else who needs black or tan.
yes, i was looking (am looking) for a stock piece as a starting point. it has to fit between the seats and not be too long (or wide). that is the rough part. i find a mini cooper (2008ish) piece that is 4" x 10" a little small. i find a bunch of Audi pieces that are too wide, but i'm going to see a friend's a3 tomorrow and will check size. my TTS has one that is 6" x 12" and has a sliding + hinge section. it would probably fit between the seats ... but there just aren't a lot of them available. started looking at VW for gti + jetta - smaller cars with huge productions. more on that soon.
And at that point the customization answer may be "here's the frame that the E9 group has built at $X cost, here's a link to a readily available drop-in hinged portion along with simple instructions of how to assemble them together, take the stock part to an upholsterer if you want custom leather/vinyl". Probably the best method to avoid having to deal with custom.
Also would be ideal to find a part from a car built in the last 10-15 years so that we can ensure availability (maybe) for the near future. Sourcing parts from a 1990s car is possible but can start to get spotty as the years go on.
Also would be ideal to find a part from a car built in the last 10-15 years so that we can ensure availability (maybe) for the near future. Sourcing parts from a 1990s car is possible but can start to get spotty as the years go on.
that piece looks pretty wide. ideally narrower than 150mm and shorter than 350mm. right now i am a believer in the henry ford approach - you can have any color you want as long as its black. or you can change it yourself or paint / dye it depending on material. the love of the idea of a manufactured sliding piece is that you aren't inventing / manufacturing something difficult. if you had to recover a top, okay, not the end of the world - even without getting into color, texture is often a problem.
absolutely. i am looking at cars between 2000 and 2020 ... and the preference is 2015 to 2023 for exactly the reasons you mention ... and with cars that were produced in huge numbers. think VW, Toyota, etc. i looked at BMW but they all had funny shapes.
So I plugged this into ChatGPT just to see what it could spit out, here’s the response. Leaving aside the snake eating its own tail nature of its reply, may be some useful info here. Note that the last question I'd asked it about was about my 1600 which is why it started there until I redirected. Link to the discussion below because when I tried to copy/paste the actual options it presented don't copy over (and long story short, in addition to providing some options, it linked back to this thread to provide some of its support for its choices)
i will take a closer look at this. i scanned it a few minutes ago and it seems interesting. but you gotta love that it pulled up this conversation in its references.