Interior opinions?

[KC67]

The M3 I picked up is Diamond Schwartz and full cardinal even the carpet, I thought most cardinal interiors have grey carpet, My 88 535i is this way. Anyway wanted your thoughts dying the carpet charcoal and redoing the seats in new cardinal leather for all the bolsters and doing the Mtech cloth in the centers (hopefully the cloth I sourced is the same) on all the seats. Or just doing my momo street racer GT's in Micro/alpina cloth or knock off Recaro Srd's. This will be a street driven car and not tracked.
Kevin
http://www.fast44.com/momstreetrac.html

[UofOm3]

m cloth on cardinal?? I'm not thinking that would look so hot. But i really, really dislike cardinal interiors so I have a biased opinion about it.

[KC67]

m cloth on cardinal?? I'm not thinking that would look so hot. But i really, really dislike cardinal interiors so I have a biased opinion about it.

I have every option as far as interiors go. I finished up a new Cardinal leather kit a week ago for a cabrio customer and new leather cardinal looks great. I put the bolster next to finished Mtech centers and it looked pretty good. Definitly different.
Kevin

[dllance]

I have the same DS/Cardinal. I really want to get rid of the cardinal. I'm not a fan, even though it does look good new. Do to my engine rebuild I must wait till next year. I do see them with different carpet, and don't know if this is factory? I might do my carpet soon since its the cheap start. I like solid colors instead of mix and matching. Post some pics when your done.

[Sean]

Kevin, nice pick up. The early Cardinal cars had grey carpet from the factory. BMW switched to red carpet about 1/2 way through the 1988 run. The carpet can be changed, although it is a bit of a bitch around the heater core. Do not know of anyone going the dye route. If anyone can do it, you can.

[Reelizmpro]

I dislike cardinal but that's me. I would avoid dying anything, especially the carpet when you can find gray carpet out of just about any E30. Changing the carpet isn't bad at all and you can just slice thru the part that goes around the hvac as it will be tucked away and not visible anyway.

[KC67]

Sean and Barry thanks I have done both, reinstalled old carpet and used commerical grade carpet dye. Dying is not that bad but it easy to get around the core as the console covers that area as well. I am leaning more to the changing the carpet route.
Kevin

[GraemeD]

Sean and Barry thanks I have done both, reinstalled old carpet and used commerical grade carpet dye. Dying is not that bad but it easy to get around the core as the console covers that area as well. I am leaning more to the changing the carpet route.
Kevin

new carpet is the way to go, labor intensive, but worth it

[kmicinski]

The problem is as far as I know there are no more anthracite carpets to be had. Also I would think cardinal carpet would look good with a cardinal interior. I shouldn't talk though I have a gray interior and I was going to dye all of the black plastic parts gray to match everything else and I chickened out at the last mintue. I dyed the door panels and they turned out better then new but I got nervous about dying the dash and then having issues and ruining a perfect dash. The problem is I have seen some cecattos and cabrios with the all gray interior and they look like a million dollars. Oh well maybe I will grow a pair of balls someday.

[vodomagoo]

When I redid my old cars interior I used black carpet out of a 91 318is and just cut around the heater core so I did not have to remove it. Not all that bad to do

[mshii]

Any updates, Kevin? I'm curious to see which direction you went and which route you chose because I have a cardinal interior that I'm debating on which way to go with too. There are so many more things to do to my car before then that I have time, but I'd still like to see how your car turned out.

[02fanatic]

Actually, I "thought" it was the other way around..early cars had red carpet, then BMW switched to grey. However, I may be wrong on that..going from memory.

I passed on two diamantschwarz-metallic cars with cardinal interior during my recent search..and I have to admit (in my opinion) that the grey carpet looks much better with the cardinal seats and door panels than going red "everywhere", even on the rear parcel shelf...that's just plain gawdy...yuk! To each their own I suppose.

I wouldn't try the dye route, as long as new carpet is available...I know it's darker than the stock grey...but it's nice carpet.

Kevin, nice pick up. The early Cardinal cars had grey carpet from the factory. BMW switched to red carpet about 1/2 way through the 1988 run. The carpet can be changed, although it is a bit of a bitch around the heater core. Do not know of anyone going the dye route. If anyone can do it, you can.

[KC67]

Actually, I "thought" it was the other way around..early cars had red carpet, then BMW switched to grey. However, I may be wrong on that..going from memory.

I passed on two diamantschwarz-metallic cars with cardinal interior during my recent search..and I have to admit (in my opinion) that the grey carpet looks much better with the cardinal seats and door panels than going red "everywhere", even on the rear parcel shelf...that's just plain gawdy...yuk! To each their own I suppose.

I wouldn't try the dye route, as long as new carpet is available...I know it's darker than the stock grey...but it's nice carpet.

You are correct, the earlier did have the red carpet.
Kevin

[e30m3man]

KC67 can you recommend a carpet dye? I am helping a friend swap an interior from tan to black. We have a new carpet that is black but the piece that goes under the back seat is anthracite.

[UweM3]

KC67 can you recommend a carpet dye? I am helping a friend swap an interior from tan to black. We have a new carpet that is black but the piece that goes under the back seat is anthracite.

you do realise how old this thread is?