other A Fantastic 2002 Story

[Conserv]

My '76 was within the last 200 made and is anthrazite with red leather. It an automatic too..but I'm planning a 4 speed swap

 

John

Photos or it ain't so!

Steve

[jso5000]

I posted pics here awhile back.

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/143800-red-interior-door-panel-repair/

 

Not to hijack the thread but I have done some homework on getting the seats recovered in red leather from

a supplier (Global upholstery) they claim the leather patterns will be exact to the original patterns.

Any thoughts on whether or not this will increase or decrease the value of the car?

 

Thanks,

John

[John_in_VA]

I have done some homework on getting the seats recovered in red leather from a supplier (Global upholstery) they claim the leather patterns will be exact to the original patterns.

Any thoughts on whether or not this will increase or decrease the value of the car?

It depends on the buyer. Some prefer patina; others would appreciate new covers.

[bmdubl02]

Wonder if Hagerty will insure it for 75K if sold at that price..

[jso5000]

I guess I'll replace them as "patina" would be a bit of an exaggeration. They are pretty torn and cracked. When this leather gets old it gets very brittle and is almost impossible to restore. It actually just breaks apart. I'll keep the originals tho just in case....

[oh2fly]

I just saw this thread and what a flashback I just had! I worked for Gus Panos at Peter Pan back then and I remember this car sitting on the showroom floor. It had a rear tire that was always flat and no one bothered to fix it. I also remember Gus' daughter getting another of the last 2002s we got in. I prepped it for her. Arctic Blue with tan leatherette, sunroof, painted pinstripe and real gold BBS wheels. Talk about a good looking combo. ( Her and the car).That was a very interesting place to work, for sure. We had a stereo guy come in to install all the systems in the new BMWs. We also had a lot of cars come in for getting replacement stereos because of theft. Turned out, to keep himself busy, the installer became the "remover" at night. He kept notes of the addresses of the customer cars and would know exactly where to find the cars. He got caught.

  Off topic, but my favorite memory from that shop was the horse track about two blocks north on El Camino. It was only open some of the year and the huge lot was often empty. When I had a car in for a wheel balance, I would hit the track before attempting to go out on 101, which was stop and go even back in 1976. It wasn't difficult to get up to 60 plus to check for a shimmy, lol. The best part was driving 530i's with a 4 speed. If you really got on one going north in the lot, made a swinging 180 and kept your foot in it, you could catch air on a hump in the lot. When the car came back down, you could spin the tires at sixty and fishtail for a little while. Good times until a San Mateo cop spotted me having too much fun. He stopped me and proceeded to tell me what he would do if he ever saw me again playing there. My excuse was I needed a safe place to hit 55 to check for a shimmy. Having the clipboard with invoice on passenger seat saved me a ticket.

The other car on that showroom floor was my lust-mobile. It was a white with red leather Sbarro 328 replica with a hot 2002 motor, c/r 5 speed and was it ever sexy. I wonder where it ended up?

Oh, my memory tells me that white 2002 was about $7500 on the sticker. Just add a zero and you get today's asking price.

Edited March 3, 2014 by oh2fly

[pklym]

So this is what my chamonix/blue interior '76 SHOULD look like...

[Conserv]

I posted pics here awhile back.

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/143800-red-interior-door-panel-repair/

Not to hijack the thread but I have done some homework on getting the seats recovered in red leather from

a supplier (Global upholstery) they claim the leather patterns will be exact to the original patterns.

Any thoughts on whether or not this will increase or decrease the value of the car?

Thanks,

John

John,

At least in the U.S. market, where leather with a "patina" is not especially appreciated (Europeans are often more appreciative of patina'd leather), correctly re-done seats would likely increase your car's value because the seats currently appear tired. That said, I don't know how much benefit you'll get, in terms of your car's value, for red leather over, say, tan vinyl, the most common interior I've seen with an Anthrazitgrau exterior (I've seen a black interior, or two, with earlier, ca. '74 examples).

What is exceptional about your car, however, is its ORIGINAL red leather interior. If you wanted to maximize THAT value, rather than simply replacing your original leather with new Global Upholstery leather covers, I would recommend you find a high-end car upholstery shop -- one that specializes in restoring leather interiors -- and have them replace ONLY the panels that need to be replaced. After doing this, they generally re-dye the seats -- sometimes just the old panels -- in order that the old and new match. I believe a beautifully-restored "original" leather interior would add more value than simply installing new leather seat covers (I'm aware they might need to replace a majority of your original leather). Of course, there is a lot of skilled labor involved in what I am suggesting; I would not be surprised if it cost appreciably more to restore the original leather than to simply replace it all!

Two notes: I believe you may find that only the seating surfaces are genuine leather; some side and rear panels were often vinyl from the factory. I would seek to duplicate the original disposition of leather and vinyl. Second, if you did nothing to your car but had the interior beautifully restored -- I'm assuming $3K to $5K since you would be replacing horsehair pads front and rear and possibly rebuilding the mechanisms and frames -- don't assume that you will be adding the same amount to the car's value. Do it because you have a rare example and want to see it preserved!

Steve

Edited June 18, 2014 by Conserv