Your vehicles

[sir_keith]

I had planned to go over to Seattle this morning for the BMW Club's last meet of the summer at The Shop, but ran into a bit of a snag-

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Thank goodness I checked the ferry status online before making the 20-mile trip down to the Bainbridge ferry terminal.

All dressed up and no place to go-

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[sir_keith]

Back under wraps-

 

[DMD123]

Was going through old pics on the phone and found my last car which also was a Mazda 6. Nothing fancy, a 2.3L 4-cylinder. Fun to drive but nothing like my current Mazda 6 that has a 3.7L V-6!

It had lame hub caps on 15" rims... Then I looked on Craigslist and found someone selling factory rims that were from a newer Mazda 6 for $100 (set of 4!) and they were mint!

Car with the 16" factory rims

I had fun with this one and had upgraded the cheap factory speakers with Rockford Fosgate. The car had these cheap-o 5x8 sized speakers in the doors you can see the tiny magnet in comparison.

Front doors speaker replaced too. 6 1/2" separates.

Of course this was all an "easy" replacement... because I had a friend that worked at Car Toys as an installer! New speakers, amp, subwoofer... was a fun little car for sure. But sold it for my current mazda 6 with a big engine that I truly regret since Ive already had to replace the engine due to a seized water pump, but yeah its still fast, zoom, zoom.

 

[DMD123]

The current Mazda 6

 

[DMD123]

Hey car guys… ever had seats reupholstered? I have been looking into this for my current mazda since the leather is light beige and showing wear. Katzkin makes some nice replacement covers that Im currently looking into.

 

[John58Ford]

Hey car guys… ever had seats reupholstered? I have been looking into this for my current mazda since the leather is light beige and showing wear. Katzkin makes some nice replacement covers that Im currently looking into.

Haven't had them done but I've done some with kits. The older seats weren't too awful to do, and wasn't too invasive, usually just popping hog rings. The newer seats can be a chore to get taken apart and put back together with the various motors and such so the labor has gone up even though the kit is typically easier, more plastic snaps than hog rings.

I would say whatever the reason for wanting to do it, whether wear and tear, or just a different appearance, if you choose nice ones and have them put in, you will feel better getting in the car every morning. It's a good mid-life refresher for a favorite commuter car or any regular driver you plan to run the wheels off of. If you intend to re-sell in the near future though it's not something that would increase the value enough to be worth it. Exceptions to collectors cars and new old stock OEM material of course.

 

[sir_keith]

It's difficult to do right yourself, and knowing how particular you are about things, I doubt that you'd be happy with anything other than a professional installation. That's not cheap.

 

[DMD123]

It's difficult to do right yourself, and knowing how particular you are about things, I doubt that you'd be happy with anything other than a professional installation. That's not cheap.

Yeah I know its not cheap. About $2500 for a complete front and back from Katzkin.

 

[fishguy1978]

I redid the covers on my excursion a few years back. It was labor intensive but not terribly difficult. Take your time though to get them snugged down over the frame. Get a set of hog ring pliers or borrow a pair makes that part so much easier.

 

[lloyd378]

Dmd, I’ve got a guy in my tundra group that installs those on tundras and he’s done rams and other vehicles too. He does good work ( out of Vancouver). He can also install heated seats if you want those

I can get you contact info if you are interested

 

[DMD123]

Dmd, I’ve got a guy in my tundra group that installs those on tundras and he’s done rams and other vehicles too. He does good work ( out of Vancouver). He can also install heated seats if you want those

I can get you contact info if you are interested

I have the heated seats so I just need the new leather ‘skins’ and honestly I don’t want to do the install. I’m handy but dont want to tackle that. I actually have an installer picked out already out of Tukwilla but appreciate the offer. If it falls through I might contact you later for the info.

 

[DMD123]

Ugh, I should have done the seats a while back when I had got a quote. The place I dealt with in Tukwilla is now telling me that the Katzkin covers do not make a kit for my car. Thats not the response they gave me a year ago. That wasnt the response I got from Katzkin directly back when I first started looking into this.

So this beige is nice looking but not wearing well. I know its 10ys old but Ive seen black leather hold up much better than this color

 

[John58Ford]

Mazda 6 Seat Covers | Leather Seats | Interiors | Katzkin

Shop for custom Mazda 6 seat covers and custom leather seats at Katzkin. Design the perfect interior for your Mazda 6 now!

katzkin.com

They are made, and easy to find. It's possible that company you contacted just doesn't do business with katzkin anymore and switched to a different company, or, they are booked, or just bad at making money. Dunno

 

[DMD123]

Mazda 6 Seat Covers | Leather Seats | Interiors | Katzkin

Shop for custom Mazda 6 seat covers and custom leather seats at Katzkin. Design the perfect interior for your Mazda 6 now!

katzkin.com

They are made, and easy to find. It's possible that company you contacted just doesn't do business with katzkin anymore and switched to a different company, or, they are booked, or just bad at making money. Dunno

I just got off the phone with the place in Tukwilla and yes they do make the seat covers but they are designed as a cloth factory seat replacement. Apparently they are not a direct factory leather replacement. There must be some differences in the way they are done.

They have another company that does say it can be done with the factory leather replacement and it seems a bit better priced. The company is Roadwire. I will need to go into the store because apparently some difference in panel patern or something...

And if you go to the Roadwire website... it says they are being bought by Katzkins, lol

 

[DMD123]

Plan is to head up to Auto Trim in Tukwilla this afternoon so they can look at my car to make sure the kit will fit. Im debating on just a single color to match factory or to do two-tone. Really not a price issue since its barely any more just whether it would look good. Was considering a black and sandstone (oem equivalent color) combo but need to ask if they do back bench to match or just single color.

I want this type of look if I do two-tone with the front and back seats matching and all the heavy wear areas on edges dark.


Hopefully wont look too cheap? I keep looking at it thinking, keep it simple and stay with a single color... your thoughts?

 

[DMD123]

Did it, deposit down for the leather seats. I decided to do the two-tone with contrasting stitching. Very similar to the sample they had in store.

 

[FishBeast]

Did it, deposit down for the leather seats. I decided to do the two-tone with contrasting stitching. Very similar to the sample they had in store.
View attachment 13117
View attachment 13118

Looks great!

 

[Renegade Aquatics]

I got this last December as a little bday gift to my self. BMW M240i. It’s an xDrive as well, and it got through the snow and ice later that month better than I expected even with it. @sir_keith you’re E30 is gorgeous BTW, hopefully I can make it out to a BMW gathering sometime if there’s any more happening this year!

 

[sir_keith]

I got this last December as a little bday gift to my self. BMW M240i. It’s an xDrive as well, and it got through the snow and ice later that month better than I expected even with it. @sir_keith you’re E30 is gorgeous BTW, hopefully I can make it out to a BMW gathering sometime if there’s any more happening this year!

Thanks, and nice ride! I'm taking my E30 M3 down to the Cars and Caffeine meet at Griot's Garage in Tacoma tomorrow morning; the theme is German cars. Come on down! Local BMW CCA events are pretty much done for the year, except for a few weekend drives. Are you a member of the club? The Puget Sound Region chapter of the BMW CCA is very active, with lots of car meets as well as High Performance Driving schools. Well worth joining; I've made lots of good friends through the Club over the years.

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[DMD123]

Wow, that was fast, last week on Thursday afternoon I placed to order for my new leather seats and here it is Friday the following week that they were made and shipped out already and the install happens next week. Super happy with how quickly that all happened! Hopefully this will turn out the way I envision. A lot more black going into the interior with a much more custom and sporty look.