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The steering wheel on my 2011 E91 was looking all of it's 10 years & 135k miles so managed to find a good used one on eBay locally for not much money - job done!
Then I started to look at the scabby one I'd taken off and thought, those retrim kits on AliExpress seem good value, how hard can it be?...
Here's the reason the wheel was replaced
And the stitching starting to fray where my thumb sits most of the time
So I did some homework and watched a few YouTube tutorials and decided it was doable and found myself being quite critical of some of the results on YouTube
Settled on a real leather kit with red and blue stitching thinking i was getting the 3 colour M Sport stitching £20 delivered from China in about 10 days
www.aliexpress.com
Unfortunately, not sure if I ordered the wrong option but the thread supplied didn't come in 2 shades of blue - light blue x2 and red and a spare black
so I ended up ordering some Royal Blue thread off eBay £2.67
As with most things, I figured the quality of the final finish was going to be in the prep and after seeing videos and pictures on line it was obvious the joint in the leather falls in a different place with the kit and the original leather and leaves a divot in the finished cover so 1st job was fill the divot
and sand it flush
I didn't want the double thickness of leather to look bulky and hold the centre trim proud when it is replaced so I trimmed back the original leather at the 3 spokes
And to give myself a groove to tuck the leather into on the rear of the spokes I trimmed the OG leather back a couple of mm
Then the new cover goes on and aligned - positioned circumferentially and around the rim to line up the stitched seam with the seam on the original leather
There is a little excess around the spokes that needs to be trimmed off later but first I stitched a trial section to check when the seam is pulled tight the zig zag doesn't pull the joins of the leather sections out of line
spare black thread put to use
Once I was happy with my start point I then binned the double sided tape that comes with the kit and opted for spray contact adhesive as I thought this would provide better opportunity to adjust and rework the stretching and position of the cover as I went
So the stitching began, every other stitch and single thread. I did about 7 or 8 stitches then pulled them tight then 7-8 more then pull them tight and sew (sic) on
Others on the web use double thread but you can really swing on this stuff and it isn't snapping. And some stitch every stitch which doesn't look right either although, as per original, every stitch is done close to the spokes and around the curves.
When I got to the spokes I held the leather tight and judged how much would need trimming off to sit right on the curve. I then set about unpicking the extra stiches and tying off the treads to prevent them pulling out
Here is as it came
and here is the opposite side trimmed to fit
Here the stitches unpicked, tied off and the leather cut back ready to stitch up and spray glued ready to tuck the edges in...
This was the most fiddly part but patients is definitely a virtue (I was concentrating on the job in hand and should have taken more pics)
Some sore fingers and thumbs later here is the results...
Then I started to look at the scabby one I'd taken off and thought, those retrim kits on AliExpress seem good value, how hard can it be?...
Here's the reason the wheel was replaced
And the stitching starting to fray where my thumb sits most of the time
So I did some homework and watched a few YouTube tutorials and decided it was doable and found myself being quite critical of some of the results on YouTube
Settled on a real leather kit with red and blue stitching thinking i was getting the 3 colour M Sport stitching £20 delivered from China in about 10 days
21.68US $ 50% OFF|Car Steering Wheel Cover DIY Hand stitched Black Genuine Leather For BMW M Sport M3 E90 E91 E92 E93 E87 E81 E82 E88 X1 E84|Steering Covers| - AliExpress
Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com
www.aliexpress.com
so I ended up ordering some Royal Blue thread off eBay £2.67
As with most things, I figured the quality of the final finish was going to be in the prep and after seeing videos and pictures on line it was obvious the joint in the leather falls in a different place with the kit and the original leather and leaves a divot in the finished cover so 1st job was fill the divot
and sand it flush
I didn't want the double thickness of leather to look bulky and hold the centre trim proud when it is replaced so I trimmed back the original leather at the 3 spokes
And to give myself a groove to tuck the leather into on the rear of the spokes I trimmed the OG leather back a couple of mm
Then the new cover goes on and aligned - positioned circumferentially and around the rim to line up the stitched seam with the seam on the original leather
There is a little excess around the spokes that needs to be trimmed off later but first I stitched a trial section to check when the seam is pulled tight the zig zag doesn't pull the joins of the leather sections out of line
spare black thread put to use
Once I was happy with my start point I then binned the double sided tape that comes with the kit and opted for spray contact adhesive as I thought this would provide better opportunity to adjust and rework the stretching and position of the cover as I went
So the stitching began, every other stitch and single thread. I did about 7 or 8 stitches then pulled them tight then 7-8 more then pull them tight and sew (sic) on
Others on the web use double thread but you can really swing on this stuff and it isn't snapping. And some stitch every stitch which doesn't look right either although, as per original, every stitch is done close to the spokes and around the curves.
When I got to the spokes I held the leather tight and judged how much would need trimming off to sit right on the curve. I then set about unpicking the extra stiches and tying off the treads to prevent them pulling out
Here is as it came
and here is the opposite side trimmed to fit
Here the stitches unpicked, tied off and the leather cut back ready to stitch up and spray glued ready to tuck the edges in...
This was the most fiddly part but patients is definitely a virtue (I was concentrating on the job in hand and should have taken more pics)
Some sore fingers and thumbs later here is the results...
