98. Installing sport seats in my E36

I have been searching for sport seats for a very long time. Vader seats are a bit too expensive for me, and electrical seats as well. But, I did manage to find a cheap set for my E36. I paid 100$ for the whole interior.

Take  a quick peek at the next photo - you'll find out why I wanted new seats:

This is how the 'new' seats looked when I brought them home.

Believe it or not, you can pack the complete interior into your E36. And you'll still have room for one passenger. :) Well, the first thing was to take out the old interior. The front seats are held in place with 2 16 mm bolts and two 16 mm nuts each. You have to slide the seat forward, and then backward to take them out. Before that, take off the plastic covering caps with a small flat screwdriver. Seat belts are fixed to the seat with one torx screw on each side. And, the passenger seat has a passenger occupancy sensor which has to be disconnected. Note: Disconnect your car's battery before disconnecting this sensor. Wait about 15 minutes for the system to discharge.

After that, you can pull out your rear bench. And, I really mean 'pull out'. Pull the bottom part upwards, and then pull the backrest towards the front of the car. Open both rear doors to pull it out.

How to remove rear headrests on a BMW E36?

This was the most tricky part of the job. I tried to pull them out, pry them out with a crowbar, and I tried to knock them out from underneath. And they didn't pop out. Well, the trick is to raise your rear shelf for just a couple of centimeters. Under it, you'll find safety pins that hold the headrests in place. Take them out, and that's it. Take a look at the picture to see what I mean:

And that's pretty much that. Install everything back in the reverse order, and you're done. You should finish the job in under an hour. I also vacuumed my car, since it was like it has seen a world war or something. :)

Here are some more pictures...