"In this entry, exposed black plastics are the enemy. The backrests get painted and accessories are recovered in Alcantara. I document our design choices and the selected customization processes."
- Matt

Color recall. 

My set of Strada CS seats is ultimately a showcase of our talents, creativity and eye for taste as part of the Bespoke Recaro seat program.

The color recall would bring a Porsche-like touch to the interior - but it wouldn't be enough. We sought further inspiration to add a layer of details to the backrest.

Meanwhile, the backrests were sanded, masked and primed in epoxy primer. It is the grey finish you see below. 

Call it cleavage. 

We found inspiration in the Bespoke OE+ S65 carbon plenum I brought to market in the Summer of 2023 for my M3 V8.

The bespoke variant differs from the original OE+ carbon plenum, which had M POWER stickers applied directly to the lid, along with clear coat sprayed on top. The sticker was blended in seamlessly with clear using wet sanding and further polishing.

The color matched variant used slightly more complex techniques. We printed a vectorized sticker of the M POWER that acted as a stencil. It was applied prior to the Fire Orange color coat application and removed before the clear coat was sprayed.

The end result is subtle - discerned only by those with keen eyes for details. 

The Sportster challenge. 

To successfully make use of the stencil technique, there needs to be contrast between the stencil and the color matched paint. The intensity of the contrast increases the visibility of the lettering and symbols. 

The challenge presented by the Recaro Sportsters was obvious: there was no underlying carbon to showcase. As such, using a stencil would prove far more difficult. 

We briefly considered the easier sticker-under-the-clear solution - but doubled down on developing stencil techniques.

The logo dilemma. 

The selection of the logo is one of personal taste: BMW, BMW M, M3, CSL, BMW Performance, RECARO, etc. - the possibilities are wide ranging. 

The E46 M3 belongs to an era of relatively subdued use of BMW M's brand. After all, it's exclusively visible on select surfaces: side grills, door sills, steering wheel trim, gauges, valve covers and the trunk badge. 

We iterated on logo types, sizes and positions across the backrest.

We settled on using the original ///M logo for its universal recognition. We narrowed down our choices to 2x sizes of the ///M logo and tested different positions across the backrest. 

We eliminated the headrest section immediately as it would require too small of a logo and still be too obvious. The center of the backrest offers a larger surface area primed for a logo print.

We first tested the conservative, symmetric option. We applied the smaller logo with a vertical alignment. We argued which way most people tilts - it devolved into a leftie/rightie debate.

This idea was discarded. 

The second option was bold: we opted for a larger ///M logo applied horizontally, with a slight tilt to the left. The logo evidently gets cut off by the side covers. 

This presented options: we could also color match the side covers to extend the logo upon them, or use the cut off to create further contrast with the painted backrest and the logo. 

We chose audacity. 

The new 4-step process. 

We committed to our plan of refining our stencil techniques and established a 4 step process. With primer already applied, color was next, followed by a dual clear coat technique to create the ///M logo. 

Base coat. 

The color coat is commonly referred to as "base coat". It contains the pigments formulated for San Marino Blue metallic. The finish comes out satin without any application of clear coat. .

Satin clear coat. 

We used a 2 component, catalyzed satin clear coat that hardens to seal in and protect the color against UV, chemical and abrasive wear. 

Even in satin finish, clear coats will also color brilliance. The pictures inside the paint booth versus outside the paint booth those show the clear coat's impact. 

The satin clear requires a time intensive out-gassing and curing period before the next step. 

High gloss clear. 

To complete the 4 step stencil technique, the sticker was positioned on each shell and high gloss, catalysed clear coat was then sprayed over.

As clear coat hardens quickly, we needed to immediately remove the sticker from the previously sprayed satin clear. It would otherwise create an uneven edge - if it had happened, we'd have had to sand both clear coats down. 

The end result wasn't perfect right off the gun. The extra layers of clear coat and imperfect spraying conditions inevitably created excessive orange peel and entrapped dust specs.

We anticipated further time would be required to wet sand and polish the backrests to an acceptable finish. 

Finishing.

The backrests were brought back to the upholstery shop where the wet sanding and polishing steps would be performed.

In order to do so, the painted backrests were left to cure and the seat re-assembled to limit polishing errors. I'll touch on the re-assembly later in this Series - for now, we're taking a time machine to the future. 

To begin with, the satin clear coat of the ///M logo has little reflectiveness. As such, it hides away the overwhelming majority of dust specs and imperfections. 

Our main focus was thus on the most visible area: the headrest. 

Due to the textured finish of the high gloss clear coat, the backrests were wet sanded starting from a 600 grit, moving up to 800, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 3000 to remove all fine sanding marks introduced in the process.

Overall, this 4 step process spawns, at minimum, over 2 months with over 20 hours of labor for both backrests. It's an expensive undertaking - I'm happy with the end result for my car and as a showcase of our creativity and abilities. 

Alcantara's slimmer. 

In the prior entry "Plastic realities.", I elaborated on the need to tighten the beltline of the Sportster CS.

This is where it comes together. 

The vivid San Marino Blue metallic stands out, creating a tapered silouhette next to the standard black plastic side covers. We could have stopped here; the black plastics would have been enough to achieve the desired visual effect. 

 

The previous anachronistic pictures gave away our decision to recover the side covers in Alcantara.

The process begins with sanding the side covers. As a rule of thumb, adhesives don't adhere to gloss surfaces as they tend to be too smooth. We sanded the outside shell along with an outline on the underside. 

Alcantara was then cut according to our templates and glue was applied to their underside and the side covers themselves. The glue was left to dry before the Alcantara recovery process was performed. 

Recovering the side covers is arguably the most straight forward customization process throughout the creation of the Strada CS. Still, careful attention was paid to the orientation of the Alcantara suede - yes, there is one! 

Additionally, we sought to eliminate risks of lifting edge. Ad hoc sanding was further performed and glue was precisely applied with a brush. 

Lastly, extra material is cut before being the Alcantara is glued onto the underside. 

The lower sections. 

Deservingly, the backrests' shell and its side covers had our attention throughout the core of this entry: their surface areas are entirely visible! Customization of these sections will have the most impact on any CS seat. 

In contrast, the lower sections of the Sportster CS are mostly hidden away. Once bolted to the chassis, the door side area will be the only visible portion of them. 

This is where the infamous dilemma manifests itself: "How deep do you want to go?". 

For my seats, the lower sections were to get the Alcantara treatment.

If you have performed any form of backrest customization, I highly recommend this option. The Alcantara recovery process for lower sections is inexpensive relatively to other components of the seats. It comprehensively upscales the seats by leaving no plastic surfaces exposed. 

Recovering the lower sections follows a similar process to the side covers. The shell was sanded down, leaving an inner section untouched.