The CSL Seat Saga

[NZ_M3]

Did you get a price on this in the end Mark? Or how easy it is to apply?

[Mark CSL]

No tom they were as much good as a chocolate fire guard :banghead::banghead::banghead:

What is it with company's not calling back do they not need my money

[NZ_M3]

What is it with company's not calling back do they not need my money

I think they must be afraid of the future warranty claims Mark :hahaha::beer:
Oh well, if you get any where with this PLEASE let me know - we don't have a local distributor for this product and I can't see the Americans being helpful either.

I've gotten a local painter to match the colour of the paint and put it in a spray can and it's worked out not too bad, but the actual texture of the finish is wrong - okay if you spray the whole thing, but you end up with a smooth matte surface rather than a rubbery like texture.

[NZ_M3]

So gents, I FINALLY got a reply from the manufacturer of this paint, better still from the supposedly manager of the automotive division.

It seems that we need to purchase a minimum of 25kg of this stuff before they will even consider selling it to us. It also seems that the product is two compound based and applied via automated robots I think.

I wrote to them under the pretense that I am doing a vehicle restoration project and they replied.

However their German/English is a bit confusing.

Below is the email reply - what do you guys think?

Dear Tom,

Thank you for your inquiry but we only deliver for the serial painting from
interior parts for the automotive production. For the application of our
paint materials, we recommend an automatic application and the use of a
2-component mixing and dosinge system. The minimum order quantity are 25 kg.
Furthermore, please let us have more information regarding the name of the
part, the name of the color and the kind of substrate you have.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us at any
time.

Best regards
Mankiewicz GmbH & Co.KG

Steffi Laskowski
Team Manager Automotive

Georg-Wilhelm-Str. 189
21107 Hamburg
Tel. +49 (0)40-75103-225
Fax. +49 (0)40-75103-480
Mail: [email protected]

How about if we proceed as a forum group and see if they will make an exception on selling only to automotive suppliers and perhaps do a 25kg batch and we can divide it up among ourselves?

suggestions on the next step ...

[alexk]

Hi mate,

This sounds good.
I would be interested to participate in the group buy.

What quantity each one of us needs ?
Would 0.5 or 1 kg enough ?

What it would also be good is to have instructions from the manufacturer on how to paint with this material.
They make it sound like NASA stuff.

[gazzzar]

Guys, I think that I have a salution of this problem.... After a big research (I also wrote to Mankiewicz GmbH and found the paints of ALSA Corp from USA), but finally I found the same coating from an italian company....
Now I am painting the seats and soon I will inform you about the result

[CraigMillwardCroft]

Looks a good job must get mine done one day, as spare rims have worn a patch on drivers seat :banghead:

[NZ_M3]

gazzzar - looking good. Although why didn't you remove the seat covering on the front seats to paint?? Would have been better in my opinion (and it's not hard to remove).

When you say you found the same coating from an Italian company, are you saying the finish is identical or similar? Which company is this? Do you mind posting a photo of the product and colour code? If possible, and if you are willing, I wouldn't mind purchasing a sample of this paint just to see if it is indeed the same.

From the photos it looks to me like the coating has a low sheen finish to it. The factory coating is completely flat/satin and cannot be replicated via standard 2 pot finish. I've spoken to a lot of automotive painters, automotive interior repairers and none have been able to replicate the actual texture finish (soft suede like coating) - not even the colour (not really when examined up close)

[ChrisCSL]

my experiences with Mankiewicz:

My body shop dealt with Mankiewicz in former times, with restoring hifi systems.
So they got in touch and asked for "Alexit 341 - 83"

They are not very helpful, but thankfully did not deny the demand completely.

Just today, the answer form Mankiewicz was: "You need 1 Liter of Alexit paint? That is possible. Just tell me what colour you need. Alexit 341-83 is only the identifikation number of the paint-series, the colour code is missing."
Because they only deliver to automotive industry, but don't know what they are exactly doing with their paint, they don't know which colour was used on CSL seats. And there are hundreds of colours available...

So I am a bit confused.
Has anybody a clue, what the right colour code is?
Or even know where to get some kind of colour chart (in the www?) to choose a colour from?

Is Nextel comparable to Alexit?
What would be the right Nextel colour? B34, B21 or S139?

http://www.nextel-coating.com/technischeinformationen/default.asp?lng=ger

@gazzzar: Any news / details of your solution with the italian paint?

[Mark CSL]

my experiences with Mankiewicz:

My body shop dealt with Mankiewicz in former times, with restoring hifi systems.
So they got in touch and asked for "Alexit 341 - 83"

They are not very helpful, but thankfully did not deny the demand completely.

Just today, the answer form Mankiewicz was: "You need 1 Liter of Alexit paint? That is possible. Just tell me what colour you need. Alexit 341-83 is only the identifikation number of the paint-series, the colour code is missing."
Because they only deliver to automotive industry, but don't know what they are exactly doing with their paint, they don't know which colour was used on CSL seats. And there are hundreds of colours available...

So I am a bit confused.
Has anybody a clue, what the right colour code is?
Or even know where to get some kind of colour chart (in the www?) to choose a colour from?

Is Nextel comparable to Alexit?
What would be the right Nextel colour? B34, B21 or S139?

http://www.nextel-coating.com/technischeinformationen/default.asp?lng=ger

@gazzzar: Any news / details of your solution with the italian paint?

I would think it was B34

[ChrisCSL]

and here is some more information for the german speaking guys:

http://www.egl-online.de/fileadmin/user_upload/PDF_Dokumente/metalloberflaeche/03-05-01.pdf

[NZ_M3]

my experiences with Mankiewicz:

My body shop dealt with Mankiewicz in former times, with restoring hifi systems.
So they got in touch and asked for "Alexit 341 - 83"

They are not very helpful, but thankfully did not deny the demand completely.

Just today, the answer form Mankiewicz was: "You need 1 Liter of Alexit paint? That is possible. Just tell me what colour you need. Alexit 341-83 is only the identifikation number of the paint-series, the colour code is missing."
Because they only deliver to automotive industry, but don't know what they are exactly doing with their paint, they don't know which colour was used on CSL seats. And there are hundreds of colours available...

So I am a bit confused.
Has anybody a clue, what the right colour code is?
Or even know where to get some kind of colour chart (in the www?) to choose a colour from?

Is Nextel comparable to Alexit?
What would be the right Nextel colour? B34, B21 or S139?

http://www.nextel-coating.com/technischeinformationen/default.asp?lng=ger

@gazzzar: Any news / details of your solution with the italian paint?

I actually think it's S139 ... as both B34 and B21 are greyish.

Making progress there for sure!!

My experience with Nextel has been the same .. very difficult to communicate with.

I am still working from the BMW side hopefully will have a solution soon.

[gazzzar]

I am at the final with the renovation of the plastic parts of the seats. My opinion is that now they look like new and with pretty same coating like OEM ones.
The first pictures that I posted, the seats was only painted in black (the same colour like OEM) with a conventional car paint (because of this, they look glossy, not matt), after this we sprayed them with the "soft feel" coating (which is transparent) and after this they bacome matt/flat/satin and when I am touching them,the effect of the coated plastic is like soft leather/velvet....
This is the result:


If you like the result I will inform you what is the coating, how to spray it...etc

[gazzzar]

gazzzar - looking good. Although why didn't you remove the seat covering on the front seats to paint?? Would have been better in my opinion (and it's not hard to remove).

When you say you found the same coating from an Italian company, are you saying the finish is identical or similar? Which company is this? Do you mind posting a photo of the product and colour code? If possible, and if you are willing, I wouldn't mind purchasing a sample of this paint just to see if it is indeed the same.

From the photos it looks to me like the coating has a low sheen finish to it. The factory coating is completely flat/satin and cannot be replicated via standard 2 pot finish. I've spoken to a lot of automotive painters, automotive interior repairers and none have been able to replicate the actual texture finish (soft suede like coating) - not even the colour (not really when examined up close)

Actually I removed the textil covering of course before painting they looks like this:


Before to put back the alcantara covering I will change the airbag sensor from the left seat to the right, because of the direction swap

[Mark CSL]

Looking good the paint info would be great pm me the details if you don't mind and how to do them