Yesterday, I discovered damage on the seat of my BMW i3S and was quite upset — so much so that my wife noticed I was bothered and told me she was sorry that I was so annoyed. That’s when I realized: Why am I – someone who rarely gets upset about anything – letting seat damage bother me? I’ve never in my entire life given even an inkling of a damn about a damaged seat, but now I do? The answer is simple: This BMW i3 seat is rare, and finding a replacement (or even just the fabric to repair it) is nontrivial.
And it’s not just my BMW i3. I also own a 1985 Jeep J10 pickup — one of only 1,500 built in 1985, and probably one of under 50,000 built with that generation of grille and interior. By now — 40 years later — the truck is hyper-rare.
This is not a good thing. It means that anytime I break an interior trim piece, or scuff the grille or bumper, or even see discoloration in the dash, I’m bothered.
I could have it much worse. Even though the specific trim of my i3 and J10 means certain bits are hard to find, at the very least it’s not too hard to find mechanical components, since both vehicles are — at least mechanically — largely identical to hundreds of thousands of other vehicles built on the same platform. My J10 shares many Jeep Grand Wagoneer components, my i3 is one of 250,000 i3s built worldwide. I’ll be able to at least keep these cars on the road, even if it means I have to fabricate my own AC vents.
But my friend Brandon has it worse. He has an absolutely stunning Jeep J4600 (that’s it below). It’s the heavy-duty version of my J10, but a bit older and with the cooler “Razor” grille. It’s going to be the perfect farm truck for him functionally speaking. It’s got a torquey V8 (rebuilt, thankfully), an unstoppable T18 four-speed transmission, and stump-pulling 4.10 axles. But there’s a problem: He simply cannot get new brake drums — I mean that they simply do not exist.
Check out this post on FSJ Network; someone is considering buying a 1971 Jeep J4600 like Brandon’s, and user tgreese replies:
The main issue for these mid-weight trucks with the Dana 60-2 (semi-full-floating) is the 12″x2″ brakes. The drums have been gone for decades
The parts have been gone for decades!
Luckily, Brandon’s drums are in good shape, and given that this is a farm Jeep, I bet he’ll never have to replace them. But still. What a pain in the ass if he does.
My colleague, Jason, drives a Nissan Pao, and though he can get replacement mechanical bits since the Pao is mechanically similar to a Nissan Micra, finding trim is tough. In fact, I had to bring him a vent window all the way from Hong Kong! Watch as a I battle a large huntsman spider in the video above.
This is the kind of stress I just don’t want in my life. I don’t want to have to track down (via a forum/Facebook group/swap meet) a tattered old “Muscle” grille for my Jeep J10, pay over $1000, and then have to worry about parking it in LA parking lots. I don’t want to have to worry about spilling something on my BMW i3 seats. Brandon doesn’t want to have to worry about using his brakes too much. And Jason can’t just send someone to Asia to snag Pao parts. This just isn’t worth it.
This is a major reason why I’m considering parting with my beloved Jeep J10 and keeping my 1989 Chevy K1500 4×4 five-speed. What use is that J10 if I have to baby it? Do I really need the stress of worrying about tearing my door panel or cracking my AC vents or busting my grille? What if someone dings my front bumper; where am I going to get a replacement?
Meanwhile, that Chevy? I can get any part I want for it for nothing. I won’t even care if someone bangs into my bumper or if I break my grille — it just doesn’t matter. Look at how insanely cheap a new rear bumper is:
Look at how cheap a new grille is!
And if there’s a trim piece I need, I can go to any junkyard and find five trucks with the same parts. In fact, my local LKQ is stocked:
If you want stress-free motoring, which is the best kind of motoring, buying a rare car isn’t the answer, because there are very few things more miserable in the car world than having to be hyper-careful with your car, and then if something happens, having to spend weeks tracking down parts that you’ll have to pay an arm and a leg for.
I’m keeping my i3, because 250,000 of them were made, so if I do need to replace something like a seat, I can find a replacement, it just will likely be from Europe. The J10 though? It’s a truck; what’s the point of a truck if I can’t use it? If I’m bummed anytime something breaks? If I can’t service it easily and cheaply?
Who am I kidding. That J10 has my heart. Rationality be damned.
Here’s the cure for your seat:
Sweater shaver.
After this – Acceptance that any vehicle that is being driven will show signs of wear.
Which is why I am not replacing the dirty “Stone” cream/beige seatbelts in my Mercedes.
But will eventually get around to redying the leather seats and worn steering wheel.
I feel that. I have a 1995 BMW 540i/6, which was one of like 1500 factory 6-speed manual 540i’s made in the E34 generation. To make it rarer, mine is a dark metallic blue and has an M-Sport bumper + 3.15 LSD, both of which are NLA and extremely expensive to replace if you can find them used. The heated memory sport seats are also extremely expensive to replace, as a destroyed set typically goes for $1200+ and gets bought up almost instantly. That being said, it has 290k miles on it, so I don’t feel tooooo bad daily driving it 84 miles a day.