Restoring the pleats on a late W123 seat
 

I love the pleats (or whatever they are called) that Mercedes put on the late W123 seats, but some of mine are flat (as pictured). How do you guys suggest restoring them? Flat pleats drive me nuts.
http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/...ps24382b08.jpg

Is there any way you could cut some thin foam (thick enough to fix the issue) and stuff it underneath the seat bottom? Just an idea!

You might find that the stitching has failed from age. This happened to my W116 years ago. I ended up taking it to an upholstery shop who re-sewed it for a reasonable price. I don't know if he added more padding before stitching.

I had the same seats in my old 300D and if I remember correctly there was a strip of padding that had worked itself out (with some help from son #1) that should be replaceable. I do not know if it is possible to snake it back in or not but its worth a shot.

Those pleats are filled with, as I recall, felt-like strips. These may or may not be sewn in. If they are sewn in, it might be extremely difficult to replace them.

Generally what happens to these seats as they age, is the cloth backing rots. There is a white cloth on the back side that the MB Tex is sewn to, with the felt strips in between for the padding. the strips are a sandwich of foam in the center and the Felt stuff on either side.

If the cloth backing is rotted. then take the seat cover to a shop and have it replaced and the strips sewn back in as Rick76 mentioned.

I have see these strips work their way out, and if you look under the rear of the seat you will see them hanging down.
The only way to fix this is to remove the MB Tex and pull the strips back into place.

I had this problem with a brand new set cover. When I got them pulled back into place. I Hot Glued the ends into place. They should have been sewn in to prevent this from happening in the first place, dang thing cost enough.


Charlie

Double stick tape to keep pleats in place?
 

I went to an upholsterer and they confirmed that, as I expected, the new thread would be quite visible if the pleats were to be sewn back in place. I'd prefer to avoid this and was thinking of trying double stick tape to hold the pleats in place. Anyone have any experience with this? Or any experience with an upholsterer who is able to resew the pleats in place and not have it be noticeable?


Thanks!

If you search on Amazon you can find ZIP tape. This is a thick black tape used for roofing and siding. You can restuff your pleats and tape the backside with the ZIP tape. A roll of ZIP tape will cost about $40. It has a lot of other uses.

seats
 

Having rebuilt some W123 seats, I can confirm that this is accurate.

same pertains to w126 seats