Hey Guys,

Just thought I'd share my experience installing rear headrests in my 116 SD. I'd seen photo after photo of European models with them in place and thought they looked great! Made some calls and found a set from a guy in MD. I got the headrests, brackets and some parts I wasn't sure about....

They were covered in velour, so I ordered new covers from World Upholstery and am really pleased with the way the changed the look of the car from the back. Installation was relatively simple; the scariest part was cutting a hole in the new leather covers I put on a couple of years ago.

The parts guy I bought from also made the mistake of thinking the rear seat frame already had braces to bolt the headrest brackets to. Mine did NOT! I ended up @ Home Depot (where I stay half the time anyway) and bought some flat 1" aluminum bars; easy to cut and drill to match the existing braces.

Here's the Tootsie Roll w/o rear headrests:

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TClanton
1980 450SL 90K
1980 300SD 112K

As I said, the first thing I noticed after I took the rear seat back out was that there was nothing to bolt the headrest guides to. I guess there were two different frames, based on the optional headrests. I went to Home Depot and looked for something I could shape and drill and decided on aluminum bars. (In the hardware section with metal rods, etc.) This photo shows the frame after one new brace is installed.

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__________________
TClanton
1980 450SL 90K
1980 300SD 112K

Close up of frame and existing brace:

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__________________
TClanton
1980 450SL 90K
1980 300SD 112K

The upper and lower rails on the seat frame already had holes drilled where I assume the additional brace would have been placed for headrests. I cut the aluminum bar to length, then bent it to fit into the dip on the upper rail where the bolt hole was. I used nuts/bolts/lockwashers, also from Home Depot, to secure my homemade braces.

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__________________
TClanton
1980 450SL 90K
1980 300SD 112K

So far, piece of cake....

Now you have to start paying attention. There are two brackets that guide the headrest arms attached to the brace you have just made. Holes must be drilled in the aluminum bar; they MUST be even with the holes predrilled in the parallel brace. If they are off-kilter, you may have a problem getting the headrest arms into the guide brackets. I used a small t-square and measured about 10 times! Once mounted and ready, I used a long 3/8 drill bit to help locate the center of the holes for the grommets. The only way I could figure out to do this was to slide the drill bit through the guide bracket from underneath and push out on the leather. I got a buddy to keep the drill bit pushed firmly through the bracket and against the leather so I could tell exactly where to cut on the top.

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__________________
TClanton
1980 450SL 90K
1980 300SD 112K

Slide the drill bit THROUGH the bracket and put firm pressure against the leather until you get a point to cut.

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TClanton
1980 450SL 90K
1980 300SD 112K

Once you've found the exact center of your hole, make a small cut to mark that point. I then took the grommet and a pencil, outlined the size of the actual hole, then cut with small scissors and a razor blade. This is pretty slow going because you have to cut leather, foam and the undercover. Take your time or you could end up with a huge slash in your cover.

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__________________
TClanton
1980 450SL 90K
1980 300SD 112K

Once you've cut all four holes, you can start breathing again.

Install the grommets (Make sure you ask for these if you find the headrests and guides. I guess you could find aftermarket that would fit, but I'd take my front headrest with me to make sure before I did anything else. The rear headrest brackets come out and bend forward, to the cuts would be exposed without the grommets. The will also keep the leather from splitting if installed correctly.

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__________________
TClanton
1980 450SL 90K
1980 300SD 112K

with grommets..you can see one of mine cracked when seperating the top and bottom pieces. DON'T try to seperate them with a screwdriver....25 year old plastic is brittle....

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__________________
TClanton
1980 450SL 90K
1980 300SD 112K

If you've made it this far, all you've got left is sliding your new covers on (unless you get lucky and have matching velour) and guiding the headrests in the slots. All total, it cost me around $175 for the parts and the covers. Totally changed the look of my car as far as I'm concerned....actual installation took me about 3-4 hours.

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__________________
TClanton
1980 450SL 90K
1980 300SD 112K

Not only do they look great, they make the back seat much more comfortable.

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__________________
TClanton
1980 450SL 90K
1980 300SD 112K

I never did figure out what these were for; if anybody else did or does this and figures it out, let me know!

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__________________
TClanton
1980 450SL 90K
1980 300SD 112K

Nice write-up. Good looking 116 too!

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Thanks! I'm pretty proud of it.....

__________________
TClanton
1980 450SL 90K
1980 300SD 112K