OK, I had an extra minute or two so I decided
to do a quick and dirty repair on the driver's
seat in my W115. It was bad...sitting down in
the seat would produce a cloud of horsehair
shavings and the spring elements were about
to poke through the seat back. Something had
to be done...but Nell's no concours prospect
so I did what I had to do.


If you think that looks bad, try sitting in it.


30 year-old horsehair. I believe I'd rather
work with fiberglass insulation.


Separated after all those years!


Remarkably, there was only one broken
spring in the seat base. I thought I'd try a
noodle at the back but it was too thick
and I couldn't get the upholstery skin on.


A new artificial horsehair pad from
Area 51's inventory.


IMHO, Mercedes-Benz™ seats are too darn hard.
I like a little padding behind my behind so I
glue a thin pad of foam onto the horsehair.
The two thinner strips get glued onto the
outer edge to enhance the bolster on the sides.

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Original upholstery skin reinstalled...not too bad, eh?


The seat back was grim...I felt like a medical examiner.


I didn't have a seatback pad so I used a piece
of the leftover carpeting from my house to
create a pad in front of the seatback springs.


I clamped the carpet in place while I snipped and glued it all together.


Not too bad for three hours work.

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Randy, where did you get the artificial horsehair pad? Great quick job on the seat.
Got an idea on how to repair a 4" rip in old leather? (hijack warning)

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Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

Dang, that's a great job!!

I really need to do that to my ride....let's see.....horsehair....um....I'll find something that suffices.

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1998 W202 C230 - The money pit of late.
1984 W126 300SD (356,800 miles) Gone to the wrenchapart
1984 W123 300D Gone to the wrenchapart
1972 W108 280SE 3.5 (sold but not forgotten)
1986 Buick Grand National 3.8l Turbo (86k miles)
1966 Glassic Model 'A' Replica http://www.glassicannex.org

http://banners.wunderground.com/weat...Round_Rock.gif

Pretty slick job!

Too bad the MB tex is gonna rip right up the side on the apron -- BTDT, sadly.

I replaced the seat pad with some eggcrate foam sleeping bag padding, kinda a PITA cause you have to sew it over on the front to fill the cover, but it sits pretty good.

I have a set of covers in very good shape that will hopefully be freed up soon -- I'm making a set in leather for my brother's 300D and we grabbed a passenger seat in perfect condition for the pads.

You should also replace the window seals, your floor is rusting out (the window leaks cause the interior to get damp, and that rots the horsehair out -- otherwise it lasts almost forever).

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

Holy crap. Those were some worn seats, how many miles did they have someone sitting in them? Bet your back and butt will thank you.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

That pad is one for a W123...basically, they're the same seat base. It came with the car when I bought it from Paul.

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

R Leo, what did you do about the white plastic clips that attach to a wire that runs through the middle of the horsehair? Did you bother re-using those? I can't seem to really get a good explanation on those. Maybe your car didn't have any of those? If not, then is your seat cover attached to the padding in any way or is it just attached to the seat base?

Thanks
David

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_____________________________________________

2000 Honda Accord V6 137k miles

1972 300SEL 4.5 98k miles

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I know what you are talking about but this car didn't have the clips...or, at least they were nowhere to be seen. When I rebuilt the seats in my wagon, the clips were only in the seat back. IIRC, the seat cover had the wire in it and the seat back pad (I replaced w/new pads in the wagon) had cut-outs for the wire to pass through and engage the clip. The wire/clip holds the seat cover tight against the pad where the cover would be concave.

FWIW, the seating surface of the covers on this car are one-piece MBTex with 'hits' to make them appear tooled. All my other cars (leather and MBTex interiors) have seating surfaces that are "built-up" that is, the bolsters are separate parts from the ribs and the whole thing is sewn together.

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

No rust or water in this car...the driver's seat is the only one trashed-out....methinks it's from 30+ years of wear.

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Great job! The seat looks almost new now. The extra layer of foam is what really helps. My driver seat got new springs and a layer of seat foam.

__________________
Adam Lumsden
(83) 300D
Vice-President of the MBCA International Stars Section

Great job Randy.

Have you had the back seat out? It always had that "crunchy" sound of crumbling seat pad. I bet it could be fixed pretty easily using improvised materials.

I don't suppose you would consider selling that car back to me?

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Palangi

2004 C240 Wagon 203.261 Baby Benz
2008 ML320 CDI Highway Cruiser
2006 Toyota Prius, Saving the Planet @ 48 mpg
2000 F-150, Destroying the Planet @ 20 mpg



TRUMP .......... WHITEHOUSE
HILLARY .........JAILHOUSE
BERNIE .......... NUTHOUSE
0BAMA .......... OUTHOUSE

Haven't done the back seat thing yet but, I'll bet you're right, I could use carpet and foam to reproduce the horsehair component.

Hehe! Anybody ever tell you that you're a really funny guy?

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.