New Seats

[RichardLSU]

About a year ago I test drove a Volvo S60 T5 AWD. I was very impressed with the way it felt to ride in and would have to say that the seats were probably the most comfortable seats in a car I'd ever sat in.

So.... the seats I pulled out of the junkyard to replace my aged ones are now on their last leg, I've put about 30K on them so I've certainly gotten the 200 dollars I paid for them out of it. But now its time to get serious. I sourced a complete set of black leather S60 seats from an 01' and had them delivered late November. They've sat, covered in my garage until a few days ago.

As I type this my car is at a local machine shop getting brackets made to bold the seats in place. When I pick it up tomorrow I'll take it to an auto electric shop that has agreed to wire them up for me.

What do you guys think?

[Yak]

I think that without pics of the brackets and the seats installed in the car that this sounds like you're driving around with Bigfoot going to see the Loch Ness monster; or maybe there's a balanced congressional budget in the trunk.

How does the seatbelt mate up?

[4thesporty]

Interested.....i gotta see some pics when done.

[frankengrant]

Im curious how this will look, I'm in for pictures and cost.

[DrewGerhan]

I have thought about this as well. Find a nice set of at least front seats that will fit and have about the same color. Mine are comfortable now, but something that "holds" you more would be better for me at least.

[alamostation]

One vote for the OP. Nothing is worse than worn out Mercedes seats. If you can find something that works better, go for it.

Rommel came with 300E seats that seem pretty good and were converted. If I can, I will buy much newer seats off eBay for Guderian. Rommel shows that conversions are possible

[RichardLSU]

Seat belt doesn't mate up at all. Luckily the buckles from both seats are simply bolted on there. I plan on just swapping them over. If I have to drill out some holes so be it.

I'll take some pics when I get it back tomorrow.

I got the two front buckets and rear seat (5 peices!) for 210 + 125 shipping, which was a hell of a deal. They're very comfortable and hold you in real nice.

They're black leather and look good mocked up. The rear seat is actually going to be the biggest problem, its a few inches too short on the sides and hangs over along the front. Plus, the backrest for the rear seat is in 4 peices, two side bolsters and the splitting backrests between them. I guess they fold down in the Volvo for the pass through to the trunk.

I figured, this is my daily driver, why not update it and make it more comfortable to ride in? Plus, to get the old seats re-done would be almost 3 grand. Not only is this better (in my opinion) but its a lot cheaper!

[dcotejr]

About a year ago, I had the original seats in my '81 SD, which were in horrendous shape, replaced by those from a wrecked SDL. Seats are SUPER comfortable. Work done by Jono at Blue Ridge MB in Atlanta area... I have since done three 1500 mile trips, and typically drive 200-400 miles weekly with no aggravation to my back...

Well worth the investment. Installed cost less than $500...

[RichardLSU]

The original seats in my 85' were all but gone. The drivers seat collapsed right to the floor and the passenger seat tried to dump you out in front of it. I eventually got some other gray seats out of a 87' SEL. There was a little wireing involved getting the memory switches hooked up, etc.. There was also some different motors. I swapped the old motors into the passenger seat since I didn't have a memory switch for it.

That cost me 200 for the two front and back seats. Not bad, and I think I paid less than 100 for the wiring. Much less if I recall correctly. They were good seats while they lasted. Like I said I think I put almost 30K on them. I drive from Louisiana to Missouri quite frequently so 10 hour trips are the norm.

I know this is a little more expensive route to go but I won't be doing this in another year or so.

I think I'll be at about 700 total. Worth it.

[Junkman]

I'd like to see pics & perhaps a thread listing what seats swap in. On a Datsun Z forum, there are a number of threads addressing seat swaps. There the critical measurement is the base and mounted height of the seat. It is common to swap at least part of the stock seat rails to the new seat. Keeping stock mounting points makes future R&R easier. Knowing seat height & dimensions makes shopping easier.

[RichardLSU]

Well when I picked it up from the machine shop earlier I had to drive strait over to the electric shop before it closed. So I didn't have time to take any pictures. They were sitting high and as far back as possible, but boy were they comfy!

I'll take pics of the brackets and wiring, etc... when I get it back.

And don't think that they just bolted up and swapped in. The mounting points are completely different. The purpose of the brackets was to use the existing mounting points in the car AND the mounting points on the seat rails themselves.

[bdtsr]

When I got my '87 300D, the front seats were shot. I found an E320 in a scrap yard we deal with and got them for $100 bucks. Direct bolt in mechanicaly. Wiring is a little different though. Made a big difference on my then 60 mile ride one way.

[mccauleybil]

Interesting ideas....Might anyone know what other MB's seats are a direct (non modified) fit in a 1982 300SD?