W123 seats -- disassembly, skin removal padding refurbish, misc. notes
 

Hello All!

So I've noticed that in the car community a lot of people are not afraid of taking on projects such as floor welding, transmission replacement, or engine work, but somehow seem to shy away from simple upholstery work such as skin swapping and pleat restoration. Since I am going to be doing some seat work in the next few days, I figured I’d write up what I’m doing so that you don’t have to spend $$$ at an upholstery shop for what you can easily do at home. First, we’ll take two seats apart – a 1984 or 1985 driver’s seat in Blue (code 152) and a 1983 driver's seat in some sort of tan (Palomino? I don't know) and take them apart. The idea with this project is to end up with two blue seats for my 'SD (I'm swapping to manual seats to save weight & reduce complexity), and to that end I have a third seat with destroyed tracks and rotten springs/padding but a half-decent skin in blue. I will also restore the pleats in the seat and perhaps add some padding in general.

Part of this DIY was completed with cat as my sidekick.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...i-type-007.jpg

Here are the two patients:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-006.jpg

We will tackle the Palomino (?) one first. A good place to start in stripping the seat is the bottom. The first step will be to stand on the seat like this and then reach in and push & pull the skin out. It is tucked into a crevice in the seat frame that you need to push it out of, and crouching on the seat creates slack in the padding that allows you to pull it out. The closer you stand towards the front, the more the front will be compressed. Try to find a position that just allows you to get your fingers in there and still creates slack in the skin.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1390840214

It finally came out when I used the handle of a pair of scissors to push up on the padding. You can see a strip of some sort of cardboard material that gives the edge of the skin the stiffness required to stay in the groove.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-016.jpg

On this seat, the skin was quite easy to slip out once I got it started.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-018.jpg

Here you can see both what creates those pleats and why they go so flat. There are insert -- the gray strips -- that are sewn into "pockets" and create the pleats. In this seat, you can see that the cloth backing that forms those "pockets" is totally disintegrated.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-019.jpg

So the skin is completely removed in the front and on the sides, but not on the back. To remove it on the back, you need to create slack there. I have found that the best way of doing this is to completely recline the seat and then stuff the upholstery backwards through the crevice between the seat bottom and back while tilting the seatback back up.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-021.jpg

I ended up getting the back end off by slipping my finger in and pulling down as such:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-022.jpg

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-023.jpg

I then pulled the skin off by pulling from the front away from the seat (if the seat were mounted in the car, towards the dash). Some of the skin got caught in the rear corners of the cushion and I had to work it off by hand; but this was not too hard.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-027.jpg

Next, the seatback.

On to the seatback. For starters, you will need to remove the seatback backing. It is held on by a phillips-head screw on the bottom.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-029.jpg

When you have undone the screw, just pull down on the back and it should come right out. It may take a bit of a tug.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-029.jpg

To get the headrest out, just pull it out while pressing this button in. The button may take some force, but if I can do it, you can do it.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-031.jpg

On this seat, the bottom of the seatback skin came out very easily. I just pulled it towards me and it came right out :eek:! I'm guessing that you will probably have a harder time with -- this was just too easy -- but I may be wrong.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-035.jpg

In getting the skin off the sides, I first gave the top half of the seat the man-hug of death to create slack at the top to start working out the skin. Once it's out on the top, just work your way down. Repeat on the other side.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-036.jpg

Next you will need to free the skin from the seatback adjustment mechanism, and to do this, you will need to remove the piece of plastic trim that resides there (I'll get a picture of it up later). It basically sits there and covers the hinge point. If you see the seat, you'll know right away what I'm talking about. That piece of trim is fixed on with four clips in a circular formation as shown (it's the thing in the center of the picture).

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-045.jpg

I ended up getting it off by using two flathead screwdrivers to press on two clips simultaneously and I GOT IT OUT WITHOUT BREAKING ANY CLIPS CHECK IT OUT BABY YO!!!!!! THIS IS VICTORY!!

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-046.jpg

Getting the skin off at the top will be different. All you need to do is slip it out some clips, which is a whole lot easier that the rest of the stuff.

Here is a view looking upside-down at the clips.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1390846689

The last step will be to undo a plastic runner that secures the skin to the seat and helps the skin maintain its proper shape. Here it is on the back.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-048.jpg

Here you can see how it holds the skin on. There is a thin strip of cloth that slips into little hooks in the plastic runner. Just slip those out -- I used a screwdriver.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-049.jpg

OK, we're done!

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-050.jpg

Here is everything we took off:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-hread-051.jpg

I will be updating this thread later today with stuff that was different on the blue seat and then on how I'm refurbishing the upholstery and padding. I will also be making observations on differences between the two seats.

I never have the heart to tell them...
 

Thanks for the thorough writeup, looking forward to more...I need to do some seat work myself someday. I'll be referring to this.

Beautiful cat. Somehow, whenever my cats appoint themselves to be my sidekicks during a project, I wind up getting less done, not more. Much less.

Excellent thread.

Excellent writeup so far, Jooseppi.

I'm currently rebuilding the 1979 bamboo seats (I may have shown them to you when you were here to buy parts) for use in my '83 240D. I'm having to deal with a lot of rusty fasteners and whatnot, as the parts car's floor had been rotted out for years.

It's certainly not too bad a job. My horsehair pads were completely disintegrating, so I'm replacing them with memory foam. I also did a bunch of spring repair and reinforcement and had to stitch up some tears in the MB Tex. Here's a couple of shots of my "new" driver's seat, completed.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5516/1...dfd68b42_c.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5474/1...3168d8d6_c.jpg

So the blue seat was more troublesome than the tan one. I think that this is because the tan seat had its seat bottom replaced before funola bouhgt it (the seat came from funola's old car which JB3 bought and then parted out... :)). The front edge was hard to get out, and when I finally got it out, I had to use the aforementioned pair of scissors to work it out.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/....-2-005-2-.jpg

When I finally got the silly thing out, I found that the seat had an inner fabric lining separate from the vinyl that was stapled on to the cushion. Grr.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/....-2-006-2-.jpg
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/....-2-008-2-.jpg

I ended up cutting it off. Here we again see why the pleats are flat.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/....-2-014-2-.jpg

I then tried several methods of getting the back off.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/....-2-010-2-.jpg
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/....-2-011-2-.jpg
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/....-2-012-2-.jpg

That last one finally worked.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/....-2-013-2-.jpg

I don't know how difficult the seatback would be as opposed to the Palomino (?) seat, but it might not be too different because I'm not sure if the seatBACK was ever replaced.

Looks like you are going through a lot of effort to take the seat apart.
Why don`t you remove the back from the base? remove the plastic side covers then the 2 13mm bolts on each side, and the seat back lifts off.

The hog Rings hold the cloth down tight to the foam pad. just snip off the Hog Rings, (remove them so they don`t rip your hand) and then lift off the seat cover.

If you are going to install a new-er cover, then you have to remove them anyway.

Charlie

Ha, this is preferable to what she sometimes does -- curls up at one edge of the keyboard and then gets ticked when you try to type at that end :eek:.
I remember the rusty fasteners from my '84 parts car. To get the passenger's seat off, my father and I took turns hammering a stripped rusty bolt with a 6-foot-long tamping pole. After about twenty minutes of effort, we were getting nowhere... he had just been jerking the seat back & forth vigorously and had stopped to take a break. I then gave the seat the classic tiny tap and it came right out :D. We both cracked up :D.

How did you repair your broken springs? DieselGiant method?

Memory foam sounds like a really good idea! I'm afraid the most I'll be able to afford will be some normal foam :o.

Interesting questions/points.

1) I didn't know how to take the seat apart, but it didn't seem necessary... of course, if it comes off that easily, I could see that it would make the job a bit easier.

2) Since the Palomino (?) seat had been riding for a while without the hog rings, I am going to make a guess that they are not totally necessary and will not be reinstalling them. Because of this, it was easier just to cut the fabric right above the rings.

So here's the differences I've noticed between the two seats.

1) (This one is obvious) The Palomino (?) has a five-pleat pattern and the blue seat has a six-pleat pattern; before 1984, only leather seats came with six pleats.

2) This one is less obvious but interesting. The Palomino (?) five-pleat pattern only has springs on the sides:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/....-2-022-2-.jpg

The blue six-pleat had two coils in the front along with the side springs:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/....-2-023-2-.jpg

Are these front coils something that came in in 1984 in general? Are the front coils something that went with the six-pleat style? Is the seat bottom from the Palomino (?) seat really from an older car and are the front coils something that came with the mid-generational refresh? Does anyone have any thoughts?

Seat skin differences
 

The main difference I see (and look for) is that the earlier seats had double stitching, and the later had single. I have seen single stitch as early as '82 in the coupes, but not till '84 in the sedans. Yes Charlie is correct about separating the top from the bottom= much easier! I have pulled numerous seat skins from cars, and have always separated the seat halves. Another tip is to remove the foam and all with the skin. If the foam and/or horse hair padding is good on the skin you are using, it is very easy to remove them together (they can stay together), and install them on the replacement spring box or seat back. When I find a good passenger side skin at a wrecking yard, I just buy the skin and foam/horse hair pad (cheaper and easier to carry!). The passenger side can then be used on the driver side (they are interchangeable).

Nice workshop you have there... just like home :D.

Did the cat take the pictures?

Congrats on the excellent writeup.

Don`t waste your time fixing broken springs. Replace the Spring Box (usually the drivers side that has the broken springs) from the Passenger side. then the left side that doesn`t get pushed down and used much, becomes the side the driver uses more, and will have a bit more firmness to it.

It would be best to use a Spring Box form a second Gen W126 (86 - 90) they seem to have a nicer Spring Box with an added spring and the Foam round pieces in the corner front coils. You will have to remove the electric seat tracks for the W123 manual one`s.

To remove the back rest, (you already have one plastic cover off) is to remove the 2 plastic side covers. trick is to remove w/o breaking one or more of the now brittle plastic tabs out of the circle in the metal frame.
Then remove the 4 13mm bolts (2 ea side) and lift the back off.

The w123 drivers side has the forward and back adjustment, and the elevation adjustment.

The early w123 pass side has the forward back adjustment only. The height is set at a fixed position as seen from the rear, it sits on 2 pedestal. there is one bolt that screws into the Rocker at the right rear.

I swapped my 240D Pass side to the tracks with the elevation.

Now this would be a good how to do it DIY frustrating pictorial.
There are 6 screws that hold the track to the Spring Box. It`s a real Chinese Jig Saw puzzle to remove them, and then realign back together. :eek:

You have a good write up, you will fine tune it as you do more seats.


Charlie

Yes, the 2nd gen w126 seat boxes are quite nice to swap in. But even then I've found plenty of broken springs.

Look how the springs attach to the box, it's pretty easy to bend that sheet metal and slide them right out. Then find the appropriate unbroken spring and put it in the old slot, bend the metal back and Bob's your uncle.

Seconded. I separated the seat back and bottom when I did the seat I posted and now have the passenger seat separated. Once you're as far along as you are, it's only four more bolts. Shouldn't take more than a minute or two.

As for the hog rings, mine were so rusted that a quick flick of a screwdriver broke them free.

My floor bolts were rusty, but I was actually referring to all the fasteners in and on the seat - mostly the seat tracks which I completely disassembled and re-lubed.

As for the seat springs, I used a method similar to what Kent Bergsma does. Actually, my father (an antique furniture upholsterer) came up with the same method around 15 years ago to repair springs in my '82 240D at the time. Basically:

1. Cut the jagged edges of the broken springs.
2. Cut a new section of upholstery spring to match the size and shape of the break.
3. Clamp the repair piece in place with 3-prong upholstery spring clips.
4. Wrap the whole repair (My father swears by tightly-wound nylon thread covered in Gorilla Glue. I wrapped my repairs with utility wire.
5. Additionally, I added one new spring to each side of the seat and one along the front for additional support.

As for the memory foam, I lucked into a 4 inch thick king size memory foam mattress topper on Craigslist for free. It was used, but clean enough. Plus, it was going under the MB Tex, so I wasn't too worried about it.

I put the repaired seat on the floor to try it out, and it's even more comfortable than I'd hoped for. Time will tell how it is when I install it in a car.

Your earlier spring box looks like the one that came out of my '79 parts car. I haven't compared it to anything else yet.


I don't consider spring repair a waste of time. The spring box my father and I repaired in 1998 was still going strong in 2005 when I sold that car. Granted, replacing the whole spring box is way easier. For me, this time, it wasn't an option. I didn't have access to a good one and didn't want to have to go out and buy one.

This isn't true. The early w123 300 models had a elevation adjustment on the passenger side, later models were fixed. I believe the 240 model, being cheaper wouldn't have the adjustment but the 300's did.

OK you win, but I was close. I`ll start taking notes on which one`s I come across that have the fixed seats. From what I remember seeing, I thought it was the Turbo Diesels that had the adjustments.

I know my cheap azz 80 240 "had" the fixed seat.


Charlie

Hey Jooseppi, nice work. Reason the seat skin came apart so easy is probably because I had the seat apart to replace the seat foam and spring which was sagging to one side badly. The PO must have been very heavy.:eek: The parts came from a 240D seat Jim Smith gave me. Have fun!

The coils in the front corners of the seat were an attempt to alleviate the broken sagging springs of the earlier 123 seats. They provide more support for the seat in the corners. They were not entirely successful and I believe MB has an actual pool noodle as an official part for installation inside those coils to provide yet more support.

Nice kitty by the way.

- Peter.

I just got done rebuilding the front seats from a 1979 240D. BOTH seats had fore/aft adjustment as well as height adjustment.

Here is a thread from back in 07 about firming up the W123 seat corners

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/183860-making-w123-front-seat-firmer.html


http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-parts-reference-library/183654-1269142215-w123-w126-front-seat-foam-support-inserts.html

Attached Thumbnails
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...at-support.jpg


part# 126-914-22-15

Charlie

Here is a picture of a W126 seat.

Attached Thumbnails http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1598265oes.jpg

__________________

Charlie

Interesting, maybe all the early w123 seats had them.

I rebuilt both front seats in my 84 & 85 300D. I posted photos in another post. I also unbolted the bottom from top, and didn't fool with the top in both cars. My main additions are that I tied the top wires together with either "rebar tie wire" or a net of 1/4" poly rope, covered w/ spiked carpet runner, then a layer of thick rubber foam (garage shelf liner at 99c Store). The 85 had horsehair, which was more degraded, so covered the top w/ thick burlap. I hog-ringed the carpet runner and burlap to the steel frame. I glued the felt runners back to the seat covers. I repair broken springs by inserting the ends into 1/4" copper tubing w/ epoxy and crimping. I spent more time freeing up and lubing the seat tracks. I used harsh-weather bicycle chain lube since it is supposed to stay put and handle dirt. For the finale, I use sheepskin covers which feel fantastic.

I wanted to thank Jooseppi for this, I'll be rebuilding my seats at some point and will find it very useful. Looking forward to the rest.

So you're saying that later w123 300 models had non-adjustable "fixed" height? And when you state that "early w123 300 had an elevation adjustment on the passenger side" is there some actual authoritative info for that or is is just an opinion?

"Mercedes Option Code # 572 Vordersitz rechts mit Sitzhoehenverstellung - Right Front Sear with Height Adjuster"

Suggests that the Front Passenger(Right) seat was standard without height adjustment and that height adjustment was an extra option.

What options were included depended on who was ordering the vehicle, in the US often times it was the dealership in consultation with MBUSA, that's why most US vehicles had auto transmissions, the dealership and MBUSA decided based on their market research that US customers preferred automatics. It's likely that they specified the #572 option as most of the w123 300s I've ever seen have front Passenger height adjustment, in fact I can't recall ever seeing a w123 300 without it, except for Euro/Gray market cars. I suppose some US based customer could have ordered a car without the #572 option, but I doubt too many people would have passed up buying a car with that option just to order one without it.

Does the Data Card for your car list option Code # 572, that's the code for front passenger seat height adjustment?

Couldn't say. I junked the rotted shell of that car a few months ago. I saved the seats for rebuild and use in my '83.

Hi Jooseppi Luna,

Thank you so much for this! I'm currently restoring my 1985 w123 and at some point, i need to replace the upholstery as well. I was wondering whether you already finished the project. Is it hard to instal the new upholstery? Or is that the reverse? Is it easy to put the edges of the upholstery back to where they belong?

Thanks again!

Thanks for all the great upholstery info! My husband and I are working on a complete restoration of an '81 300TD.

Does anyone know if the seats are interchangeable from '85 300CD to an '82 300TD? I have a coupe that we're taking some parts off of and the seats are in much better shape. Would love to swap them to the wagon but they seem slightly different.

The seat upholstery is the same with the exception being the seat back release button hole in the coupe. The seat base is interchangeable on the TD, D, CD etc. The seat base (spring box) should be different in the coupe because of the seat back being hinged. If you are putting seat back skins from a D or TD in a CD, no problem. The other way around, you will have a hole in the vinyl where the seat back release was. You could just install the release button in your TD seat back to cover the hole, but it would not be hooked up to anything.....Rich

Where are the bolts on the rear part of the seat bottom, that hold the seat in to the tracks or the tracks to the floor? I can't figure out how to remove the seat. Thanks

It's an 85' w123

To remove the bolts to the car you need to use the side handle, the height adjuster, and slide it forward. Then you can access the bolts at the rear.

Once you have it out you will see 6 large Phillips head screws, two of which are hidden by the seat rails. You have to move the seat rails to egg the access joke over them so you can remove the screws.

In all honesty, the first time I took a seat apart I just winged it.

I figured it out, you gotta pull up on the side handle. Thanks

Thanks Molyp* for this opportune tutorial. I just finished taking apart my old '79 driver seat.
Mine did not have hog-wire clips. In order to access the large nut to remove the arm rest, one has to remove two Phillips screw that hold a metal frame bar. One side of that bar rests on the nut in order to keep it from turning. Then remove one 10mm bolt next to the nut.

All in all this tutorial was great. Easy to remove the upholstery.

THANKS

Hi, Bill. Just seeing your comment about gluing the felt runners in place... I am on my third attempt at figuring out how to keep these in place - no luck so far. First I tried a few drops of hot glue, but when I reassembled the seat, these spots were very visible as small bumps, so I removed all traces of the hot glue and tried a spray adhesive. Luckily, I tried first on the side, as I quickly found that it soaked through to the outside of the seat cover. Now, I am considering using double sided tape to hold these in place. Can you tell more about your experience gluing these in place? What type of glue did you use? How successful (e.g. "invisible") was it? Thanks!

Seat Repair
 

Subscribed, I need to do the seats in two of my W123's....

Hey, great save. I found two excellent palomino seats in a 300SD a few months back and then discovered that they wouldn't swap into my 300SDL. They changed the seats and electonics in the post '85 W126s. So I pulled off the skins, also had a freebie palamino seat, just the platform, no base. Now I need to put them on my SDL. Not sure if the skins would fit on my 300D seats, also palamino but the vinyl sort. I haven't finished reading the thread yet, might be in there.

I'm in the process of refurbishing. I currently have two passenger seat-back pads, donors from two different cars. One is spongy, supple and greenish, the other is hard and brittle, mostly brown with some green. Both appear to be horsehair with some rubberizing element. The spongy one seems like it'll last another 20 years while the (clearly) horse hair pad has a year tops before it meets the same fate as the pad its replacing.

I suspect one of them is only synthetic horse hair, whatever that might mean, while the other likely ran the Kentucky Derby.

Does anyone know if Mercedes used different seat-back material across 123s over various years?


-

W123 Seat Buns
 

IIRC it's coconut fibers, not horse hair .

The green ones seem to be better .

In the past I've found good condition seat buns that were crispy and use 3M upholstery spray glue to save them .

For certain you'd be wise to cover the springs with muslin or other sturdy cloth before re installing the buns....

Please take and share pictures, it's been decades since I did much auto upholstery and I'm wanting to re skin my '82 240D's seats front and rear .

Apparently horse hair is a popular urban legend. Though difficult to confirm one way or the other.

I ended up ditching the crispy back and god am I happy I did. Here's a shot of them below.
Crispy left, bouncy right.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...ide-bouncy.jpg

It was a fiddly but enjoyable process. I had two donor seats to play around with -a passenger and driver- from a generous forum member.

My driver, or course, required the most work. Here's the original back exposed.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-installed.jpg

And here it is where it belongs.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...ninstalled.jpg

No more hoovering clydesdale/coir!

New back installed:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...6210-plush.jpg

While it may have been possible to salvage the crispy back by wrapping it in glue, there's no chance it would have been as comfortable as a backing that's still bouncy and pliable. I found another passenger side cushion in the yard. What's odd is the difference. I pulled two perfect backs off of 1980 model 300Ds. On 81s? Junk. I suspect the manufacturing process varied between years...

Meanwhile, the seat back springs were heavily worn.
While it's possible to take a passenger seat back frame and install it on the driver's side (the arm rest can be moved with ease), the adjustment will then be on the wrong side. This sucks for a number of reasons I've not seen mentioned.

1.) the adjuster will be in a super awkward place, behind the seatbelt latch and under the armrest. Good luck to you.

2.) You will not be able to reinstall the plastic trim on that side because the shape required does not exist.

3.) Don't do it.

Instead, it's easy enough to pry open the mounting tabs and swap the spring assembly, keeping the otherwise solid driver back frame:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...ng-spring.jpeg

Skin going back on:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...-seat-skin.jpg

The seat bottom/base, is interesting. My 81 did not come with this style of spring box. I pulled it from the Yard. See the circular coils in the front? That appears to be a later addition. My original base did not have those. The nice thing about those coils is that MB makes very cheap foam inserts to bolster them. Believe they were originally a taxi upgrade. They're like 5-7 bucks each and well worth it. Here's how they look and fit:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...ew-springs.jpg

And here's the money:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...re6214-fin.jpg

I drove nine hours yesterday. Imagine replacing a lazyboy stuffed with hay for one filled with memory foam. It was a bit like that.

Refurb those seats!

Awesome write-up, thanks! I have done pretty much the exact same thing many times, so I know exactly what you went through. The driver seat in my 629,000 mile wagon has parts from four different seats. Having nice comfortable seating in these cars make the miles go by fast!

It sure did... how we spend time and money on tires, shocks and spring coils and neglect the other obvious “point of contact” is beyond me. Mad I didn’t do this sooner.

Oh one other thing. The headrests are supposed to move up and down. This seems obvious in retrospect however every headrest I’ve touched either in my own car or in the yard has been completely seized, shafts to the sleeves. Once you wrestle the things out, you can sand the corrosion, oil or grease and slip them right back in. Voilà, height adjustable headrest.

Turns out these used to be luxury cars or so I’ve been told.

Good Job !
 

Those cylindrical black front bolsters are a W126 part and the M-B Classic Center sells them....

I don't think I have any good covers at this point .

I'm so wanting to re do the seats in my '82 240D .

Shern, nice write up tutorial !
Thanks!

I found a nice set of Sienna driver and passenger front seats for my 300D 1979 a few years ago. I posted about this swap.
Big difference from my old horse hair/coconut flat driver seat.

Original 79 300D color is Tabacco but the different front seat color is negligible.
I just bought a rear bench in Sienna but have yet to find a decent rear back rest in Sienna. So, the Tabacco stays in the rear..

vwnate, what color is your interior?

I got the Sienna from an 82 240D...

Interior Colors
 

All my W123's have palomino interiors .

I really dislike the tobacco brown , unless it's pristine it looks dirty no matter what you do with/to it .

Both my early coupes had it and I hated it .

I just replaced a panel on my SD’s bolster. I had originally replaced the bolster three years ago with some cheap vinyl. Big mistake because it wore out. You can see in the first photo it isn’t mbtex. I decided to redo it with better vinyl. Here are some photos of the repair. I got some marine grade vinyl that kind of matched. I marked where the panel mated up with its neighboring panels and then cut the stitching around it to remove it.

Then I cut a fresh panel and sewed it to the seat cover. The construction is kind of complex with all the J hook and piping. I got a few of my stitches wonky and it doesn’t fit perfectly. But it beats having a hole. If I did it again I bet I could do it better.

The bolsters seem to go out first. This trick will fix a lot of the seats I see on Craigslist cars. Then there’s the collapsed springs and crumbling horse hair.

Anyhow enjoy the pix.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2b653c47ef.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...af7b3c6ba0.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...774fbde26f.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b19552f911.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...87164b45df.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4000db61f8.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...97abeb514e.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d04246d1f8.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...23c9fae609.jpg

This was taken right after fitting. It looks a lot better now after I sat in it a month. Wrinkles relaxed a lot in the sun. I’ll take a more current photo and put it up. It really looks a lot better after settling in.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...1e3124a0e4.jpg

This is solid work.
A uniform coat of paint and I doubt anyone would notice.

Recovering pleats is something I’d like to do.
Not sure my sewing machine is up to the challenge, however.
Also not sure a.) how to keep the new backing taut while stitching, b.) what effect adding a new line of stitch holes over the old unused would have on durability.

The mbtex seems to be able to take a lot of restitching. I’ve sewn my bolster twice now. I keep my stitch length long (5mm) so I don’t punch too many holes. I’m sure there’s a limit to the number of times I can open it up and close it up but it still seems strong after 2x. My tex is also in pretty good shape - still supple and not brittle.

I use a really heavy duty machine. It has a lot of torque (see giant flywheel) and a walking foot. It’s a sailmakers machine. My other hobby is restoring vintage sewing machines. There are some household machines like the 1970s and 1980s Husqvarna 6440 or 1030 that can do heavy materials. These have a two speed gear box that helps punch heavy stuff. Adjustable foot pressure, Teflon foot and a leather needle also help the home machine tackle an industrial job like this. My advice is get some upholstery scraps and try sewing a few layers. You’ll find you’ll probably need a leather needle, Thicker thread (I use v69) at a minimum. If your machine is rigid, you can compensate for a weak motor by hand cranking slowly.

I went through this process over the years to get to what I’m doing.

I’ll do pleats next. The good news is you don’t keep the backing taught while stitching. If you pleat with foam you compress the foam with the sewing foot and just sew the sandwich of tex, foam and vinyl together. For most or our repairs we just need to replace the fabric backing and sew new thread. This is done by removing the felt sausages first then sewing the tex and backing together flat with even spacings in the original stitch lines. Then the felt sausages are put back using a thin walled plastic tube inserted inside the channel to hold it open temporarily- like catheterization or stenting. Then slip the tube out leaving the sausage in the channel. Bottom line, you don’t have to sew around the poofy pleats. It’s actually easy.

The hard part is the panel needs to be removed from the side boxing to get access with the machine. Then the side boxing is stitched back on at the end. It’s a lot of work but still easier than starting from scratch.

I have some collapsed pleats on my blue 300d that I intend to repair. I’ll document the fix and post it up when I do it. I need to find the right thin walled tube. I think the tubes that Home Depot sells for fluorescent lamp shields will work. I guess I can measure it out on the seat pleats. There are other ways to do it too like dragging the sausages through with a string.

Huh. Something to do during lockdown today.

Hey here’s a completely different thought. The pleat problem is caused by the backing rotting and the felt sausages wandering around when the thread no longer holds them in the channels. I wonder if you can just hand stitch on a new backing with the felt sausages in place using a double needle saddle stitch? It would take time by hand but if you just stitch through the original holes up top it may not be too long for one seat...like an hour? This tool would make a nice stitch. And you wouldn’t have to deconstruct the boxing.

https://live.staticflickr.com/5272/7...51318cae7b.jpg

This is amazing, thank you.

I have considered restoring them using hand stitches but what kept me from doing so was methodology. Putting the pads (sausages) in afterwards makes far more sense and is something I had failed to consider...

I'll be very curious to see how your restoration goes. The six pleat pattern is a little different. The pleat channels seem to run much deeper so that even if they lose their stitching they're able to retain their shape. The latter of the two 5 pleat patterns (what I'm working with) appears to take shape through tension alone.
Tricky, but doable.