Well, technically, I DO have the $200 you're referring to. That's not really a fair question considering the scope of my project. I'll explain...

Cliffs notes:
In 2012 I bought a 1983 4-speed 240D that had been languishing on Craigslist for a long time. It had been off the road since 2007 and stored in a barn (well, more of a large rural garage, but I like emphasizing the "barn" part for dramatic effect ). It has nearly 300,000 miles on it, a trashed interior, much rust damage to the passenger side floor, etc.

I bought it because at the time, I wanted another 240D (I've owned two since 1996, in addition to a '72 220D, an '85 300D, and an '85 300SD) but had basically no budget. So, I bought an otherwise junkyard-grade runner and decided to fix it myself.

What I thought would take 3 months has taken 2 1/2 years to date and I'm still hard at work. Admittedly, there have been months when I haven't been able to touch the car. So, there were long breaks in there.

Anyhow, because the car was so far done, I originally planned on just fixing the rust, cleaning it up, doing whatever mechanical repairs it needed and driving it. As I started working on it, things snowballed. I found a much nicer interior courtesy of a '79 240D parts car I bought last summer. Mostly nice bamboo MB-Tex, but the horsehair was shot (the parts car sat in an open field behind a barn for 13 years).

When I realized how bad the pads were, and how expensive replacements were, I decided to look for a clean-ish salvage foam pad, which is what led me to the free 4" memory foam mattress topper from Craigslist. I also did spring repair and reinforcement on the front seats and covered the spring boxes with a layer of canvas to protect the foam pads (I believe this is a must if switching from horsehair).

Anyhow, to answer your question, no. I wouldn't have spent the $200 on actual horsehair pads. But, my car is apples and oranges against a well-maintained original W123. I'm compromising on everything to save $$$$.

BUT, if I had started with a much nicer car that hadn't needed so much attention, then yes, I very well might have spent more money on the correct pads.

I estimate I'm a few weeks away from installing my repaired interior. I'm much further away from driving the car (I've done body repairs so far, but have not yet touched anything mechanical). I can keep updating this thread with my impressions of the memory foam as time goes on.

Hi Magic,

I tried to reply to your message last night, but either my PC or the site had some difficulties and my reply never got posted.

I hope that you aren't offended by my comment about the $200. I know that you are trying to get the 240D running on a budget and you are doing some creative methods to make proper fixes to the issues you are finding. I was simply asking if you had chosen to spend some more money on a multilayer foam seat, what would it be.

I look forward to you findings as you install your seats. I really appreciate your YouTube videos. I looked at every video carefully before starting my seat repairs.

My Dad bought my car in 1974. My mom, brother, brothers brother in law and I have owned the car since my Dad bought it. I'm trying to bring the car back to a fine daily driver. I'm happy that I spent the $500 on the new front seat pads but I cannot justify spending about that amound on a single rear seat bench pad. I think I will get a used W123 pad so someone can sit in the back seat. Right now, the rear bench pad is non existent although the rear back pad seems OK.

I look forward to hearing how your seats have turned out.

No, not offended or upset at all. I didn't mean to sound that way, either. I probably did a poor job of conveying my point - which is this - overall, I think that for the right Mercedes in the right condition, $200 may be justifiable (though I still think that's a lot for any kind of a seat pad. But, for the specific car I'm working on, it only makes sense to compromise everything I can. That's the only way, cost-wise, that I can justify saving this specific car.

As for multi-layer foam pads, I simply don't know anything about them, so I can't comment. After my basic "place the repaired seat on a concrete floor and then sit in the seat" test, I'm VERY happy with the 4" memory foam over canvas.

Keep in mind that I paid $400 for the car to begin with. A $400 car does not get hundreds of dollars in top-notch upholstery materials.

You also mention that your father bought the car new. That's also a game-changer. My father bought his 1980 240D new (and still drives it). If I ever take over ownership, I absolutely would spend as much as I could afford to on the best quality parts. That car is a member of the family.

I removed the rear seat from my car and the rear back pad is crumbling away. I am pretty sure that a w123 rear bench pad will fit but I am not too sure if the rear back pad will fit.

Does anyone know for sure if a w123 rear back pad will fit a w115?

My darn springs have a pretty heavy layer of rust on them. I sanded off the looser rust and applied some rust converter and epoxy on them and it turned out pretty good. What a messy job though... I am wondering if I should use a pressure washer and then use a converter or an encapsulant. I am worried that the encapsulants (por 15, etc.) Will break up on the springs...

Does anyone have suggestions for how to clean my rear seat frame and how to treat he springs and frame?

Thanks for your help.

Dave

The seats I rebuilt had been sitting in a car that itself was sitting in a field for around 13 years with large holes in the floor. The frames and springs were pretty rusty. I actually wasn't worried about it and simply did my repair/upholstery work around the rust.

However, the rear seat bottom was so filthy from rodent intrusion that I had to take it down to the car wash to power wash it clean. I used a couple of bottles of disinfectant spray and degreaser in addition to the pressure washer to accomplish that.

I would also worry about a heavy coating breaking up. If I WERE to have tried what you are doing, I'd simply clean the springs as best I could, and then MAYBE apply some Eastwood Rust Encapsultor (the spray - it tends to do a pretty good job and is reasonably thin - I think it would resist cracking), then maybe some Rustoleum primer and top it off with Rustoleum paint.

Hi Magic,

That is a good idea. Thanks for the advice. I'm going to look for the Eastwood material locally. I used the Rustoleum rust converter and epoxy on the front seats. It seemed to work pretty good. I want to try the Eastwood material because I'll probably be using this for the little bit of body rust on the car.

Thanks again for your advice.

Dave

Online Fabric Store

How thick of a pad would you buy to do the rear seat in my 1974 W115 240D?

Online fabric store sells horse hair pads in 1" and 2" thickness. Would either of these work? IIRC, the front seats were closer to 1" thickness.

Anyone have a suggestion?

Dave

Asking me?

It would depend on the type of pad. Pads can be an apples-to-oranges comparison. Sometimes even apples to pineapples. There's a lot of differences.

I went with a pretty dense 4" memory foam pad, which is much thicker than the original, but compresses down a lot. I'll have the interior installed most likely in a few weeks and can form a better opinion then. So far, I was very happy based on the little testing I did.

If you can find rubberized horsehair, and go with that, I'd aim for something close to the original padding in thickness. If you're using a more standard foam pad, I'd get something as dense as possible and go a little thicker than the horsehair. By how much, I couldn't say.

We sometimes have to sit in the backs of pickups full of freshly harvested pineapples, crown and all. I do not recommend it for everyday driving. Very pokey. Go for the pads that feel more like like apples or oranges.

At least the apples or oranges will feel more like those nubby beaded back supports that the cabbies in NYC use.

http://www.amazon.com/Comfort-Bead-Wood-Beaded-Cushion/dp/B000EEU0IO

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