Front seat question W126
 

Are the front seats interchangeable left to right? Are all front seats in W126 cars interchangeable?
I am restoring my '82 300SD. I will be redoing the leather seats. The driver's cover is good, but the springs are tired. The passenger cover ripped. Can i swap the driver's cover to the passenger seat base and install on the driver's side? Then I plan to get a better leather seat for the passenger side. Color doesn't matter as I will remove all dye, treat with leatherique and redye.
Any comments on my plan?

What are you going to do about your Back/lumbar adjustment mechanisms? By switching sides you couldn't reach the adjustment as it would be buried by the middle consule and then you have the seatbelt located there also. Why not leave the seats where they are and just get the seats repadded and covered. I think you are inviting problems. :rolleyes:

Yeah, I'm jealous that you have real leather. Very difficult to find in the older 126.120s. From what I can recall about the seat bottoms they interchange with no problem. However, I did not do a swap, I ended up doing the pool noodle trick to stiffen up the springs, then put a 1" layer of furniture grade high density form on top of the horsehair pad. Worked great.

OK, I just looked at my seats again. The seat belt is mounted to the frame; not the seat. There is no lumbar adjustment. All the controls are electric.
So the modified question is... Are the seats themselves interchangeable on the frames?
And a new one... How recent W126 seats will work? Did MB change the appearance (pleats/ stiching patterns) over the years?


Thanks for the replies.

It looks feasable to me. I've thought of doing that for a few years but I've never acted on it. Aside from the fact that the armrest needs to attach to the driver's side back, I believe you can switch the seats on the frame.

From my experience...
 

There are a couple of things that you have to do and changing the motor base is not one. In fact this is the biggest PITA about these seats as you have tomanually turn the motor to move the seat to get to the mount screws.

The seat belt control bracket, seatbelt lock and sensor wire will need to be exchanged to the other seat.
If you have an arm rest then you can change the seatbacks also quite easily. But be careful threading the motor wires through the seat.

The plug-ins for the seat controls are both the same so this should not be an issue.
I can go into much more detail if you decide to do it.

Yes, the front seats, and the parts on them, are interchangeable. From your post, it sounds as if you are planning on swapping the spring base with its upholstery.

I'm not sure if the seats on the SDL are the same as the SD, however, I never manually turned the motor on the SDL. I ran the seat all the way aft, under power, removed the forward mounting screws, ran the seat all the way aft, removed the forward mounting screws, disconnected the wires, and removed the seat from the vehicle, IIRC.

Pay no attention to Brian. His seats talk to him all the time, and fill his head with all sorts of strange ideas. :rolleyes:

It is not too tough!
 

I just renewed drivers seat in my 300SD and it now looks like it did in the showroom 20 years ago. It is a drastic improvement over the old tired seat that I had.
My spring base was broken in a couple of places so rather than paying big bucks for a new one I called Potomac and bought a spring frame from a passenger seat off of a later (after 89) model for $75. They sent me the entire bottom including a beautiful cover and the base including the motors. I specified a passenger side because I figured that it would have minimal wear...they re both the same. The horsehair pad was perfect so I did not have to get that either. I wasn't expecting the whole seat bottom but it is probably easier for them to throw the whole thing in a box and send it.
Cushions from the later models are much sturdier and even have "pool noodles" inside the coil springs. The new style seats also have clips that are easier to use when attaching the covers to the springs. If you are doing both seats try to get 2 new style passenger seat bottoms from a 90 or 91 car. The new style cushions and horsehair pads work fine with the old style leather seats. I think that the pads are different for MBtex.
Once I got the seat out of the car I was able to move the tracks back and forth to remove the power seat assembly from the spring frame by removing a ring and detaching the cable that goes from the motor to the gears that control forward and backward movement. It is just like a speedometer cable. I used the one from the extra power seat assembly attached to a drill to move the seat back and forth.
I bought the leather seat cover and armrest cover from ADSIT. (It was made by GAHH and was a perfect fit)
I went to a fabric store and got a dollars worth of black elastic to put along the top of my droopy seatback nets. I also got some foam to put under the seat along the front to get a perfect look. It took a couple of tries to get it to the point that it was taut everywhere.
Let me lknow if this answers your questions.

Tom,

Thanks for your input. I have been needing to do the same thing form my 85 300SD for a while now, but have been putting it off for fear of the expense of all the things I have to replace, including frame, horsehair, and seat cover. I have the MB tex in my car. How can I contact Potomac to see if they woul have what I am looking for??? Thanks for all your help! :cool:

Thanks for all the great information. There is a chain of "U pull it" yards near me. They work off a printed price list so you know the cost beforehand. Seats cost $20 each- no track.Tracks are an extra $20. So for $40 I can get the whole thing. The downside is they do not keep track of inventory; you must go in person and pay the $1 admission to see if they have what you want.
When I'm ready, I just keep going until I find what I want.

Power up the seat motors...
 

I partnered with one of our forum members on an SD driver's seat rebuild. After we got the seat out of the car we put jumper cables on the battery with aligator clips on the jumper cables and used the aligator clips to directly power the seat bottom for removing the spring from the motor frame.

Take it from the middle-aged crowd, work smart not hard.

You can tell if you need springs and pads ahead of time.
 

Robert,
Raise both seats as high as they go. Get a flashlight and look for broken wires in the frame and inspect the condition of the horsehair pads. My pads really did not need changing. My passenger seat had very little wear and no broken springs so I left it alone. The drivers seat had worn out leather and a broken spring frame so I did a total overhaul on it. When you compare the redone driver's seat (with the reinforced frame that I got from Potomac) with the passenger seat it is much firmer and much more comfortable. You spend all of your time in that seat so it is worth the extra money if you can get a stronger frame.
Potomac's numbers are 800-831-7686 for the Maryland location and 800-275-4405 for the Florida location. There are a number of other MB dismantlers listed in Hemmings that you can also call. Performance and Caliber sell new frames for $250 and new horsehair pads for around $110 each. Tex seat covers are around $299 per seat at Performance or ADSIT. If you go to a dismantler get the new style reinforced spring frame from a passenger seat in a later model if you can.

What will fit?
 

Do you know how late of a model we can go to on this? The drivers seat on my 84SD is in dire need of attention.