Well, I got up this morning and decided to finally go and get the rear power seat out of the euro '84 500SEL. This is the same car that donated my headlight wiper motors and will hopefully donate a front bumper.

From the car so far I grabbed the seat bottom and back. The motors, etc. are still in the car but should be ready to come out in no time. The thing that made me decide to quit was the heat. The car had a black velour interior and the car was grey so it was horribly hot working in there. I think the worst part of this installation will be getting all the wiring out. The car is sitting in a bunch of mud and water so I threw some old wheel laying around there so I had something to stand on without sinking. Hopefully tomorrow I can go back and work somemore at the wiring. A big buymch of wires disappears into the carpet so I assume those go to the B-pillar then into the door and finally connect to the switches. Which means tomorrow I'll have to remove the door panels to get the bezel, wires, and trim. Fun Fun.

The seat portion are still at the yard and I paid a total of $78.something. I also got a RF seat bottom out of a low mileage 420SEL. I couldn't get the frame separated from the box of springs and since I didn't have an impact with a phillips I had to buy the whole seat bottom. All 3 seats that I bought will have some sort of padding from an upholstery shop put in before I start doing the swaps. Even though on that front box spring all the springs are intact, I think I'm still going to use a few small pool noodle pieces to build up the front.

All these pieces will slowly be integrated throughout the summer. The back seat obviously has me worried the most, but I think I should be able to figure it out. I just wanted to let you all know what was up while recovering from my night out in the SDL with the sweet outfit.

Thanks
David

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2000 Honda Accord V6 137k miles

1972 300SEL 4.5 98k miles

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I'm interested in learning how to remove the rear heated seats on the 500SEL's. A friend of mine has one and he needs to remove it, and I offered no help since I had never done it before.

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Andrew Villasenor
805-720-5057
1984 300D turbo 5-speed manual(daily driver)
ALL MY DIESELS RUNNING WVO
Everything is for sale for the right amount
Ebay Store

10mm bolt on each side in the front. You'll see them it you look around the bottom of the seat bottom. There is a nut on the back and can be a pain to hold.

Thanks
David

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2000 Honda Accord V6 137k miles

1972 300SEL 4.5 98k miles

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I have a dumb question. What does a rear power seat do? Does "power" refer to the heating element, or does the seat actually move?

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1982 300D, black w/ palomino leather, 203K
2001 E320, champagne, 105K (Mom's)
1999 Dodge Dakota, squeaky & battered, 142K

The seatback reclines while moving the bottom cushion forward. This is controlled by the switches on each rear door.

damn, nice score with those seats!

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

Where are you going to install the switches? Did you grab the door panels?

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'90 300SE 298k
-300K and it gets put into retirement.
'80 300D 255k Purchased new by family in 1980.

Had a:
1973 220 (gas)
1980 300SD
1992 400E

I'm not going to take the door panels, just the bezel that holds the switched and the wood trim. Within the next couple weeks I'm pulling all the wood out of the car and refinishing it. I just want to get caught up on cup holders first.

Thanks
David

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2000 Honda Accord V6 137k miles

1972 300SEL 4.5 98k miles

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Here is an email that I sent to a member today. At the top you will see his response. I came across this member back in January when someone in "tech help" had wanted information regarding installing a passenger airbag in an '86 or '87 126. This member had said something about completely updating his interior and installing a 560 rear seat in his '86 SDL. So, I got back with him yesterday. At the very bottom I will post a copy of the PM he sent me in January. I'm posting this as it will be useful for anyone else contemplating a similar project.

David,

You've got quite a project on your hands! You will need all those wires
if you want the functionality, or at a minimum the connectors. Keep an
eye out for the relays and for where the wires attach at the front.
You'll need to pull the plastic door sill covers off and pull the carpet
back to get to the channels that the wires run through. The '85s and
older had simpler connections and may connect directly to the fuse box
(which you can jury rig in your car).

You are correct in surmising the wires run up through the B-pillar. They
go through the accordion connector between the pillar and door. You can
pull them out (from the bottom of the B-pillar), provided you remove the
plastic plug connectors. I suggest some electrical wire pulling
lubricant to ease getting them out.

Look at the current attachment points on the 500SEL. On the top, the
frame attaches at two pivot points. I used the eye from a Stanley gate
latch to make the connection for the body. I screwed it on with machine
screws to the body, but if you can weld, it's even better. I also
fabricated attachment points for the bottom corners from aluminum strips
(1/8 inch X 1"). If you can, take pictures of where everything attaches.

I hope this helps you. I'll keep my eyes out for an PM from you.

Casey

-----Original Message-----
From: David Peden [mailto:]
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 10:00 AM
To: Casey Cooper
Subject: 126 rear adjustable seat retrofit

You PMed me back in January about the retrofit you did with your SDL and
I have some questions and would like your input.

Casey, I just got back from the junkyard today and pulled a rear heated
power seat from a euro 500SEL. You can visit the thread in diesel
discussion for more details if you'd like. When I removed the rear seat
from the 500, a bunch of wires went under the carpet. Do those go into
the B-pillar then to the doors for the switches? I need to go tomorrow
and start pulling the rest of the wires and get the switches, etc.
Right now I just have the seats, tracks, and motors. The yard lets me
go out and pull parts myself.

You said something about grinding down the attachment points on my SDL.

Will I need to weld new ones on for the adjustable seats? Could I maybe
cut the points out of the 500 then have them welded? I was hoping that
part would be the same.

Thanks
David

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Here's the PM he sent me in Jan...

David,

I figured it best to reply to you privately, rather than confusing the thread with something ... not quite related. Sorry I took a while to get back to you.

Changing the rear seat out is doable, but a real pain in the neck. It basically entails removing almost the entire interior as you have to run new sets of wires for the adjust and for the heating.

To put the seat on, you have to grind off the attachment points for the non-reclining rear seat, then improvise attachments for adjustable one.

I suggest visiting a junk yard to obtain the hardware, and sweet talking the people there into letting you pull the hardware yourself. Here are the parts you need:

* Hinged frame
* Motor plus Bowden cables (similar to front seats)
* Rear heating relay(s) plus plugs
* switch plates w/ adjustment switch and heater on/off
* wiring looms


If possible, get the entire wiring loom. At a minimum, get the plugs and as much connecting wire as you can. This will save you a lot of time and effort.

I'm very happy to help you in any way with this project. The results are cool!

Casey

I went back and eliminated the email addresses for obvious purposes. So, there it is...

Thanks
David

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2000 Honda Accord V6 137k miles

1972 300SEL 4.5 98k miles

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Now, how about a similar project, front heated seats? I forgot to ask about that in the email I just send him a little bit ago. I'll briefly look into stealing the pads, relays, switches, etc. from that same 500SEL. This is turning into a nightmare and would be a lot better if I had the car in my shop with all the tools right there handy instead of lugging two tool boxes out to a swamp

Thanks
David

__________________
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2000 Honda Accord V6 137k miles

1972 300SEL 4.5 98k miles

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