Seat repair / Covers
 

Hey guys, now that I got my A/C working properly again, it's time to move on to other projects.. :dizzy2:

My car is a W123 euro with cloth seats. Naturally, after 22+ years of constant use, the seats are pretty stained up, and the driver's seat sags a lot on the left side. There's a small 4-inch area of "extreme wear" on the left side of the driver's seat that I don't want to get any worse (it was probably caused from people sliding in and out of the car).

So, here's my questions:

* People are always talking about "Noodling" their W123 seats. I understand the idea of stuffing pool noodles under the seat, but does anybody have a pictorial of how exactly to do this? I'm a little leery of taking apart my seat without a guide on what I'm doing..

* Simple question. I want slipcovers for the seats that will hide these blemishes / protect the cloth. What's a good place to buy slipcovers for a blue interior? I don't want anything too expensive, or anything that doesn't belong in a Mercedes (Like a "racing" slipcover, or some stupid tribal design one). Got a place to buy these?

* Unrelated question. What's a good place to buy dashmats? I have a blue interior (see my Shopforum gallery), and the dash is getting kind of cracked up. I'd like to protect the thing, but I don't want to spend $100+ on a dash cap. Got a good site to get the dashmats? Do they look good / work well?

All that's left for me to do (once I get this fixed), is to get the rust in the rear seat repaired, find the damn leak for rainwater, and get a new gasket for that leaky filter housing. Thanks, guys!

There is a link to the info on the seat repair.

Adsitco.com sells plastic dash caps that I've heard are OK depending on how well you install it. The carpet mats I've seen on ebay for $60-$80.

Good Luck!

I repaired my drivers seat by brazing roll pins with the same inside diameter as the spring to some small steel pieces and then sliding them over the broken spring ends. On some I had to cut off the curve of the spring. I did this a year ago and it still is holding up and no sag to the left on the seat.

Go to a furniture upholtery shop and buy coil springs. install on each corner. cut out part of damaged spring.... install a layer of carpet padding in top of seats (jute not foam)

A local upholsterer redid the cloth interior of my Euro car several years before I bought it, receipt in car. You really can't tell it was done and it is still holding up years later.

It is possible to use a passenger seat bottom in your driver seat. This is the best seat spring solution I have seen yet.

Curious, how much did it cost (roughly) for the reupholstering? I'm guessing that'd be quite expensive, right?

As for the driver's seat? I'm probably going to end up shoving two pool noodles into it, so long as the springs aren't in TOO bad of shape. Hopefully by "noodling" my seat, it will stop making me list towards the door. Someone bumped an old thread, it seems.. and they seem to have some nice pictures on how to accomplish this!