need help: reclining rear seat upgrade
 

My 300SDL has the standard fixed-place rear seat. I bought an entire interior to replace/upgrade my aweful condition original interior. This interior is from a 90 560SEL, with the power reclining rear seat.

I have never seen what the 560 SEL looks like without the rear seat in-place. I think that there is something on the body at the top of the seat back which allows the seat back frame to pivot.
I do not know how far away from the sheet metal the pivot point needs to be, or at what vertical distance from the rear deck.
I also suspect that I need to grind off the tabs which lock the fixed seat back to the body - but would like to know for sure before I do.

Does anyone have a 560SEL without the rear seat installed who could post /email a pic of the seat back area?

Thanks!

Here is a Pic to help describe what I am in need of:
http://home.earthlink.net/~karasz/rear_seat_upgrade.jpg

I have just finished adding the reclining rear seat to my '86 300SDL. This is not a job for the faint of heart, but for those who like to take the car apart (and put it back together!), it's extremely satisfying. I'm writing an article documenting what I did, so for now I'll address the points in this thread and tell a little of what I did.

The mounting tabs for the fixed seat must be removed (all five - the three big ones in the middle and the small ones on the sides). I suggest using a rotory tool, such as a Dremel with a cutting wheel rather than a full size grinder. You will want to keep the two small tabs from which the plastic/cloth liner hangs. Also, you need to cut off the center mounting bracket for the rear seat rest since that interferes with the operation of the seat.

I was able to take apart the interior of an '88 560SEL to get the mechanical parts for the seat. The surfaces are identical in all W126 chassis, save for different parts welded on. This means you will need to fabricate connections for the pivot mounts at the top, as well as the two supports for the guide rails. Also, a hint here is that you cannot use the two mounting brackets bottom of the seat (where it "clips" on) since they are too far apart and too far back from the edge.

I'll post a followup with a link to what I did. Email me directly if you have any questions. I'd love to share what I've learned.

One question: after you installed the power operated 560SEL seat on your SLD are you still able to recline electrically the seat, or you just welded the seat into a fix position?

That's a good question about whether what I did functions. The seat does recline and the heater does work. I actually didn't do any welding, but I did drill many holes to attach and mount the hardware using machine screws. Getting the top pivot points attached to the frame is not difficult, but I suggest getting the bottom in first so you can see how the seat pivots. It's critical that the seat back frame is centered exactly between the two doors since the seat itself is a tight fit.

Since the point for me was to have it recline, I invested a lot of time into taking apart most of the car's interior to run the electrical. The beauty of the W126 (and Mercedes in general) is the provisions exist to add any of the optional features, and doing so is relatively simple. The complication lies in running wires from the front to the back of the car and into the doors.

As I mentioned before, I'm working on documenting what I did since I have not seen this type of conversion usefully documented in one place, and I'll post it when done. My personal email is nosp*m.casey@gbcnet.com (remove the "nosp*am. -I'm avoiding the spambots.)