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This is a very general article that deals in the broad strokes of restoration of Mercedes car seats. First off, the seats in your MB are not like the seats in, say, a Chevy they're much better engineered than that. Think of a big expensive piece of leather furniture and you'd be closer. There's two major component parts to the seat: the surface (leather, MB-Tex or cloth) and the guts. Let's look at them first. There's a spring box first of all, and over time, especially with more force on them than less, they sag. A cheap fix is to swap the drivers and passengers seat spring boxes. You *might* luck out and find a good used one. They are not cheap new - not over priced really, they are well built and do last a long time. How do you know if yours is sagging? Sit in all the seats then sit in the drivers seat last. Did it feel any different? No? Then yours is ok. On top of the spring box are a set of pads. These can be made of various things depending on the age of your car. Horsehair pads and a foam pad on top and not uncommon in earlier cars. There's no cheap fix to renew these pads. Maybe you can find good used ones but you're chances are probably as great at finding a good used shock absorber or fan belt. So, you'll probably need to get new ones. They aren't cheap (but don't worry, it's not like you're buying Rolls Roycs or Volvo parts or something). That stuff was easy and (comparatively) cheap. Now we get to the covering matierial. This can be any number of different kinds of leather. MB's own increadably durable MB-Tex vinyl (often advertised as leather by poeple that a) don't know better and b) can't tell the difference) and cloth: woven or velour, with to without MB-Tex inserts. If it's cloth, clean it with any brand of automotive upholstery cleaner. If there's rip or tear it can be repaired easily by any automotive upholstery repair shop. New seat covers are available sometimes. Getting good second hand cloth seat covers is dicey but doable. MB-Tex is what most MB's came with prior to about 1980. The stuff was just everywhere - and for good reason. This ain't the vinyl from your fathers Oldsmobile, it's increadably durable, long lasting and soft stuff. Second hand parts are common (although almost nobody will sell you just a used seat cover as they can't really sell what's left once they remove the cover. You end up having to peay for a seat and telling them to just ship the cover) and reasonable. I've never heard of anybody doing any repairs to worn Tex (it's that durable) but it's just vinyl so it should be easy and cheap to fix. Leather. Ah yes. Cloth lasts a long time. Tex seems to last forever. MB's with flawless leather are either new or very rare. But you have some options: Repair: Consensus seems to be that Leatherique is not only the undisputed winner, but the only thing that actually works. Follow the directions on their site TO THE LETTER. As long as your seats aren't shredded to bits you can probably save them. If they're merely worn, cracked, ripped or torn or dried out then Leatherique can save them - and if you'd used it in the first place your seats would never have got cracked and worn and ripped and dried out. End of Sermon. Replacement - used: Used good leather seat covers for an older Benz? Pardon me while I giggle uncontrollably. You might find some but don't count on it. New: Here is where you have the most options. You can order them from Mercedes and there's no question they'll be the right color and leather. Or, you can order from aftermarket suppliers who specialize in replacement Mercedes (and other) leather seat covers. They will be cheaper and in many cases are indistinguishable from what you'd get from MB. Leather is leather and MB doesn't own all the cows! There are a number of these after market places and experience has been mixed with some of them with a few folks swearing by one place and a couple swearing at them. Overall, experiences have been positive however. Whatever you do, when you get your leather back into shape, use Leatherique on it. You can ask about it on the mailing lists here but only do that if you're prepared to get a lot of email from people extolling it's virtues!
Richard Sexton, |