[W126 Coupe] Best leathers/seat rebuild materials

[Dick Spellman]

Hi Richard:

A couple of comments that may be of some help re: seat refurbishment.  
Where you have the 85 sedan, this means you have the 'failed' seat 
springs both front and rear.  They from day one sagged on the outer 
edges as you sit in the seat.  There is a MB dealer repair kit that I 
used on the 86 sedan that consists of a set of (4) compressed rubber 
composite tubes that you just set in place (rtv sealant applied) at each 
seat corner between the lower steel frame and the upper seat pad 
corner.  Cost is $40 dealer.  I used two full sets to firm up the front 
seats and one set in the rear.  I did this work with the seats removed 
(30 minutes time and made the repairs (20 minutes tops both seats).  
I'll see if I can hunt up the MB part #'s since the dealer had no clue 
what I had them order until it arrived and an old-timer said yeah I've 
done a few of those.

If you are seeing a separation in the seat bottom leather stitching then 
you will need to have a local upholstery shop re-stitch these seems to 
the seat pad (original or new).  That cost should be around $75-100 if 
you bring the seat bottom to them.  My upholstery guy, added new padding 
right over the original and then stitched it like new on the 83 coupe 
front seats.  Note: I had to separate the seat bottom and leather with 
pad from the frame so he could do the work.  If your seat springs are in 
fact cracked, you'll need the MB replacements.

RE: the leather.  If the leather has the typical hole in the seat back 
on the driver's seat near the door, this can be repaired by you for $50 
by getting the repair kit from <www.leathermagic.com> or 
<www.magicmender.com>.  If you have cracking of the leather dye on the 
surface of the seats, you can completely restore the leather using the 
Leatherique kits and several days of elbow grease.  I did replace the 
carpets entirely in my coupe where the dye does not work.  But, the seat 
dye and leather rejuvinator do work well if you follow the directions 
and are very patient.  I've done complete leather restoration of the 
coupe interior.  I've done just the patch and re-dye of the sedan 
driver's seat and had the dye match come out perfectly although in all 
cases you will lose some of the grain detail if you put the dye (by 
sprayer) on too heavy.  I learned by doing and I'm happy with the 
results.  Here is a link to the old web pages I set-up that show some 
bit of detail on the leather work in the 
coupe...http://mysite.verizon.net/vze2mwm9/index.html  I have done a lot 
more since those early days when I published those pages but, the 
Interior Restoration should help you.

So, total cost for a DIY restoration of the entire leather interior 
including the door panels and trim would be in the area of $400-500 vs. 
outright replacement which will be closer to $3,000.


Good luck,

Dick

Shayegan, Richard wrote:

>Where is the recommended place to get leather, seat pads, and springs for the fron and rear seats of a Palomino 1985 380SE (anyone know if the dealer network still has any stuff)?
>Thanks,
>Richard
>The MB Coupes Website!
>W126 SEC Mailing List
>Postings remain property of MB Coupes, L.L.C.
>
>  
>