Seat Cover Repair

[Lou F]

The next thing on the to-do list is to repair the driver seat cover.  As you can see in the photo the MB Tex got warn away on the left side of the seat and exposed the plastic tube that supports the roll-over around the corner.   I showed the seat to a car interior specialist thinking he could just replace the replace the left panel with the same MB Tex.  But his suggestion was to order a new pair of seat covers! He suggested contacting GAHH to make the covers.  I see GAHH mentioned several time in the forum and they seem to have a good reputation.  But they are about $250 - 300 more than other suppliers.  GAHH sells a kit containing the backs and the seat bottoms.  But did not mention the head rest covers.  So I have some questions. 1) Someday I will have the car resorted.  If I change the seat covers now will the restorer still use them with the new interior?  Because I hate to buy these again.  2) If I decide to wait, can I just cut off the plastic tubes so the seat can look better until it is restored?  I kept the tubes because I thought the seat can be repaired.  3) Can this be repaired and still look good?  One more issue is the drive seat sags on the left side.  Can this be repaired with springs or a rubberized seat pad?

[Garry]

Lou,

There are a few questions here.

Firstly you can buy GAHH interiors by item, i.e. seat backs or seat bases without having to get the whole lot of the interior so they will be fine when you then go to do the rest of the interior. Be advised though, that ordering the GAHH gear through Buds Benz you can get a better price than direct from GAHH as Buds buy bulk from GAHH and provide a discount to our members.

However, without being critical of your upholster, a good upholsterer could unstich the piping seam and make a new piece of piping and sew it back into the seam.  This would be done by removing the seat from the car and cover from the seat.  Whilst you are there you can look and see if the springs have failed or just sagged. One way to bolster up the seat if it is a sag in the short to mid term is to put a “noodle” into the seat.  Do a search of the forum for 'pool noodles' and it will explain how it is done.  If you just fix the piping and at the same time whilst the seat is out, add the noodle, it may well be a very cheap fix that will last until you have the dollars to do the whole lot at a later date.

Garry

[Lou F]

Thanks for the reply.

I am going to visit a few more car interior facilities to see if they are up to the job.  So I guess the piping will stay attach for a few more months.
I liked the information that Bud's Benz sell the GAHH covers.  Bud's was my second choice for a supplier because the price was a few hundred dollars less, and they provide the head rest covers.
I will look into the Pool Noodle fix.  But I need to determine if it is the spring or the pad that is going bad.

[thelews]

Ken Aucone from Trak Restorations is in your relative area.  He can fix them with no problem.  He ran Bob Platz shop for 20 years, just went on his own.

[jameshoward]

I'm with Garry and John. That's entirely fixable. Mine were worse and were sorted by a good German chap.

[KevinC]

A smaller area but I had the following done locally last year by an interior guy working out of his truck. He works on all of the used car dealer's cars. Its holding up well so far. I bet there are guys like this local to you as well.

[Lou F]

Well I finally got the repairs done on the driver's seat of my 280SL. The job was done back in November.  I'm just getting around to update this post. 
I had the work done at Williams Custom Tops-Interiors in Langhorne, PA, not far from home. The piping on the seat was repaired and matched to the existing MBTex.  New padding was put in on the lower seat.  Now I set about 2 inches higher.  I like the look and feel of the repair.  The only shortfall is the seat adjustment leaver has to be pulled really hard to allow the seat o slide back and forth.  Plus it makes a loud grating noise.  And one of the bolts is a little loss and the beat is rocking a bit. 
I plan to get it back to the shop in a week or two to fix-up the problems.

[Lou F]

Here are the new photos of the repair.

[Lou F]

I should have cleaned off the chalk marks before tacking the pictures.