Gear Shifter Upholstery Finish in Automatic

[Pawel66]

I found an interesting picture: it comes from the German 280SL sales leaflet, shows automatic gear shifter (as option) and the upholstery finish around it - made of the upholstery material rather than black rubber.

I have not been going through this topic recently on our Forum. I did it when I did my upholstery. What I found is that the edge of the carpets around the shifter in automatic were made of rubber. I obviously could not find this rubber so I did like most of us, I guess - finished the carpet edge with upholstery material. Well, it looks that it might have been done this way...

Perhaps it changed during produciton time or together with carpet type change or, as one elder MB worker told me - they fitted whatever they had in a warehouse .

[RobSirg]

Interesting......my '69 has original carpet with rubber around the shift gaiter. (well actually I replaced the carpet but retained the rubber trim)

Rob

[mbpaul]

My car, a 1966 230SL, has the original upholstery.  This is 4 speed instead of automatic, has square weave carpet and is a few years earlier than the photo shown.  The first picture is of my car that I took today.  Second picture is from a 230SL sales brochure.  I cannot find a date in the brochure but I think it is probably from 1965 but might be 1966.  As can be seen, my car's shifting boot looks identical to the one in the brochure.  I have read that the boot was bonded to the upholstery material, not sewn or glued.  In my car, it is not bonded, not sewn and not glued, just there.

[cfm65@me.com]

Paul,
The way I understand it, the picture you have posted are actually two parts. 
The outer ring, part number 111 997 10 81 in section 68/69 Covering( covering and lining) is supposed to be somehow bonded to the carpet and the gear lever boot is part number 111 268 04 97 in section 26 Transmission (Gear shift transmission)
I cant see both rubbers in your photo and it might be that you only have the boot and not the 'carpet ring'.
If yours are not bonded or glued and you are happy with it, then leave it be.
Regards
Chris
There is actually a gear shift support, part number 111 268 03 98 bolted to the tunnel, which has a retaining ring where the above mentioned rubber boots clip into. The auto models are obviously a little different from the stick shifts.

[mbpaul]

Yes, you are correct.  It is two pieces of rubber. I know these parts are the same as on the 111s so your numbers is probably correct.  The shift boot lever rubber fits into the outer ring which is the final half inch or so of rubber in the pictures.  As opposed what I have read in many places, the outer rubber ring is not bonded/glued/sewn to anything.  Not now, never has been in my car that I have had since new.  The outer ring or the tunnel upholstery has never been out of the car but I have replaced the shift boot a couple of times.  The upholstery just slides into a groove on the bottom side of the outer ring.

[badali]

Here is a picture of mine with the original carpet...

[Pawel66]

Brad,

It looks like your shifter surround in your car is the same material as upholstery, correct? What year is your car?

Pawel

[badali]

It is a 1966.  The interior is all original.  There is no rubber ring.  Just the carpet trim.

[RobSirg]

I will say l have met a number of Pagoda owners who swear by their cars history and originality of their carpet/trim, yet they neither had the rubber trim to the shift gaiter nor the drivers carpet mat with MB number and emblem. (My '69 has all of these).

Hard to imagine MB in the 60's, with their obsession for QA, being loose on these matters.

If we are talking Alfa - well, that could be easily explained by the extra glass of vino over lunch ( being Italian and an Alfisti I feel I can say this with the greatest respect 😊).

Rob

[badali]

Rob,
Is this original enough for you?  The car has all the original carpeting.  I moved the rubber mat so you can see the carpet and the vinyl pad on the carpet on the hump. No pieces have been changed...

[Jonny B]

A most interesting question. The carpet in my 280 SL with auto transmission, does have the rubber surround for the auto shifter gate. I always thought that was the way they were supposed to be, but appears there are some discrepancies.

I have the brochure that mbpaul posted the picture from (with the manual transmission) this is an early brochure and early shot, note the round horn ring. The date on the brochure is 8/63.

I looked through the 280 SL brochure, and the earliest brochure is dated 12/67. In this brochure there is a slightly fuller shot of the automatic shifter and it is the same as shown in this thread with the red carpet and the red upholstery around the shift gate. This photo is missing in the next brochure, dated 6/68. These are the two brochures that have the reference engine shot, posted in a number of different threads.

I also checked the 250 SL brochure, and it shows the manual transmission with the black rubber ring, the shot of the automatic transmission (this time in cognac) shows an upholstery covered surround! This brochure was printed in 2/67.

[66andBlue]

When I started the restoration of my 1966 230SL (now sold) I had a long discussion with the owner of a very experienced upholstery shop in Germany (http://www.werner-interieur.de//en/). She told me unequivocally that the binding surrounding square weave carpets was a vinyl (MB-tex) ribbon while on later cars with the loop carpets it could be either vinyl or a cloth ribbon depending on the color matching aesthetics. That includes the rectangle around the automatic gear selector.
I seriously doubt that this was aver a rubber ribbon like you have on a manual cars.

[bogeyman]

Ironically (I guess...) when I was restoring my '70 4 speed back in the '90s I special ordered from the factory a complete carpet set. It came with sewn vinyl around the shifter...

[mbzse]

.../...I special ordered from the factory a complete carpet set.../...

At that time, the carpet set was _not_ sewn in the M-B factory...  The M-B Oldtimer dptm. (later to become Mercedes Classic Center) farmed that order (work) out to some local upholsterer (pre-agreed supplier).
/Hans S

[Pawel66]

Well, I remember spending quite considerable amount of time studying this vinyl tape vs. rubber neck around the gaiter in automatic. Technical Manual mentions just early versions. At that time I came across only the rubber finish being said to be original. Now I saw this brochure and now you are providing information that your original carpets have vinyl or fabric tape trim (at least some of them). Apparently both solutions (tape and rubber) were used. I just find it difficult to say if using one or the other was depending on manufcturing year, code/color of uholstery, type of carpet or was random. Probably a systematic approach should be used here. In factory specs for my upholstery code I have vinyl tape as carpets trim - and this is what I used. If I knew how the trim around shifter looked exactly, I would do it a bit diferently (my interior on picture). I have also attached a picture of carpets with rubber finish. I am not sure now, but the beige one can be the "Holy Grail" at Motoring Investments. The blue one: I thought this was rubber, but I am not sure any more, it comes from this Forum.





I also spent a lot of time looking for the proper heel rest pad (the ribbed vinyl pad). I spotted an original one in a car in Essen - took a picture, showed it to a million upholsterers and finally found one who offered a similar pattern on pad.

Another peculiarity: my car had pieces of original carpets - destroyed, could not use them. It is 1970 280SL (European) and it had square weave carpet. Strange isn't it?

This is what is making this so exciting!

Pawel

[mbpaul]

Some more information but I am not sure it will answer anything.  In 1973, I ordered some carpet pieces for my 1966 230SL 4 speed, blue interior, from the local Mercedes dealer.  I have no idea why I ordered them since now, over 40 years later, the carpet in my car still looks decent.  Instead of sending me the square weave like I had in the car, they sent me loop carpet like was in later 113s.  To tell the truth, the pieces of carpet look pretty shoddy compared to the square weave carpets that came with the car.  When I objected to what they had sent, I received a letter saying pretty much that I should feel lucky that I could get any kind of parts from them for older cars.  I never installed this carpet and I still have them.  They still have the MB tags with part numbers, dates, etc.   

On the carpet for the tunnel, there is a vinyl binding around the hole for the shifter as shown in the picture.

If anyone can use these pieces of carpet, they are free to anyone that will pay for shipping.  I have 3 pieces (I thought I had more but do not see them now).  I am not sure where the other 2 go.

[Pawel66]

Thank you!

Did you feel lucky as they told you you should have?

Well, maybe it just shows a bit how strict some of the standards were...