My driver's seat was sagging as well, plus it felt as if something was poking me in the back. The M-B Tex didn't look too bad from the outside so I decided it probably just needed a few new horsehair pads and I'd be set to go.
The seat came apart easily enough thanks to all of the descriptive posts I'd read here. Once I pulled off the original cushions I was in for the real surprise. The back frame had no less than 4 of the supports broken AND several large pieces completely missing. The bottom frame was not much better with one poorly repaired broken spring and two overly stretched & sagging ones.
The Back Frame is a basket case and isn't even worth trying to weld. Since the few pieces left that weren't broken had to handle the full weight, they are fatigued and on the verge of failure. The horsehair is falling apart due in part to the missing support pieces as well. The backside of the M-B Tex material looks pretty tired so I won't be using these again.
OK.....my quick re-padding of the seats has turned into quite the adventure. I figure that my best bet at this point is to find another decent seat for a late 280SL, unless someone knows of a reasonable source for both frames.
Once I find them I'll then redo both seats in Leather (just can't resist that smell of an all leather interior). Hmmm.....I guess this means I'll be fixing the rattles in the doors when I pull the door panels off to replace with leather ones......then the dash wood will have to be refinished when I have the dash recovered in leather......at that point the carpet will look old in comparison so that will have to go. I guess this would be a good time to send the Becker Stereo off to Ed Ebel for a rebuild during this downtime.
Wow.......all of this because of a pain in the back!
Download Attachment: 
SeatFrameA.jpg81.81 KB
Download Attachment: SeatFrameB.jpg63.58 KB
Download Attachment: BottomFrame.jpg63.91 KB
Lindsay (Southern California)
1971 280SL
180G, 396 G Top
M-B Tex Blue
