California Coupe Rear Seat

[CWest]

Hi I own one of those scarce California Coupe Pagodas (a 250SL in my case) - (i.e. a Pagoda without the soft-top, and with a bench seat in the rear).

After viewing a few photos of other Coupes on the web I reckon the rear seat of my car is incorrectly fitted ever since I bought it!!
In essence I'm missing 1 portion of the seat and then as a result the fixing & hinging is incorrect on my car.

I'm basing these assumptions on photos like the attached from the web (of another car) - on this I have highlighted the portion missing from my car...

I want to correct the situation and I'm looking for some photos and basic info. of the correct setup from anyone else who has a California Coupe. As these cars are scarce I've never actually seen another Coupe, and the 113 parts manual I have doen't provide any diagrams of the bench seat.

In particular I'm keen to get some info on the following...
1) A photo showing the correct operation of the hinges!
2) Any detail on the element I'm missing - e.g. what happens to this part when the rear seat is down? How and what is it fixed to?
3) Is it correct that the rear seat is held in its upright position merely by a leather strap?

Many thanks
CW

1967 250SL  (California Coupe)

[Douglas]

Martin,

Go to motoringinvestments.com and take a look at the Mercedes inventory. There are many closeups of at least 2 different Coupes.

(Also, are you Martin Buckley the automobile journalist and BMW enthusiast?)

[CWest]

Thanks Douglas for the pointer to that web site. Quite a stock of photos and I wasn't aware of that site before. It does help but in fact what I really want is a photo of the rear seat down AND with the carpet up!! (So I can see the position/fitting of the hinges). Not the type of photo that a sales site presents. I was really hoping to find another person in the forum with a California Coupe and ask them a few questions on the particular specifics of this car.

So if anyone out there has a California Coupe then let me know?

In reply I'm not the motoring journalist, Martin Buckley. Wouldn't mind stepping into his shoes for a week or two given the types of cars he trials and reviews for the motoring press , he's British and I'm Irish but do you think I could pull it off?? 

[Douglas]

I'll bet if you e-mail Brian Peters (of motoringinvestments.com), he'll snap the desired photo of the silver Coupe he has for sale. He's a genuine Pagoda enthusiast as well as a dealer.

Sorry about the Buckley mixup. I know a lot of Pagoda owners also admire Buckley's specialty— the BMW 3.0CS.