Driver's Seat needs new springs

[TheEngineer]

Today I removed my driver's seat and took it apart. I suspected broken springs. I found that previous owners had replaced the front part of the outside springs and had not done a proper job. I can maybe do it over or buy a new seat (just the part for my butt, the back rest is just fine) Where can I buy a new seat and what is the cost?
Now I know why they call 'em "hog rings" 'cause you bleed like a pig when you put 'em thru your finger. It's them "Low tech jobs" that get you. Found MB P/N113 910 11 22  

'69 280SL,Signal Red,007537,tired engineer, West-Seattle, WA

[mdsalemi]

Pete,

Around here (granted I am in the car capital of the world) there is a considerable number of automotive restorers, automotive upholstery shops, etc.  I would suggest that any automotive upholstery shop should be able to repair the seat by replacing one, more or all of the springs.  This is as about rudimentary as repair gets.  I just did a quick search on Yahoo! Yellow Pages, and there are 12 automotive uphosterers in Seattle alone; 78 if you go out to a 50 mile radius.  Go to Yahoo yellow pages, type in Seattle as your location, and automotive upholstery.  Once you get the results, start manning the phones, my guess is you won't have to travel far.

Let me know how it works out!


Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red w/Black Leather
Restored

[n/a]

Peter,

I, too, am a retired P.E., Mechanical.  When faced with the same sagging seat problem, I approached my local upolostery shop owner.  His solution was to just stuff some foam rubber under the seat.  Problem solved and he didn't even charge me.  Granted, this solution isn't gonna win any points in judging competitions, but it was cheap and it worked.  Maybe an interim solution?

chasm

chasm

[n/a]

My upholsterer, who just restuffed the driver seat on my 300SD told me that he wraps broken/tired springs with carpet which evidently supports the weakened spring from bowing out.  My seat feels good, but I do wish that he had replaced the springs anyway. (He did replace a few with donor springs, and then wrapped the springs) I think that I would still rather find new springs and work that way, Broken seat springs are quite common evidently.  It's a low tech job, good luck!

[ted280sl]

The springs for the lower part of the seats are "S" springs. It is basically a long strand of spring metal twisted into S's. The metal fatigues and eventualy breaks. These springs are conected to the frame with a metal clamp. A good uphostery supplier should be able to provide a length of "S" spring to replace the broken spring. This should be far less expensive than trying to buy a new seat fram.
Regards,
Ted
1969 280SL repaired lower seats and welded the rear seat springs

[113gray]

Not to differ with any other post here, just to relate my experience with this problem: When I acquired my 230SL 2 1/2 years ago, the driver's seat was miserable to sit on, broken springs having been repaired by bending & "rug stuffing". I was able to re-approximate the broken ends & get my MIG welding tip close enough to make a weld with good penetration on both ends of the breaks which has held up since & the seat comfort vastly improved. If approximation can't be achieved, I suppose one could also use a piece of adjacent strong metal or spring steel to bridge the gap.    -JP-