w123 280CE

[shyam27]

Hello guys,

I'm new to the club and would like some guidance on my restoration project. Earlier this year, I purchased a w123 280ce for restoration. It is currently having full body restoration and respray.

I am now faced with the challenge of sourcing or restoring my current interior. The seats have suffered from dampness and molding and the fella who owned the car before me was about 28 stones so the driver seat is has sunk ALOT. There are a few rips.

Currently have cloth interior but would like to have kamel/dark beige leather ones as it would compliment the color of the car IMO (cypress green).

I would like to hear your thoughts, should I source a new interior or save my current ones and have them reupholstered?

Look forward to hearing from you guys.

Best regards,
Shyamhttps://www.google.co.uk/search?cli...ved=0ahUKEwj_wvXKxuLQAhUGKMAKHfR9DG0QvwUIGSgA

 

[brucemillar]

Hi

Welcome to the club. What a great car to be restoring.

Regards the seats? This is really very subjective and down to taste, funds, personal preference and availability.

Finding a decent leather interior may be a long haul and "decent" may not be your idea of decent. You can easily buy it, and then end up restoring it anyway. So if you want perfection? I would take the plunge and the hit on your wallet and get it re-upholstered. That way you know you will get the full interior to your spec. It will also last as long as the car.

I bought a full leather interior for my 124 restoration that was very good (not perfect). I convince myself by saying it adds character and charm. It had one rip in a door card and did not have the all important dicky seats. I managed to source these from Charles Morgan on here in a nice trade for some wheels. The rest I have just finished off with some original Mercedes Mushroom leather paint and lacquer.

How are you carpets? As you will know one new bit, leads to an irrational obsession to get another new bit.

Do post some pics please.

 

[alabbasi]

GAHH Automotive


World Upholstery & Trim, American Manufacturer of Car/Auto Upholstery, Carpet, Convertible Tops, Car Seats, Headliners & Door Panel Parts for Classic European Cars like Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Jaguar, Fiat, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo

 

[alabbasi]

Both provide quality leather seat kits and the horse hair pads for the cushioning.

 

[Ted]

There would have been very few if any of those supplied with a leather interior so a retrim would be the only practical option.
Or you could go with MB tex which will last forever and look and feel fantastic.

 

[alabbasi]

I have a 280ce with leather. A friend has a 300CD with leather also. Be sure to indicate that the car did not come with leather. Another friend with a C123 tried to go the other way and replace his distressed leather woth MBTex and discovered that there was a difference.

 

[Charles Morgan]

What's your budget?

 

[shyam27]

Thanks for the responses guys.

Well I had some samples sent to me from Germany from a company called SJS who do these full seat kits. The colours are good. Being synthetic leather, I was actually surprised at the quality, the samples seemed durable. However the material feels a lot harder and not as cushiony as real leather so not too keen to go down that route.

I've also been to visit a local upholster who showed me this MB-tex stuff. It's quiet soft and feels almost identical to leather. Alot thinner than real leather so may lack in durability?

Albassi, I'd be interested to hear what differences your friends experienced with MB-tex. Those sites you linked me to are in US. Do they supply to UK? Any idea on prices?

Thanks for your message brucemillar. Your right there, everyone has there own taste. My carpet is wet right through so not planning on putting that back in. Planning to change that too. Any ideas on costs involved? Will post some pics soon bud.

Charles Morgan, I'm a 24 year old lad so my budget isn't the largest. It depends what route i decide to take. I want to maintain a good balance between quality and cost effectiveness. I'd say about £1000 to get my seats sorted. Could stretch a little more if I can get them done in Kamel/dark beige colour.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Thanks for that Shyam, let me have a think about options. I've been through it recently for my W114 restoration but with more of a budget. Fitting covers is always an option but for them to look good the underlying seats also have to be in very good condition, otherwise the covers will sag etc. If your drivers seat is really bad, an option is finding a LHD passenger seat from Germany, which should be in better condition as it will be less used and is the same as a rhd drivers.

I would seriously avoid going incorrect material. If genuine MB tex it should last decades.

Remember also changing seat colour will have knock on effects on door cards and carpets, which will really push the price up. Autoteile Glauner in Germany have door cards and carpets from a cream car, but not seats, at a reasonable price (will need a clean though, but that's pretty straightforward)

KHM in Germany (they rebuilt and re-covered my seats) do stock W123 cloth here. Cloth is pretty cheap.

US suppliers are good, but you will be paying a lot for import duty and shipping in comparison with European.

 

[a111r]

Worth trying a breaker?
MERCEDES 280CE COUPE 1979 BREAKING | eBay

 

[shyam27]

Thanks Charles, I look forward to hearing your thoughts. I'd be prepared to change over door cards if I needed to. My currents interior is beige cloth so it should match up okay. That set is tempting for that price though, it all looks to be in good condition.

a111r, I've tried a number of breakers but no luck.

How do I upload pics here fellas?

 

[Charles Morgan]

Photos - either set up a free account with Photobucket or similar, then copy the link to the photo you want and embed it in your post by clicking the yellow square you say above in the message reply form, or using the go advanced feature on the reply form (button below on the right), click manage attachments, choose the photo you want and click upload, then when you see the image name, submit your post.

 

[a111r]

Keep searching, trying adverts like the one I posted.
These things take time. I've still not found some parts I'm after, four years on.

Restorations are never really finished, anyway. There's always something one wants to re-do!

 

[brucemillar]

[QUOTE="Restorations are never really finished, anyway. There's always something one wants to re-do![/QUOTE]

Never a truer word spoken.

 

[shyam27]

haha, well I had a mk2 fiesta before this and that project was completed in my eyes once i swapped the little 1.0 engine for an 1.6 XR engine with gearbox and ancillaries. Car had dents all over the place but it added to the character. Can't really do the same with a old merc though. Thanks Charles, will be adding photos shortly.

 

[shyam27]

 

[alabbasi]

GAHH sells top quality leather and supplies the Mercedes Benz classic center in Irvine CA. That said, it is NOT the same as the original leather. I say this because you mention thickness. The original leather is a thick leather that's painted where you can see the natural hide color through the perforations. The leather used today appears to be vat dyed where both sides of the leather are the same color.

It's much thinner than the original which appears to be made of the same material as a pair of old leather shoes that would break your feet before you break them in. None the less looks magnificent when freshly installed.

FYI, your interior is not cloth, it's wool velour and it was a more expensive option than leather when the car was new. I'm pretty sure that I know at least two people who will fight to the death for wool velour seats in good shape.

I have a 450SEL 6.9 with the same seats and my preference is to replace the worn out velour with new velour. The only source I can find that sells it as a supplier in Germany and they want more than 100 Euro for a linear meter which again still makes it more expensive than leather.

 

[WDB124066]

Charles will give you a pretty good indication of the total cost to restore that car. If you can't afford to do it sell the whole thing as a going concern would be my advice.

Merc restos are not cheap and to not do it properly is a waste of a very nice chassis.

The other issue with classic car restos is that unless they are kept original or upgraded slightly by somebody who really does have an eye for the intent of the design and sticks to it then you will loose almost all the money you put into it. Why, because people like classic mercs they way they were when the left the factory generally, not the way somebody with poor taste or no money wants/needs them to be.

The upholstery in the car at present fits perfectly with the body colour and is a very smart option well worth keeping IMO, but then as Charles says it depends on your budget - do you really have 20 000 to spend? Don't think a cheap resto will do you or the car any justice.

Having said that I really don't want to discourage you from a project, especially if you have the time and money to carry it off. The good people on here will help you over most of the hurdles.

 

[shyam27]

Alabasi, thanks for the info. When i saw the MB-tex, my first impressions were that it was some kind of processed leather which still used real leather as raw material. Thanks for the info, I had no idea that mine has 'wool velour' interior. Surprised to hear that it was more expensive than the leather option at factory. Unfortunately mine aren't in the best of shape. Rear seats and passenger seats are okay but do have some marks. The driver seat is totally done for. May be salvageable.

WDB124066, I appreciate the warning. Well I've already put ££££'s into it, I had to fork out over a grand and half just for the rubber seals! I've pretty much paid for the entire body restoration with only the final installment to go. Luckily, all chrome is in good shape, apart from one bumper end cap which I've managed to source. My attention is now drawn to getting interior done and giving a full mechanical service (which I will be doing myself) so I can enjoy this spring. I also understand your concern about poor taste. Being a young asian lad, you probably think I'm gonna slam her to the ground and bolt up some deep dish alloys... haha

 

[Charles Morgan]

Ooh, velour. I have a real velour fetish.

The first observation I'd make is good for you, I love to see these older Benzes being kept on the road in decent condition. The second is that it's your car and your money so do what you are happy with, I am the last person to preach, but having been through the process with my W114 coupe over the last two years I hope my experience is of some use.

In restoring my W114 I looked at numerous options for the interior. Originally it had red MBtex, which had worn very well, but the seats were very tired underneath - the rubberised horsehair had dried out and the seat pads were gone. It also lacked any rear seats and most carpets. In the end I found a set of seats with head rests that I had fully re-conditioned by KHM in Germany, and re-covered by them in the correct period leather. The cost was a fair bit more than £1000 though! My logic was that with everything restored I wanted to avoid any part of the car looking poor against the others.

I did see various cars that had had new seat covers put on old seats and the results were pretty poor - I could not have lived with them. I don't think the cheaper seat covers available from Germany are that great and when added to unrestored seat bases the results are very poor and a waste of money imho.

KHM actually stock the correct velour, but doing one seat does have issues of colour matching with the others. Personally I would go to great lengths to keep that interior original, it marks the car out as a very high spec one. A seat can be rebuilt and re-covered within your budget, but I'm not sure the entire interior is possible. I would comment (it's your car not mine so treat as you like) that I think that colour scheme really suits the car so I would leave the interior colour unchanged.

Do you have a reasonable trimmer locally? Where are you based?