w123 280CE

[Charles Morgan]

Try to sell these seats on. They are too good to tear up. Use the money to get a knackered set.

Recaro no longer make replacement bolsters for the C classics and they are a bugger to repair if they have lost their shape. Best to have good ones to start with.

 

[shyam27]

WDB124066, haha yeah I got sucked into that thread. Those seats look amazing in that wagon man. I sourced them from ebay.de. I saw some pairs going over 2 grand and thought wow these are well out my budget. However, these were priced very reasonably.

Bruce, I know what you mean mate, they look too good to tear up. I'm gonna have them trimmed carefully so the covers can be sold on and used. They're in excellent condition by the looks of the pictures.

Charles, if your recaros are by any chance beige/dark beige, I'd be happy to swap(cash your way if leather). I had recaros in my mk2 fiesta, loved them so much. But these have all sorts of buttons & gadgets on them oooOOOoo lol. I hate tedious bits of wiring though, will cross that bridge when I get there.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Mine are pretty much the same colours as yours Shyam. I plan to re-cover them at some point but at present run out of cars I want to restore.

 

[shyam27]

Do you fancy like restoring mine? haha.. It seems like a lot guys respect you here so you must good at restoring !

So do you guys hold any meet ups here? Uno the sort with loud music, hot chicks, burning out tires, that sort of thing. lol

 

[Charles Morgan]

I'll enjoy reading yours - it costs me not a penny! (which is good, mine has almost bankrupted me).

I normally do a meet at Bicester once a year and Jay Manek (look at his galleries for Recaro porn and how to do restorations of older Benzes) has a meet near Nuneaton every few years, but ours are a bit more hip-op than hip hop....

 

[shyam27]

haha,,

nice one Charles, I'll join you guys some time. You bring the earl gray, I'll bring the digestive biscuits.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Deal - must be dark choccy digestives though!

 

[219]

Pontoneer, Thanks for joining the thread. Your input is much appreciated. I had a look at that list earlier when I was sending them a request for quotation. The seats look a little worn in the pictures but it looks more like 914 Velour dattel to me? You could be right though.. Having said that, I do prefer the dattel color. Thanks for linking me those seats. I'm not really feeling the cloth middle section too much though.

Bruce, I haven't but I'm going to see the car either this weekend or next. The fella doing the body work has informed me that he's taken pictures throughout progress. Might need to open a separate project thread on here???

I think it might be worth giving the seats ( apart from the drivers seat ) a good clean with one of those wet carpet cleaners which wash them ( Vax machine ) and see how they come up - you might be pleasantly surprised . Perhaps KHM would send you a small sample of their velour materials to compare with your own seats ? If you can get away with just retiming the drivers seat it makes it more bearable .

 

[219]

Thanks guys. Option number 3 has just prevailed to me.

My rear seats aren't in such bad condition. And I've came across some 'Recaro Classic C' seat. They're currently in cloth material. However I'd reupholster them to something like this:

https://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b183/rbycc/300CEWIDEBODY167.jpg

I know I'm stepping away from originality a little bit and I'd need to get adaptors, but this may prove to be cheaper than getting the whole lot done.

Let me know your thoughts

Thanks

My only comment would be to not throw away the original seats , just in case if ever you come to sell the car , the non original seats might put a buyer off - if you still have the old original seats it gives an option to put them back in ( with new covers ) .

 

[219]

Had I guessed I would have mentioned them earlier - sorry to say I haven't applied myself to understand the wiring but I doubt it's that complex as it's all self contained.

Nice looking pair!

I think they just need a single power feed ( fused run from the battery is easiest , but an unused tap on the fusebox is another possibility ) .

Many cars were customised back then by the German 'tuning houses' , with features like Recaro seats , wood/leather steering wheels , alloy wheels , spoilers , painted grilles etc etc

 

[ianrandom]

ours are a bit more hip-op than hip hop....

Sorry to butt in but that's the funniest thing I've read all week

 

[ianrandom]

Shyam the seat covers come off relatively easily if they're anything like my W126. Really helps when sorting out the interior.

And the velour does clean up really well if you need to give it a go. I like the velour but it has to be immaculate to look good I think.

 

[shyam27]

Pontoneer, yes I agree pal. Always worth putting in some TLC to get them back in order before pulling any money out. I was wondering if the fella you mentioned earlier in this thread who is breaking his W126 SEL would be willing to split interior for the velour material only? I'm a bit tight on space at mine at the minute so not really up for buying entire seat set. Have you seen the condition of them?

Ian, yeah would be nice to have the original seats restored so when I come to sell the car, I can put those back in and have the recaros sold separately or put aside for next project. Yeah Charles certainly gave me a giggle with that comment. haha

 

[alabbasi]

I'm not sure if a vax is a good idea or not being that it is wool as it may cause shrinkage.

 

[ianrandom]

I'm not sure if a vax is a good idea or not being that it is wool as it may cause shrinkage.

It's quite a high wool content but I've steam cleaned and vaxed successfully. Although just slightly too long in one spot with the steam cleaner left a mark. (Annoying.)

 

[Charles Morgan]

I use a Karcher professional cleaner and I've had no issue (touch wood) with shrinkage, but I use it cold and I don't use detergent.

 

[alabbasi]

It's quite a high wool content but I've steam cleaned and vaxed successfully. Although just slightly too long in one spot with the steam cleaner left a mark. (Annoying.)

Hello Ian

 

[ianrandom]

Ey up Al

 

[WDB124066]

What part of this needs improving.

Mercedes-Benz 230 E 230CE W123 1981 | Trade Me

Cheapest 123 you'll ever buy.

 

[alabbasi]

That's a nice looking C123. I need to get back on working on mine. It is quite possibly the cheapest C123 one can ever buy.

It had some really funky over bumper body kit installed and had not appeared to run in decades. Amazingly enough, aside from the front wings which had rusted where they were hacked to mount the body kit , the car is quite solid and I was able to get it running and drive it around the block in a couple of days.

I sometimes ask myself why I keep buying cars that need so much work but I truly enough the journey in bringing one back as much, if not more than driving them.