My 240 if in great shape both interior and exterior with two
exception: First, the carpet. There are two strips along the outer
edges of the driver's and front passenger's foot wells that are bare
of carpet. My car is the mustard yellow color with the tannish
interior and orange-y carpet. Upon further inspection the carpet on
the floor of the back seat is starting to come apart (looks like it
stayed wet for some time had has rotted. So, does anyone know where I
can get replacement carpet for these cars?
Second, the seat padding. The seat covers are in great shape BUT the
padding inside has gotten hard and shurnken (how does that happen?) Is
there a way to remove the seat covers and replace padding? In back the
seat cover is in good shape too but the backing that is hidden behind
the seat and pulls the seat back cover tight completely rotted so that
there is no way to pull the front part tight now. Any ideas on that
one?
Thanks for any ideas/advice. I just took a 2500 road trip in this car
and she ran beautifully with 279k miles. At the tail end of the trip I
did start to lose the exhaust manifold gasket which makes her sound
like a VW but nothing else went wrong at all. Great car! I run it on
100% biodiesel too.
nsmith17044 - 26 Aug 2008 22:26 GMT
If you find a upholstery shop in your area, see if they can order the
original style carpet. I did a 72' 115 (220 gas) and it had the same
problems where the inner rocker carpets were bad. The replacement was
identical to the original but it was expensive. You will just need to
make sure you get enough length to run the entire length since the
width of the carpet usually is smaller than you would need for
something like this. When I did mine I also re-covered the rear deck
with the left-over.
Regarding the seats, the bottoms are usually held on to the seat frame
with hog hooks. I know of people that have ordered replacement horse
hair seat pads if that is the style you have. Something I did for a
friends 450SLC was to take high density upholstery foam and using a
electric kitchen knife, cut the foam down to form the same shape as
the original pad. If you are careful you can re-use the hog hooks
when you stick it back together. One thing to be careful of is that
seat pleats are sown to a backer canvas. If this stitching is week
you may end up making more work for yourself as you do the pad
replacement. If you tackle the seats yourself, plan a good day or two
to do it since it involves removing the seats and doing some
disassembly on them just to get started.
Regarding the back seat upper, you will need to stitch in a
replacement backer that holds the seat material tight.
Hope that helps and good luck.
runbiodiesel - 27 Aug 2008 16:50 GMT
> If you find a upholstery shop in your area, see if they can order the
> original style carpet. I did a 72' 115 (220 gas) and it had the same
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>
> Hope that helps and good luck.
Very helpful, thank you. With regard to the seat pleats, when you say
I could make more work for myself, do you mean because the backer
canvas may fall apart as seemed to have happend with my rear seat
back? Or just that I might pull out the stitching? And any advice on
how I can do the work carefully?
Commuter - 27 Aug 2008 14:12 GMT
You might try a wrecking yard. I see lots of these cars for parts near me.
Craiglist also. You can pull parts off a passenger seat to use for your
drivers seat. The seats on my 85 were really easy to work on, no hog hooks
to deal with.
Since it was wet you may have a problem getting the seats out. The bolts
that hold the seats in may be rusted tight to the nut. If so you'll have to
drill the head off. The nut is held to a sheet metal bracket. You can get a
replacement at the wrecking yard.
> My 240 if in great shape both interior and exterior with two
> exception: First, the carpet. There are two strips along the outer
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
> like a VW but nothing else went wrong at all. Great car! I run it on
> 100% biodiesel too.
nsmith17044 - 27 Aug 2008 23:42 GMT
Regarding the stitching on the backer, yes the fabric may be worn so
just be aware. If it is in good condition then it will take a lot of
abuse. If it is torn and weak it won't matter how much care you
take. If your pleats are all nice and tight the chances are you don't
have anything to worry about. Once I actually was able to sew a new
backer on and then pull the stuffing pieces back into the pleats with
a home made fish wire. If you are up to the challenge I'm sure you'll
do ok.
RUNBIODIESEL's comment on the bolts is right on if they are rusty.
I've was done that path once. However I would recommend ordering new
nut clips or you might want to try a home improvement store like
lowe's or a good hardware store for the nut clips if needed.
nsmith17044 - 27 Aug 2008 23:46 GMT
Sorry for my misstatement above, COMMUTER commented on the possible
rusty bolts.
-->> T.G. Lambach <<-- - 29 Aug 2008 01:07 GMT
Everything you need at http://www.performanceproducts4benz.com
Not cheap, but creates a new interior.

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