Leather finish on early 230 seats?

[twistedtree]

I've got an early 230, #1946, with black leather seats.  These are the early straight sided seats.  At PUB a couple of people commented that the seats were not original, not in their shape but in their finish.  In particular, the leather for the center pleats is smooth surfaced on mine, not dot patterned.  As far as I know these are the original seats, but it's certainly possible they were swapped or recovered at some point.  But I also know that these very early 230s are different in many ways that seem incorrect to most observers.

So my question is whether very early 230s had smooth leather pleats, or dot patterned pleats?  If anyone has a photo of an early original car showing smooth leather pleats, that woudl be incredible.

Thanks in advance.

Peter

[Jowe]

Hi Peter,

Check this from my #3221. I believe they are original. Not the carpet though...

[twistedtree]

Thanks Johan.  It looks like you have the asymmetric seats (bulge out on the outboard side of each seat), and those all seem to have the patterned pleats just like later models.  Alfred's car is like yours, and similarly numbered in the 3000s.  I think it will only be cars numbered around 2000 and below that have smooth pleats (if they exist at all), but that's just a guess based on when the seats shape changed from straight sided symmetrical design to asymmetric.

[66andBlue]

Peter,
afaik when leather then all seat covers had the "basket weave" pattern and perforation in the pleats (or flutes), there is no difference between 230SL and 280SL.
Now MB-tex is a totally different situation.
Achim is in the process of writing up a document for a future PW article on the seat differences.

[twistedtree]

For what it's worth, here are some pictures of my seats.

Achim, have you seen anything like this is pre #2000 cars?

[stickandrudderman]

I don't believe any pagoda had leather seats without perforations.
This is based on my 36 years of observations rather than any technical document.

[Jonny B]

I have the seat article (plan is for it to be in the next issue of PW)
The change over to the asymmetric seat bottoms was at VIN ending 2927. The leather should have perforations :

From the write up by Achim:

"Seat type 1 (up to 2927) has seat cushions that are identical for left and right hand and could be exchanged (if desired). There is no convexity of the seat cushions towards the doors as on all later seat types. The handwheels for the backrest incline mechanism are small and look (but are not) identical to the quarter window adjustment handwheels of the same aged W110 and W111 sedans. The seat incline mechanism is driven by a transversal rod (connected to the handwheel) that coils up two plastic straps, one left and one right, which are connected by a little coil spring. This quaint mechanism moves up and down the transversal rod in the vertical half-moon-like openings of the outer seat hinges and this movement causes the incline of the backrest itself (Picture 3a).
Most obvious is the fact that the seat backrest is slim (slimmer) on the upper outer edges in comparison to later seats, e.g. late 230ies and all 250 & 280 SLs."

Re leather "In the case of the optional leather trim, all W113s had basket weave perforation and the structure or grain of the leather hide did not change throughout production but was/is identical for all cars from 230 - 280 SL."