1968 280SL correct padding on the bottom of the seats

[Cole]

Hi,

There's been misc. posts about foam and horsehair padding for the front seat bottoms so I'm just pulling the info together.
The seat covers on my car are new, but the bottoms (and maybe the backs) seem a bit low and soft when you sit on them. I don't think the upholsterer put in the right horsehair pads. Also, the parallel upholstery "pleats" or columns don't seem to be filled correctly and look too narrow and not flat enough.
A few questions hopefully you can help with:
1. What is the factory spec on these things? On top of the seat springs, was there first the horsehair then a softer cushioning on top of that or ?
2. Each of the parallel pleats needs to be correctly filled with foam, right?
3. I'm here in LA and German Auto Tops is nearby as well as other places. I noticed that the horsehair pads are quite expensive. Any good recommendations on where to get the right padding at a good price?

Thanks.
Cole

[mrfatboy]

Since doing this job recently I can tell you my experience.

- I bought my new mb Tex seat covers from German Auto Tops.  Fit great.

- I bought new OEM horse hair seat pads from MB. Got good deal from local freind.

- From what I understand there is no foam between the horse hair pad and mb Tex. However,  when removing my old seat covers there was foam.  But I think this is typical of upholstererss to use in trying to rejuvenate tired pads and coverings.

I will sell you my old seat pads cheap if you are on a budget.  They still have some life in them😜😜😜😜

[Cole]

Hi,

It looks like German Auto Tops is selling their horsehair seats bottoms for $325! Very expensive.
Did you get yours recently? What was the price?

There's got to be a cheaper way to do this padding that is still good quality, right?
How good are your used horsehair pads?

Thanks.
Cole

[mrfatboy]

I believe I paid $200 mb oem a piece for the seat pads last year.

If you google the part numbers you can get them from other MB dealers for $240-$260 plus shipping the last time I looked.

There was also the foam pad route that is a little cheaper. 

PM me if you are interested my seat pads.  I will give you more info there.

[Jonny B]

As another point of reference I paid ~$220 each for the four pads in 2012, MB OEM.