How Sweet! New Seat!

OK, so my subject line is stolen and paraphrased from Freddy Krueger. But Freddy was a product of the 80s, and so is my Baby. I was lucky enough to find a mechanic in Aldan, PA (near Philadelphia) who had a 1992 400E he was parting out as the result of a mechanic's lien he had on the car. I spotted the front seats for sale on Ebay, and was lucky enough to get them for just FIFTY BUCKS! Upon picking the seat's up at the seller's shop, I promptly made a deal with the mechanic, Steve, to purchase more stuff off the vehicle. In the end I walked away with carpeting, door panels, steering wheel, headlamps and wipers, monowiper, wheels and tires, carpeting and upholstery for the trunk, rear seating, and trunk lid for $750. It was just one of those things-here was a car, not only with a matching interior in better condition, but a matching trunk lid, same color. I kind of had to jump when the chance came-these cars are getting more and more rare, and I may not get the chance to get some of these parts in the future.

The driver's seat is not perfect-it has a bit of regular wear on the bolster, and a small rip in the backrest. But, compared to Greta's original seats, these are practically showroom new. Put it this way-if seats were faces, these new ones would be Ellen Barkin-good looking but a little rough. The old ones would be Phyllis Diller-cracked, wrinkled, faded and plain worn out. The irony of this comparison and the idea of "sitting on faces" is not lost on me, by the way.


(This is the worst of it-a rip about two inches long-of course, being on perforated leather makes a near-invisible repair tough.)




(Here's the rest of it, sitting amongst the rest of the Big Pile of Stuff, which is gradually diminishing thanks to a less-painful back and more time off from work. At left rear of picture is the rear seats, followed by the trunk lid, standing out with license plate still attached. Then comes the interior carpets and trunk carpeting, to the right of all that are the wheels and tires, just slightly behind. You can also see the monowiper on the wall just above the wheels and tires. Red lawn mower is NOT Mercedes OEM)