GaryInWI

I've been a forum reader for over three years and found it most helpful in purchasing and maintaining my E350. This is my first post. Hopefully, by "passing it forward", this tip may be of benefit to fellow owners.

My car is equipped with MB Tex seats and after reading the discussions of the dreaded split seam, I decided to take to take a closer look at my seats. Although not apparent at first glance, upon spreading the seam with my fingers, I found that the threads were starting the pull though the vinyl in the middle 3" of the driver seat. With little to lose, I decided to try and quick and easy repair. The end result is relatively inconspicuous and has held up remarkably well. In short, I filled the seam "valley" with E6800 adhesive. If you are not familiar with E6800 (or E6000) adhesives, they are clear, self leveling, extremely tough, adhere well to vinyl and dry to a rubber-like material that can stretch 700%.

Here are the detailed steps involved;
1) Position the seat bottom as level as possible. This allows the E6800 to fill the valley evenly.
2) Wipe the area with Isopropyl Alcohol.
3) Mask the area so that a 3/16" or so wide area of the seam is exposed. I used 2" wide electrical tape.
4) IMPORTANT. Use a optional applicator tip on the E6800. I cut the opening on the tip so that it had about a 1/8" diameter opening. Practice applying the glue on a piece of cardboard until you are happy with the way it's dispensing.
5) Apply the E6800 into valley of the seam. Only fill the bottom 1/3 or so of the seam, as you'll still want to retain the visual aspect of the recess. E6800 is the consistency of thick syrup. Do not overwork it, as it will naturally flow and smooth out. That's why the seat bottom needs to be level. Remove the masking soon after application.
6) After 24 hours, the repair will look OK, but be a bit glossy, so you will want to paint it. I used LVP vinyl paint which had an exact match to my silk beige interior. I sprayed a bit onto a piece of cardboard and used a very fine model brush to paint the E6800. Two thin coats were sufficient.

Total time for the repair was about one hour and the results turned out better than I hoped. My thought is that the E6800 adds a layer of protection to the damaged area and the elasticity should help to "spread the load" to minimize future wear. To the casual observer, there is no difference between the repaired drivers seat and the non-repaired passenger seat.


Repaired Center Seam


Super Close-Up of Repair

E6800, the applicator tips and LVP paint are available on Amazon. Good luck!