vettebk

So my upholstery guy agreed to recover my drivers side seat and seat back in my 2007 S600 with OEM Mercedes skins. I have the tan color Designo leather. He contacted Mercedes and they said the inventory showed both items in Germany. I gave him my AMEX card and he ordered the skins with a two week turnaround time.

This morning Mercedes called and said the bottom cushion skin was sold to somebody last week and there are no more and they don't expect to resupply it. I told him to grab the seatback skin while it was still available. But he had no suggestions to replace my bottom cushion skin.

I saw a skin on Ebay but it was used and in worse condition than mine and $170. Anyone have any ideas about a better alternative.

Jaap

Perhaps buy one in another color and dye it?

nath_h

Same with black lower cushion cover...out of stock and never to be made again. I got a new seatback cover a couple years back.

WRC-LVR

What about Katzkins? Cant they make it for you ?

vettebk

So Katzkins was new to me and I checked the web site. Apparently Mercedes is not on their drop down list. I did send a contact request because they show some beautiful leather. Maybe they can custom design one for me.

MB Germany was asking $1700 delivered for the upper Designo back skin and the lower cushion skin when their inventory said they had it. Someone got there before me. The ebay dismantler from California wanted $174 for a pretty worn and definitely dirty exact replacement bottom cushion skin from a wrecked S600. And two weeks ago, I saw a full interior, all four seats, in really beautiful slightly used condition for $1900 (very sorry I didn't jump on that).

I will post the results from the Katzkins contact soon.

vettebk

An Ebay dismantler based in California showed a used skin, not much better than mine in his pix, but desperation always pressurizes a decision. I bought it for $246 and he wanted the VIN to check fit before he shipped it. His VIN lookup showed it was not a match to mine, cancelled the order, refunded my money; but he did have another that matched mine. It also is quite worn and he circled the possible issues on his pix for full disclosure. I am reluctant to buy someone elses used problems.

Waiting to hear from Katzkins.

Jaap

If you know a little bit of German you could also check ebay.de for "w221 sitzpolster".
Then contact the seller even if shipping is only to Germany.

vettebk

And if I could get my wife to approve.....I'd ship my W221 back to Germany, have the car totally restored/reconditioned by the tradespeople in Germany before touring the rest of Europe for three months and shipping it back here.

vettebk

Here is the used item from the dismantler. Don't know whether the monitor will allow it....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/126457888604

joeshannon095

If you're patient and find a seat cover that is a different color in good condition it may be worth having it dyed. I did that on my old W221 S550 with a designo interior and it turned out wonderful. You'll have a to scroll pretty far but if you check out my thread below you can see the results.

https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w...igno-s550.html

nath_h

I've toyed with this idea also. It's only about $1000 to ship the car one way. Doing this would be an highly memorable experience.

vettebk

Update: The drivers side seat back cover came in yesterday and my car is at the upholstery shop today to get recovered. Most of the wear was on the seat back lumbar region - worn enough for the dye color to wear off. The drivers side bottom cushion cover is not quite as worn, just a little dirty. I plan to saddle soap and leather conditioner clean the cushion until I can find something I can use that is better than mine.

My baby is getting the royal treatment.

JohnLane

Fixed that for you friend. They do amazing bespoke interiors. Any finish in any color. Trimmed to taste.... or lack thereof.

nath_h

Your post made me think about the issue of parts being discontinued with almost all seat covers gone minus a couple oddballs no longer available. Last year I bought from MB what was likely one of the last foam bottom pads in existence and the backrest leather. I got a new passenger seat under warranty, so that was really nice. I could not source a new leather cover for the bottom cushion. I went on Ebay and bought a backup just to have on the shelf. I believe I used the same seller as you. I noticed the date stamp on the foam was 2014, so at some point the former owner replaced it, and possibly the leather too (car was a 2008) as the cover looks really good. Those of us keeping our cars long term might be wise to opportunistically buy some good new or used parts that will only be harder and harder to find.

BTW, I also bought a suede headliner/trim pieces out of a CL600. I already installed the sunroof, and am going to start the rest today. I think this will be a really nice upgrade.

vettebk

I totally agree. The cost for the left front seat back cover was $1100 from Germany!! Took two weeks. Looks really nice now. Just need to find that impossible bottom cushion and cover. Very happy with the results.

Still thinking very hard about shipping the car to Germany for a full restoration. It is laughable that the Kelly Book Value of my 2007 S600 is less than $5K and it has nice upholstery worth more than the whole car.

nath_h

If you do ship it to Germany, let me know in pm about what you learn. I would not rule it out. While it is absurd how much money I've spent on a car worth next to nothing, I do have it insured at an agreed upon value through Hagerty, so I would not be out everything if an accident were to happen. The bottom cushion is worth pursuing. You could have an upholstery shop build up/off the current cushion. It wasn't until I installed my new cushion that I realized the old one was totally spent. My car has 66,000 miles, btw. The new one I bought from MB had a date stamp of 2014, so it was really an old new stock. So with the used one I just bought, I'll have two cushions from 2014. MB obviously took whatever spare part capacity they had when the production run of W221 ended and discontinued it.

SilverV12

Would highly recommend http://www.leatheriquecanada.com/. I used on my s600 and literally nursed the leather back to the original matt finish. Very impressive stuff.

Cant wait to see your pics!

tx170754

Or, sheep skin covers, end of the story !

joeshannon095

I second this. I use this product on every vehicle I have once a year and my interiors are mint.

vettebk

I plan to order these leather conditioner and cleaner products and try them on my bottom cushion.

Here are the pix so far. This is the old seat back cover showing the wear:


old leather cover

closer shot of the lumbar wear on the old cover


Here is a pix of the new back cover installed:


new cover on the seat back

new cover on the seat back

And here is a pix of my old seat bottom cushion that I am having problems finding.

vettebk

And this is the California breakers used cushion which I bought. Not happy with it but cannot find anything better.

Ultrakla$$ic

I think its coming out great buddy.

doni01

iTrader: (1)

Looks beautiful!

Baltistyle

Make sure to use Leatherique on the newer seat bottom. Whenlooking at your thread yesterday I saw this cover on eBay. My suggestion would be Leatherique and a heat gun and that will remove all divots or imprints while soaking the Leatherique into the pores. I’ve done a lot of diy leatherwork and seats, so please ask any questions if you have them. I’m including an airbag that came in worse condition than expected, and what it looks like after a condition with HEAT.

Before, imprints due to poor storage by the parts seller

Look at all the divots, 99% gone in the pic below.

Close up comparing, majority of divots gone

After, don’t mind the dirty area as no cleaning had taken place

One more close shot after. The divot above the r is tricky because if you heat that and the srs at the same time, the srs would actually disappear….



enjoy. Seat work is very rewarding. If you plan on dyeing the new seat, do not use Leatherique as it can remove the new dye if not properly done.

the heat gun is like 🪄

BenzV12

That's a good job, better than never