Turn the driver seat parts into a computer seat

After fixing the seat pad spring structure, and removing all the electric motors (to keep them as spare parts), I designed and made a seat base with some left over woods. And re-assembled the seat parts together onto the seat base, so it has turned into an unique custom made computer seat that you will never see one the same anywhere else!

The wood base structure parts before assembly - No screws or nails required.

 Start assembly.

Assembly completed.

Test seat pad on the base.

A couple of tears on the back pad leather cover.

Special thanks to my mom to sew them up nicely.

After sanding and putting protection oil on the wood base. 

Re-assemble all the seat parts and put it on to the base.

Yeah! Completed!

My new computer seat!

Driver Seat - Replacing Seat Pad Spring

The driver seat is normally the most seated seat in a car, so it is more likely to be worn out or broken down first rather than other seats, so no exception to mine. The driver seat pad is not providing normal support since I purchased my MB. The problem seems to be a broken seat pad spring. Without confirming the problem, I went purchase an used driver seat that still has a normal supporting from a junk yard a while back. And did the fix recently.

Special tools required:

- Universal joint for your socket wrench (see Part 2). 

- A 27mm socket if you need to detach the arm rest from the back pad.

Part 1: 

Play with the junk yard seat to get an idea of how to disassemble/reassemble seat parts. It can be divided into 3 major portions - Back pad, Butt pad and Base rack.

Below is a picture with three portions separated already, 

and even the butt pad cover is removed.

Butt pad cover - I tried to practice how to take it off the pad.
Easy. Great design.

The base rack - With the electric motors that move butt pad back and forth.

Note: If the electric and control cable of the motor is not accessible,

take the motor rolling cable and use an electric driller as a motor to manipulate.

Part 2: 

Start to remove the driver seat out of my MB. 

The 2 rear bolts (10mm) require a universal joint to reach.

Remove 4 bolts and wiggle off power and control cable, and it's out.

Note: It is a little bit tricky to detach butt pad from base rack. You need to adjust the pad position on the rack in order to reach 6 screws (3 on each side) that connect rack and the pad, but been disconnected to the car electricity, the seat pad position is unable to be adjusted. So my way to do it (not sure how the professional will do) is to detach the back pad portion from the butt pad and base rack first so the remaining butt pad with base rack is lighter, smaller and easier to work on. Then connected it back with electric control cable in the car and adjust butt pad position for losing the 6 screws.

Ha! See that broken spring?

After replacing the pad spring with the junk yard seat,

I did another trick to increase the supporting strength

by inserting a towel to the left side spring.
Left is more constantly pushed than the right side
when people getting in and out of the car.
(Our driver side is on the left) 

Put them all back in a reverse order and finished!

Part 3:

Fixing the broken pad spring.

Why not just throw it away? No, this is my favorite part! :-)

Below you can find how I used some steel wires

 to fix and reinforce the broken parts of the pad spring. 

Yes, it's working!

 I might use it to build myself a computer seat!

How cool is that, a Mercedes 300SEL computer seat!

Stay tuned!

Status Updates

So, it has been 9 months since I purchased the MB until finally started this blog yesterday. There were fixes and works done to it, and also some broken downs during this time period. It currently has a transmission problem (sometimes stock at 1st gear and won't change gears) that started to occur when we drove it to the beach last time about a month ago. But luckily, I had a chance to drive it to work for a couple of months when I crashed my van (my daily transportation) in a series car accident in Jan. 2011. It ran so well on the highway to my work, but only shakes when I step on the brake hard, and that is also one thing on the to-be-fixed list.

Anyway, thanks to a large number of W126s imported to Taiwan during its era, there are lots of used parts can be easily found in junk yards at this time. I have gone to a friend's junk yard and almost bought another identical junked W126 as a fix spare, but eventually decided to just buy few parts needed to play around with my MB as a start.

Here are the things I have done to it so far:

1. A regular service (oil, filter change for engine and transmission).
2. My friend helped me weld off broken gaps on muffler.
3. Electric switch of left rear window on central island (functioning used part). 
4. Recharged A/C freon.
5. 6 new platinum spark plugs.
6. Drive shaft flexible disc (functioning used part).
7. Shift level position adjustment.
8. Front break cylinder pumps (functioning used part).
9. Re-surfaced front break discs.
10. Front left lower suspension joint.
11. Front left suspension holding arm rubbers.
12. Electrical motor of left rear mirror (functioning used part).
13. Left motor cable of electric adjustable rear seat (functioning used part).
14. Right tail light seat (functioning used part).
15. 4 tires(used) and tire wheels (functioning used part).

Preface - 序言

Knowing I would blog better in Chinese, but in order for most of my friends and family would understand, I decided to blog mainly in English.

This big toy was purchased in Sep. 2010 at my age 44. It is targeted to not be a transportation purpose but an entertaining project on my leisure time. And that's why I call it my big toy.

It is a 1987 Mercedes Benz 300SEL European Style (W126 body type) that I saved from the son of a chauffeur who used to drive it for a big boss and took it over when the boss changed to a new car, right before the son was about to sell it to a junk yard after the chauffeur had a serious illness due to old age.

Apparently, this MB has some problems waiting to be fixed. But from the history (if the son didn't lie to me), this MB is almost like a first owner car, and also from my inspection, I believe it is worth for some good repairs to bring it back to live, and most importantly, the fun that I am going to have for doing so.