1989 244 DL, 194Kmiles.

Like most 240s, my driver's seat has been slowly deteriorating since I bought the car in 1995 with 82Kmiles on it. Mine finally got to the point where it was worse than any I'd seen, so I decided to do something about it. The seat back appearance could best be described as warped and twisted.

I found the usual problems - shredded foam, messed up wire grid and missing springs. Surprisingly, the lumbar support is in good condition. What I didn't expect was the back frame broken at all four corners!

The top left corner broke completely. The 1/16 inch thick, about 2.5 inch wide, steel is ripped in two! The lower right corner is also completely broken - the spot welds that held the horizontal member to the upright popped. Only one of the three spot welds looks like it was a good weld. It actually looks like it was welded after it was painted. The other two corners have cracks. Definitely not a safe situation.

I'm going to weld it back together, so I can get back on the road.

Has anyone else seen this? There is evidence that the left rear quarter panel was replaced before I bought the car. No other evidence of a crash. It doesn't take much force to bang up a quarter panel. How much force does it take to break the seat?

A warning to others to look carefully - you may need more than just seat foams!

-Ron