The Interior Plan

I was excited to show the 300GD to my daughters just as I arrived from Portland. As soon as they saw the car, they thought it was cool until I opened the door. I must admit, it looked pretty bad. The headliner was stained and sagging, the seats were stained and worn, the vinyl was falling off and the doors looked horrible. I had put the original flooring back in to reduce the road noise and it did not look good either. I had purchased the car knowing the interior had to be redone and after a quick oil change and complete check out at Muller’s Burbank Mercedes we started our interior plan.

Rear Headliner

A local upholstery expert told us about Veteran Company and said they had the largest selection and best prices in Southern California. My wife and I collected Apollo, our Yellow Lab, and drove to downtown LA to check it out. 

Veteran has a new location in a nice clean building about a block off of Skid Row in Downtown LA. Not the nicest neighborhood, but as we soon learned, it was worth the drive. They have everything IN STOCK!

If you have a Lab, you know they shed. My MGB and 280SL both have black interior and every time my dog gets in the car, it takes weeks to get the hair out. So when the salesperson asked what color, I pointed at the dog and said, "that color."

They pulled out books that had colors that Mercedes used in the mid 80's and I found the color we were looking for. Turns out it was very close to the color of the car. The color we chose for the interior was PA950 Palomino Biscuit in what is now called MBTex. I would use this vinyl for the interior, doors and rear seats. It looked almost exactly like what was in there, only newer. For the front seats we purchased leather called Biscuit Reno. It matched the PA950 exactly and would wear longer and breath better and not be sticky in the summer.

Headliner, Carpet, Leather and MBTex Vinyl

I decided to use vinyl rather than the original cloth on the headliner and selected an MB41TAN that Mercedes used during that period. It was a bit lighter in color and thinner than the MBTex but looked great. This was a hard decision for me because I know the foam backed cloth would absorb more sound and reduce noise but the vinyl looked great and would be easy to clean. As a bonus, it matched the sun visors. 

Here is where the purists will start getting angry with my choice. To reduce noise and provide better insulation from the cold, I decided to carpet the floor. I know, no self-respecting 4x4 would have carpet. My last jeep was a thick rubber-like vinyl and I could hose it out any time. But I'm getting a 4x4 to navigate the snow not to take to Moab and pull Jeeps out of ruts. So we went with the German Wilton wool carpet and stuck with the Palomino color. This proved to be the most expensive item. 

The guys even tossed in half a yard of black PA7500 MBTex to cover the center console. that way the console would match the dash and have a more finished look. Total bill was about $800 for everything.

Now I need to decide if I want to use the original seats of go with the Recaro racing seats.