etyu

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This is for those with light colored leather seats, e.g., beige, ash, or red.

As a corollary to this thread: http://www.slkworld.com/slk-r171-gen...eed-ideas.html

This is a simple DIY (do-it-yourself) project that takes a small amount of time, inexpensive materials and will save time and effort in trying to keep light-colored leather seats from having dark marks from the seat belts rubbing on the leather seats.

Material :
Translucent plastic that's normally sold as flexible chopping board (usually less than $5 USD for a pair; check out kitchen outlet stores when you're out with your mate shopping).

Tools:
1. Sharp Exacto-type hobby knife or a handy medium-sized utility knife (the ones where you can break off the blades in segments to have a fresh new sharp blade).
2. Hole puncher
3. Sharp and strong medium-sized scissors
4. Metal straight-edge or ruler
5. Motor tool with cylindrical sanding discs, small and medium (if you don't have one, it's okay, one can still do this project without a motor tool)

Precautions:
1. You're working with sharp knife and scissors, so take your time in cutting and be very careful to avoid any cuts/injuries
2. Safety glasses, especially when cutting or grinding, to avoid eye injury, especially with power tools

See photos below:








Last photo shows how the plastic is cut from the chopping board material. The length is 170mm and the width is 35mm. The distance between the scored lines to the longitudinal border is 7 mm (distance between the two yellow chevrons). The hole on the left side of the photo is 9mm in diameter. The C- shaped cut on the right is 15mm in diameter.

I used a hole puncher to make a series of cuts/holes after outlining the intended circle in pencil. The edges of the opening were then smoothed out with a motor tool using a small cylindrical sanding disc. One can also use a drill with the appropriate sized drill bit to make the hole. I initially used an opening that was the exact fit of the male metal snap on the seat but it turns out the plastic was too thick to allow the snaps to come together. Enlarging the hole to 9 mm dia. allowed enough room for the snap buttons to click together nicely.

The C-shaped cut is done with scissors and the opening made smooth and round with a large cylindrical sanding disc on a motor tool.

When finished, insert the side with the C-shaped cut unto the lower part of the leather loop (that's used to hold the seat belts) and the hole unto the snap part of the loop, 2nd photo above. Thread the seat belt, snap the loop and you've got yourself a nice leather seat protector along the seat belt loop area, first photo above. You can attach stickers of your choice as desired, e.g., MB logo, AMG logo, mate's name, favorite sports team, etc. I prefer mine plain and less observable and makes it look almost OEM.

Hope the above DIY is helpful, especially to those with light-colored leather seats.


Below is how it looks from a distance:

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Eddy

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DansSlk

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You never cease to impress mate.

Top notch work

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Ynot

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Looks great, thanks for sharing.

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06' SLK 350, Iridium/Ash all pkgs. 6-spd, 19" DCR.


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Eddy, I agree, excellent idea and how to. The beige and ash combo seats are beautiful, but a challenge to keep mark free. I've had a black car, and a car with white seats. Just not interested in those combinations again. Kudos for those that choose those colors.

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Sid

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Hey Etyu,

How about just making a bunch and selling it to us?

etyu

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This could be easily done as a fun and quick one- to two-hour afternoon project on a weekend.

I wonder what cyberdrakon's thoughts would be in terms of getting this patented/copyrighted and getting a limited production run. He could add this to his catalog for the different MB dealers to order from him. This would be a good promotional item for the dealers. The dealer's logo could be printed on the plastic.

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alroumi

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Very innovative eddy, thank you for sharing.

Its not an issue with my car, Black leather

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So simple, cheap and efficient !!!
Great Mod Eddy !!

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GregoryGR

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Eddy, just great! Very clever!

Well done!

etyu

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I found out the other day that the plastic piece only protects the leather on the seat side. It does not protect the underside of the leather loop (that guides the seat belt), and as a result I have almost black linear marks at the underside of the leather loop; easily cleaned off luckily. (see red arrow at pix below, pix already show the two bits in place)




The solution was to make two of the plastic bits and sandwich the seat belt in-between. The hole that goes on the snap part should be enlarged by 1mm so the snap will work, otherwise two plastic bits are a tad thick. Now, the light colored leather is protected at the seat side and at the underside of the leather loop. This should help those with beige, grey and red leather leather seats. Photo below:

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Eddy

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FishtailnZ

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You da man Eddy!

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XBarbarian

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Very Interesting. Awesome idea. I have beige seats. may have to do this.