I'm guessing Tan Man and EHM are the same poster.

Relax.

My post was not ever intended to help you. It was a comment to others using your situation as an example. I believe there are situations where it is smart to pay a shop to handle the whole repair, part + labor.

I am not alone in this opinion. Finally, I can't recall any MB shops I have used that would allow me to provide the parts. A large part of their gross margin depends on parts markup. Why would they do that?

Steve