I masked around the headlights, did not remove them for the polishing operation. I advise others who work in-situ to cover the car (or the engine compartment, if you have the hood up) to prevent polish-splatter from getting all over everything (ask me how I know).

Once removed, the assemblies are hard to clamp to a work bench due to their odd shape. It's probably easier to work with them on the car so long as you mask and cover.

Headlight removal is not difficult but access to the factory CD-ROM service manual is nice as a couple of the steps are not intuitively obvious. Realignment of the beams is not necessary so long as you don't turn any of the adjustment screws.

Unlike the W123 and W124 CD-ROM manuals, you cannot save the contents of each section of the W210 CD-ROM manual as a pdf for ultimate transmittal to others. The only way seems to be to print a hard copy and then scan it, a PITA. I have done so for this section but hope to not have to do so as a regular part of my forum membership.

The scanned file, "Headlights.pdf" is 3 pages, 470KB, too large to attach to this post. PM me an email address and I'll send it to you.

Attached pictures show the right headlamps in process. The 3M kit is one of many brands available. I didn't need all of the sandpaper and polish in the kit so I kept it for later touch-up and other applications, including removing water spots from mirrors, which I DO NOT recommend as it takes the first-surface reflective coating off of the mirrors. Heated Mercedes mirrors are about $100 each so learn from my mistake, please!

Jeremy

Attached Thumbnails

     

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970