Quote:
Originally Posted by Idle
But..... While researching another topic I did run across a thread on a Mercedes board where someone was talking about this subject. They claimed that they were looking at one of the last production W111 SE coupes produced and noticed it had a 108 bumper on the rear. They asked the dealer about this and they were told that the last few cars had the 108 bumpers installed since Mercedes had run out of the coupe bumpers.
This was not on a used car but a new one sitting on the lot. The dealer could have bent the W111 bumper, installed a 108, and then used the old "They all do that" to cover it up. The guy posting did not know for sure.
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I can almost promise you that dealer was full of ****.
Mercedes would never have done this not only because they had spares on hand for repair work and parts orders but also for the simple fact that the bumper would look totally wrong on a W111. Notice on a W111 how the bumper has an elegant kickdown where the overrider ends, continuing that line, whereas the W108 is flat and slim without the kickdown line. Perhaps the last-of-line coupes that had rubber strips could be confused for a replacement W108 bumper, but on the car or in a side by side comparison off the car you would notice immediately.
Do they interchange? I have no idea, but I'd opt for the stainless steel reproduction unit before I'd put a W108 on a W111.Good luck either way, but I agree it's better to find a definitive answer rather than try and switch them both to find out. Not the hardest job but it can be if even one bolt is stuck and bumpers are very heavy, awkward things to wrangle.