'84 300SD - the passenger door body cladding got kicked off by some friends of my son while he had the car at university. some of the clips got broken. so to reinstall i got the replacement parts according to MB and epcnet. the new clips for the bottom row don't look like the originals and they don't fit into the channel AT ALL. also, the metal clip for the bottom rear of the panel they sent doesn't fit either.

anyone have experience with this??

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R Martin
Dallas, TX (Addison)

86 560SEL, 128K

Yep, had this problem before. Look carefully for any bodywork. Had a car where there were metal patches welded in to reinforce the rocker panels. the extra layer of metal make the panel too thick to use the clips work.

Had to force the plugs in really hard. That usually did not work. Then I had to file a taper in each hole. That was a pain in the butt, and had to touch up all the holes with a primer to prevent rust.

One other experience with this problem is with chip guard. Chip guard is a heavy coating placed on a car to resist chips. I've seem this stuff sprayed in many places to cover up sins. Some shops spray panels as a matter of their standard practice. Sometimes the increased thickeness prevents the plugs from engaging. I had to take a sharp knife to remove most of the chip guard to allow the pieces to attach to the body. That isn't much fun either, but it is easier than the first.