Radio Stereo Removal Keys: DIY Make your own

[suncat]

Disclaimer: I'm too cheap to buy the real ones from MB or even the knock-offs on eBay.

Found this idea on an Audi forum site after an internet search and tried it myself this evening with a few improvements. They work awesome. Took me all of 10 minutes or less to make. Just had to share here... Maybe this can find its way to the DIY listings.

1. Take the steel hanger from a Pendaflex or similar hanging file folder - typically an easily available sacrificial item. The steel hanger needs to be the smooth kind - some have a stamped form, making the cross-section not perfectly flat. The ones I used are about 5/16" wide - just the right width. Cut the ends off to make 5" long strips. I used a bandsaw with a metal cutting blade, but a hack saw would work just fine. This steel seems to be somewhat hardened and a bit brittle, but still very cuttable.

2. On a bench grinder, I smoothed out a reasonable radius on the ends as shown in the attached photo. This leaves a few burrs on the end, but we will take care of that in a couple steps.

3. Cut a notch with a hack saw at the end of the radius return as shown -the length of the notch about 1/4 to 1/3 the total width of the steel hanger. The width of the notch needs to be the thickness of a standard hack saw blade, or slightly wider if you can manage.

4. I wire-wheeled the entire ends and radii to take off all the burrs and really smooth the ends up so they won't mar or catch on the stereo face or slot.

5. Insert the two blades with the curved sides facing inward to the factory stereo removal slots on the lower left and right hand corners of the stereo face. Push them in until you hear an audible click from each one. Then push the cassette door in with your fingers to grab the face of the stereo to carefully pull/slide it out. Be careful of the wood trim around the stereo hole in the dash.

6. Once the stereo is out, you can push in the spring clips on the sides of the stereo to remove the tools back out the face of the stereo.

Pretty easy stuff. I am very happy with how well they work on my '95 C280 w/ cassette and CD changer controls. I would imagine the applicability would cross many types and years worth of MB stereos. Hope someone finds this of use.