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New (to me) '75 W115 240D What to tackle and what to leave
Hi!
So I finally got my first car! Its a W115 240d. It came today and there's a bit more to be done than I expected. The interior in particular needs a bit of love. I attached pictures of some of the problem areas, but I was wondering what I could to on a fairly limited budget to really revamp it a bit! I was thinking of getting it professionally detailed and going from there, but it may make more sense to fix a few things first. I'd love to hear what you all have to say! The list:
There's a whole 'nother list for the exterior, but I will probably make another thread for that or include it later. I feel the interior needs some focus in particular. |
I would empty the ashtray and not sweat too much about the rest.
Glass needs to come out to fix headliner. |
I'd suggest keeping an eye on local you-pick style junkyards and saving your money on a detail by doing it yourself.
From what I've seen, the faded chrome is usually actually anodized aluminum, and it's a real nightmare to restore without having it professionally done. (I could be wrong on the earlier body, but on my '85 300D, most everything but the bumpers and the grille are aluminum). If you do decide to recover your seats, I wrote a guide about repairing seat springs on the cheap at http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/detailing-interior/373355-seat-repair-alternative-technique-w123-similar-seats.html. The guide was written for the w123 chassis, but i think your seats may be similar. This was one of the biggest improvements to comfort I have made to my car. Some of your parts look very close to the ones for my w123, you might be able to interchange them. I've seen a lot more w123's than earlier 240d's in junkyards. If you find a part that needs to be replaced, it's worth searching for the MB part number to see if it fits any other cars. You have a fairly common interior color, so this may not help much, but sometimes it's necessary to buy parts for a different color interior and dye them to match yours. There's several places online that sell vinyl & leather specific dyes that are color matched for our cars. I've used the dye I have (blue interior) on some hard plastic parts and had great results, actually better than on vinyl. Does your odd smell get stronger if you turn on the heater/AC? If so, you might want to clean your evaporator and heater core and possibly your ducts. If not it might be moisture in your carpets. Most of your carpets will probably pull out with little trouble. Go ahead and remove those and look for signs of moisture. I have a small carpet shampooer that works great on floor mats, but you can also rent one that will probably work well. An even cheaper option is to buy a can or two of foaming cleaner and some white rags and spend a few hours cleaning everything. I use foaming cleaner on vinyl seats and door cards all the time and love it. Let everything dry for a day or two before reinstalling it if you can. I've also used febreze auto to deal with mildew smells, and even put a tub of RV desiccant in my trunk on one of my previous cars that had a trunk that leaked (ugh). |
The cigarettes are already taken care of! It took a little working to get the ashtray out, but I got it.
My thinking is that I'll take the front two seats out and give the a really good clean and then spend a bit of money on some nice cocomats (probably with a runner for the back). I think the biggest eyesore at the moment is the carpet, so I think getting that covered well would go a long way. From there I'll try to scrounge up some knobs and plastic bits here and there from a pick-a-part or online and fix up the rest as it starts to make sense--for example, if I have to change the window seals then I might as well fix the liner. I was thinking I could put down some sound/heat insulation under the carpets/mats until I eventually get a new carpet set (probably not for a long while) to go over it. Thoughts? Also any recommendations on patching up the holes in the back? It doesn't really need to look like new, but something to cover the foam underneath would be pretty great. |
Demothen! I hadn't seen your response! Those are some good ideas. I'll make a trip to walmart and pick up some foaming cleaner, a brush and some dessicant (it's pretty humid in there right now :( ) I still think picking up some new mats in a couple weeks is a good idea, but this will definitely help me get it looking better! Thanks for the tips!
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I thought about adding some soundproofing to my floor as well, but at least on my car the carpet plus padding is about an inch thick, plus there is some dense rubber on the sheetmetal itself. Didn't seem really necessary to me.
Cocomats. I am jealous! Thats on my nice-to-have list, but I have higher priorities to spend money on. I had some heavy rubber mats for a while, but had them out and realized the car looks so much better without them (new carpets in mine, fortunately). I bought a couple big tubs of dessicant and cut holes in the lids and stuck them in my trunk. That car had a tiny trunk so they couldn't slide around much. You might try to figure out a way to hold them in place a bit. I don't know about patching vinyl like that honestly. I tried some repairs on my old VW bug, but they didn't work well. Might try to see if w123 back seats fit in your car? Or just invest in some decent covers? |
Hmm...I'm not sure about the sound deadening yet either. I think it would be nice to add if I have the money, but you're right about the rubber over the sheetmetal. I'll have to think about it.
I gave everything a good hard clean today and its not spotless, but I'm much happier with how it looks--even the crumbling floormats. How much would new carpet cost compared to the cocomats? I was thinking they would be a great cover until I could afford to put in new carpet and that I could then continue use. If the carpet is more inexpensive that may be the route to go down. Any tips on where to get covers? That's a pretty good idea especially for now when money is tight/prioritized on mechanical work. I'm not sure of the cost there yet, but I have budgeted $2k total for mechanics and esthetics combined (more of the share will go to mechanics...all if needed). |
Yep, looks as if the seats were re-stuffed. Not much you can do about the open seams on the back seat bottom, at least nothing that would look decent. And your interior color appears to be "Bamboo" same as my '74.
Dash and center console damage are more of those items that would really require replacing them to correct those issues. Dang - before I moved I threw out a nice center console. Sizing down from a 800 square foot shop to a single car garage meant getting rid of a lot of stuff. Just didn't have time to take the pics and list that stuff. Is the driver's floor mat completely missing? Even with coco mats be sure to keep the molded foam that is glued together with the original mats. It's molded to fit over the heater ducts and would be tough to reproduce on your own. Really, the cocos should just be installed over the originals. Pass. side mat looks pretty decent. I might still have a spare Bamboo map/door pocket, and rear door ash tray. Might even have some Bamboo window crank inserts, and some of the chrome bezels that go around the inside opening levers. Put a list together of the all the stuff you need. I might have some of it to spare, plus I know where I might be able to get some more of what you need. Still have my number? Give a call when you can. |
W123 front seat reclining knobs might fit, but they are shaped a little different. Some of the front seat stuff will interchange with W116, like the plastic covers and knob.
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New carpet is almost certainly more expensive than cocomats by quite a bit. I think pelican may sell a kit. But I agree that cocomats are probably not going to look great without the actual carpet set underneath them.
Honestly, the seat covers I used in my Beetle were junk from the auto parts store (this was a 1100$ car, I used old egg crate mattress pads to re stuff the seats). Honestly, if it were me and I was just wanting something temporary, I would probably find an old blanket or something and wrap the seats and cut some holes for seatbelts and whatnot. (Though, to be fair I also want to find an old beat up British sports car and find a cheap knockoff Turkish rug to make floormats out of...I am a bit off...) Just do a search for car seat covers and find something you like. |
The driver side mat is completely missing. Under the poorly fitted aftermarket and mismatched mat is sheetmetal and rubber. The rest are there but falling apart at the edges.
I'm not too fussed about the holes in the right seat anymore, and things like the dash and center console are definitely not priorities. They'll get fixed once everything else is or if the right piece comes along. The all inclusivelist of things: Dash Center console Driver side floor mat (even the oldest will do. It'd be great to have them match) Seat adjustment knobs both rear ash trays Driver and passenger map pockets brake release knob Window crank inserts and thats just about all I can think of at the moment Thanks for the help! I feel a bit overwhelmed, but I definitely think this is workable. |
The driver side mat is completely missing. Under the poorly fitted aftermarket and mismatched mat is sheetmetal and rubber. The rest are there but falling apart at the edges.
I'm not too fussed about the holes in the right seat anymore, and things like the dash and center console are definitely not priorities. They'll get fixed once everything else is or if the right piece comes along. The all inclusivelist of things: Dash Center console Driver side floor mat (even the oldest will do. It'd be great to have them match) Seat adjustment knobs both rear ash trays Driver and passenger map pockets brake release knob Window crank inserts and thats just about all I can think of at the moment Thanks for the help! I feel a bit overwhelmed, but I definitely think this is workable. |
Regarding carpet, you can get the whole set shipped for less than $350 (pick your colour first):
Most of those other things that are messed up are just cheap little things to fix. They don't impact the vehicle's functionality. How are your floor pans by the way? Are they solid? They often rust out on these old Benzes. |
As far as I can tell there is little to no rust on the pans. I haven't looked under the thick rubber that bolted onto the sheet metal, but what I can see seems solid. I'm probably going to remove seats in a couple days do really get a good vacuum going and to grease up the rails so I'll take pictures of the full floor bed then. I really didn't notice anything though.
Nice with the carpets! Those prices are pretty reasonable. I may just wait it out and save a little to pick up a set in the nearish future. I couldn't figure out how to select a color though... |
If your floors are solid, you're in good shape.
I think the carpet seller has different listings for each colour. Might have to do a search on Ebay to find the rest. |
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