W123 1985 300D Fender Removal. How do you do it?
 

I would like to swap a dinged finder on my W123 1985 300D. Fender Removal is not on the service CD.

Has anyone done this and if so, how do you do it?

Thanks Carrameow

Remove bumper. Remove signal light and bezel. Remove bolts behind there, under bumper, at the bottom near rocker and some on top next to hood. Open door -there are some just in front of door. Remove plastic inner fender and be glad you do not have an early one where you have to burn off undercoating.

Glue.
 

On some W123's (not sure when they stopped doing this) the fenders are glued onto the wheel house at the top. Makes it difficult (read: impossible) to get the old fender off without heating the glue....

Jay.

i would think it is about impossible to get one off without destroying it.

i have never tried heat. i would think fire is also a possibility with that.

tom w

My 83 was not glued. Fender removal is pretty straight forward if you go slowly getting all the bolts and don't force anything. Say for one person its about a 30 minute job to pull one.

On an 82 300D, it is glued and sealed with undercoating. I’ll take suggestions if anyone has any they can offer.

The glue is extremely strong. Have you considered paintless dent removal? The results are amazing. The price variance for the same job is amazing, recently had one estimated at $300-400 and 1000. The guy for 300 - 400 did a superb job at about 360.

Some PDR techs also refuse jobs that others take so shop around, if the first one says can't be done.

Good luck!!!

I cut the undercoating off a little at a time while peeling back the fender with a utility knife. The old fender is not reusable in my experience.

There is quite a bit of stuff in the paper Factory Service Manuals that is not in the CD Manual.

I have used an electric heat gun to peel and strip paint. It is like a hand held electric hair drier but gets hot enough to burn stuff. However, the heat is more spread out and it is slower to heat than a propane torch and if it comes with a kit they have shamed attachments to channel the heat in the direction and shape you want.
Also using it is likely cheaper then a torch.

Me Too
 

I'm pretty sure my '82 240D still has the glued on fenders, why I'm dragging my feet on replacing the L.F. one I bashed in March....

Rich kindly sold me a nice one in the same color.....

I am not sure the fender is actually glued on. It is covered over with heavy rubberized undercoating though and has to be cut out on the later years, IIRC.