I noticed today while messing around inside my 240D's doors that there are side impact protection bars in them. Was the 123 the first Mercedes to have these?

- Peter.

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2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

Those reinforcement bars are a US spec only thing. You'll find that Euro spec 123s don't have them.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

One of my coupes hasn't got them. I don't know about the rest of them, I've only had the door panels off of that one car. It's a 79 300CD, by the way. The thing of it is, that car, is an American spec. car, in every way shape, and form....

It's possible that the car may have been in an accident, and replaced with a door from a Euro spec model. I am not sure when the changeover year was, yours could have been before it occured.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

Well, I bought the car when it was 20 years old, so who knows if it had ever been hit or anything in all of that time right? I know it had never been in anything major, but a caved in door, and replacement, could have been the case at some point. I never pulled the panel off of the other door....yet, but now I'm curious.
I want to see though, if the other door has a brace in it. I hope it doesn't in my own little way. The door panel I pulled is the drivers door,(street side) so who knows, as I said....

The '73 450SL I worked on had them. It wasn't much. Just a 1 inch diameter steel tube running the length of the inside of the door, welded to brackets at each end. The one on the driver's side had broken free from it's forward weld, causing a maddening rattle. I was able to fit a small muffler-style clamp and bolt it to the bracket at a pair of convenient factory-drilled holes (It's almost as if they knew this would require repair someday). Otherwise, I would have had to cut open the door and weld it.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

I am abit confused.... are you referring to the "side door gaurd beams", or referring to something else? Reason why I am thinking of something else is that most cars have had these door beams (inside the doors) since the late 1960s, at least on the American cars.

Yes, the side impact beams inside the doors. I believe they were a US requirement by the early '70s. Don't remember ever seeing them inside the doors on any '60s car.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW