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Old 04-10-2008, 03:20 PM
babymog's Avatar
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Northeast Indiana
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W124 vs T124 Door Panel Compatibility and Model Year

I finally installed my wood-trimmed '91 300TE door inner panels on my '87 300D.

The short answer, they fit without modifications.

The complete story is a bit more complicated.

The T rear door panels are less than 1cm shorter at the top, not noticable in my blue on blue doors, but more contrasting colors might show that small strip of paint at the top. Going from a sedan to a T might be an interference problem, pretty small difference but I'm not sure of the tolerance. This is only the top, the rest of the panel is a perfect match.

Also, the T rear door panels have a speaker in the armrest. Good? The inner door steel has to be dented or cut a little for clearance for the stock speaker, I'm looking for a lower-profile speaker to fit without modifying the door, worst-case I'll pull the panel and modify the door, for now you can't tell with the speaker grille installed.

All of the clips and clip locations are the same for wagon/sedan and '87 to '91 on all four doors.

Front doors were a perfect match, but again the doors need to be modified to fit the stock subwoofer enclosures. I thought it would be a simple matter of cutting for clearance, surprisingly there is a little added metal to bolt the enclosures to, not difficult to fabricate the brackets.

Well worth it for the look IMO, I couldn't stand the look of the door panels without wood, was too used to the panels in my (long gone) '91 TE. The extra speakers really allow for better sound imaging and balance also.

The steering wheel was also plastic in the '87s, hated it, replaced with a smaller leather wheel from a '93 190E. Perfect fit. I needed to replace the cruise-control switch anyway, so the wheel was off.

Shift knobs should never be plastic, kept the Zebrano wood knob from my '91, ... nuff said.

Seat backs: I also prefer the pouches on the '91-up cars to the nets on the early cars, my maglight and umbrella don't fall through. Leather on leather seats, vinyl on 'tex seats, completely compatible and perfect timing if one of your headrest clips needs replacing anyway. Took around 1/2hour per side, best to have a helper to compress the seat back while you slide the retainer strip into the groove, there might be a better method but it works.

The dash will soon be changed to a '91 black over blue dash, again dashes should never be blue IMO, but a blue lower will look nice like the rest of the interior color combinations offered. The wood strip also sets it off nicely, ties the door wood together with the center console. 100% compatible and I don't believe that many '91s came with the passenger airbag.

Next I need to procure a tambour-door center console cover from a '91-up, I miss that little wood-topped box even though the tambour-door is easy to damage. Looks nice. Just hard to find in working condition, might have to buy it new, worth it IMO.

Thought I'd share my update experience for any others looking for a less utility interior on your '87. Also, the '91-up with leather interior have leather door panel inserts, much nicer than the vinyl ones in our cars, if you have leather seats that is.

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Old 01-13-2010, 02:29 PM
frankstallone's Avatar
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Somerset, NJ
Posts: 501
Nobody ever thanked you for this valuable information, so I will. =)

Cheers!

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