85 300D hood pad
 

Is this what an OE 85 300D hood pad insulation looks like? It is foam which = 100% garbage as it is crumbling and constantly flaking off. Can't believe Mercedes put this on a $35,000 car!

What's a good hood pad to get or foam material to make my own?

I recall someone talking about neoprene vs nitrile foam pads (nitrile being superior) recently but can't find that post.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...908_132053.jpg

Mine doesn't look at all like that, in both my 84 & 85. You can find photos here. Mine is more like a woven fiber. The 85 has a bare metal (aluminum) section above the turbo and battery since it is the CA model w/ different exhaust/turbo. That looks like prior owner hill-billy fix.

Link please?

Mine was just like yours....I don't know if the aftermarket ones are better or not....I still have pieces of mine stuck to the hood....would love to hear of a better aftermarket padding, that we can buy cheaper and cut to fit....because seeing the quality of parts now, I see an aftermarket lasting maybe a year if I am super super lucky...

I have an 85, and I don't "recall" the original looking like that. But it was a while ago that I replaced the original and it may have been like that.

Why would anyone expect an original hood pad to still be in good condition? They are subjected to heat and oil fumes and don't last for ever. Not sure what else they could have made them from back then.

You can replace the pad for $49.00 and the new one has a 12 month guaranty! A big expense, I know, but sometimes you just have to spend money on these old cars :)

I wish I had a hood pad left to tell you about...

I have an old VW diesel Jetta with an intact original hood pad. It is not made of foam but a molded woven fiber. It has not sagged , crumbled or flaked off.

Does anyone know what material the hood pad Pelican parts sells for $49.95 is made from?

I bought one of those OEM from buy mb parts way back, and it was the same pattern and look, but the consistency of the foam was much closer to pipe insulation.

30 years the foam changes and gets brittle. Just like a cheaper MB tex seat lasts 100 times longer than pure leather, but the more expensive product had a shorter shelf life. :D

Incidentally the best way to remove this IMO is don't bother scraping it off, just take a wet dry vac and suck the pieces off. It may be the most gratifying thing to do on one of these cars ive ever done, and no mess. Similar to the enjoyment of crushing that green foam that flower shops use.

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/...ps862004b6.jpg

Good tip with the wet/dry vac. Is that your new free ride? What year is it and does it look like that foam pad is original? Your Jetta probably has the woven fiber pad which lasts much longer and does not disintegrate like foam. I think some of the older Mercedes must have used woven fiber.

Have you noticed the difference in interior sound levels with and without hood pad? I think it's purpose is more for heat insulation than sound. My 83 did not have a hood pad and the paint is all blistered above the turbo area but it was no overly loud.

The old Land Rovers has a double roof to keep the interior cool w/o AC. Using the same idea, if you can create a double "roof" under the hood, I think it would work well for both heat and sound insulation.

One way to do it is to glue a bunch of 1" square x 1/2" thick balsa wood spacers to the hood in a grid pattern every 10 inches using RTV, then glue heavy gauge aluminum foil to the spacers with super glue. The foil is easy to work with and you can glue one spacer at a time with the super glue which adheres fast. You can get restaurant grade aluminum foil in much wider widths than from a super market.

What do you think? Will it work?

same year as yours, 85. Pad (or whats left of it) looks original, there wasn't enough left to say anything about the insulative qualities-

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3d71233c.jpg

The center part dropped on the engine as dust, and seems to have mixed with engine oil to make a particularly impossible to clean tar like gritty substance all over the place.

I remember the blistering paint on your hood, on most of my cars the pads have been missing though, so I couldn't say how quiet they might be with it. I had one 84 300D with the pad still intact, and it was a different type of material. The material certainly held up better than the foam. this was on an 84, maybe it was a regional thing? I had the square foam on an 83 also. Cant remember a huge difference in sound-

pic-
http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/...psd34dc150.jpg



foil idea is probably worth a try, though id probably not use Balsa, just in case something like above happens. First id be concerned about the heat that would destroy the paint also catching the balsa on fire, and second, if you have an oil disaster like above where oil soaks the hood pad, it would be doubly bad with the oil soaking into the balsa blocks, like a tinderbox under the hood. If i were going to do that, id probably use aluminum.

Personally though, id just buy a new pad. You would probably get 20+ years out of a new one you can just glue in, without all the bother of making something. These things are falling apart because they are super old, a new one would solve all your issues

The balsa idea was because it is light and easy to work with. The aluminum foil would keep oil off the balsa in case of an oil spill. The foam pad soaked with oil will burn like mad once ignited so no difference.

It was just a crazy idea that I probably will not try. I want to make as little mod to this pristine 85 as possible and will just buy a cheap foam pad. But before I do that I may try a small section of aluminum foil above the turbo area and take some temperature measurement of foam vs aluminum/air insulation.

You may be trying to solve a non-existent problem. The aftermarket hood pads will likely outlast the car. They are inexpensive, but you should also buy two spray cans of adhesive and use it all)

I installed aftermarket hood pads on my 72 and my 85 at about same time - I forget just when, but it must be 10 years ago or more. After one year they started to come off. I then removed hoods (to stop getting cleaning solvent on car), did a better job of preparing surface, applied 3 coats of 3M Super Trim Adhesive (8090 high temperature spray adhesive) to each side and re-installed. They still look like new. They don't have that eggcrate design. These are pics of my 72 SL, but 300D is same.

I wonder if you just glued something to above the turbo if the same result was achieved. Do we really need the whole pad im wondering. My 240 has had no pad since 2000 says the PO, and the paint is still fine on the hood, so maybe its the added heat of the turbo that makes the pad truly necessary for the 300 series cars as far as the paint is concerned, apart from some sound benefit

240 has no turbo that's why paint is still ok. My 83 with turbo paint blistering above was a progressive thing that slowly got worse. W123 with the turbo on top (KKK) much closer to the hood has a an additional piece of reflective aluminum on the hood pad above the turbo (from what I've read). It is definitely needed for heat insulation to protect the paint in the turbo area.

thats what im getting at. The 240 isn't damaging the paint with the engine is pretty much the same place, its all the turbo that seems to kill the paint.

Maybe you should try your block idea just above the turbo, and not bother with a full hood pad is what im saying.