Nice looking car and unusual color!

The pad I just removed lasted 14 years. Car is always garaged and driven about 2500 miles in 6-8 months each year.

I could just buy another pad. But I would like to see and feel it first! Not too impressed with the ones I have installed in past on two of my cars.

Hard to know what "original" is:

This site sells an OEM pad, but doesn't say who it is from. They also sell Febi, Meyle, GK.
F.C.P sell the Febi pad and they say that is OEM! Low price!
AA sell a pad that they say is OE but no brand name. They also have Meyle.

OE and OEM are misleading. Says the company is or was a supplier to MB of some parts?

One other thing - Some of these pads have a heat shield above the turbo. Apparently only needed for California cars?

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

Ideally, ordering direct from MB would eliminate any guessing. Unfortunately, the W123 hood pad is NLA from MB, so that means your choices are all aftermarket. I would go with the Febi. It has the same waffle type pattern that genuine MB hood pads have, though that's not a real reliable indicator as to whether it's really OE/OEM. In my experience, it seems all MB diesel hood pads start to turn into dust after 10 years or so, regardless of brand. Check out Pierre's video on installing a hood pad. I usually use 3M 08090 adhesive, but he used a different type of glue from MB. That might help your pad last longer? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcYQWiCP3Kc

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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.

Wow that car looks nice ! .

I don't want to use a wire wheel or anything that might go through the paint .

Yes, I know what ice scrapers are, I used to have them in my cars but they keep 'growing feet' .

I have some plastic scrapers, they're handy .

When I was with L.A.P.D. Air Support we'd cut 1/4" think plexiglass into handy scrapers, they'd remove old baked on gaskets from alloy things and never damage the sealing surface .

M-B stopped selling the hood pads a while back .

I only get 10 years or so out of them, I'm in the Desert a lot .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

The wire wheel I used wasn't aggressive. Just ran it on my cordless drill at low speed and it removed the last few spots of rubber that the scraper had trouble with. Everything else was scraped.

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

? Maybe "goo Gone " ? .

Linky : https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=goo+gone+target

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

When I first cleaned the hoods on my 107 and 123 15 years or so ago, I was faced with same problem. How to remove build up of unknown adhesives.

I tried mineral spirits, acetone, carb cleaner and whatever other solvents I happened to have. They all worked to some extent but you end up with a gooey mess that has to be scraped off.

This time, what worked was initial peeling with the ice scraper,
followed by detailed scraping with various scrapers, plastic and metal
followed by hand and powered wire brush to remove the final stubborn spots
This left the even 3M sprayed on coating that will be a good substrate for next application.

I never tried citrus-based cleaners like goo-be-gone or 3M™ Adhesive Remover:

__________________
Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

THANK YOU ! .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better