The 560SL Black Headlight Door Modification Narrative

[BabyBlueBenz]

Back when I owned a 1978 W123 240D, I considered opening up the headlight door (also known as The Clear Plastic Frame That Surrounds the Headlights) and painted the louvers within black to match the engine grill. It never happened, because I had found a used parts supplier and procured a pair of european headlights. Back then, the Euro lights were very cool in a land filled with generic-round (and some generic-rectangular) automobile headlights.

Fast-forward to today, and I find myself in possession of another Mercedes equipped with federally mandated round headlights and the option to exchange them for european-style lights. But, as someone posted in a forum somewhere, the round headlights are now in retro with the roads now populated with car lighting unique to each model. I like the look of my SL's four round headlights because it makes the car look wider. I think the bigger european-spec lights make the car look smaller. Besides that, a pair of Euros is damn expensive!

But one aspect of the four-light arrangement is that from certain vantage points, my SL looks bug-eyed. Getting those two bulbs into each corner required a noticeable bulging of the side-marker lens. Not a terrible thing, but a bit weird looking from certain angles.

Well, I thought I would see what might be done about my "issues" by painting the interior of the headlight doors black. Since my doors were in rough condition with several dings and a bad crack, I considered this an experiment. If my eyes fail the results, then a fresh pair of doors will be ordered. Many of the steps detailed below would be performed in pursuit of restoring the headlight doors of many MB models, as suggested by John Roncallo with his post at http://www.benzworld.org/forums/r-c107-sl-slc-class/1382074-then-there-silence.html#post2929641 (sorry no relevant posts found on this forum).