Removal of 560SL side moldings

[300maniac]

I need to replace all side moldings on my 560SL. There are 3 moldings on each side of the car: short piece at trail end of front fender, long piece across the entire door, short piece at leading edge of quarter panel. They are the "door guards". How do you remove them and install them without damaging the sheet metal?

Detailed experienced feedback would be very helpful.

Thanks,

I just did the same on my '86 560 sl. On each strip there is a nut that has to be unscrewed. Once the nut is off ,all you do is pop the strip off. The strip on the door is held in place by the same system. The nut is close to the door jam near the lock. Remove the nut and start to peel the strip off. The hardest thing about the whole job is finding the nut. Hope this helps...
Larry

[300maniac]

Larry,

Thanks for your reply. I understand that you would need to replace the "berries" to install the new strips on to the sheet metal. Is this some kind of plastic clips that will hold the strips on to the sheetmetal? Are there any other fasteners or clips to replace? I really didn't know that there were actual nuts holding these strips to the sheetmetal. Great and helpful hint to save me tons of frustration and possibly damaging the sheet metal.

The berries are little red plugs that are inserted into the sheet metal they kind of look like plastic anchors that you put into a sheetrock wall to hold a screw in place. I think when you get the new moulding strips you get the beries with it. On my particular car I removed the mouldings to refinish them and I reused the berries that were there.
Larry

[300maniac]

Thanks Larry!

You are the man. With warm weather in the East enjoy your SL , top down well into Winter