Has anyone done this before themselves without tearing anything up? If so, what advice can you offer?

There are so many things that must be PRIED off. If you know just where and how to PRY, I'm sure it's no problem.

Any advice?

Thanks,

Larry - take a look in diy'er on replacement of the check strap. Pretty much the same operation to be able to replace the armrest.

__________________
Jim

Greetings Larry,

Send me your email address and I'll send you the pdf file for door lining and armrest removal from the manual.


Charles

__________________
"Tell me and I will listen, Teach me and I will learn, Show me and I will accomplish, Involve me and I will succeed."
'84 300SD 256,000 Gold on Brown (Mileage Award)
'86 300E 246,000 Blue on Tan

In removing the door panel, just remember to pry the seat controls apart very carefully; breaking a seat switch is not cheap. Also, there's a trick to removing the backside of the mirror (that triangular piece at the front corner of the window, where the mirror controller pops through)-a plastic piece on its backside projects directly into a receiver in the window frame; pry this out carefully and the whole piece removes easily from there.

Once you have the door panel off, it's fairly simple to remove the armrest. There will be a few screws holding it, as well as several melted-over plastic pieces that act as rivets. What I suggest is that you drill into the center of each of these plastic rivets with a bit of approximately the same diameter as the shaft of the rivet. Drill in an eigth of an inch or so, and the head of the rivet will pop off easily. For re-installation, I used a soldering iron with aluminum foil over the tip to melt the new plastic "rivets".

Good luck!

__________________
"If God had meant for us to walk, why did he give us feet that fit car pedals?" Sir Sterling Moss

Michael
2014 E63S Estate
2006 SLK55
1995 E500
1986 Porsche 944 turbo

Thanks to everyone for the help, especially can-do for sending me the manual pages. They were very helpful.

I now have a new arm rest installed as good as new. The old one was broken and flopping around making this great car look like a neglected junker.

Thanks again,

Greetings Larry,

Never a problem to help out those that have help me in the past. You've led me into troubleshooting directions I haven't thought of. Need anything else, just holler.

Thanks for all the help you've given me,

Charles

__________________
"Tell me and I will listen, Teach me and I will learn, Show me and I will accomplish, Involve me and I will succeed."
'84 300SD 256,000 Gold on Brown (Mileage Award)
'86 300E 246,000 Blue on Tan