Pinstripes

[Tomguy]

Recently, whenever I see an older benz for auction, I've been looking for pinstripes. Mine has a black stripe on top of a red one, with an arrow flare on the black one at front.

So I am wondering... did all 108/109's come with it, or was it a factory option? This is the FIRST car I've seen on eBay with the stripes:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2436021495&category=6329


Is it an easy way to tell if the car's been repainted? The stripes are DEFINETLY handpainted on mine!

[300SDog]

On 116's pinstriping was common. Best place to locate pinstripers is at motorcyle shows and rallies..... they generally show up with their tools and will pinstripe mc gas tanks for $60, so they might do a Benz on location for about $120. There's gotta be better ways to identify repaint work that is rarely long term improvement over the original paint. What i like is original 2 tone paint..... i've seen sharp looking 114's silver with black top and brown with tan top.

Pinstripes were not available as standard equipment or factory option on the w108-w109. But bear in mind that the '70's were prime-time for pinstriped vehicles. I'm certain that more than a few dealers had cars striped for customers or on spec.

Your stripe definitely sounds custom. It doesn't necessarily mean that the car was repainted, but some body shops would pinstripe a car that required painting along the side, with the pinstripe hiding the transition from old to new paint.

[Tomguy]

The painting on my car was definetly 100% pure factory paint until I started mucking with it myself ; ) (I'm trying to make it burgundy currently, since I tried silver but it was near-impossible for me to get right since the metal flake is a PITA on large areas it seems).

I thought it might have been a very rare factory option - just like my grille bar! I've only seen 1 picture of another car with it! And never in-person on another 108/109 MB!

BAR: http://members.tripod.com/~breastroker/grillguardLarge.jpg

[Tomguy]

Erm... so you know, you have toi right-click that link and select "Copy Shortcut" otherwise you'll get the Tripod image. Tripod = teh sux!

[Tomguy]

BINGO!
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/attachment.php?postid=416557

Second car I've seen, but this one belongs to a member here (300sel6.3)! Same paint color, same pinstripes! This HAD to have been a factory option we just don't know about!

I'm now interested in this even more

[yeldogt]

I remember getting the rear bumper parts -- they were not OE -- but many dealers sold them. In the late 60s the US cars would hit the center of the trunk and plate area of the 108's also the same for the bar in front of the grill. This was all before the bumper height requirements.

I also do not think that any cars had pinstripes from the factory -- this was a US thing. It is the same with the wheel covers.. Many cars in europe had the wheel covers not painted and always without whitewalls.

I know that my dads first 108 a 1967 250s bought in late 1966 had blackwall tires with painted hubcaps. No sidelights -- I also remember that by 1970 you would see the pinstripes -- we had a dark blue with a red stripe. Some people also put the stripe on the hup caps

A very popular stripe was a tri color one --and you would put an initial on the right trunk in the matching colors.