You're most welcome, and thank you!

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- Greg -
1973 220D, The Prodigal Benz
1974 240D

The headlights use the same plug the driver side on most are the exact same barring the fog light. The passenger side just requires taking the connector apart and and switching the wires around. For most applications the US models are wired the same driver side and passenger the Euros are not... hence the change but it is super easy and the Euro lights (if they have good reflectors) are far superior to sealed beam halogens. it process is fully reversible

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MAKDUFF3

1975 300D, Feuerrot and Parchment interior

1971 220D (RIP)

I add my applause to the rest here. Your car is beautiful and now 2 feet shorter; as it should be! Personally I think the W114 / 115 euro headlights are wonderful, both in appearance and functionality.

I did the same thing years ago with my W123 and I found that Mercedes even makes bumper brackets for mounting euro bumpers on usdot cars. They knew from the very beginning that the usdot meant bastardization.

I believe your newly-acquired rear bumper is from a euro 280 car (longer sides than diesels), but who cares - itīs magnificent!

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Don't Chrome them; polish them

Thanks for the kind words! I'd like to make a go at getting the rear bumper on this season. I'm working hard these days, but my break is coming.

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- Greg -
1973 220D, The Prodigal Benz
1974 240D

The rear mount is ODD!!! in doing mine it takes only about 30 mins to remove the old one and the rubber filler. The odd part is the mount for the blade bumper is not equal distance as the US bumpers... the passenger side is mount is pushed out to the far corner and the left side bolt will probably need to be drilled out. I will post some more pictures to give you a headstart hopefully.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/members/makduff3-albums-euro-lights-bumpers-picture5746-driverside.html

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MAKDUFF3

1975 300D, Feuerrot and Parchment interior

1971 220D (RIP)

Nice progress! Looks like the job might be simpler than I originally thought. Where did you source the new rubber strip? eBay/Turkey?

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- Greg -
1973 220D, The Prodigal Benz
1974 240D

Yes it was remarkably cheaper than Mercedes or NOS... $70. to my door in SA TX... I will see how it compares up to the 42 year old one.

FYI : The body bolts (one each side) are 10x1.50 X about 50mm

it was far less work than the front was, no cutting or tapping required

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MAKDUFF3

1975 300D, Feuerrot and Parchment interior

1971 220D (RIP)

A while back I let go of my server space, which is where I was hosting the photos from the initial post for this thread, so now post #1 is photo-less. I'm going to re-post the information from post #1 with the photos uploaded to this site for hosting. I'm going to have to split the information up between multiple posts since the forum only allows 5 photos per post. So here goes!

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I love my '74 W115 240D, but the "diving board" bumpers have always bugged me. So I set out to find and install some early style "blade" bumpers. Digging around in the forums yielded a mix of information, mostly saying "can't be done". Hmmm . . .

I recently located bumpers thanks to Mark at MJ Auto here in Salt Lake City area. I scored a front from a 220 sedan, and a rear from a coupe. I wanted a coupe rear bumper with the long wrap-arounds so the side supports for the "diving board" rubber end caps would be covered.

This post will cover the fitting of the front bumper. I'll cover the fitting of the rear bumper after I've done it. The front was relatively easy. The rear is going to be more of a project.

Here's a couple pics of the goodies:




And the original front "diving board":



Before I sold the '73 220D I got to comparing the bumper mountings on both cars and observed that the mounts for the front "blades" were present on the '74, captured nuts and all, though partially covered up by the mounts for the "diving boards":



Got to have some supervision for a job like this:

Attached Thumbnails

         

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- Greg -
1973 220D, The Prodigal Benz
1974 240D

First step was to remove the front "diving board". I chose to leave the supports for the "diving board" rubber end caps since they will be covered up by the blade:



I used a flex shaft tool to remove material covering the front hole/nut, and ran a tap though both holes, front and rear. This part of the job took a while:



The tool used for this part of the job, my old school flex shaft with carbide cutter:



I spent a little time cleaning up the paint work and the plastic lower grill:



I had to spend a little time on the brackets. The rivet that holds the two pieces of the bracket together needed to be ground off on the inside of both brackets to clear the mounting for the "diving board". I also needed to remove some material from the top sides of the brackets to clear the body (maybe not everyone has to do this?):

Attached Thumbnails

         

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- Greg -
1973 220D, The Prodigal Benz
1974 240D

Trial fitting of the bracket. I used a stack of washers under the rear end of the bracket to take up the space that is occupied up front by the mount for the "diving board". I'd like to make some plates that fill up the space entirely but this will do for now:



And:



I applied some black paint to the brackets and to the mounts on the body to cover up the bare metal. After it dried for a bit it was time for a trial fitting of the bumper. I think it looks great!:







I think I'm going to modify the rubber spacer/filler pieces to fit between the bumper and the body, in order to cover up the holes for attaching these pieces, some of which have paint chipped off around them. I'll cover that soon. For now I've got say I'm pleased with the results. One nice part about this conversion is that it is reversible - I can re-install the original "diving boards" if I ever want to. But why?

Attached Thumbnails

         

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- Greg -
1973 220D, The Prodigal Benz
1974 240D

Took me long enough, but I finally got around to installing a rear blade on the '74. You'll notice I left the rubber space filler in place, simply fitting it into the blade when installed. We'll see if I leave it that way or not.


I did not use the long ends bumper I picked up in SLC, opting for a short end bumper instead. This bumper came from my old '73 220D that I recently bought back. Look closely and you'll notice a gap in the rubber impact strip right in the middle of the bumper. Long story short, I had to use material from two strips to make it work. I need to plug those side support holes and am thinking of using chromed dome head carriage style bolts with some rubber washers/gaskets.


I'd prefer the long ends bumper, but it will require some problem solving to make it work for me. The challenge is the location of the attachment points for the long ends on the rear quarter panels. The existing holes are to far to the rear to line up with the brackets on the blade's long ends. I would have to drill holes through the body forward of the existing ones to make it work with the earlier long ends, but this goes against my goal of being able to change the car back over to the original US spec bumpers if wanted. Well, I could swap back but then there would be the extra holes showing and I don't want that.

Another option would be to modify the long end pieces so that their supports line up with the existing holes in the body. Not sure how I would do it, though. Cut the existing brackets off the long ends and weld them on further back? Attach something inside the long ends that would use the existing supports for the later rubber ends? Either way there would be some welding involved, which would be OK since the outer pieces of this blade bumper need to be re-chromed anyway. For the time being I've decided to bypass the issue. I'm curious to hear other ideas on it, and I wonder if anybody else out there has already solved this problem.

Here's a shot of the rear end after cleaning up the paint. You can see the holes for the blade mounts, the RH hole being out further than the left (as mentioned above), and the mounts for the diving board. M-B designed these cars to be built either way. So much for "can't be done"! We Yanks really put the screws to the Germans, forcing them to redesign and tool up for making the new style parts.


To provide a bit more support for the rear mounts I used some thick, hardened washers inside the trunk. I had to cut some material off these since the holes are located close to the floor level of the trunk.


So there it is for now. Thanks to everyone else who has contributed to this thread. Would love to see some photos of other converted cars, and to hear any more tips and tricks for making the conversion work.

Attached Thumbnails

       

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- Greg -
1973 220D, The Prodigal Benz
1974 240D

Hey Greg, Thanks so much for this thread. I have a 1975 280c and loath the larger US spec bumpers. I am SOOOOO grateful for your detailed instructions and the pictures you posted because, like you, I have only read that this conversion is not possible.

I am not sure if you still live in the SLC area but I live in Holladay and if you are still around and able I would love to meet up and chat face to face about your Merc and this conversion. If you would be open to that then send me a Direct Message and we can schedule something. Its rare to find locals who share a love for the w114/115.

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

You're welcome!

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- Greg -
1973 220D, The Prodigal Benz
1974 240D

If you look closely at a Euro 114/115, or 123 car for that matter, you'll see that the rear bumper sits just below the horizontal seam that runs just below the tail lights. If you rework the brackets slightly, you should be able to mount the bumper higher than what you have now, eliminating the rubber spacer that the Euros never had. As a last resort, you can always order the brackets direct from Mercedes in Germany. I don't know about the 114/115 cars, but for the 123 cars, they make rear bumper brackets to fit a Euro bumper to a USDOT car. They thought of everything back in the day.

In any case, your car looks very nice, as it was intended.

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Don't Chrome them; polish them

Awesome job on the bumpers. Those look great.


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