My 1979 W123 300D I purchased from a Charity Auction in 1997, with 41000 miles on it. As it appears, the car had been sitting in the baking Southern Cailfornia Sun for over 16 years, until it ran no more and was given away for Charity to get a tax write-off.
The Dashboard suffered a great deal sitting in the sun and has several deep cracks. A 99 Dollar cover was installed, but that one also cracked somewhere between here and Palm Desert years ago.
I am planning to change the dashboard, but have concerns that if not done right, things might rattle later or cause secondary problems. I already have purchased the potentiometer switches and a few dozen bulbs as well as a new clock to be replaced as you go along.
My question is how elaborate is the change of the dashboard? Is it a one day deal, should it be left to a professional or is it not the right thing to do?

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"Schwarzbraun ist die Haselnuss":

1979 300D 234.000 Miles "Brownie"
daily driver,
1979 6.9 Sundays to the Tavern
and car shows "Big Brownie"

this depends so much on motivation, experience and patience that it is tough to answer. If I ever replace my dash I would not hesitate to do it myself. I would sure take a lot of digital pictures though.

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'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.

The dash on a 123 is one of the easier ones to do. The first time I attempted one on a 123 I had it out in about 40 minutes with no directions.

It does make it a whole lot easier if you take the steering wheel off first, be sure to mark its position on the spline first.

Theres less than 10 nuts and bolts holding the dash in. One under each speaker cover, two behind the console (under the defroster, sunroof, etc, switches) one on each side above the kick panels and I think one more to the right of the console near the glovebox.

You'll need a 10mm allen socket and a 2ft breaker bar to get the steering wheel bolt off.

Good luck!

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1980 500SE/AMG Euro
1981 500SEL Euro
1982 380SEL
1983 300TD
1983 500SEC/AMG Euro
1984 500SEC
1984 300TD Euro
1986 190E 2.3-16
1986 190E 2.3
1987 300D
1997 C36 AMG
2003 C320T 4matic

past: 1969 280SE 4.5 | 1978 240D | 1978 300D | 1981 300SD | 1981 300SD | 1982 300CD | 1983 300CD | 1983 300SD | 1983 380SEC | 1984 300D | 1984 300D | 1984 300TD | 1984 500SEL | 1984 300SD | 1985 300D | 1986 300E | 1986 560SEL | 1986 560SEL/Carat | 1987 560SEC | 1991 300D 2.5 | 2006 R350