Plastic Door trim on 240D

[BigNate01]

I have recently purchased a 1983 240D, and have been tweaking things for a couple of months. It is in great shape, but could use a few things aesthetically. I am getting the car ready for my son, who will soon be 16, but I have always loved these cars so much that he may not ever get it! I even have may cherry S60-R up for sale, so I can get me a 300CD as soon as I have to give "Black Betty" to the boy.

I want to just remove the wrinkled up trim on the doors around the windows. Will that work? I am sure I could never find parts to replace them anyway. I also need to replace the glove box latch assembly. Is that part available anywhere?

More questions to come

[KCM]

Congratulations! Welcome to the W123 world. You will be surprised how many parts are still available. Mercedes-Benz is very good about supporting their antique and classic cars.

The plastic around the door is wrinkled on most W123's I see. Would have been better if Mercedes just left it painted. It is just glued on, but don't know how easy it would be to get off without messing up the paint underneath. Maybe a heat gun to soften the glue??? The covering is probably still available from Mercedes, but you probably would not want to pay the price.

As for the glove box parts, those are still available new. They can be obtained from the Mercedes-Benz dealer, or you can try the "Buy Parts" tab on this site as they can get pretty much any part that is available. Last time I bought glove box parts (black plastic cover, spring, and latch lever around 5 years ago), they were very reasonable. There was an update in the design of the latch as the spring would tend to come out of place, but I think your year should already of the updated parts. Not sure which part in particular you need.

Enjoy.

[toomany MBZ]

Originally Posted by BigNate01

I want to just remove the wrinkled up trim on the doors around the windows. Will that work?

More questions to come

Welcome, and as KCM mentioned, many cars are like that, and most folks just carefully trim away the wrinkled material, the metal underneath is painted body color.

[t walgamuth]

I don't think there is any glue. It is just formed and put in place and held by the welt.

Its kindof a silly thing to cover anyway.

Tom W

[BigNate01]

Thank Ya'll,

I'm gonna go for the removal tomorrow. I have gotten a ton of help of of this site already, and I'll try to contribute back as much as I get.

[Stevo]

There is no glue holding the wrinkled trim on, just carefully pull it out so as not to disturb the rubber door seal. The paint underneath will probably look allot better than the wrinkled plastic trim. The little "spring steel" gizmo in the glove box latch is available.

[TheDon]

you can get the trim for around the doors from the dealership... $275 a door!


Euro spec W123's did not have said trim so.. its ok to remove it..unless its perfect.

[matthias08]

well. i removed mine harmlessly. its the first thing i did when i got it.
paint looked amazing. i had to push a bit of the door seal back in tho (pain X 416545634156)
have fun!
my dad sold his V70 R to get his E320CDI

[bgkast]

Originally Posted by Stevo

There is no glue holding the wrinkled trim on, just carefully pull it out so as not to disturb the rubber door seal.

Somebody forgot to tell that to my 240D. Lots of time with acetone and Q tips got the glue off.

[Stevo]

Originally Posted by bgkast

Somebody forgot to tell that to my 240D. Lots of time with acetone and Q tips got the glue off.

Your plastic trim was glued on? Maybe the PO thought that would keep it from getting wrinkled. The interior and exterior of my 79 is blue so taking the plastic trim off was hardly noticeable. Its a little more noticeable with my 85 as the exterior is dark brown and the interior is light brown, no biggie in the grand scheme of things

[dmorrison]

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=118891&highlight=door+trim+dave

Dave

[gatorblue92]

mine never had that trim... is that because i have a very early build 77?