Are there aluminum backing on the horizontal wood trims on the dash? Mine are all loose, like the example below.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

Yes. The bottom layer on the SD wood is aluminum. Aluminum/Ugly wood/Final Finished Wood

A friend of mine restores antiques & is good at clamping wood. He cut curved pieces out of ply wood, notched the straight back edge & used a piece of 1/4 round against the seat back to hold the wood in place after it had been glued. He did protect the seat back with another block of wood. The glue let go again but next time I'll try epoxy or something.

Set up was like this:

)_]---------------------/

(plywood)------stick--------/seat back

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

My 1984 has the trim clips... however, this could be more 1985 variation.

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

Do you have a pic of the trim clips?

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

I have a bunch of trim sitting around right now, and it appears that all of them are directly glued on to the clip; i.e., that black thing you see is not an attachment medium between the clip and the wood.

__________________
"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

Thanks for the pic. I think mine and yours are the same. Just that mine is broken and your's still intact. Looks like the aluminum clip separated from the wood.

How did you pull the clip from the dash? Butter knife?

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

Remove the access cover, reach behind the dash, unbend the tabs, then carefully push out from behind.

Try not to bend the flat part that goes against the wood.

When I had a 123 I tried everything to glue it back on, contact cement, 3M VHB foam tape, double stick heavy duty carpet tape, nothing worked except PL Premium construction adhesive.

But don't put it back in the car until it has fully cured. That stuff stinks to high heaven.

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The OM 642/722.9 powered family
Still going strong
2014 ML350 Bluetec (wife's DD)
2013 E350 Bluetec (my DD)

both my kids cars went to junkyard in 2023
2008 ML320 CDI (Older son’s DD) fatal transmission failure, water soaked/fried rear SAM, numerous other issues, just too far gone to save (165k miles)
2008 E320 Bluetec (Younger son's DD) injector failed open and diluted oil with diesel, spun main bearings (240k miles)

1998 E300DT sold to TimFreeh
1987 300TD sold to vstech

X2

So far I've had good luck with Gorilla Glue. And I used the stick method as previously described (stick to hold wood tight against backing. Stick wedged between seat back and wood trim).

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Mike Frederick
1986 300SDL, 240K+ miles
1985 300D KaliKar, 270K+ miles

When you buy those wood trims from Mercedes, does it come glued to thr aluminum? Or wood alone?

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

Scraped the foam away in spots and sand with 60 grit for better adhesion. 3 dabs of RTV should do it. I remember now I did a similar repair on my 83 4 or 5 years ago and it's still holding up.
At the time I thought the aluminum backing was part of the dash lol.

RTV can be cut with piano wire if needed- not so permanent as some other adhesives.

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

Next one I have to do is the glove box. How do I get the sliding latch off w/o breaking anything?

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

I think the RTV might be good with all the prep you did. I tried to get the old sticky off and was afraid to sand on the wood for fear of harming it.

Glove box repair, on the wiki PeachPartsWiki: Glove Box Door Latch Repair

__________________
The OM 642/722.9 powered family
Still going strong
2014 ML350 Bluetec (wife's DD)
2013 E350 Bluetec (my DD)

both my kids cars went to junkyard in 2023
2008 ML320 CDI (Older son’s DD) fatal transmission failure, water soaked/fried rear SAM, numerous other issues, just too far gone to save (165k miles)
2008 E320 Bluetec (Younger son's DD) injector failed open and diluted oil with diesel, spun main bearings (240k miles)

1998 E300DT sold to TimFreeh
1987 300TD sold to vstech

4 phillips screws and 2 round nuts and the glove box door is off. Couldn't figure out how to get the latch off and I didn't want to break it so I left it alone. Was able to only sand and scrape the ends so I dap of RTV on each end is all I could manage.





The wood trim has a slight curl and has to be clamped. It remains to be seen whether the RTV is strong enough to keep it from popping.

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

I only sanded the back and was careful to not go near the finish. The scraping and sanding was fast with a chisel and sand paper. About 2 minutes?

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

After this one sets up, one more to go.

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked