Hey guys. I am interested in the little things. Slowly my ideas are coming together for my 300td wagon, but I want to know more. By details I mean tucked bumpers, wood grain shift noob, or using newer Mercedes model parts on a w123, OEM accessories, deleting items, shaving items/badges or even some aftermarket pieces but I honestly would like to stay pretty original with tasteful mods.

VWs have a lot of variety with exchanging parts from different models and years and a butt load of modifications and factory accessories. If you all could share some small details things you all have done to your 300td wagon that would be great!

And here is the picture that brought me to this

wait... you have a wagon too? (droool)

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1991 300D

First change I made on all my w123s was swap to euro headlights.

Never did this, but I understand it is fairly easy: Swap W126 power seat bases into a W123. The seat bottom frames are the same, so. it's a matter of wiring and mounting the switches.

Euro bumpers are an improvement, but if you are parking along a curb (as pic suggests), might want to keep the big 'merican bumpers....

Another mod I liked to do was to take a left rear door armrest and swap it to the left front door. Never understood why they left that off on the W123s anyway. All the holes are there, and it looks factory. Same with the grab handle above the door frame, it's missing on the driver's position.
Also an easy fix, holes are already in place in the roof frame.

A W126 outside temp display can be backfitted into a W123 IP.

Double brake lights. Add a socket to the inboard fog light position and jump to the brake light wire.

Upgrade wheels. W126 and R107 15" flat face wheels bolt on. If you want to keep 14" tires, early W201 wheels also work.

Aftermarket heated seat pads. Heated seats are quite comfy on cold mornings. Factory heat is pretty rare, and requires special seat pads.

Jim

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14 E250 BlueTEC black. 45k miles
95 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 66k miles
94 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 152k miles
85 300TD 4 spd man, euro bumpers and lights, 15" Pentas dark blue 274k miles

adding the third row seat, and installing the rear headrests is a good upgrade, don't forget the third row seat belts!

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Yes I do indeed.

Nice. See thats the stuff I wanted to know! BTW that picture isnt a picture of my car. Mine is a blue on blue (sorry I dont know the proper name for the colors) 1983 300td. My paint looks 10x worse then that one does.

hahahahaa funny thing is, I have thought about taking the front seat headrest out.


On youtube there is somone who has a boost guage installed in their air vent. Does anyone have any information on that?

I'll let the photos speak for themselves. Let's see if you can spot them.










I have others but are sedan-specific, so I didn't include them.

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http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/7...144c3fc1dc.jpg

Wow that is a clean car!!

Hey man your car looks beautiful.

Autodim + compass + homelink mirror (check out 2phast.com). No exposed wires. Link 1. Link 2. Also, the dome light contains a map light - unit is from a later model but my car came with it when I got it in 2004.


Extended armrest.


Convex lens passenger mirror. Original on mine came with flat lens. This is from an '84 or '85 W123 300D, direct fit for electric adjust mirror.


Since I installed Bosch Euro lights w/ vacuum leveler, this is where I placed the lever in place of the factory fader switch, which I opted to remove/bypass since I'm using an aftermarket stereo. The switches look similar - they are dial switches - so the leveler switch looked the part. I can raise/lower the main beam accordingly while driving.


15 x 7 Centra bundts, not the factory originals (those are harder to find).


Factory oil pan skid plate.


Added clear filters into the vacuum lines, in order to have a "window" into the system. If the shutoff solenoid goes bad oil leaks into the vacuum system (by way of vacuum sucking it out). The filters allow you to see this before they accumulate a large enough volume to flood the rest of the system.


Cocomats and Gloria fire extinguisher. Obtained from a member based in Poland years ago (group buy). It's only a 1.0 Kg unit. The bracket is hard to find for a W123.


You already know about the extended armrest. If you look at the rocker panel, the jack access holes have plugs. These plugs or covers are from a 201 part number and fit perfectly into the W123 holes. The seat nets were fixed by using a simply bungee cord the right size (and color).


Here's also what I had Andrew do to my key. Highly recommended!

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http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/7...144c3fc1dc.jpg

Overall an impressive list of mods

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

So clean...so very clean

very nice. Gives me hope that working on mine will end up at least in the same direction if not as clean.

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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.