Does anyone know why the door/window trim (made out of some vinyl or plastic) always ripples on all the doors of 123s? Can that piece be replaced?

Mine looks like they poured shrink wrap in the batch - right after they pre-cracked the dash

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89 300E
79 240D
72 Westy
63 Bug sunroof
85 Jeep CJ7
86 Chevy 6.2l diesel PU

"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
Marcus Aurelius

They all seem to do it and I don't know why. I had to trim some out of it behind the mirror adjustment trim piece because it kept popping the trim piece loose.

Wes

I just pulled it off and cleaned up the adhesive, it is painted the cars color and looks just fine

All that stuff on my '85 still looks good.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

Was in plastics research many years ago, especially PVC. Looks like the problem with these window surrounds is the wrong type of plasticizer was used; and it has, with years of heat and sunlite, migrated out of the plastic. Often the window glass will get foggy on the inside when the plasticizer plates out on them. This loss of plasticizer is essentially what has happened to the door panels that get all drawn up and wrinkled as well. The dash covers probably also suffer from this problem, but it has been said that the blue ones age faster than the black ones. Not sure why pigment would have that effect. Believe that the dash also has a problem because of the foam on the back and differential expansion of the two materials.

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1961 190Db retired
1968 220D/8 325,000
1983 300D 164,150

That pretty funny the black dash on my 81 SD is perfect and the blue dash on 86SE is cracked badly
both cars did time in CA............

William Rogers.........

What about blue vs. tan interiors? I think I see more of this wrinkling in the palimino/ saddle etc trim than in the blue.
Whats you experience?

I explain it to my friends as a remarkable feat of materials engineering and human factors planning. The purpose of course is to prevent road hypnotism by breaking up the smooth environment of the driving cockpit.

Some buy it, some don't.

Ken300D

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1982 300D at 351K miles
1984 300SD at 217K miles
1987 300D at 370K miles

Gentlemen,

The window surround shrinks and warps because it's made by thermoforming a plastic sheet into shape and then trimmed. In the heating and cooling process, internal stresses are created in the plastic. Unless the finished form is fitted over a post molding shape and then heated slightly again to remove the stresses, they remain in the plastic. In Germany where in-car temps probably never reach 180 degrees F, they don't have a problem but in the U.S. where that temp can be reached often, almost any where, the internal stresses can be relieved by high in-car temps causing the stresses to relax, causing wrinkles.

Pull the things off and remove adhesive with professional adhesive remover "Goop". Don't try acetone, etc. as most of my cars have lacquer paint on the interior and it will come right off with acetone.

Dashes: Ultraviolet light attacks all plastics eventuall causing them to crack, crumble, etc. An additive is usually included in plastics where they will be exposed to U.V. attack. In most dashes that additive is carbon black, soot. Blue dashes without the carbon black will always crack sooner.

Some MBZs had tinted windshields which reduce the U.V. attack, resulting in black dashes lasting much longer. Therefore, if you have to replace your windshield and want your dash to live longer, replace with a tinted windshield.

Ben

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www.reproduce100s.com

When I replace or cap the Blue dash on my SE I am going to use black as I like the looks of a black dash and think it will be nice with the Blue interior. The interior on my SD is palimino with a black dash ,the window trim is wrinkled.I wonder if a person could remove the old plactic trim an fit and cement leather in its place I thought about trying that on my SE dash, the right type leather should wet form to the contours of the dash probably a big job but might be interesting ?

William Rogers.......