DIY 1989 W124 Wide Body Build

[archiechiang]

Typically the cracks in the wood are only in the lacquer surface treatment, not in the wood below. It is very easy to chemically strip the finish off the wood and re-lacquer it, without any serious sanding. You should fish around on BenzWorld for some of the threads where people have refinished their wood trim - it's not half as much work as you think it is if you go about it right.

In my case, its really the wood. A part of wood actually chipped off and so I had to put body killer just so the surface would be even. so either buy a new one or vinyl) sucks huh?

[archiechiang]

Oh and btw, these bad boys came in with the wood trims the other day







Woooohooo! I feel like a kid who got an awesome toy for Christmas!!! So happy hahaha*


Anyways, these are 4pot calipers which came from a 400e and should be a direct bolt on to my 260e. Only things I will need are proper sized rotors(12" in diameter I believe, and to adjust the back plate behind the disk because of some clearNce issues.)*


As for nap, I decieded to give it some cleaning and a fresh layer of paint.*


I'll be using a wire brush, a tooth rush, engine decreased, and lots of water. Silver VHT paint for these calipers!*





I started by soaking it in engine decreaser for around 5 minutes and started scrubbing the living hell out of it.came out silver and shimmery Hahahaha*








Then after that it's off to paint! I masked the insides so paint won't go in the pistons (will do a caliper repair kit on it after so make sure it performs like new)





And then paint!!! It came out looking really nice!! Looks new to me! Haha*








Sent the car back to the body shop because of some(a lot) of imperfections with the paint and fiberglass. Zzzz. It's a backjob so I won't pay for anything. Thank God.*



And btw, I forgot I mention I got new tail lights! Some of you might not like it because it a not oem but I really really like how it loos like! They based it on the oem design anyways so it doesn't look ricer-ish like my previous headlights hehehe*





It looks kinda weird without the Mercedes star I'll get one asap! �� and maybe a 500E badge.. HAHAHAHA JUST KIDDING DONT KILL ME )))) lol.*

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

Typically the cracks in the wood are only in the lacquer surface treatment, not in the wood below. It is very easy to chemically strip the finish off the wood and re-lacquer it, without any serious sanding. You should fish around on BenzWorld for some of the threads where people have refinished their wood trim - it's not half as much work as you think it is if you go about it right.

[archiechiang]

Just FYI, those are not stock pieces, at least not on any W124 I've ever seen. They look like aftermarket pieces designed to emulate the wood on the upmarket W124s.

The key difference is that the stock pieces are inset in the dash and doors, which requires a different dashboard and door panels than on the non-wood-equipped models. You can see the stock dash trim on mine in the photo below:


If you're going to wrap everything in wood-grain vinyl, look into 3M DI-NOC material. It wraps well, and it's already got a nice gloss to it in certain finishes. They have a lot of darker wood finishes, including some that get thoroughly into the black territory. I am opposed to fake finishes on a philosophical level, and even I have to admit the stuff looks pretty damn good.

Otherwise, if you're going to go to the trouble of laying resin on your console (which I'm not sure is going to react well to the vinyl in the first place), you might as well chemically strip the wood pieces and refinish them in your desired black finish. It's not much more work, and it would look infinitely better.

Also, if you cannot find your desired corner lamps locally, you might find someone here in the States or in Europe to ship some to you. I sent a set of US facelift corner lamps to Hypetoday in Germany a while back, and they weren't any more than $25-$30 to send via the slow boat.

Oh really? I've always thought these We're OEM because I've seen so many w124 with this on this installed! Haha well, I guess the company did great then!

Anyways, even if they're not OEM, I think they're a great accent to add onto the w124(the ones without the wood trim option)

I shall explore other wood vinyls available that would match well with my interior. As of now. black wood is the only option I have so I'll stick with that first.

And I am now on the look for cor we lamps! I found a chopchop who specializes in euro cars and I shall check if they have corner lamps on sale for cheap! hehe

Initially, I thought of stripping the wood and refinishing it properly but that would take too much time and lots and lots of sanding. I don't have the time for that and also the wood on my center dash is already cracked. Like really bad. and no amount of sanding would be able to fix that . So sadly. Refinishing it properly isn't an option anymore (I don't want to buy new wood pannels anymore because it's kinda hard to find the ones with the exact same holes and I don't want to spend anymore hehehe)

I'll experiment on the resin/vinyl Forst if there will be a reaction and if not, on it goes to the wood panel/trims! Woot! So excited!!

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

Just FYI, those are not stock pieces, at least not on any W124 I've ever seen. They look like aftermarket pieces designed to emulate the wood on the upmarket W124s.

The key difference is that the stock pieces are inset in the dash and doors, which requires a different dashboard and door panels than on the non-wood-equipped models. You can see the stock dash trim on mine in the photo below:


If you're going to wrap everything in wood-grain vinyl, look into 3M DI-NOC material. It wraps well, and it's already got a nice gloss to it in certain finishes. They have a lot of darker wood finishes, including some that get thoroughly into the black territory. I am opposed to fake finishes on a philosophical level, and even I have to admit the stuff looks pretty damn good.

Otherwise, if you're going to go to the trouble of laying resin on your console (which I'm not sure is going to react well to the vinyl in the first place), you might as well chemically strip the wood pieces and refinish them in your desired black finish. It's not much more work, and it would look infinitely better.

Also, if you cannot find your desired corner lamps locally, you might find someone here in the States or in Europe to ship some to you. I sent a set of US facelift corner lamps to Hypetoday in Germany a while back, and they weren't any more than $25-$30 to send via the slow boat.

[archiechiang]

A few weeks back I was able to buy a set of wooden trims(for higher w124 models) for cheap on ebay and they finally arrived yesterday!*





I test fitted everything and it went well...*
















Except for the front doors.. Apparently. the ones I got are for the ones with electric seat controls on the door cards. And mine doesn't have those, which leaves a huge empty space in between the wood and the balck plastic thing.*








Now .. Here's what I'm planning to do. I plan on cutting the wood trim and make it fit and connect it again. It should look okay after!*




I was initially going to go with the oem wood color but it just doesn't blend well with the tan interior. it looks kinda goofy IMO. )*


so my plan is to wrap everything in black wood vinyl what I did with my center console:*








And then apply a thin layer of resin and clear cost to somehow make it look like real wood that is laminated. It shod look good with the color scheme of my Interior(I hope)*

[archiechiang]

I think amber corners, particularly on a pre-facelift. I don't know what the situation is over there, but the Euro models have a darker amber corner than the North American ones, which are very orange. I think the Euro-spec ones would be lovely.

I almost think I'd like to see the Mercedes star reappear on the trunk lid. Seems like something's missing back there.

Nevertheless, dramatic improvement. Now get. that. shit. low.

Thank you Sam! I appreciate it! I'm definitely getting Amber corner lights. Just having trouble looking for some haha. These items are like gold here in the Philippines. Very rare!

I'm also looking for a proper Mercedes star badge for the trunk as the one I had before was incorrect and was too big. that's the only emblem I'm leaving there

Turned out great man love your style! The gauges are perfect too.

Thank you! Yeah I love those gauges! Make me smile every time I see them lit up Hahahaha btw I love your plate too! Haha

Wow. Nice work and congrats on the car show.

Thank you so much sir!

[xdgfdh]

Wow. Nice work and congrats on the car show.

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

I think amber corners, particularly on a pre-facelift. I don't know what the situation is over there, but the Euro models have a darker amber corner than the North American ones, which are very orange. I think the Euro-spec ones would be lovely.

I almost think I'd like to see the Mercedes star reappear on the trunk lid. Seems like something's missing back there.

Nevertheless, dramatic improvement. Now get. that. shit. low.

[adjustedposture]

Turned out great man love your style! The gauges are perfect too.

[archiechiang]

Nice work! Will look amazing with bumpers/sideskirts.

Thanks man! I know it would look sick with amg skirts and bumpers. No $$ tho haha

you definately need smaller wheels

other then that it looks good

True! I'm planning on going for some 17s!

It literally looks 10,000 times better IMO. 17"s and a drop will set this fucker off.

Hehe thanks so much!.

I liked the first arches more, theese look ok, but definately needs smaller wheels, car is high like that Pajero

Hmmm... Yeah the first ones looked good too. but there's something about these arches the I like. Hehe

[mikey G]

It literally looks 10,000 times better IMO. 17"s and a drop will set this fucker off.

[kljaja]

I liked the first arches more, theese look ok, but definately needs smaller wheels, car is high like that Pajero

[P78]

you definately need smaller wheels

other then that it looks good

[Anonymoose]

Nice work! Will look amazing with bumpers/sideskirts.