Mounting Euro Bumpers

[john erbe]

What do I need to swap out US 6.9 bumpers to Euros? Dropped of bumpers but got a call back from shop, they are dazed and confused. If I get the brackets from MB is that enough or is there  some fabrication involved? Thought this would be easy.

[jbrasile]

John, not as easy as it looks, I had my 1980 450SEL converted a few years ago.

Front:

Remove the US bumpers and you will see that the top bumper blades are actually mounted on a bracket that is welded to the front panel, these brackets need to be removed and the welds cleaned up and painted. You need to also cover a hole on each front fender where the us upper blade used to mount.

Once you remove the US bumper, you are left with the shock absorber holes and have no bolts to attach the euro bumper brackets to. You can have studs welded for this purpose as I did or insert screws from behind the lower cross member but this is a little tricky to do.

Lastly, the rubber buffer that closes the gap from the us bumper to the body must be removed and its mountig studs cut, filed and painted. Remember also that you need the metal buffer that installs under the headlight lower eye lids and runs across the front of the car closing the gap between the euro bumper and the body, this metal piece is painted flat black, not body color.

The lower grilles for the euro car are also different as they are taller and close the front skirt completely. And don't forget, euro cars do not have fog lights mounted on the bumper, they are part of the euro headlights.

Rear:

A little easier....

After removing the US bumper you will have to close the holes where the shocks mounted and drill new ones to mount the euro. You will see exactly where to drill once you remove the shocks, there is a little dimple where the euro instalation is.

In the back there is also a rubber buffer to remove but in this case you need to fill and paint the holes on the back panel.

Hope this info helps, I am doing this from memory, mine was moded almost 10 years ago.

Let me know if you have any questions. It is always nice to see this conversion taking place, the car just looks so right the way it was originally designed.

Regards,

Joe

[john erbe]

Now that's good info! Thanks Joe.

[jbrasile]

You are welcome, if you run into any problems let me know.

Regards,

Joe

[oscar]

The lower grilles for the euro car are also different as they are taller and close the front skirt completely.

That's interesting Joe, another little difference I haven't heard about.  Any idea why the US ones are smaller? Can you or did you reuse US ones when you put the euro bumpers on?

John, there's some interesting pics in the following thread that show up the difference between stripped US and euro rears and front ends.  If you end up reading it, make sure you read it all as some assumptions and guesswork (especially from me ) get corrected regarding some details.  But the photos show up what to expect.

http://forum.w116.org/interiors-and-exteriors/euro-bumper-dilemma/

[john erbe]

Good stuff. Thanks Oscar

[jbrasile]

Oscar, I purchased a set of euro lower grilles when I converted my car.

If I remeber correctly, the US grilles have an indentation where the fog lights mount on the bumper which would be more towards the middle. They are shorter in height to accomodate the mounting points of the shock absorbers.

Regards,

Joe

[oscar]

Ah! Thanks Joe.  Makes sense.

[koan]

There were quantities of those under bumper fog lights recently on ebay AUS, I think the seller had 10 pairs at $300 a pair.

koan