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1976 350SE in Silver Green

Started by Type17, 17 June 2011, 05:10 AM

Gerard

Quote from: Raptelan on 12 August 2011, 05:49 AM
Also don't forget to check with jbrasile. :)

Indeed Raptelan, but here in Ireland we get hit with postage and import duties, so lets say the part cost $30, but US international postage may easily be $50.
Import duties are then 4-10% depending.

Then we get hit by 21% VAT on parts, postage and duty!  so 80 x 1.1= $88  then 88x1.21 = $106.48

So its only economic for larger orders ( I bought from Autohauz AZ recently).  If we buy parts in the EU we dont pay duty or extra VAT.  Otherwise we would prob buy more from you guys stateside for sure!! :)

samuli

I checked my old e-mails and the cost was actually £3.30 each, so far from your quote. This was summer 2008. I recommend to keep in touch with Mervyn in any case if you live in Europe, he has been great when I have needed some parts for my car. They say actually that this shop has a good stock of W116 parts.

At the time I was initially looking for a trim panel with a feed through hole ready, but Mervyn told me that Mercedes never delieverd those. They only shipped blank panels and the metal rings for finishing the cut holes, if needed.

Type17

 
Quote from: samuli on 12 August 2011, 02:45 PM...the cost was actually £3.30 each, so far from your quote...

Holy smoke, that's a big difference :o - On Monday, I'll be chatting to Isaac Agnew and MB of Poole to see what they can do...
'76 350SE in Silver-Green

jbrasile

Casey,

Tks for the referral!

Type 17, the escutcheons are US$24.30 each (27.00 list). You are right on small stuff it is better to get it locally, but I have noticed quite a difference in price for certain higher valued items in the UK so it is always worth checking. You can always e-mail me at joe@mbklassik.net or info@mbclassic.net and I will send you a quote  for comparison sake.

Tks,

Joe

Type17

Update: In the end, I got the escutcheons from Mervyn in MB of Poole for UK£13.10 each plus VAT, so the total including postage came to £39.84 (about USD$62), so probably not much different, taking distances/postage charges into account.


I'll put up some photos when I get around to fitting them (I'm too busy considering when is the best week for fitting winter tyres to my daily driver right now - the 116 is tucked away these days)
'76 350SE in Silver-Green

Type17

I fitted the escutcheons recently, and found that they are actually bigger than the cutout-shapes in the C-pillar trim. I had to cut the holes a little bigger, see pics below...


The original 116 part has been superseded by a 126 part, which might be the reason for the difference.








The finished job




'76 350SE in Silver-Green

Casey

I just did this same operation to my new C-pillar trims shipped over by mirafioriman:



I'll be using W116 escutcheons though - if I can't order them new I'll use them out of another vehicle.

This green's an interesting color, eh?  Looks different in every single picture in this thread!

Type17

#37
Well, while I haven't actually seen a 116 escutcheon, but thinking about it, I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same as the 126 ones I used - the hole that the original mark on the pillar-trim indicates for you to cut is a bit small for actual seat-belt use - if you look at my pic of the reel just fitted, in a previous post, you'll notice that the hole produced by following the mark is a bit tight and the chrome hoop part of the seatbelt isn't able to swivel much at all.
When I had opened the hole up a little, to fit the escutcheons, this was no longer a problem.


Note that I opened the hole up on all sides - the first pic above, with the escutcheon lying on the trim, might imply that I only cut away material on the 'long' side but, after trial-fitting, I found that a little trimmed off all sides suited best.


The green colour: Yes, as a photographer, I can tell you about the nightmare that is colour-balance!
'76 350SE in Silver-Green

Casey

It appears you're right - the W126 part seems the same size as the original W116 ones - which are both larger that the cutout:



So I think I'll order new trim myself, since yours looks a lot nicer than mine.

Casey

Okay I figured it out!

The smaller holes are from older-model W116's with the old-style seat belts that had the word "Press" in white on the larger red buttons, these were different from the later style, and the rear latches are largely plastic and always seem to be disintegrated/broken when you see them.  The belt goes over a black metal piece that is pretty much stationary, rather than being on a the more freely-movable chrome type.  I have these in my 1974 - here you can see the old-style installed, with me holding up a later-style escutcheon for a size comparison:


Type17

Ah, so the difference is based on a model-year revision. I doubt there's any way to get new early/small ones though, as the 116 part number has been superseded by the bigger-sized 126 part. It's no big deal for me though, as the seatbelts that I got from Oscar are from a '77 car, so I have the freely-moving chrome C-pillar clips.
'76 350SE in Silver-Green

Casey

#41
Quote from: Type17 on 27 February 2012, 12:40 PM
Ah, so the difference is based on a model-year revision. I doubt there's any way to get new early/small ones though, as the 116 part number has been superseded by the bigger-sized 126 part. It's no big deal for me though, as the seatbelts that I got from Oscar are from a '77 car, so I have the freely-moving chrome C-pillar clips.

Trust me as one who has both styles - even if you could find the old-style seatbelts new, you would not want them!  In addition to not working as well and aging faster, they are inherently not nearly as safe.  The latches of the newer-style front seats attach to the sliding bar that will lock the latch in place in the event that the seat mounts break loose in the event of a collision.  This is the long black bar that goes through the latch mechanism and attaches via a 17mm bolt to the raised center hump behind the seats where rust is very unlikely.  The earlier style latches attach to only the seat itself via a 10mm bolt which won't be fun if your rear seat mount points have gotten rusted unbeknownst to you over the years prior to your collision.  In that case the seat will basically force you into the windshield/dash while twisting you a bit sideways whereas with the new style the belt will restrain you and the seat with rusted mount points.  The only downside of the newer latches in the front is that if you have a serious head-on collision with rusty seat mounts, you'll need to replace the black bar if you repair the car. :P  Plus the fact that none of the rear belts are latchable at all due to the plastic portions of the latches wearing out makes me seriously doubt their safety compared to the newer style which still functions even if all the plastic is removed as long as all the metal is still intact.  I think somewhere along the line they started to realize "hey this works alright in a new car for so many years, but it ages terribly as the failure rate increases rapidly the older the car is".

Plus, chrome just looks sexier. :)

However if you decide you'd like green C-pillar trim with uncorroded old-style small escutcheons installed, I'd be happy to arrange a trade, and can give you some old-style rear seat belts too. ;)  I guess it just depends whether you're a stickler about originality or not, some people would probably strongly prefer the earlier style for that reason.  I personally find that with rare exceptions that usually boil down to country regulations more than anything else, Mercedes improves a given chassis over time after it first issues it.

Type17

Quote from: Raptelan on 27 February 2012, 01:23 PM...if you decide you'd like green C-pillar trim with uncorroded old-style small escutcheons installed, I'd be happy to arrange a trade, and can give you some old-style rear seat belts too. ;)  I guess it just depends whether you're a stickler about originality or not, some people would probably strongly prefer the earlier style for that reason.  I personally find that with rare exceptions that usually boil down to country regulations more than anything else, Mercedes improves a given chassis over time after it first issues it.


Thanks for the offer, but I'll stick with the seatbelts and trim that I have - I only fitted them so I could have friends and family travel in the back (after they've checked their clothing and footwear is clean!), so having reliable seatbelts is more important than absolute originality, although saying that, I waited to get a proper set of MB seatbelts - I could have got generic ones fitted locally, but they would have looked totally wrong.


Local regs are not an issue - in Ireland, cars registered before 1/1/80 are exempt from the NCT (National Car Test), so I could probably get away with having no seatbelts at all (but don't, because I like my face being this shape  ;D ).
'76 350SE in Silver-Green

navigator

Its guys like you that give guys like me PPA (picture posting anxiety) :-\ :-\ :-\

Type17

Don't sweat it, even a technically imperfect shot is worth a thousand words!

PS: I'm a photographer by trade, so I have to make an effort  ;)
'76 350SE in Silver-Green