Be Seated
Be Seated
Be Seated
Time to finish up the rear seat. As a part of finishing this area I cleaned up the door sills, two of which needed some rust removal from the surfaces under the old sill mats. I etched the metal and applied some POR-15 in the morning and gave it all day to dry. Test fit the sill mats - boy, do they look nice!
With the POR-15 done I could install them.
Installed and with the outer edge glued in place.
I’m very pleased with these sill mats - they’re almost perfect reproductions of the originals.
While I was waiting for the POR-15 to dry, I removed the door card from the front passenger door and polished/cleaned the trim as well as the vinyl parts. I’m still stymied by the weird brownish stain on the material which I have tried to remove without success.
I was so caught up with this I forgot to take pictures, so I’ll describe what I did for the most part. The one thing I was set on dealing with while I had the door apart was lubricating the door check. It seemed to be working OK, but these are no longer available from Mercedes so I want to be sure mine are in good shape.
Unfortunately, this one had the plastic caps that are on the pins of the strap pretty much destroyed. It still works, but I’m not sure for how long. I lubricated it as well as I could after cleaning all the old grease out of it. Before lubricating it, I installed a bumper (“Gummi” in German) that is often missing from these. I got a set from the Mercedes Club of Germany who had a set or reproduction pieces made. Here’s what they look like.
These bumpers sit in the end of the check strap mechanism closest to the hinge, and prevent the strap from hitting the end of the metal channel. When these deteriorate and fall out, the cups that the strap pins ride in will hit the metal and eventually crack and fall out, as mine had done.
I can’t do anything about the caps that have pretty much disappeared, but I can replace the bumpers, which helps a little in the operation of the check strap.
The reassembled door card.
With the door back together and the sill mats in place, I was ready to put the rest of the back seat into the car. With both back and bottom cushions in place, it’s pretty much complete.
Now I have to do the left side sill mats and install the windlace and the interior is pretty much done!
Sunday, March 24, 2019