[W126 Coupe] Deal of the century

[Mdefran at earthlink.net]

I have been looking for awhile for the smooth lower body moldings off an 86 - 91 SEC so I can continue the stealth conversion on my 84. Every place I turned wanted a bloody fortune for the moldings. I have been quoted anywhere between $700 and $1000 for these 8 pieces of polyurethane (?) material. Just for s & g's I called a wrecking yard here in Vegas and they happened to have an 87 there. I went on a scaveneger hunt and found that the care still had 7 of the 8 pieces on the car, close in color and 3 of the 6 trim moldings needing to be replaced. So I went back up and found a person and asked the cost of these parts and to my utter amazement, they wanted $7.50 a piece for each rocker cover, $5.00 for each door molding and $1.50 for each quarter panel molding. Needless to say, I didn't argue but got to work removing these pieces from the car. I also kept the screws which hold the underside of the rocker molding in place. The eight piece came from a 300 SEL which I hope won't mind going a little faster than normal once the work is completed.

The three pieces of moldings will cost about $100 and the shipping maybe another $50 due to size to get them home and maybe $25 for fuel, but I figured I saved at least $500 yesterday on my scavenger hunt.

Even the "perfect" ones will have to be painted etc and I if I have 4 or 5 extra body shop labor hours in clean up and prep I'm still $250 or $300 ahead.

I know these pieces are a bloody fortune retail as I had priced a few from the dealer a while back, but the fact of the matter is these 8 pieces retail for around $3000 plus fasteners.

So I guess the moral to the story is not to jump at the first offering, but to do a little research and be patient.

Mark
Stealth & 91 SEC