[W126 Coupe] Wood Trim Patterns?

[Gerry Van Zandt]

You can actually order zebrano panels for your SEC (new from Mercedes) if you want to spend the $2,500-$3,000 it would take to purchase a full set of new interior wood.  If you need help with the part numbers, please let me know.

Alternately, you can remove your wood and send it to Madeira Concepts in southern California, and they can re-veneer it in Zebrano for you for significantly less than purchasing new Zebrano panels from MB.  I would think it would probably cost on the order of US $1,500-$2,000 to re-veneer the wood.

You see, the wood on MBs from model year 1973 onward is of a different finish than earlier MBs.  The 1973 and later MBs used a clear-coat of urethane over the veneer.  This clear coat tends to get very cloudy with exposure to UV light as well as age, and this very considerably lightens the wood veneer underneath to the eye.  The urethane layer also often cracks (not the veneer underneath, just the surface coat of urethane) and you see this quite often.  Again extended exposure to heat and/or UV light generally causes this.  It's very common on 126s to see cloudy wood, cracked center console pieces, and so forth.

There is no real solution other than having Mediera re-finish the wood with new urethane.  The good thing with having them refinish or re-veneer the wood is that the wood will be as good as or better than it left the factory.

Older MB wood (up to model year 1972, the last year of the W108/109 S-Class) used a lacquered finish over the veneer.  This is not early as durable as the later urethane and with age and such the lacquer tends to crack and lets the wood become susceptible to moisture and the elements, including the underlying veneer.  So often with the older cars' wood, you will see the veneer actually separating from the base layer on highly exposed pieces on the dashboard, the early cars' wooden instrument binnacles, and so forth.

The cool thing about the older cars' wood is that MB offered more varieties of wood in addition to zebrano and burl walnut.  They used to offer some real exotic woods that were imported from strange, faraway places, such as Macassar Ebony and several others.  My former 300SEL 6.3 had Macassar and it was wonderful -- it's sort of like a very dark, super striped Zebrano.

Cheers,
Gerry




On Nov 19, 2011, at 11:15 AM, mbcoupes-request at mbcoupes.com wrote:


> Thanks everyone, mine has the Burl walnut and I've noticed very few other

> SECs with similar trim but darker and less of a shine so I thought there

> might be a third pattern. In this case i guess the trims aged and lost

> their shine. Also, to be honest I like the Zebrano more. If i ever find the

> correct match and condition I'd switch. Even on the W124'z Zebrano is

> better in appearence out of all (in my eyes).. but in the end its a

> question preference and taste.

> 


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