[W126 Coupe] Wood Trim Patterns?

[mbramel tds.net]

Its not hard to refinish the wood yourself. The hardest part is stripping
the plastic coating off. The only chemical I found worked good was the
Premium stripper gel

On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 3:26 PM, Yousef <usef4188 at gmail.com> wrote:


> Hey Gerry

>

> First of all .. WOOW very very knowledgable (esp on the history info)... I

> can't help but ask.. How do you know all this?? This is a great example on

> what kind of MB enthusiasts we have on this forum..  Ofcourse interesting

> info.. Checked out some examples on Maccasar, truly unique..

>

> Now, I already found a shop that does auto wood trim . However what the do

> is completely remove the pattern and re-make a new pattern.. They had a

> very dark version of Zebrano but I wasn't convinced ..

>

> My problem(s) with your solutions are 1) I live in Dubai (maybe I should

> put it in my signature :P) 2)  My local place asked for 1500 AED = 408 USD

> for the re-trim.. So things are much cheaper locally .. Am gonna look for

> another place that could offer better options .. Going to the US would be

> my last resort financially .. Also am gonna go back to the scrap yards and

> find a reasonably good condition set of wooden panels

>

> Thanks again for the info

> Yousef

>

> Sent from my iPad

>

> On Nov 20, 2011, at 12:33 AM, Gerry Van Zandt <gerryvz at me.com> wrote:

>

> 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.

>

>

> The MB Coupes Website!

> W126 SEC Mailing List

> Postings remain property of MB Coupes, L.L.C.

>

>

> The MB Coupes Website!

> W126 SEC Mailing List

> Postings remain property of MB Coupes, L.L.C.

>

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