Eau_Rouge

ER - I had thought of that, and I am doing that to my headliner piece on my CRX's sunroof sometime this winter (I think you're referring to 3M's Super 77 spray adhesive).

But the guy who does most of my body work on the car quoted me about $250 to install a new headliner, and combined with not owning a garage, this being my only car until April, and my general fear of doing serious damage to my car with more detailed work, I think that this is the better alternative. Plus, I'd then be confident in the glue holding the material on for the balance of my ownership of this car, which keeps getting extended further and further as I make repairs, then try again to save up for a house down payment. But, I digress...

So I think this is the best way to go for me. It would be really nice to get a black alcantara headliner with diamond stitching, a la Aston Martin, but that will have to wait until my next pimpmobile.[/QUOTE]

Understandable. Given you're spending so much on keeping your coupe in tip top shape, if this hasn't been done already, I'd highly recommend you remove the plastic floor pan coverings underneath the car and inspect the floor pans and pinch rails for rust/rot. This is easy, it's just a few plastic nuts.

When I did this to my coupe I found the driver's floor pan to be perfect but the pinch rail to have a bit of rot that will have to be cut out and replaced...nothing serious though. The passenger's side had a similar amount of rot in the pinch rail but had a hole right below the front seat that the metal will have to be replaced. Anyway, I haven't replaced the metal yet but what I did was clean the metal that was not rotted with paint thinner to get all of the dust and crap off and then I applied a high heat non corrosive bearing grease to the entire underside of the car. This should stop any future rot. I still have to replace the rotted areas though.

Oh yeah, I also removed the rocker panels and did the same. The rocker panels are more work as you'll need all new clips and nuts from MB but there not too expensive.

tommy

Yep, had the shop that did my rust work (both front panels, rear qps, area in front of both rear wheels, left side door, etc.) before and who did my inspection in September (Eisenmann would fail in a NJ public inspection facility) look at the underside all over again. And looks like I'm ok.

Need at least a couple of years of using the smurf for the Fiesta ST and new 2 series to get to their second years of production, and then re-evaluate the coupey.

tommy

Today was a good day for the car. I installed my replacement passenger seat, and miracle of miracles, the SRS MFD warning, SRS light in the dash, and airbag off light in the center console all went away. As far as I know, that generally has to be reset with the software, so my thought is that either my evil nephews just disconnected the wiring somehow with their jumping on the seat, or the wiring in the seat had gone bad, and reconnecting the seat closed the loop. Who knows.

And in case anyone's curious, the post-update seat works on a pre-(better)update car. The only difference is that the plugs on the seat for the two small wiring clusters (the ones with the yellow male end) [oh yeah, baby!! ] are not side-by-side on the non-powered post-update seat. But it all works.

Next is removing the seat and getting it redone by CST; have to call them today to see what the cabbage would be on that.

If anyone needs a passenger's side charcoal cloth headrest, let me know. Otherwise, I'll just dump it.

Javvy

hey tommy how much did you pay for the rust remediation work that you got done, how is the work and what shop did you use. I am Located in central NJ and could use the same shop it the $$$ is right...please let me know...

Javvy

tommy

I used a couple of places (the shop that did the repair of the metal just before the sunroof did a great job, but they're further north, so I'll ignore them).

The place that I used for the balance of the repairs was Bergen Imports ( www.bergenimports.com ). They're in Cliffside Park, right before the entrance to the GWB, so getting there is a PITA if you're going at rush hour on Rte .4, but you can go a different way if you're coming from the south. If you do talk to them, make sure you talk to Harry directly; the others don't have his knowlege base. Tell 'em tommy sent you - you'll get double the cost.

Even at Bergen, there were a couple of rounds, so I don't know if telling you my painful amounts would help without knowing what you want done. I also do get a quasi-volume discount, since both cars have gone through there many times, at this point. Which is really nothing to brag about, trust me.

Bergen will give you good rates, though - I've been very happy with the bills from them when all's been said and done. Lenin's also had a ton of work done there, and they get his Good Lenin Seal of Approval.

tommy

Well, one piece down, 5 to go. Here's the passenger door pull:


Took it with the phone just now, so sorry about the darkness. But you can see the blueish tinge pretty well. It looks awesome. You can also see that I didn't put in the door cup or the window switch trim. The window switch trim's hole for the control was too small, and the door cup is glued in place - I guess that Mercedes is too good for screws all around. So I didn't want to risk it without fully understanding how it goes back in. And yes, I managed to lose the SRS badge somehow in the process.

Couple of other pics:



As previously mentioned, I did install the cloth passenger's seat that I had picked up. It looks so sad in that spot. And speaking of sad, I got very tired of the sagging fabric in the c pillar, so I ripped it out. It was way too easy. And very fun, I do have to admit. Which does mean that there's no turning back - if my car hasn't blown up by mid-spring, I will HAVE to get the headliner completed. To that end, I ordered some of the visor clips (the more interior ones that the visor clips into) in black - had to come from the Fatherland, but anything that I can get in factory black without painting or dyeing I'll be happier about.

Oh, and for those who follow the instructions here about removing the door panels, on my 2002 coupe, the screw that is covered by that little cover on the underside of the door pull is a 10mm bolt head, NOT a Torx screw. I had forgotten that tidbit.

Monday the car's going to my indy about the windshield washer - he couldn't hear anything from the motor, so we think that's it. Once everything's all torn out on Monday, he'll find out. And I'll beg him to install the cf door cups too; better him glue it and it not work than me.

Tomorrow on my lunch break, I'll rip out the driver's side panel, install the door pull, and see if the window switch trim works on that side. If not, I'll send it along with the passenger's side to get trimmed down by O'Carbon.

kluvsbenz

^^^About time you stop teasing us on the door handles I was beginning to think you don't put out

Seriously, looking good

tommy

As you would expect, it depends on the quality of the dinner beforehand.

tommy

It's official - I hate these *******g door panels. Worst piece of sh*t panel I've ever seen - my 25-year-old crx's panels are much better designed.

OK, now that that's over, I spent the last 40 mins trying to remove the panel - got everything done except the big screw on the underside of the door pull. On the driver's side, it's a torx , and just could not get it loose. So I did the manly thing and gave up. I thought about using my dremel to cut through the stock pull and then remove the screw after that when I have more clearance, but I'll let my indy mess with it next week instead. Also, I really cannot believe that there are fiberboard pieces that are *******g glued to the door panel that hold the push pins. Seriously? Guess what happens when you pull out the pins? I hate, hate, hate these door panels. So I'll have my indy try to glue them back onto the panels. What a crock. If the cf didn't look so good, I'd just leave things as they are. Oy.

Eau_Rouge

For what it's worth, it's looking really good.

tommy

Thanks. The OC pieces really are beautiful, and I will be very happy when everything's installed.

Couple of things: am disassembling my original passenger's seat to transfer over the leather to the cloth that is in the car now. So if anyone needs any parts from a non-power passenger seat, let me know. I do have the dark gray headrest as well. I'll be tossing everything after this weekend.

For sh*ts and giggles, I switched the Sprintbooster over to the medium setting last week when I put on the snow tires and original C7s (the switch is lit green in this setting), and it's much easier to feather the clutch. Think I'll leave it as is until spring, when the better rubber goes back on. Then decide at that time. Have to say that it's nice having 17's back on the car; much more comfy on the battle-scarred NJ roads.

tommy

Minor update:
New pump for windshield washer fluid is in, so I will be able to clear the oversalting of the NJ roads from my windshield. Shop's going to let the car warm up in their garage overnight, then tackle the door panel trim in the morning. Until then, I'm rockin' a 4-door Nissan Versa. Damn, what a POS. Makes a Civic look like a limo.

I found a shop out towards the PA border to swap out the leather from the old passenger seat to the new passenger seat; it should be done in the next couple of days. If the quality is there, they do headliners as well (benefit of getting out of the NYC metro area is the prices go way down, the bad part is, well, you've seen Deliverance, I'm sure), and the price of a new headliner INCLUDING fabric would be less than the price of just the new headliner that I'd have to order from mymercedesparts.com , so if they do a good job on the seat, I may unleash them on the headliner sometime before Spring.

I haven't looked yet, but I wondering if anyone knows the install procedure for the sunvisors. There's power coming from somewhere obviously, and I'm going to get the visors redone in black leather and/or fabric to match the headliner. When you unscrew the outward side screw, is there an internal wire on that side? Or is there nothing to worry about, and it all just unscrews and you can remove the visor without worrying about wiring? Also, if you remove the visors, do you have to then put back up the screws, as they are holding that part of the headliner up?? So many questions, so little time...

Eau_Rouge

About the sun visors, look up pics of them online - doesn't look like you'll encounter any wires.

About your seats, replacing the cloth should be pretty straight forward. I should state that I've never done the job on a W203 but I did do a set of Fiero seats and BMW E21 Recaro seats and they were pretty easy. Just get yourself a hog ring kit like the one below...might save you a couple of bucks.

http://www.eastwood.com/master-uphoi...hog-rings.html

tommy

I've actually got hog rings - redid the rear JDM seat on my CRX years ago with them, including trim rings for the pulls and all. I was quite impressed with myself.

But there are so many things on even the non-powered MB seats that felt the minor amount of money to have it professionally done was worth it.

I didn't think I saw wires either - so it kind if begs the question of how the make-up mirrors get power.

edgarinho10

IIRC, via contact on metals. I'll get you a picture tomorrow.

tommy

OK, you know you wanted it. And finally I have some decent pics of the O'Carbon carbon fiber trim. I took the pics at lunchtime, and they're much more booberry-ish than they appear in person; the light was hitting the pieces just right. But as I've said before, the O'Carbon pieces are just gorgeous, and their handiwork is amazing.






You can see in the second pic my 3M Di-Noc on the window trim; obviously it's a much inferior attempt at CF. That trim needs to be cut back a little to allow the switch to come through the hole in the middle, but they will be doing that for me once I send it back, free of charge.

And on another note, the passenger seat leather has been transferred to the new seat, so I'll be picking that up on Friday. Then the car should be good to go until I tackle the headliner in early spring.

kluvsbenz

Jeebus, man!! Love the look!! The smurf theme lives on

oCarbon

Looking good Tommy!

Getting pictures of the carbon/kevlar stuff is really tough (the color is almost never accurate, especially in direct sun). They look much darker and a deeper blue in person.

tommy

Picked up the passenger seat yesterday, and looks great. Just as important, it doesn't throw off the SRS error.

I brought back the dark charcoal fabric, just in case anyone needed either or both pieces (bottom and back of seat). If anyone needs that or any small parts of the seat, let me know - otherwise, I'll be throwing them out on Tuesday. Need space for the tree and presents, don't you know.

tommy

Got the window switch trim back from OC yesterday (muchas gracias to Matt ). Will have to do a mea culpa, because the window switch fits perfectly into the trim piece that they did originally. I think the problem was that I was trying to slide the switch in from up top instead of just slamming it in straight and not at an angle. Unfortunately, I was sober, so can't even blame Grey Goose for my stupidity.

So when it is back to above freezing here I'll put that final trim piece on. I got some replacement SRS badges from Mymercedesparts in Pacific Blue, just to add one more shade of blue to the interior of the car, and will put them on too.

Figure I'll have the headliner done towards the end of March, when it's decently warm here. So far, have:
black "Oh Sh*t" handles (through Steve)
Black A pillars (through Steve)
Black sunvisor interior support (through local dealership, ordered directly from the Fatherland)
C32 dome light with SOS (to be repainted black) (ebay)

Will be removing the sunvisors towards the end of the month and send them out to Dallas Custom to get redone in black leather with contrasting stitching
Will most likely only put back up the boost gauge on the A pillar, and put it much lower so that I don't have a blind spot bigger than the pillar itself

Still need:
B pillar trim in black (or will have the guys doing the headliner cover that in fabric)
Coat hooks on B pillar (probably just paint, or if recovering the original ones in fabric, just leave them off)
C pillar trim in black (same as B pillar options)
C pillar plastic trim around seat belt in black (probably paint it)
Rear dome light in black (will check with dealer and see if I can get lucky with it being OEM in black, or else just paint it)
Trim around hatch in black (possibly just leave as is, or paint)

And will get around to re-powdercoating the OZ rims in Feb for putting back on at the end of March. Probably going with a hammered silver/black look instead of something too wild like infected's red rims.

Oh, and I noticed at night that there is now a crack between the "-" and "+" on the left steering wheel buttons, so will need that replaced at some point (again).

If I could ignore the sunroof replacement, 2013 was an oddly pretty ok year for the car. Don't want to jinx myself, though.

Zippo1937

DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THERE IS AN "ADJUSTMENT" TO THE SUN-VISORS? IT SEEMS THAT THERE SHOULD BE SOME SORT OF ADJUSTMENT THE LEVELS OR HOW LOW OR HIGH IT HANGES, THANKS THANKS

tommy

Zippo - no, I don't think there is any adjustability, other than the angle or pulling out the one side and moving it around.

Today's magical word is "Escutcheon". The relevant definition is:
an ornamental or protective plate around a keyhole, door handle, drawer pull, light switch, etc.
Why, you ask? That is because I just picked up a set of black escutcheons for my car. They are the thin oval pieces that go around the rear seatbelt openings in the C pillars. Local dealer had to order them from the Fatherland, but they were only $7 each, a record low for me on MB parts. So my stockpile of black pieces for my headliner redo gets slightly larger.

Had a goose egg on one of my front snow tires, so had to get a pair of cheapo all-seasons "Federal"s for $300 to last until my summer rims are ready. Still haven't had them powdercoated - will drop off March 1st. Am debating between a smoke gray, a darker gray, an interesting 3D silver special finish ("hammertone"), or something completely different, a lime green.

The headliner, visors, and storage box cover are probably going to have to wait a bit - need a tranny for the crx, and that's going to be a bit over a grand when all is said and done (shop to remove Quaife from current tranny, I ship it across country to Syncrotech, they do the tranny with my Quaife and carbon synchros, ship that tranny back to Joisey, and get that bolted on and ready for some fun).

So should be installing the final piece of OCarbon trim installed either this weekend or next, depending on weather. I think I'd almost be willing to take a drought at this point.

And to add insult to injury, my Recaro Sport has finally told me that enough is enough, and is spitting out new pieces of plastic almost daily. So before it gives out on me at a very inopportune time, I'm going to go to a local Recaro distributor (Stable Energies, awesome place) and see if my color combo is still available and how long it will take. I did see that there's a Speed that comes in a nice avus black with blue stitching, and it's $100 cheaper, so we'll see - maybe I'll do that instead. But not interested in worrying about seat bases and adaptors, so it's another Recaro for me. I'll do updates as things start to thaw out here and I can enjoy working on the car again.

tommy

Seems that Recaro is really dialing back the customizations. My Sport color combination is not even available anymore, and a Speed with the blue stitching won't be available until first week in May. My current seat will be dead and buried way before then. So I'm going to pick up a Speed with the black stitching and white "RECARO" in the headrest tomorrow from Stable Energies, and install it on Sunday. Will probably use magic marker on the white stiching on the label to smurfitize it.

Will suck to not color coordinate as well, but it will be nice to have a safe place to park myself.
EDIT: Update to my update

The two Speeds that they have in their warehouse were spoken for, so I'm SOL on a short-term solution. Which leaves me with:
First week of April for a black with white "RECARO" stitching (black stitching elsewhere)
Or, First week of May for a black with blue stitching everywhere

I'm tempted to roll the dice for the blue stitching one. Told him I'd call him back on Monday. In the meantime, I'll troll CL and ebay over the weekend and see if there's any other option I can come up with. PITA.

VVF

So how long did the seat last? Are they less robust than OEM ones?

tommy

About 8 years, I guess. The OEM ones are definitely better constructed, as far as the actual seat goes. However, the wafer-thin plastic around the base, belt receptical, etc. started cracking and falling off after about my 4th year on the OEM one, so let's call it a push.

EDIT:
Decided to not rest on my laurels, so called a couple of places. Found one distributor in the Boston area that had a black Speed with the white RECARO stitching in stock, and should be here on Tuesday. Then will be coloring the stitching blue immediately after. :-)