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Replaced my fadded Burled Walnut trim with European spec Eukalyptus wood trim.
Ordered from Chris the Swede last month, what I though to be a one-for-one replacements for my US spec 2011 E550's UV damaged Burled Walnut wood trim pieces, to my surprise what showed up in the mail looked completely different than what I expected, and I was actually pretty damn happy that it did! I never really liked the look of the current era Mercedes burled wood finish, it looks flat and way too much like plastic-y compared to the old burled wood found in my w210 which looks like a slab or lumber in your center dash, with visible depth and texture to the grain with deep clear coat
After searching the EPC, I've found out that the Eukalyptus wood trim is used only on international W212 models, and from what I can tell its used on the middle (Elegance?) trim models while the burled walnut and black ash wood is on the high (Avangarde?) trim models. Also, the eurkalyptus wood does not come with matched wood grain HVAC panel, it only comes in matte black cover. I could be wrong, Chris can correct me. The kit from Chris was for only the 9 major pieces and it did not include the narrow pieces on either side of the ash tray, or the HVAC panel trim, nor the lower door trim. Chris was able to source me used matte silver trim for the ash tray surround from a facelift model, and for the HVAC trim I plasti-dipped my original faded trim in matte black plasti-dip, while the the lower door trim i dipped in gloss aluminum plasti-dip, which surprisingly turned out to be a very close match to the factory matte silver trim that comes on the facelift models.
The finish on this eukalyptus wood is like a half-way hue between the standard US burled walnut and ash woods finishes. When viewed in shadow looks very dark, almost black like ash wood, but when viewed in direct sunlight is has a cool deep 3d effect, but without any knots like the burled wood, and also the the swirl pattern is mostly linear rather than random like on the burled.
Here's a picture of it installed, but I'm in SoCal where you cannot escape the sun so the actual finish in real life looks most like the wood part above the Keyless Go start button.
EDIT: uploaded new image since the clouds came in, these are more representative of the actual finish on the wood
Here is what it looks like in direct sunlight, the grain is very contrasty with lots of depth.
Last edited by Ungarisch; Apr 29, 2018 at 09:27 PM.
it works magic on German car leather, even after 7 years and 79k miles it still looks factory new. I wouldn't however mind having the wood topped 4-spoke steering wheel, but because my car has lane keep assist feature with the vibrator motor in the steering wheel, its really hard to find a used replacement wheel as not a lot of cars were sold with lane keep assist, here in the US or Europe
Here is what my old wood looked like, even though I garaged my car, it still faded pretty bad. If anyone is interested in it, let me know and I'll sell you it for dirt cheap. Maybe you can play around with refinishing it in piano black paint or carbon fiber vinyl wrapping it, without risking messing up your original trim.
Since I'm sure some are wondering who this Chris dude is, he's a forum member with an e-shop selling new and used euro MB parts. See link below to his online store for W212.
www(dot)ckmcardesign(dot)com
I bough the wood trim from him for a very very cheap price, so I was expecting to receive something in a condition that reflected that cheap price, at that point anything that wasn't faded to ***** was going to be a major improvement over what I had. What showed up was actually in pretty good shape minus some light scratches to the laquore from normal use.
Most of the scratches were light and not felt by a finger nail, so I knew I could get most of them out by buffing it using cutting compound and a drill buffing kit from Harbor Freight. The 2 ash tray pieces I buffed off the car because they were easier to do without getting compound everywhere, but all the other trim I installed them first and then buffed on the car because they were curved and would have been hard or too delicate to machine buff without anything supporting them. I tried a bunch of different marking tape but none would stick to the textured door panel. Only thing that did stick was electrical tape, so I used it to mask all around the door and dash trim and with the drill buffing pad I buffed all pieces, first with cutting compound and sponge pad and then with a soft (rabbit's tail?) buffing pad a polishing rouge stick. I got nearly all scratches out and all the wood looks as good if not better than new.
I highly recommend buffing you wood!
Last edited by Ungarisch; Apr 29, 2018 at 09:59 PM.
The hard wired phone dock I'm currently using is from Proclip/Brodit, they make a custom dock for virtually every phone ever made. Its fully custom fit for that phone, and is hard wired to contant power with 2.1A quick charge. https://www.proclipusa.com/
However, if you use an iPhone or other more common phones, I'd much prefer Carcomm Multi-Basys docks because with that one you hard wire the base and every time you get a new phone you just replace the holder portion and the hard wired base stay in place. With Proclip you have the replace the whole thing and re-wire under the dash every time you get a new phone. But since I use an obscure Blackberry KeyOne, Carcomm doesn't make a dock for it, so I have to go with Proclip/Brodit. http://www.carcomm.eu/
This is what the Carcomm dock looks like from my W210 and Nexus phone. When you get a new phone you just slide the cradle up while the black plastic base that is screwed to the mount stays in place and replace with your new phone's model. No rewiring needed. Also the Carcomm one is much higher quality looking and feeling than the Proclip/Brodit. If I ever go back to a iPhone or Galaxy then I'm for sure going back to the Carcomm
Last edited by Ungarisch; Apr 30, 2018 at 05:26 PM.
That was towards the OP lol but I also passed down a E350 W212 to my teenage son. Great first cars!
Yes, it's a 550 ordered with every single option available for the USA market, including the rear entertainment package with TV's in the headrest and DVD player in the rear bench seat, along with a pair pf Mercedes branded wireless headphones and TV remotes.
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