Adventures in 126 trunk replacement!
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Joined: Oct 2009
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1989 300 SE
Adventures in 126 trunk replacement!
Bought a great used trunk in my same color (702 "smokesilver) and last week installed it myself.
Made some mistakes, had some close-calls, and I should share my experience for anyone else who is about to do the same thing-
My car is a 89 300 SE.
The trunk arrived in perfect shape, however, it was mated with another car, so things are alittle different. I put the new lid on the little pegs and loosely installed the 4 bolts,
Lined-up the seams as best I could, as exact as my present benz would allow. then snugged down bolts alittle.
Now the hasp.
(this is important, may be obvious to mechanics, but I learned the hard way)
The first thing you want to do is install the hasp all the way forward and centered with all the shims you have from the old and new trunk.
The reason is, you will find the trunk will latch way too loosely (thats ok)
Because the alternative is it latches way too tightly- and that will jam your trunk CLOSED! (this is what nightmares are made of) there is virtually no way to get into your trunk, short of a miracle or a prybar.
(more on a failsafe idea later)
So mount the hasp with way too much slack, and then remove shims one at a time until the snugness of the closure is just right, yet it still unlatches without too much of a pop.
I did the opposite and came very close to never getting it open, I took it to a very good garage and he gave it a lucky thump and up it came, but I was very lucky!
_________
It's working really well now, but it takes some adjusting. Im going to put more info that I've found in another post called "why trunk could jam"
be sure to read there- you may have the same thing going on too.
Made some mistakes, had some close-calls, and I should share my experience for anyone else who is about to do the same thing-
My car is a 89 300 SE.
The trunk arrived in perfect shape, however, it was mated with another car, so things are alittle different. I put the new lid on the little pegs and loosely installed the 4 bolts,
Lined-up the seams as best I could, as exact as my present benz would allow. then snugged down bolts alittle.
Now the hasp.
(this is important, may be obvious to mechanics, but I learned the hard way)
The first thing you want to do is install the hasp all the way forward and centered with all the shims you have from the old and new trunk.
The reason is, you will find the trunk will latch way too loosely (thats ok)
Because the alternative is it latches way too tightly- and that will jam your trunk CLOSED! (this is what nightmares are made of) there is virtually no way to get into your trunk, short of a miracle or a prybar.
(more on a failsafe idea later)
So mount the hasp with way too much slack, and then remove shims one at a time until the snugness of the closure is just right, yet it still unlatches without too much of a pop.
I did the opposite and came very close to never getting it open, I took it to a very good garage and he gave it a lucky thump and up it came, but I was very lucky!
_________
It's working really well now, but it takes some adjusting. Im going to put more info that I've found in another post called "why trunk could jam"
be sure to read there- you may have the same thing going on too.
Last edited by schurmann; Nov 8, 2009 at 10:51 AM. Reason: goofy typos.
