dRockSL55

Ever since I got my SL over 6 years ago I always wanted to lose the lame digital dash clock. The lcd alarm clock look seemed so unbefitting a car like this especially with all the swoops curves inside. I finally decided to give it go recently and have it nearly all together. I’m not 100% finished, as I am still going to be wrapping the binnacle/shroud in alcantara, some touch up spots, and need to clean the interior, but wanted to share anyway

I used an 09-12 center vent/clock bezel trim as the base to work from, so I also have the updated metal mesh look as a result as well. The clock is a VDO vision gauge which has been substantially modified for clearance.






I think it compliments the interior and cluster surround bezel nicely. What do you guys think?

Frederick NL

I have never looked at my clock twice, and the visual parking aid is conveniently located in the same display. What strikes me in your lay out, is that the adjacent stripes are perfectly in tune with the later cup holder stripes.

dRockSL55

That was the intent I might make another, smaller pair of the silver slivers to attach to my cup holder faces like the later years at some point. It also ties in with the little sliver on the ashtray door.

My car also has parktronic, originally I was going to retrofit a different model parking display as part of this project but was having some trouble getting it wired into the r230 system so I decided to just work with the stock display and modify it. It can’t be seen, but is mounted to the underside of the forward mesh screen. The clock portion is blacked out, and the distance lights simply shine straight through the mesh right in front of the new clock (along with the audible warning as well)

Frederick NL

Just in case you need a reference.

MBCO

Looks very expertly designed and installed. Thanks for sharing. For those of us who agree with your premise that the cheesy clock does not belong in a 100k car and want to look into the same mod, could you share details on parts sources and costs? Other details like power source electronic connections disconnect etc. thanks

Rudeney

The digital clock might be ugly and look out of place, but at least it might draw some Millennials to the brand.

Frederick NL

I seem to suffer lack of aesthetic sensitivity. I looked at that digital clock again and felt dislike nor disgust.

rune solem

Looking really good, that's what mercedes should have put in all along, but they probably wanted to be "modern", when they designed the car before the turn of the millennium.

I would also like to know what parts I need, if you have a list you can share here on the forum when you've finished with the conversion.

eatmycrackers

I would love to copy this mod myself.

I can NEVER get that darn digital clock set to the right time and it seems like such a PITA to change every 6 months. Not intuitive. I have a DAS system too.

mirza88

Love it! Please tell us how you did it and how much it cost

dRockSL55

The cost really wasn’t much. The binnacle/shroud/visor is a Mercedes piece from the AMG r172 slk55. After separating it from the slk center dash piece, the shroud itself had to be cut and modified. if you use your existing clock/center vent piece you will only be out the cost of the clock you choose and a slk55 center panel.

I chose a vdo 52mm cockpit vision clock for my project, as I am pretty familiar with this gauge line, have taken them apart already, and it keeps things inline with the stock vdo gauge cluster. The shallower the clock, the better. I had to substantially modify the clock to fit within the shroud by lopping off the back half, and soldering pigtail leads to the board. The vdo clock is somewhat deep. The bezel had to be notched in and ground down along the top half. The clock case had to be ground down along the top. I was going to make a custom gauge face to match the stock gauges but for now am leaving it. I painted the inner gauge bezel ring metallic silver which ties it together with the stock sl55 gauges pretty well.
I found a speedhut custom clock that matches the sl55 gauges super well, but I wasn’t familiar with them and really wanted through-dial and pointer lighting.
The 52mm size is pretty standard, but something smaller than 2” would fit better if you can find it.

The major modification is to the r230 center dash piece. Cutting out the opening for the clock itself, attachment notch for the visor, and in my case with parktronic modifying a factory clock assembly to fit up within the underside of the vent opening (this can only work with 07-12 center vents with mesh, as the center of the dash vent section support plastic is cutout) to keep the front PTS display and alarm.

The whole setup was painted using colorbond mercedes interior paint. The silver accents were hand carved using polystyrene rounds then painted silver.

the dashboard remains stock, but I had to remove my center speaker for now until I modify the clock further. A shallower clock will fit without removing the speaker.
Wiring is super simple, just constant power, ground and switched 12v or illumination feed for the backlight.


I have since wrapped the visor to match the factory alcantara AMG gauge surround and am very pleased with how it matches the stock interior. I still need to do some touch up work, but I have attached picture from when I was test fitting the wrapped visor (and new aluminum sills) note it is not actually attached in the picture!
i also attached a shot of the modified vdo clock assembly, and the modified r230 vent assembly out of the car before the visor was wrapped.

Blaz

Just to ask:
newer upper centre dash piece fits to the old dashboard?
I don't like the orig ''grill'' ever there...
thx

Blitzkrieg1717

Beautiful! I own a 06' & would love one for mine. I always thought the same thing about the analog. Are you interested in making one for others? I have parktronic in mine, but no distronic.