Painting a 123 interior
 

I have an 82 and 83 W123 240D cars. One has the tan interior and the other is blue. Question is I want to restore the interior to make the faded interior door panels, the dash and restore the wood which is not damaged but the poly or whatever finish mercedes used has dried out and cracked. The first is to paint the vynle interior door panels. I've seen youtube videos on restoring US car door panels and assume the same process is used. What paint code is used for the interior ?

Contact Color Plus in Milford Pennyslvania. They have have the,original,factory color dyes for Mercedes. Their dyes are water based and very durable and very easy to,apply with either a soft bristle brush or spray gun. The key to good coverage and good durabilitymisvthe cleaniness of the material being dyed. Use a good citrus based cleaner rinsed well,with water and thoroughly dried before application of the dye. Allow the dye to dry for about 2 hours and re-coat if necessary. You can reassemble everything after about 2'hours and buff after 8'hours with a multifiber cloth,to bring,out the true gloss of the dye.

Application with a soft bristle brush does not leave brush marks 0n door panels, seats or even dashes. They can match a faded color with a small,1" sample. They have a great web site and the owner is Diane. Just send Diane an unfaded sample of the color you want and they will match it.

It is pretty difficult to,refinish the interior wood of a Mercedes as a DIY project and want it to look,perfect unless you are an excellent veneer refinisher. I would recommend buying real nice pieces on Ebay or save a lot of Money and have Madera concepts in Goleta, Ca do the job for you. One thought why most Mercedes wood cracks is because the wood was not properly sealed on the backside by the factory. Make sure the wood is sealed real well on the backside before installation. Long explanation I know because I cannot sleep. Good,luck with your,project. ,Posting step by step,pictures will benefit a,lotmof other forum members.

Look up SEM spray paint.. Their paints match the MB interiors perfectly. Look for the chart, and you'll find it.

The sem paint ,as mentioned, is great but not cheap ,around $15 a can ,1 frt seat takes close to 2 cans .You also need a few cans of paint adhesion inhibitor ,basically like a 3m spray adhisive but much lighter.If your going to do just the seats I would remove them from the car ,soak seats with some warm water and scrub them down with soap and a green scrub pad ,repeat as needed til clean .It can be rinsed lightly with a spray hose then wipped down and repeat to assure all is removed .I set mine out in the sun for a few hrs .It takes a good weekend to set this up and complete but is worth the effort.Dont be surprised if you need to respray the top of the seats once in a while ,its not a final solution to the tops where wear is an issue ,the rest of the set is ok for the lengfh of the cars life ,at least the interiors life.The palomino color is a direct match ,Impresive results.

Re wood, look up my post ~Fall 2016 on my 1985 300D console. It appeared the finish is all that degraded and the wood itself was sound. I covered with vinyl w/ zebrano pattern, but would try sanding it down and refinishing if doing again. If you paint, look for special spray paints "for plastics". Some have primers too. I used that on plastic car bumpers.

I found a case of SEM that is close to Palomino. It cleaned up old carpets and the back shelf pretty well. The headliner is out and I'm hoping to get back on that this summer.

Buy extra if you can find a deal. You'll find uses for it. Store inside if your proects have a tendency to get extended.

Here's a thread I wrote on refinishing Zebrano http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/detailing-interior/377103-zebrano-refinishing-w123.html. Its not an exact match for the original finish, but I really like it. It was a ton of work.

I dyed a dashboard for my car with the water based dye mentioned above. I have to say I was not happy with the results. If I ever come across another dash in good condition, I might try a solvent based dye.

If anyone is needing paint supplies for restoration or touch-ups; take a look at the link below. We're happy to answer any questions!

Paint & Solvents - Pelican Parts

Recently got my shifter panel refinished by Madera Concepts. If you don't plan on getting all the wood in the car done, I'd highly recommend providing a sample for them to match.

http://i.imgur.com/kLoHBrR.png

Price was extremely fair considering how much time and effort it would have taken me to DIY, not to mention the possibility of irreparably ruining the piece trying to color match the stain to the rest of the console.

From what I've read, the most critical task when repainting interior vinyl is the absolute removal of any silicone product used as a protectant.

From personal use, I would recommend the Griot's Interior Cleaner. It not only cleaned thoroughly but seemed to soften the vinyl a bit (good for sun-baked vinyl).

Interior Cleaner - PelicanParts.com