I'm looking to replace all the upper mouldings/trim pieces for my 1983 300d. This car has a black rubber & chrome mouldings all around the car. As I was shopping for them, I found brands such as EZ and Ziegler. As a note, I couldn't determine which brand Pelican uses, perhaps someone can clarify.

But generally speaking, I was wondering if there were significant differences in quality between the brands. And is this a category of item you maybe only want to buy original Mercedes brand, or are the aftermarket ones just as good? Or is there a particular aftermarket brand that is far better than the others, but maybe a bit cheaper than original Mercedes?

As an example in price difference, one moulding made by MB costs about $57 plus tax and shipping, whereas one by EZ brand costs about $20 plus tax and shipping. Is the chrome going to wear out faster, or is the Mercedes one just better in quality to justify a 3x price difference? I'm guessing the curved quarter panel pieces, which cost about $50 each from EZ will cost about $150 for the Mercedes brand. Add in all the clips and that's a difference in price of about $500 between OEM and aftermarket

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The bright metal on the mouldings is stainless steel and not chrome so the issue of chrome going bad over time is not an issue. The differences I have found over the years involves the black rubber and fit. Aftermarket mouldings seem to have an inferior black rubber that begins to go bad fairly quickly and I have also found the fit not to be the best. If you sre building a show car I would recommend MBZ parts. If a daily driver, the aftermarket parts will work.

Very good to know. Could I ask what brand of aftermarket mouldings you installed? Was it either Ziegler or EZ, by chance?

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I installed genuine MBZ parts after looking at some of the aftermarket brands. Sorry, I do not remember the brand name.

Was wondering if anyone else happened to have installed non-Mercedes moldings and can give me a review of their quality and brand name?

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