W115 - Fitting Early "Blade" Bumpers to '74-Up US Spec Chassis

[gmog220d]

I love my '74 W115 240D, but the "diving board" bumpers have always bugged me. So I set out to find and install some early style "blade" bumpers. Digging around in the forums yielded a mix of information, mostly saying "can't be done". Hmmm . . .

I recently located bumpers thanks to Mark at MJ Auto here in Salt Lake City area. I scored a front from a 220 sedan, and a rear from a coupe. I wanted a coupe rear bumper with the long wrap-arounds so the side supports for the "diving board" rubber end caps would be covered.

This post will cover the fitting of the front bumper. I'll cover the fitting of the rear bumper after I've done it. The front was relatively easy. The rear is going to be more of a project.

Here's a couple pics of the goodies:




And the original front "diving board":



Before I sold the '73 220D I got to comparing the bumper mountings on both cars and observed that the mounts for the front "blades" were present on the '74, captured nuts and all, though partially covered up by the mounts for the "diving boards":



Got to have some supervision for a job like this:



First step was to remove the front "diving board". I chose to leave the supports for the "diving board" rubber end caps since they will be covered up by the blade:



I used a flex shaft tool to remove material covering the front hole/nut, and ran a tap though both holes, front and rear. This part of the job took a while:



The tool used for this part of the job, my old school flex shaft with carbide cutter:



I spent a little time cleaning up the paint work and the plastic lower grill:



I had to spend a little time on the brackets. The rivet that holds the two pieces of the bracket together needed to be ground off on the inside of both brackets to clear the mounting for the "diving board". I also needed to remove some material from the top sides of the brackets to clear the body:



Trial fitting of the bracket. I used a stack of washers under the rear end of the bracket to take up the space that is occupied up front by the mount for the "diving board". I'd like to make some plates that fill up the space entirely but this will do for now:



And:



I applied some black paint to the brackets and to the mounts on the body to cover up the bare metal. After it dried for a bit it was time for a trial fitting of the bumper. I think it looks great!:






I think I'm going to modify the rubber spacer/filler pieces to fit between the bumper and the body, in order to cover up the holes for attaching these pieces, some of which have paint chipped off around them. I'll cover that soon. For now I've got say I'm pleased with the results. One nice part about this conversion is that it is reversible - I can re-install the original "diving boards" if I ever want to. But why?

I'll get to the rear in the near future.

[berfinroy]

Well done! I've always been a little miffed at the clumsy job Mercedes did in "federalizing" the bumpers of their 70s cars. I'm sure the Germans thought the 5 MPH regulation was pretty stupid (which it was), and "designed" those ungainly battering ram bumpers in a fit if pique. And Americans, indiscriminate churls that we are percieved to be, didn't much care, and bought their uglified cars anyway.

[gmog220d]

I also never liked the US spec headlights that the Feds required. Why would they require inferior lighting? I guess that it had to do with protecting the US makers of sealed beam lights, and perhaps to make them more "standard" and easier to replace. As for the impact resistant bumpers, I guess that was to protect insurance companies from having to pay for the stupid stuff US drivers did/do to their cars. Both of these US required "mods" have always struck me as ugly afterthoughts.

[Shortsguy1]

Awesome job on the bumpers. Those look great.

Regarding the headlights on w114/w115s, I actually like the US versions more than the Euros. But I am happy to be in the minority because you can pick up nice US versions for a lot cheaper than Euros.

[gmog220d]

Before I sourced Euro lights I installed some Hella H4s into the US spec headlight assemblies and they worked great. Far superior to the sealed beam units.

As for which assemblies looks "best" it's all subjective. For my own car I prefer what I see as being part of the original design as the designers intended. But I love W114/W115 cars and they all look great to me no matter which lights and bumpers they have!

I look around on eBay every now and then at W115 parts and have noticed that sellers are asking a lot for their US spec headlight assemblies now, much more than in the past. Fortunately they're not something that requires frequent replacement.

[gmog220d]

Does anybody have a parts guide for W114 coupe? My W115 book doesn't have the rear coupe bumper in it. I'd like to know the part number for the rubber pads that fit between the body and bumper wraparound supports on the rear quarters.

I'd also like to know the number for the black rubber impact strip, which I'd like to replace with a fresh piece so I can eliminate the over-riders and the holes that go through the impact strip where they mount.

Thanks!

[gmog220d]

Took the rear bumper apart today. It's rougher than the front I got, and requires some work prior to fitting it to the car.

There's light rust on some of the chrome surfaces. I tried using some polishing compound on it and while that helps it's taking a little more elbow grease and time than I'd like - not sure I'd get the results I want going that route. Plus, there are some scratches I can't do anything about. I'm going to take those parts in for re-plating.

The inner "Reinforcement" is a bit rusty too, and I'd like to find another, cleaner example. If I can't I'm going to have the original sand blasted so I can put some fresh paint on it.

Still need to dig up some part numbers for the rubber pads that go between the ends and the body, and for the rubber "Protective Rail" that goes around the outside, over the seam. I need to replace that strip because I won't be using the bumper guards that came on the bumper. Where the bumper guards were mounted the rubber "rail" is deformed and there are holes for the studs to pass through the bumper. Looked on eBarf for these rubber bits to no avail. Guess a call to the Classic Center is in order.

[Bad Benzo]

Hi Greg,

Did you ever get around to installing the rear bumper? This thread has been very helpful in giving me the push to backdate the bumpers on my 1976 W114 280 sedan, thank you so much for sharing!

I am also in the same boat as you regarding the rear bumper, mine is missing the overriders and I have two holes in the rubber that I want to eliminate. My temporary fix is a pair of stainless steel carriage bolts with polished tops. I couldn't find any replacement rubber on this site, but I have seen them for sale elsewhere, most recently from a Turkish seller on fleabay. From what I can tell, the rubber is often sold in spools and cut to length since MB used this rubber on several cars.

[gmog220d]

Hey Bad Benzo! Glad my thread has been helpful to you.

No, I have not installed the rear bumper yet. I hit the "parts needed" wall right about the same time other priorities knocked the bumper project down the list. And now that I've got the time it's cold and wintry outside and I lack a proper space to do the work. I'm a summer time guy and am counting down the days until things are green and warm again.

Is this the rubber from Turkey you referred to?

MERCEDES W114 W115 REAR BUMPER RUBBER 220D 240D 300D 230.4 230.6 250C 280C etc | eBay

I'd be willing to try it. One question I have about it is how long of a piece do you get? The car pictured in the listing shows the "short" bumper that lacks the longer wrap-around ends that a coupe/280 bumper has. I have been thinking about buying another rear bumper, a short one, and using the rubber from the two rear bumpers to make a complete rubber strip albeit with a gap/joint in the middle.

Deleting the overriders presents another problem that requires I source more parts. The coupe bumper I am using has three outer chrome pieces - a center and the two ends. The joints where these parts come together are either covered by the overriders, or by chrome joint covers. The shorter bumpers have two chromed halves that join in the middle, so only one joint cover is needed. I think that the joint cover is the same part used on either style bumper but I've not been able to verify that since my parts list doesn't have anything on the longer bumper.

I have the overriders from my rear bumper if you would like a set. PM me if interested in those. I will say that having them on the bumper blocks the later style ribbed taillight lenses making it necessary to remove the bumper to get them off for bulb changing etc. This is one reason I am deleting them, apart from my preference for the cleaner, non-overrider look.

So here's where I'm at now:

I need another bumper for the inside reinforcement, the rubber strip, and also for getting my hands on at least one of the chromed joint covers. I need the reinforcement because the one I have is rusty and I need to weld to it. And I still need those rubber pads that go between the body and the ends. If anyone reading this has some poor condition, not usable as they are rear blade bumpers laying around I'd like to scavenge the chrome joint covers and rubber strip, and a solid inner reinforcement. I assume I'll be getting the rubber end-to-body pads from the Classic Center, and maybe even the rubber impact strip too, if available and the price isn't too bad.

Installing the rear will be more complex, for sure. The blade rear bumper mounts on the body are not located in the same place on each side - The LH mount is further in towards the center, IIRC, so I'll have to compensate for that by adding a mounting to the reinforcement. To go between the US spec body and the Euro spec blade bumper I'll be making some adapters that bolt to the shock mounts on the body and provide a mounting for the bumper. And I will have to come up with a way to attach the ends to the quarter panels, which will require more fiddling/welding because the brackets welded to the blade bumper ends don't match up with where the existing side supports for the US spec end pieces are.

Anyway, thanks for reviving the thread, Bad Benzo. Let's see some pics of your progress! I'll get back on this project this year after the cold weather releases its icy hold - BRRRRR!

[gmog220d]

Just saw this on eBarf:

MERCEDES W114 W115 BUMPER RUBBER 330CM LONG 250C 250CE 280C 280CE | eBay

More than long enough for the longer bumper.

[maclaveau]

Greg,

Was the conversion from US to Euro headlights a big deal? Did you have to cut the existing wiring plugs or did you make pigtails in case you wanted to ever change back?

Thanks

Marc-Andre

[Bad Benzo]

Originally Posted by gmog220d

Just saw this on eBarf:

MERCEDES W114 W115 BUMPER RUBBER 330CM LONG 250C 250CE 280C 280CE | eBay

More than long enough for the longer bumper.

Yup, that's one of the listings I found. I didn't link directly to it because I wasn't sure if that was allowed on this forum.

I do have a build thread for my car on this site which you can see here.

Basically, I took a car destined to be scrapped and got it going again. I also did a few things like retrofit W116 leather seats, refinished the wood trim, replaced the clock with a VDO tachometer, added a DIN to Minijack auxiliary input to the original radio, and more recently, installed a rare passenger side mirror from a gray market car found at my local pick and pull. There are a few other details in that thread, and plenty more that I haven't posted (rebuilding the odometer, bypassing the broken dimmer, overhauling the stuck vents, etc) If you think anything in my thread will help you, send me a PM and I can give you more details, or maybe even some photos if I can find them.

To be perfectly honest, I'm just having fun with my car, it's like a loud, greasy metal sandbox. Now that I have a little more understanding of Mercedes-Benz cars, I'd love to find a better example one day (hopefully a coupe) or perhaps a C107. My other car is a 1966 Volvo Amazon wagon that is undergoing a much more inten$ive restoration.

Back to the blade bumper talk, I am having a friend weld me up some rear adapters that I sketched up before reading your thread. I will use the flanges from the old rear bumper shock mount and make an adapter plate to attach to the "new" blade. I might have those early next month if everything goes to plan. I would be happy to share photos if they will help you. I appreciate the offer on the overriders, I too omitted them because I am aware of how they interfere with the later ribbed lenses.

[gmog220d]

Marc-Andre,

I made adapters because I didn't want to violate the car's original wiring, so yes, I can go back to US spec headlight assemblies if need be. I did it years ago, and had them installed in my '73 220D until I sold it before moving to Utah.

Back in the Good Ole Days when you could find multiple W114/W115 cars in the ABQ U-Pull on any given day I had a small pile of US spec headlight assemblies. I cut the wiring connection section off two of them and used that for connecting to the car's wiring. I nabbed a photo off the www and drew a red parallelogram to show the area I'm talking about (attached).

I then scavenged some of the cylindrical wiring connectors used throughout these cars and soldered them to the wires on the other side of my adapter. Then I plugged each individual wire/connector to its respective terminal on the Euro assemblies. At this point I've got full functionality of the Euro lights minus the fog lamps. The '73 had the separate US fogs so I didn't really need them on that car. I'd like to have the Euro fogs working on the '74 but it never came with fogs, so I'd have to do some wiring back to the switch (I think). Plus, the fogs in my Euro assemblies need new/restored reflectors and some fresh lenses. A project for another day.

Hope this makes sense without more images. After things warm up and it's time to pull the '74 out of storage I'll take an assembly out and get a pic of what I did.

[gmog220d]

Originally Posted by Bad Benzo

I'm just having fun with my car, it's like a loud, greasy metal sandbox.

Love that!

Yes, I'd like to see your rear bumper adapters. Feel free to post some pics of them in this thread if you haven't already posted them in your build thread. Are you using the long end coupe bumpers? If so I'm curious about how you're dealing with those quarter panel attachments. And what about the offset LH mount on the blades?

Speaking of that thread of yours, I'm gonna go check it out right now . . .

[maclaveau]

Thanks again Greg, the information is great. Bumper mod looks awesome!!