I must be blind cos this has me stumped

[bedCLS]

Hello fellow Benzo buds!

I’ve only had my CLS a few days but as the days go by it seems for every new day I notice something new. Thankfully I’m yet to find anything that can’t be fixed (emphasis on the yet)

Today I noticed that on my 2006 CLS the gloss black plastic trim bits that are on the B pillars are starting to show their age and have got a bit dull (a bit like my me)

So I thought I’d see if I could find somewhere that either sells new replacements and if not, maybe there’s something else I could do.

So I called upon everyone’s trusting friend google and started to peruse around the internet and the only thing I could find was some gloss black self adhesive covers which are on eBay. Being the age of the car I was expecting there to be a lot options for this but apparently not.

Anyway, being this was the only option I found I thought I’d read up on the reviews and see if they was worth buying. Not because they’re expensive but because they were made in China and we all know that anything bought from there will last all of 5 minutes lol.

And to my surprise they actually had better reviews than I thought and for £20 including free shipping I surely have a lot more to gain than lose. So as I was about to confirm my order I saw that it says they only for the CLS w219 years 2006-2010!

Although mines a 2006 it’s the pre facelift model which these covers apparently don’t fit?! So I thought I’d take a look at the 2 models side by side and see if there’s a difference and I can’t find nothing!

So either I’m going blind or I’m seriously missing something here?! So is there a difference between the two models towards the B pillars? Please if you know the answer then let me know. As I’m sure MB surely wouldn’t have made a change to something like that just for the facelift model as it would be far to expensive!

Post your answers below,
Thanks again,
Much love
Rick

 

[Chrishazle]

Wonder if they're like the black trims either side of the windscreen on my 2008 s204 - clip-ons that you can unclip (as windscreen replacers do) and either repaint or replace - worth a look around MB specific parts sites, some of which you'll find with a search on here.

 

[markben]

If it helps:

on my 2004 facelift W220 the vertical 'B' Pillar trims on the front (trailing edge) & rear (leading edge) doors are blistering at the edges and showing signs of corrosion after 18 years. On my car they are clearly metal (aluminium?) with a high gloss black coating. From what I've read on another W220 forum they can be stripped & replaced with OE parts. But.. if still available and probably at massive cost?

One alternative is to remove the trims using some gentle heat (due to being next to the glass!) to soften the adhesive + using a nylon filament to release them from the door frame. Then, they can be either vinyl wrapped or painted to as near as possible to the original finish - and replaced using a suitable adhesive.

There is a Tutorial on the W220 encyclopedia about this very problem as I remember things.

 

[JBell]

A good wrapper will do these in-situ