'Pattern' panels: any good?

[AlanWT]

Front Wing for 230TE: Mercedes £131; German Swedish & French £25.

Anyone any experience of fitting these wings? - would the difference in price be countered by hours of struggling trying to make the cheaper wing fit?

Cheers

Alan

 

[Peter 300TE]

Have bought one recently and its being sparyed as we speak. The view of the body man is that they look OK. Its due to be fitted in the next couple of weeks (waiting until I dont ned the car for a cople of days) I'll post the outcome.

One thing once GSF have added vat and the extra cost of shipping the wings about £40, still a hell of a lot cheaper than MB

Peter

 

[mike65]

I saw a programme with Mike Brewer (on Home and Lesiure I think) in which a W123 230 E was bought cheap done up and sold on for a tidy profit.

The front drivers side wing needed replacement and they got a new patern part from EuroCarParts. When it came to fitting the mechanic had to do a bit of work to get the panel lines to match up. But it looked good by the end.

Mike.

 

[jaymanek]

I have them on mine. They are good, but need a lot of work to line up correctly. They are nowhere near as strong or long lasting as the MB ones. They sound tinny when you tap them. Dont expect them to last another 20 years, they will rust a lot quicker, no matter how much you try and rust prrof them...
Depends how long your keeping ypur car. When i did mine, they were £195 at the dealer and couldnt afford 2 wings plus a whole load of other stuff so i had to choose pattern.

Jay

 

[NormanB]

I have been searching for a body shop to do both my front wings (replace) and spray + give the existing bonnet the once over.

I wanted a quality job that would not require a limb amputation. I have not been in a hurry and have followed up lots of leads in my area.

Eventually, I have settled on a bodyshop that satisfies me as to quality and cost. They have quoted me £500 + VAT for the whole job with me providing the panels. They refuse to work with pattern parts after previous bad experience. So if I go with them it has to be with genuine Merc Parts, with the best discount I could achieve (15%) that will be a £138.17 each (includes VAT).

So now I am pondering if I should go ahead, the total cost including VAT (don't you hate it) will be £863.84 - almost the resale value of the car. The problem (if it is one) is this car is worth more to me than anyone else-I suppose. It is in excellent nick otherwise and has never let me down - if I trade up I will have to spend in the region of £10K to get anything appreciably better and then potentially have the problems with 'the devil that you do not know'.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm

What should I do?

NormanB

 

[mercmush]

Pattern panels

I have a 560 SEL that I've owned for a couple of years now & I've replaced both front wings because of rust. In response to the comment about non MB panels not lasting as long my question is if they're so good why did they both rust in the first place ? Previously I owned a 500 SEC for about 6 years and that had significant rust by the end too.

Anyway one of my wings is a s/hand wing from Dronsfields ( who I would never use again ) & the other is from EuroCarParts. My mate fitted them both on for me at different times and they both went on as well as each other. If the fitter has the skill then I can't see any problems.

Also the EuroCarParts wing was sensational value & you can't argue with that. Of course if the stealership had a more reasonable price I would have bought the real thing but they're always offering poor service for as long as I can remember.

 

[Arnie]

Just to add my 2p's worth...


I tried ECP pattern parts a while back and I can confirm that they do not fit as well and do not last as long, and at the end of the day after all the hassle, in getting them to fit I wish I had bought original ones.

The metal is thinner and the surface finish is not as good, but I suppose the durability has a lot to do with how they are prepared and painted.

 

[mercmush]

I'm afraid that I can't really comment on what is a fair price to pay for bodywork repairs because my car is looked after by my friend who works at a stealership & in return I tutor his daughter in maths & English. It's a nice reciprocal arrangement that costs me nothing apart from parts.

The (allegedly) genuine s/hand fr. wing from Dronsfield cost me £64.63 & the ECP wing was £29.49. I had the ECP wing put on last Sept & have had no problems yet. My friend did inject wax into the wing after he had fitted it & I'll just have to wait and see if it's any good in the long run. The dealer price for the wing was £240 without spraying or fitting or VAT so for £29.49 I don't care if it goes bad because I'll just do it again.

I still stand by what I said before though & that is if the factory product is so good why did it rust in the first place ? I used to have a 730i before my SEC & SEL and that had NO rust absolutely anywhere and believe you me I'm the sort of person that checks everywhere.

 

[Arnie]

Yes, I think that BMW's are far better protected. I sold my old 3-series after 7 years without a pinpoint of rust. However, my 3 year old SL has already rust in quite a few places. I can't find any traces of cavity wax protection on the SL, whereas the BMW had every nook and cranny waxed.