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To ducktail or not to....

salvine

E500E Enthusiast
Member
Think I want to give this a shot. Just the glue on option and not the full blend version. I have a facelift late trunk lid. Is the only option to modify the early version to fit the trunk handle?
 
I've only seen facelift 124s with ducktail spoilers in Japan. Rumor has it that the standard spoiler was modified to fit the recess for the facelift trunk handle.
 

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I say ducktail it!
I am considering metal/full blend on my 300ce.
I don't think I would metal/full blend on my .036

I did not know there was such a thing as a metal rear ducktail spoiler. Were the original items from AMG not made of a type of cast rubber / urethane or whatever?
 
I’ve seen a couple of original 124s with the blended in tails. They looked like metal but I’m not going to touch somebody’s car w/o permission. It looks way better than the glue on but I would never do it to an E500E.

Scott Shell’s car ‘The Cockatoo’ as he named it had a real ducktail. Somebody here must have pics of it.
 
I was considering having one made of sheet metal and then welded and blended in.
I don't like the idea of plastic, fiberglass, or other urethane glued or blended to metal.
I did not know there was such a thing as a metal rear ducktail spoiler. Were the original items from AMG not made of a type of cast rubber / urethane or whatever?
 
There was speculation that the corner pieces were shaped sliiiightly differently compared to pre-facelift, but I don't know if that was ever confirmed. Otherwise, as Speedy mentioned, the center ducktail piece needs to be notched to for the facelift handle.

The 'blended' ones used composite ducktails with filler to blend, AFAIK. Never seen or even heard of a metal ducktail sold separately, which if it exists, would be aftermarket / non-AMG.

:pc1:
 
Back in 1992 at Keenan Motors, an MB dealer Doylestown, PA, the owner's Smoke Silver demo had a duck tail spoiler. His body shop foreman, who was from Germany, made it out of metal and leaded it, no body filler! It looked awesome, like it came that way from the factory! Want to buy that car, but could not come to terms. IMHO metal is the way to go, if it is done properly. Always wondered what if that car is still around.
 
At least some of the Hammers spoilers are metal, likely all of them. I've looked at Johnathans in some detail. I would have added one to my green car if I could have found someone capable to do so.

drew
 
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I was considering having one made of sheet metal and then welded and blended in.
I don't like the idea of plastic, fiberglass, or other urethane glued or blended to metal.

Metal might affect the weight and require bigger springs to open the boot. I believe this may be why 107s with rubber spoilers had an aluminum boot lid.
 
Still 107's with original rubber spoiler require stronger springs. Also the original ducktail isn't light. Aluminium trunk lids are part of the face-lift of the 107. At least requires to put the springs in the furthest back position. Don't underestimate a metal version in weight.
About the different shapes of the corners/center piece: there is a Coupe and a saloon version, they don't fit on the other body version. Notch for face-lift handle is easy to be cut from the center piece.
 
There was speculation that the corner pieces were shaped sliiiightly differently compared to pre-facelift, but I don't know if that was ever confirmed. Otherwise, as Speedy mentioned, the center ducktail piece needs to be notched to for the facelift handle.

The 'blended' ones used composite ducktails with filler to blend, AFAIK. Never seen or even heard of a metal ducktail sold separately, which if it exists, would be aftermarket / non-AMG.

:pc1:

The metal, blended duck tails were a product of AMG of the US (east coast) and they were the only ones doing this to my knowledge. I know some of the BHMA cars had the same tail, but what isn't as wildly known is that BHMA didn't really build any of their cars, they were sent back east to be done.
 
So any thoughts on whose knock off to buy? There is an ebay option that has the AMG molded in that I'm leaning towards.
 
I don't know if there is any physical difference between the two, but the early ones with the molded AMG logo were phased out in 1991, as the logo changed in 1992 and those new duck tails used a stick on ///AMG logo. If you have a 91 or older, go for the one with the molded in logo, it would be period correct for your car.
 
Found this duck tail, seems to be what was mentioned in the comments here. Since no facelift duck tails were made for sedans, it must be modified to fit the facelift trunk lid. It is a genuine duck tail and I was considering purchasing it. Glad I found more information on it though.
What do you guys think something like this is worth anyways?
 

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