Which door panel clips are broken?

[Jlaa]

Hi gang -

Today I tackled the groan of death and swapped out the drivers door check strap. Success! As well, I must thank Gerry for his excellent how-to article and his suggestion for the use of the grey pin switches to avoid draining the battery.

However, upon removal of the door panel, I encountered the same pet peeve of mine with every used car I have purchased.... grrrrr .... someone has taken off the door panel before me and broke plastic clips and did not glue back down the vapor barrier ..... grrrrrrr. When I carefully took the door panel off, these broken pieces of plastic fell out. Yet, looking at the back of the door panel, I cannot identify where these plastic pieces came from .... and what I need to fix. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[nocfn]

I cant remember specifically, but the vapor barrier will show square cut holes for the clips to pass thru into the sheet metal.

 

[gsxr]

The black pieces are from the armrest... these protrude through slots in the door pocket, and the white clips hold them in place. The black tabs break off the armrest and the bits fall loose inside the door. You could attempt to use plastic epoxy to glue the tabs back in, or replace the armrest (if available), or drill 2 small holes into the armrest and use long sheetmetal screws with fender washers to patch it up.

If any of the armrest-to-door mushroomheads have broken off, you can drill those studs out as well and use sheetmetal screws+washers to get the armrest attached more solidly. I have some pics of this which I need to re-size and hide somewhere on my website...

 

[Jlaa]

The black pieces are from the armrest... these protrude through slots in the door pocket, and the white clips hold them in place. The black tabs break off the armrest and the bits fall loose inside the door. You could attempt to use plastic epoxy to glue the tabs back in, or replace the armrest (if available), or drill 2 small holes into the armrest and use long sheetmetal screws with fender washers to patch it up.

Ah thanks. Thise clips must have come from here then! It looks like a previous owner did a sheetmetal screw / fender washer!

 

[gsxr]

That single fender washer in the corner may be factory - I'd have to check a couple other panels to confirm.

The white clips which slide over the broken black clip are shown in the FSM link below, white clip is #4:
http://www.w124-zone.com/downloads/MB CD/W124/w124CD2/Program/Chassis/72-103.pdf

Black plastic source shown in attached screenshot.

 

[Jlaa]

Thanks for that gsxr --- found it --- here are two broken tabs from the armrest. The plastic mushrooms are intact and I am loath to cut them off and remove the armrest to epoxy the black tabs back on. In fact, I don't think I'll be able to epoxy the remains of the black tabs back on.

When one uses long sheet metal screws and fender washers, does one just drill in place --- i.e. drill UP (pointing @ the sky) into where the black plastic tabs were?

 

[gsxr]

When one uses long sheet metal screws and fender washers, does one just drill in place --- i.e. drill UP (pointing @ the sky) into where the black plastic tabs were?

Yup, you drill up into the armrest itself, through the slots where the tabs used to go. Be careful not to drill too far up or you could poke a hole through the armrest exterior!

IIRC, I use a long 1/8" drill bit and something like #8 or #10 screws, 1.25-1.50" long, with a fender washer around 1" O.D. The screws won't tighten up since there's nothing but foam to grab on to. Just get them snug and call it good, the result will be more solid than previously. YMMV, etc...

 

[Jlaa]

Thank you Gsxr. This is certainly waaaaay stronger than standard.