#bad benzo

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I found a stray, can I keep it?

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Kodachrome was invented for cloudy days like this.

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Opening day at Watkins Glen.

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My way or the Hyway

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"Blade” pre 1974 bumper install.

When I decided that I wanted to do this swap for the rear, I searched exhaustively but couldn’t find a good tutorial.  Through a very roundabout way, I was able to find a part number for the bumper brackets and I was in business!  Perhaps this post can help others with 1974+ W114 & W115 cars.

For US cars with the big bumpers, you have to drill through the US bumper plate which blocks nickel-sized punch out on the driver side.  Inside of the trunk, you will see a oval rubber plug that will give you access to this hole to pass the bolt through.  Mine was filled with caulk or panel adhesive, so you may have some cleanup to do.  On the passenger side, the mounting hole was intact, just blocked off with a deteriorated rubber plug.  The existing hole is almost larger than the head of the bolt, so I used a couple of large fender washers to spread out the load of a torqued bolt.

Bumper brackets are still available from Mercedes-Benz if you happen to source early style bumpers without them.  I think they ran me around $45 a piece after some comparison shopping.  The bolts you will need are M 10 1.5 for the bumper to the bracket, and I used the same bolts, just a CM or two longer to attach the bracket to the car.

Now that it is done, I couldn’t be happier!  The process was remarkably simple,I was able to do this solo in about 20 minutes.  

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Taxi driver.

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Our coastal hymn