Ladies and Gentlemen,
The material of which is being spoken about here are pads of sound deadener, but they are used to hold the wiring harness in place. They are tar-impregnated fiber with a self-adhesive back. As Bob Geco points out, Wurth makes some of this stuff and I think you can get pads of it from other sources as well.
There is no such thing on our cars at least, of hood pad material. Our cars never had, and should not have, any hood pads.
Since the car was mostly painted/dipped what have you
prior to being wired, these things are NOT painted over; else the wiring harnesses would be painted over too, and that would result in a big mess.
There are 4 pieces of this in the trunk of our cars. Here are photos of the pieces and descriptions of where they are located; you kind of have to judge the sizes here.
Opening up a trunk/boot and starting at the upper left, you see the first piece that holds down the wiring harness:
Moving along the wiring harness as it traverses the trunk from left to right, in the center, we have the wiring branch off for the fuel tank sender and thus we have piece #2:
As the harness makes a bend on the right side to go down to the right tail lamp, we have piece #3:
And finally, as the harness goes under the spare on the right side, we have piece #4; you can see the tiny part of the second trunk mat showing:
These photos are taken from Don McDonald's car which is original and unrestored, a 1969 280SL.
Note that many cars do not have this any more; if you need to access the wiring harness you might have to remove it and replacement was one of those thing that few people ever do. Also we all know that water in the trunk was common, so if repainting a trunk was ever done this stuff was removed so the harness(s) could be lifted out of the way.
I don't think the Wurth or any other is exactly the same stuff but it is pretty darn close. However if you read Bob Platz's article on the 280SE Cabrio restoration in the latest issue of The Star, pretty darn close isn't good enough for extreme restoration. No doubt Mr. Platz has researched the fiber content of the mat, and the exact hydrocarbon content of the tar as well and as sourced the original manufacturer's 90+ year old retired employees to remake this stuff as a cottage industry
(Sorry, could not resist that one.)
Hope this helps everyone understand what we have, and where it is located.
Hi resolution photos are available to anyone; just contact me offline and I'll email them.
Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red 568G w/Black Leather (Restored)
President, International Stars Section
Mercedes-Benz Club of America
