Why is this part body colored?

[Shvegel]

I have been priming and painting the transmission support plate.  It isn’t very mentally challenging so I got to thinking, “Why in the heck did they paint the transmission support body color?”  It has a serial number stamped into it which means it was most likely fitted to the car but why paint it?

[cfm65@me.com]

Shvegel,
I have owned a few Pagodas, a 220 SE Coupe and a 220 SE Cabrio, a 108 or two, most of them light coloured(beige, cream, silver or white) and the trans support plates on all of them were black.  I could be mistaken but only if your car is black, the support plate will be body colour.
Regards
Chris
Cape Town

[Shvegel]

It is dark blue.  Looks black in the pic.

[cfm65@me.com]

Hi Shvegel,
Apologies, I reread and edited my post above, as it did not make sence.
But, yes I believe the trans support plates were black.
Regards
Chris

[mbzse]

.../...I believe the trans support plates were black.:./...

Sorry this is not so!
The support plates were painted separate from the car at production in factory.
The "top" surface was left painted with the general gray-brown primer only.
The other side, towards the ground i.e. visible from below, was painted in the body colour of the car.

[Shvegel]

I believe mbze is correct.  There are many very original cars showing a body colored plate.  I would guess that everything was fit to the car and when the hood and top boot cover left the chassis the support plate went along for the ride.  If I had to guess they painted it because it was easier to keep the parts from the various cars separate and it gave the inspectors a way to make sure the right plate was on the car at a glance.

Here is a restored and perfect original car showing the body colored plate.  it looks like on the original car thay sanded it down already but it is definately not black.  after our cars were done they were sprayed liberally underneath with a wax underseal and it teds to darken over time to an almost black dark brown.  Is it possible that what you saw was a body colored plate that had the underseal darken?  I will find a picture of an uncleaned car to show you how dark it gets.

[Shvegel]

Here is a better "Cleaned" original and an original showing just how black the bottom can become.  Keep in mind the bottom of that car is white or near white underseal and it is just the wax coating that has darkened.

[Tyler S]

This plate was most likely one of the first pieces to go into the body build. Because of the number of fasteners, the tolerances are very important. The floor pans and trans tunnel were likely built around the plate with temporary fasteners of some type, the body welded and painted, and the plate removed and married to its correct drive train assembly as the the two came together. Much like the process the hood latch received. As Shvegel suggests, The color and body number would have been a good indicator for the correct drivetrain the worker in the pit was fitting. See photo of a sedan below. Notice how the drivetrain/subframe assembly is tilted to allow the intake manifold to clear the inner fender well during the mating process.

[49er]

Mine is white which is a match for the cars color (050)

John

[cfm65@me.com]

Apologies Gents,
Much to my embarrassment, I must then be mistaken. Thanks for pointing it out and clearing it up.
Regards
Chris

[Benz Dr.]

Shvegel,
I have owned a few Pagodas, a 220 SE Coupe and a 220 SE Cabrio, a 108 or two, most of them light coloured(beige, cream, silver or white) and the trans support plates on all of them were black.  I could be mistaken but only if your car is black, the support plate will be body colour.
Regards
Chris
Cape Town

108 cars have black trans mount plates so that's not incorrect.

[cfm65@me.com]

TKS Doc.

[Shvegel]

Of course the fact that 108's have black plates makes it all the weirder.  Why the 113?

[Benz Dr.]

Well, I've wondered that myself. Knowing how MB does everything for a reason, that explanation will reveal itself in time. At the time our cars were being produced, they were the company's top of the line sports / touring car. Only a small number were made every day so attention to detail was something that was incorporated into the build. Sedans poured off the lines by comparison.

As we begin to dissect all of the small nuances that encompass our car's production methods and the decisions of how they were to be built, it will become more evident that a hole here, or a screw there, actually had a very certain purposes. Finding out what those purposes are and why they built something the way they did is half the fun. Certainly mass production has to be taken into account but these were low volume cars so something else was also at play here.

[mbzse]

.../...the fact that 108's have black plates.../...  Why the 113?

Totally different design of the chassis. I enclose a picture from when they were testing flex of the chassis structure during development of the Pagoda W113.
The purpose of the thick plates on (under) our W113's is to strengthen the cars body structure, as there is no roof to give support above. It is fastened with 12 hefty M10 bolts.
OTOH, the transmission support on the W108 (four door sedan) is just a narrow transverse beam. The assembly sequense in the factory was different between the two vehicle series.
Like DanC states, we can be assured that the factory had a solid reason for doing things the way they did.

[wwheeler]

My W111 coupe does not have the reinforcing plate as the W113 does, just a mounting beam as said. The cab is a different story and has a completely different floor pan than a coupe and as stated is for reinforcing purposes for an open top car. The W111 cab may have this plate like the W113, not sure. No reason for the sedan to have it just like my coupe. 

[Benz Dr.]

The 111 Cab did in fact have a plate like a 113. A rather interesting part with more curves and designed areas on it than the 113 unit. I'm not sure if they were painted body color or not.