Altered radio opening

[bjudd]

My 280 hasn't had a radio in it for too long. I put a cover plate on it when I first got the car because there was no radio and there were many other priorities.  More importantly, the radio opening was altered as you can see from the pictures below. It has sections of metal welded on both sides with the holes drilled through (and a thin inner plate spot welded) for what kind of radio?  Is there a radio that will fit this opening and be (near) correct?  How best to bring the opening back to the original 180mm x 55 mm? Can it be done without a complete dash dismantling?

Thank you.

[doitwright]

From what little your cropped photo of the radio opening shows it appears your dash paint is not in good condition. If you want to fit a correct radio, the opening will need to be made smaller. My suggestion would be to have a metal plate fabricated to fit the existing opening with the correct size hole. paint to match dash. When you are ready to repaint the entire dash, which will require some disassembly, then have the plate properly welded in.

[bjudd]

https://www.sl113.org/wiki/Electrical/Radio

The Tech Manual describes a different opening for the 230/250's than the 280.
For a 280, it appears to me they were trying to make due without a faceplate and that the opening the opening on my car was made narrower on both sides and taller by removing metal on the bottom edge. How would they have gotten the radio in behind the now permanent "faceplate"?

Yes, the paint around the radio opening is poor because of the roughness of the modification done to the opening. The ideal is a complete dash restoration, but for now, I'm hoping to fit a radio without a complete dash redo.

[scoot]

The Tech Manual describes a different opening for the 230/250's than the 280.

...which is unfortunately incorrect.  The early 250 SL has the same opening as the 230 SL.  The late 250 SL has the same opening as the 280 SL.  I think both panels are available as replacement parts from one of the parts repro websites.

[66andBlue]

...which is unfortunately incorrect.  ...

I disagree. The text in the technical manual is absolutely correct:

"The W 113 cars have two different cut-outs for the radio in the dashboards. The rectangular dash cut-out in 230SL and early 250SL cars (until VIN 2580) is covered by a separate metal sheet that has a smaller rectangular cut-out for the radio and two round ones for the cigarette lighter and the clock.

All 280SL models lack this cover sheet and the rectangular cut-out in the dash has the standard DIN dimensions (180 mm x 55 mm) for radios."

[scoot]

I disagree. The text in the technical manual is absolutely correct:

That's not what I said.  I'm in agreement with the technical manual.  I'm not in agreement with:

The Tech Manual describes a different opening for the 230/250's than the 280.

...as this suggests that all 250s were small openings....