Door stricker screws

[Bob G ✝︎]

My 280SL is a 1968. I have only three counter sunk screws two on top one on the inner most part holding the striker on. The classic  center shows 4 counter sunk screws per striker. Production date of my car was April 1968. 1130440012001906.

Does any one know if I have the the correct door striker for my year. Also a good source for the counder sunk screws. I would like to chrome plate or polish them with a new striker plate?

Thank You
Bob Geco

[Douglas]

Can't help about the 3 vs 4 screw thing, but I believe you can still get the correct screws from the dealer. I know I was able to awhile back.

Talk to Don over at Caliber or the usual sources.

Douglas Kim
New York
USA

[waltklatt]

Bob, I don't know when they changed over to the 4 screw setup.  But any replacement part has the 4 screws.  The older SL's all had the 3 screw setups and they are the same as some of the coupes and sedans.  These screws are the flat head counter sunk ones, don't mix up the oval head ones.  And use a big phillips to tighten them.  The regular ones like in the tool kit will ruin the heads.
Walter Klatt
1967 220SL-diesel
1963 230SL-gas

[hands_aus]

Hello BobG
The striker on my 250SL is the same as yours (3 screws). The screws and the back plate were not chromed.
The striker itself is chromed. This disappeared on the later 280SL model.
I replaced one of mine with a good second hand one from a finnie sedan.
I am not sure when the change (3-4 screws) occurred.


Bob Smith (Brisbane,Australia)
RHD,1967 early 250 SL, auto

[Douglas]

Bob,

There's an excellent photo of the driver's-side striker plate of the most recently sold silver 280SL at motoringinvestments.com

Douglas Kim
New York
USA

[Bob G ✝︎]

What does the striker plate screws go into? If I up date my striker to the later 280SL striker with four holes there must be some bracing or braket in the jamb that also would need to be changed to accomadate the extra screw?

What is your opinion of chrome strikers, I know it is not correct but my car is a club driver/ show display not a concours 300 point car. besides it goes with my chrome engine!!!

Thanks Group
Bob Geco
another 50 years driving a Benz.

[Douglas]

Bob,

Here's that photo I mentioned from motoringinvestments.com:

Download Attachment: djam1.jpg
81.82 KB

(As you can see, the chromed plate just screws into the door.)

Douglas Kim
New York
USA

[Raymond]

If you can find a good old-fashioned hardware store, (as opposed to a Home Depot) or a marine supply store, you can find bright stainless steel screws.  The heads polish up nicely and don't rust.

Ray
'68 280SL 4-spd Coupe

[Douglas]

Ray,

My experience was that the Mercedes screws always fit better. The others were always slightly off. (Sounds silly, I know.)

Douglas Kim
New York
USA

[mdsalemi]

Note that many MB screws and other misc. hardware that has a common crossover to common parts are "NLA".  I ran into this on the bolts that hold on the fuel pump cover.  If they are standard metric hardware they have or will be dropped.

Try Fastenal, Brafasco, Wurth or any number of other hardware suppliers, should not be too hard to find.

Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red w/Black Leather
Restored

[CarlG]

The correct screws should be available from the classic center, but the dealer did not recognize the part no.  I asked about them under part no. 007983002203 last year and they quoted me 007983002202 for $0.40 each. I am not sure if that was a replacement or they misread the part number as I never got around to ordering them.  You can send them an email at classicparts@mbusa.com.

1967 230sl (stick)

[hands_aus]

Bob G
Are you referring to the striker on the body of the car or the locator on the door itself shown in Douglas' pic?

Bob Smith (Brisbane,Australia)
RHD,1967 early 250 SL, auto

[tuultyme]

On a couple of my door plate the screw holes have become enlarged so the screw is no longer tight.  Going to the next screw size does not work because the head of the screw becomes too large to fit into the metal recess.  What would be a good way to correct this.

Bruce; 268Blaugrun(green) 1970 280SL; IL

[DaveB]

a Helicoil of the appropriate size should fix it.

DaveB

[Bob G ✝︎]

Al at caliber is sending me 8 new door striker screws. Is there a plate behine the striker that needes to be held in place when removing all three of the old screws and mounting the new striker plate? or is like jamb nuts already welded in place like the hood?

Any help would be appreciate, I don't like surprise suprise surpise!!!

Bob Geco

[Naj ✝︎]

Hi, Bob,

For the door striker plate, captive nuts are in place.

Here's a picture from my 230 which has a 3 screw striker:

Download Attachment: DrJmb006.JPG
34.71 KB
I believe your 280SL should have a 4 screw striker plate.
naj

68 280SL

[66andBlue]

Bob,
the SLS web site shows different striker plates with different hole distances (48 mm for yours and 55 mm for later cars) for different catches. See:
http://www.sls-hh-catalogue.de/bin/dbframes.phtml?mid=IN02
-> Group 72.b "Info Door Catch". But all of these differences should not affect you if you just want to replace the screws.

Alfred
1966 blue 230SL automatic

[isofast]

Bob there is a brand new three screw striker aucion on ebay no affiliation with seller. These three screw type were also used on Avanti cars it seems.
Good luck Ernie

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NOS-Mercedes-250SL-280SL-Replacement-Door-Striker-Kit_W0QQitemZ180017116693QQihZ008QQcategoryZ46093QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Bob G ✝︎]

Hello;
Thank you all to pitching in your thoughts. As far as I know the striker plate on my 1968 280SL must of been aa carry over from the 250SL my production number 1906 very early. "I found two new strikers on Ebay that are chrome 3 hole like what I have except they are chromed. Caliber is sending me 8 screws hopefully the right size. when theey hear 280SL they trend to think 1970 to 1971 and for get about the early years.
I went to the SLS sight and there is a plate the also goes with the striker plate. it looks to go behine the plate. Does anyone recall when removing this striker plate  if the holes the screws go in are pre threaded and were this plate goes on the SLS web pate?
Don't want to be a Gomer Pile Suprise , Surpise!!
I want to do the job right.
Bob Geco

[66andBlue]

Bob,
on my "late" 230SL there are 4 openings in the frame, 2 upper and 1 lower through which the bolts go into fixed nuts (see picture). These nuts are part of 2 movable plates. Although I have not tried this, I believe these 2 plates can be removed or added through the larger opening in the middle. You can also see the outline of the 3-hole catch imprinted in the paint.
When I removed the catch on my door frame I was initially scared when I saw no retaining nuts until I realized that the plates hade moved within the frame and needed to be pushed into place again.

Download Attachment: Catch.jpg
34.58 KB

Alfred
1966 blue 230SL automatic