[R129 SL] rear plastic window with bad scum

[Peter Shelton]

Hi Rett,

If the scum is on the soft top, the brown 'scum' is usually not a scum at all!  It is a degradation of the 'plastic' translucent material when Ultraviolet light changes the state of the plastic.  No easy fix replace the panel or the top - a whole day job!

If it is on the hard top rear window, there is also no easy fix.  These are usually laminate windows where the laminate is separating and air is affecting the plastic centre substrate.  The UV and air combined is travelling through the inner material and changing the colour!

This happens a lot to vehicles left outside when the rubber seals  are aging.  I have had this same issue with my 1980 W123 (now dismantled for parts), and my 1988 W201(also dismantled for parts).

Happy motoring in Southern California.   Getting colder here in New Zealand, and the Ski fields are getting dustings of about 200 mm of snow - I am about 3 hours drive from the nearest ski fields. 

For information, I just put some 'after market' 5 bar Mags (18 inch low profile tyres), in silver paint, and it has certainly changed the look of the W123.  The handling is slightly better, and the car took the corners in our Manawatu Gorge with ease. This stretch of road is quite windy, and is a great drive if you like lots of corners and refrain from looking at the beautiful scenery.  The road is 2 way, but narrow, and there are a number of trucks on this road.  It is also a fantastic ride on the Harley Davidson and then I return the journey back through a road where we have about 80 , x 1.42 megawatt wind turbines - quite large and stand about 60 m off the ground to the main hubs.  

All have a great day, Kind Regards from New Zealand, Peter S. 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: rett 
  To: r129list at mbcoupes.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 9:01 AM
  Subject: [R129 SL] rear plastic window with bad scum


  Hi All,
  I was wondering if anyone could recommend a method or product to remove the brown "scum" that has accumulated on the back window.  It is especially bad on my car as I live on the beach in Southern California but do not have indoor parking.  If it cannot be removed, is it possible to just have the windows on the convertible replaced? 
  Thanks,
  Rett



------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  The MB Coupes Website!
  R129 SL Mailing List
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/r129list/attachments/20070606/f6618c8a/attachment.html>