Huey's new facelift

Chandlerazman

Active member
So as promised, some pics of the new MB transformation...




The removal of Dodge grille






The new MB grille






The steering wheel badge








The rear door badge (sorry for the quality...nightime shot)


 

shanemac

Active member
Lookin good:thumbup: with the grill all black the MB logo really pops. I see you kept the 3500 badge on the door.
 

Chandlerazman

Active member
Well, the 3500 door insignia is still used on the '10 MB sprinters however their typeset looks more italicized. I may pull those and go with the MB for authenticity :smilewink: (it may also give me the chance to clear the rail dust out of the letters too.)
 

Altered Sprinter

Happy Little Vegemite
Simon is that steering hood insignia from David?
Hood badge missing.:shifty:
Looking good? Is Huey complain about the gender swap! I guess it's covered under medicare.:smilewink:
Richard
 

Chandlerazman

Active member
Hi Richard, Actually, I have installed the hood badge right after I took that photo. The steering wheel badge is from David, the rest is from Igor in Phoenix. He was the link you provided on Ebay. Huey is sporting his new look rather nicely. The van feels right as a MB product. I am really happy with this conversion. Now people may stop questioning what kind of van it is!
 

Chandlerazman

Active member
Actually, I got it spot on. I did save your photos from a previous post :smilewink:
I appreciate your hardwork on providing such info on these vans! I certainly put it to use :thumbup:
 

Altered Sprinter

Happy Little Vegemite
Nice to know some folks actually look back into archives for information
By the way Davids badge would be as perfect as you could get if it was plastic chromed and the inset painted out a matching Grey,no ones done it yet.
Richard
 

Mike Horton

New member
Looks awesome Simon!:thumbup: If I may ask, what did the grand total come up to on cost? On the steering wheel....did you have to remove the Ram badge first or does that new one fit over it? Again....great job!
 

Chandlerazman

Active member
I paid $370 for the everything except the sticker and the steering wheel badge. I was left with $11 in my paypal account. The only add-ons were getting the valance painted which was another $150 flat. As i made mention in the "dealer specials" thread about Schumacher charging $775 for the complete kit installed, It was not really far off when you account another two hours labor removing the Dodge parts and painting. The cheaper route would have been to order the parts through Chris (Thanks for your help Chris!) Again, I had to use my paypal money first and foremost. I had been selling unused parts from my TR6 restoration to fund this grille conversion.

It is a pain to remove the chrome hood strip.... What a friggin' pain. My wife was very cool with this whole thing. Her only stipulation was that I didn't use personal money (aka charge cards) to do this. In the end, the painting of the valance had to be charged but she was cool with it. She too, loves the look now.
As far as the windshield sticker, I will have to source one out. Regardless, I will not install it until I get new glass as I have a ton of pitting and a couple of repaired bullet cracks. So far I've got nearly 16,000 miles since I bought the van in Sept of '09. I love my van as much as my TR6. Everyday I look forward to working in it. Couldn't ask for more! Certainly this site is an amazing source of knowledge pool. It may seem that sometimes everyone complains about their Sprinter problems, but for the most part, it seems as if the "core" members here are far from complaining but rather supportive of the Sprinter. Those are the folks I listen too :thumbup:
 

Chandlerazman

Active member
Mike, the ram badge had to be pried out with a fine screwdriver. I disconnected the battery and waited a few minutes. I pried around the badge very slowly until I could see where the "tangs" were located. From there, It came out easily. Through it all, I kept my arms and face at a distance as a precaution! The new badge was epoxied on. It only weighed about a quarter of an ounce. The construction of it was a very thin aluminum with black wrinkle paint. I agree with Richard regarding the badge would look nicer with a chrome star made out of plastic on a flat black background. In the end, it looks really nice and it is a Mercedes!
 

donblume

New member
Mike, the ram badge had to be pried out with a fine screwdriver. I disconnected the battery and waited a few minutes. I pried around the badge very slowly until I could see where the "tangs" were located. From there, It came out easily. Through it all, I kept my arms and face at a distance as a precaution! The new badge was epoxied on. It only weighed about a quarter of an ounce. The construction of it was a very thin aluminum with black wrinkle paint. I agree with Richard regarding the badge would look nicer with a chrome star made out of plastic on a flat black background. In the end, it looks really nice and it is a Mercedes!
Simon, why the fear of having to disconnect the battery? (Sorry for the original posting addressing to Mike)
Don
 
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Chandlerazman

Active member
Don, I didn't know if prying around the airbag would deploy it accidentally. Disconnecting the battery was just a precaution. I just read some stories on here some time ago about airbags going off when messing around with the steering wheel...
 

Sherpa

New member
Nice work............. the rig looks nice...

I must say, if I did a conversion on a dodge, I'd fore go the hood badge myself........... I'd make washing/waxing the hood easier.

the grill shows the brand already............

--Sherpa
 

Mike Horton

New member
Don, I didn't know if prying around the airbag would deploy it accidentally. Disconnecting the battery was just a precaution. I just read some stories on here some time ago about airbags going off when messing around with the steering wheel...
I think if I get real close and carefully pry around with a sharp object I can do this without the "hassle" of disconnecting the battery......what could go wrong?:hmmm:
 

BBlessing

61k happy miles
I think if I get real close and carefully pry around with a sharp object I can do this without the "hassle" of disconnecting the battery......what could go wrong?:hmmm:
i remember a similar discussion a couple years ago, where a poster commented "if you had seen the way my wife bangs on the horn button, you would not worry". i am pretty sure the worst you might do is slip and poke a hole in the air bag. and disconnecting the battery won't help you there.

bb
 

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