Carbon Fiber

There are a number of things I like about the Banana, mainly that it is unique. I will never pass another car like it on the road.

It was also made that way at the factory. The color, the yellow piping on the seats, the custom exhaust, and the hood were shipped that way from Germany.

One change the original owner made was to swap out all of the wood trim for carbon fiber, including the steering wheel. I really like the change. Not only does it look cool, whenever I watch Formula 1 and see them driving with a carbon fiber steering wheel (well, it isn’t really a wheel) I can imagine it is me driving.

Unfortunately, the carbon fiber piece on the shift knob was coming loose. Last year I asked my shop to fix it, and they pointed out that the carbon fiber console was damaged a bit in the lower right corner, and they were afraid that if they removed it, it could crack further.

This sent me on a search for a new console piece.

I ended up meeting John Welham who runs a business manufacturing bespoke carbon fiber pieces for Mercedes and other marques. I was able to order a replacement piece for the damaged console. Unfortunately, once that was replaced my shop told me that they couldn’t fix the issue with the existing shift knob which is what started this whole process in the first place.

Fast forward to this year and when my transmission woes started I decided to get the knob replaced as well. When I reached out to John I also asked if they could do custom yellow stitching on the leather shift boot, and he said “no problem”.

He also gave me the option to choose an “uplift” version where the carbon fiber is on top of the shift knob and not around the front. I think it looks a lot better and I really like the Keyless Go button on the new one.

John is a good salesperson and while I was ordering the knob I sent him a picture of the yellow piping on the door so he would have some idea of what I was after on the new shift boot. That picture showed the original door plates which are silver.

I never really liked the look of those, and I didn’t notice that they weren’t color matched to the car since my first SL55 was silver. John was like “we have carbon fiber door plates that would look amazing on that car” and, darn it, he was right.

Cha-ching!

So now I have carbon fiber door plates as well:

And they do look awesome.

One issue that bothers me is that, while my shop says they didn’t do it, there is a scratch on the right side door that looks very much like a screwdriver slipped (sigh)

It is very shallow and I’ve been told I can fix it by wet sanding with high grit sandpaper and then buffing it with a polish, but that is a project for later.

There are a number of other carbon fiber pieces available so I expect I’ll be back in the store next year.