Mercedes-Benz Ponton microfiche workshop manuals

Enjoying my new Mercedes Ponton microfiches

Some of you may remember the microfiches. Some of you may even have used them. I used those myself when I had a W123 two decades ago. I liked them a lot, quick access and the material didn’t get dirty (only the microfiche reader but it’s easy to clean). But yes, the reader is a bit bulky.

Mercedes Ponton microfiche workshop manuals “190” and “180-220SE”

I have however never seen or heard of microfiches for the Pontons. I always assumed (don’t ask me why) there would be microfiches for the models from the 70ies, maybe even from the mid 60ies, up to the 90ies where after the computers took over completely. Before that I assumed only the printed material was available. I was wrong, obviously the microfiches went further back than that and they were also produced for models up till the 20ies!

So, when I stumbled upon a set covering the 190 and 180-220SE workshop manuals on Facebook I didn’t hesitate to grab them. I showed the microfiches to my wife and she had absolutely no idea what it was I had bought. When I took the microfiche reader from the attic she got even more perplex, “What is that!? Where did you have that?!”. But she actually thought it was a great idea when I “combined” the two things and showed her how it worked.

A workshop manual page in the reader”

Later I’ve seen that you can also find spare parts lists, service manuals etc, etc, etc... For the older models however, the spare parts lists seem to be more common, very few workshop manuals and such were found.

The gallery above shows my reader, a Washington Scientific model II, Mini Cat which also has an IBM sign

If you know anything more about these microfiches, e.g. if one can find microfiches also for the Ponton’s predecessors or when Mercedes-Benz started to produce and distribute these, contact me or write a line in the comment section below! And if you have other such material for the Ponton to sell, feel free to contact me….

A close up of the screen (still a bit dirty)!

By the way, don’t miss out the "mandatory" literature when owning and/or restoring a Ponton, described at the beginning of the article Restoration - Introduction.