1987 Mercedes-Benz W126 560 SEC - project

[bmthnick1981]

Little bit of progress. Wheels have been refurbed by The Wheel Specialist in Ferndown. I've gone for diamond cut lip and spokes and a grey centre. I think they look good;



And on the car;



I have also spent some time on the interior, a lot of it has cleaned up nice. I need a wet vac to do the carpets though;



Still plenty to do.... Will write a list her later as a reminder to myself!

Edited by bmthnick1981 on Wednesday 25th November 16:41

[bmthnick1981]

harrykul said:

Those wheels are the absolute business.

Thanks Harry.

[bmthnick1981]

Jobs to do;

1. Source Lorinser centre caps and get painted to match wheeels, probably from ebay.de

2. Finish prepping bumpers for paint and refit.

3. Purchase Rear bumper chrome, new or good used.

4. Remove sagging headlining.

5. Prep and primer boot lid and passenger front wing for paint.

6. Sort rough running - remove injectors and send to be cleaned, pump redex through fuel lines.

7. Get a mobile auto electrician to (1) remove old defunct alarm, (2) find battery drain, possibly fit battery cut off switch, (3) give electrics a general going over - sometimes the seat electrics and windows work sometimes they dont (4) remove old stereo, speakers and crap wiring (5) install Becker and new speakers.

8. Buy Becker head unit, some new speakers and wiring.

9. Investigate noisy starter motor - possibly get refurbed by http://www.jasm.co.uk/

10. Replace wood trim to interior.

Once the above is done I will MOT then decide how far I want to go with the bodywork.

Plenty to do, no real rush.

[bmthnick1981]

E65Ross said:

Looking great! Just get that front bumper on and sort that arch out and it'll look fantastic.

Wheels look really smart too I reckon. Good job!

Thanks Ross, yes those are the next jobs.

[bmthnick1981]

S3_Graham said:

Lorinser centre caps

http://formymercedes.com/mb_results.asp?model=W203...

I recently 'found' a 124 500E thats been sat for years and years... exactly the same circumstance as yours. Its at a garage and has been abandoned for years. Very tempted to try and take it on...

Thanks for the link.

You must save the 500e if you can. Do you have a garage you can retrieve it to if so that relieves the time pressures as you can pick it up and out it down as and when you have time and funds. Do it.

[bmthnick1981]

Highway Star said:

Were you happy with The Wheel Specialist? My missus' car needs doing and we are down at my parents in Ferndown (I grew up there) soon and could coincide the visit with a refurb.

I've used them a couple of times and have been pleased with them.

With the lorinsers they were in an awful state so this is a huge improvement.

[bmthnick1981]

Thanks

Finally sourced 4 x genuine centre caps for the wheels recently so will drop them over to the wheel refurber in the next week or so to paint them up.

[bmthnick1981]

It will be 3 years next month I have owned the 560 SEC. Time for a bit of thread resurrection and some (small) updates.

bmthnick1981 said:

Jobs to do;

1. Source Lorinser centre caps and get painted to match wheeels, probably from ebay.de

2. Finish prepping bumpers for paint and refit.

3. Purchase Rear bumper chrome, new or good used.

4. Remove sagging headlining.

5. Prep and primer boot lid and passenger front wing for paint.

6. Sort rough running - remove injectors and send to be cleaned, pump redex through fuel lines.

7. Get a mobile auto electrician to (1) remove old defunct alarm, (2) find battery drain, possibly fit battery cut off switch, (3) give electrics a general going over - sometimes the seat electrics and windows work sometimes they dont (4) remove old stereo, speakers and crap wiring (5) install Becker and new speakers.

8. Buy Becker head unit, some new speakers and wiring.

9. Investigate noisy starter motor - possibly get refurbed by http://www.jasm.co.uk/

10. Replace wood trim to interior.

Once the above is done I will MOT then decide how far I want to go with the bodywork.

Plenty to do, no real rush.

1, 2, 3 and 5 should be done in a week or so.

Panels have been dropped off for paint.

The centre caps have been painted but have come out to do dark. I should have taken a wheel over when I dropped them off so they could be matched. I will take them back, they are very good at the Wheel Specialist in Ferndown and I am sure they will sort them out for me.

I've purchased 1 piece of chrome for the rear bumper, 1 is good to reuse as are the joining caps. I still need to buy the main piece for the rear (expensive at £200 ish).

Items 4, 8 and 10 next. Does anyone have a period Becker wireless they would like to sell me?

Also any recommendations for a good mobile auto electrian in Bournemouth?

All for now will try and post some pics once the painted bits are back and on the car with the new chrome.

[bmthnick1981]

Bumpers, wing, bootlid, couple of bits of trim back from my cheap paint man in "929 Nautikblau". The work isn't perfect but I didn't pay perfect prices. Really the car could do with a full glass out trim off respray but i'm not in the mood to spend £3k on that. The bits I had done cost me £400 and I did all the dismantling and will do all the re-assembly.





I've put the wing and bootlid on, bolted up the panels underneath where the bonnet closes. Am waiting on some bits of chrome for the bumpers before I reassemble those and put them back on. Not sure I have got the alignment on the front wing 100% yet.





I then broke out my machine polisher and went over the whole car twice with some Sonax compound stuff followed up by a going over with the Sonax polish and a buffing pad. The car has come up well but when you spend time doing a job like this you do also uncover all of the deficiencies in the paint, such as the rear passenger wing on this car which has been poorly painted in the wrong colour previously. Hey ho, never set out to make the car perfect, just want it on the road and presentable.











Oh, and I scrubbed and wet vac'd some of the carpets.... going to do the main interior carpet once I have the driver's seat out;





And here is a gratuitous pic of one of the Lorinser wheels, see what I mean about the colour of the centre caps being off? I am going to get them redone to match but with the raised lettering in silver to match the diamond cut. I painted the heads of the wheel bolts satin black with a rattle can.

[bmthnick1981]

In reality it is still a way off, but with the aesthetics looking better I will feel better about the car and it should prompt me to sort out the interior and rough running issues. Onwards and upwards albeit slowly.

[bmthnick1981]

I have a genuine 560 SEC badge I want to apply to the bootlid, any idea of working out exactly where it should be placed?

[bmthnick1981]

r129sl said:

bmthnick1981 said:

I have a genuine 560 SEC badge I want to apply to the bootlid, any idea of working out exactly where it should be placed?

Ta-da. 35mm from the left edge and 29mm from the bottom edge of the boot lid.

Amazing! Thank you. I shall attempt affixing the badge in the next few days. I bet I manage to put it on wonky.

[bmthnick1981]

I think Jonathan is right CDG, if it is fundamentally sound just buy it, the prices of these are certainly on the way up. They will all need some titivation to a lesser or greater degree.

[bmthnick1981]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

I think you're both right. This one actually sounds very good, and at the price I really can't complain. Think I'll just do it, and deal with the domestic consequences after the event.

Yep do It and start a thread, there isn't enough w126 content on PH.

[bmthnick1981]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

you don't see many of these.

Thankfully. It's just not right is it ?

[bmthnick1981]

Some small progress yesterday, badge on;



Fixed the saggy seat backs, before;



And after;



Seats are now back in the car having been scrubbed with some all purpose cleans. The interior carpets were also scrubbed.

Next decent job is getting the bumpers back on but I'm still waiting on let's for that.

[bmthnick1981]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

That's a cracking colour too.

929 Nautikblau. Bootlid has been painted, it isn't perfect but all the lacquer had failed previously so it is an improvement. Just waiting on a new badge for middle.

[bmthnick1981]

r129sl said:

Are you sure it's on straight???

Yes!

[bmthnick1981]

r129sl said:

Looks like you're almost there with this car if you're turning to the details.

Not really, I just like doing the easy jobs!

[bmthnick1981]

olly22n said:

That's not an '87 font either.

Is there really a difference or are you winding me up again? I found this badge on ebay. Biggest issue with it is that it is brand new and super chrome and shiny, whereas the chrome trim on the boot has really lost is lustre.