Titivating my Mercedes 124

Titivating my Mercedes 124

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idiotgap

2,112 posts

132 months

Wednesday 26th February 2014
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jamest said:
Great post and very timely for me as I am wrangling with whether to keep my 95 E280 estate. I bought it off Ebay in Sep 2012 with 145k miles for £1200, for no reason other than because I've always wanted one. I drove it home and was immediately disappointed - big and floaty with that dead travel at the top of the throttle making it hard to drive smoothly until you get used to it. I spent a weekend cleaning it up and sent it to AJ Robertson in Hove for a service, check over, geo and new tyres. It was a different car when it returned, I started driving it everywhere and loved it. Then we had our third child, couldn't fit in it as a family anymore (one too many child seats to fit across the back)and it has sat in the garage for the last 6 months. I wheeled it out at the weekend to clean it along with our 'modern' cars, it feels like it will outlive them by 30 years despite being 18 years older. I was set on selling but I can't seem to bring myself to do it so am now considering keeping it and spending some money even though I have no use for it whatsoever. The wheels need a refurb, the two front wings have some bubbling in the usual place, the nearside door mirror surround needs repainting, there is a patch of rust on the rear tailgate, the rear heated screen only partially clears, the tailgate struts need replacing and the fuel gauge is not to be trusted but mechanically it is very sound. I reckon I could get it into fine shape for less than a grand, I'd still have no use for it but it seems so much more sensible than selling it for £1.5k, my wife thinks I am insane.

I am looking forward to reading your updates.
I carry my three kids in a 124 estate, works for the moment at least with the seats they have now. I'm hoping I can carry on though as this is our 'big' car!
PM me if you want to discuss further and explore how we can get you all the road. I can also help with man maths to justify spending on the cosmetics. Just booked mine in to have the whining alternator replaced, loadspace windows re-sealed and bonnet insulation pad replaced. Have you thought about doing some bits and bobs yourself? - I did the tailgate struts on mine last year - hugely satisfying!

TwistingMyMelon

6,385 posts

204 months

Wednesday 26th February 2014
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Nice post, always enjoy your posts on Mercs. I really miss my W124 coupe and so want an estate


E65Ross

34,844 posts

211 months

Wednesday 26th February 2014
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Good effort R129SL, look forward to the updates, although not as much as you I'm sure.

That's an awful lot of work done you've pumped into a cheaper example though! Fair play.

Emeye

9,773 posts

222 months

Wednesday 26th February 2014
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Is it gold? Would now not be a great opportunity to change the colour? hehe

My old W202 Merc is currently undergoing some maintainence at my mate's garage.

Nothing like this level, but really, should I not have just cut my loses? Even though we are talking hundreds and not thousands,I am unlikely to get all of the spend back.

In Victorian times you would have been locked up in a sanatorium or such other place..... Me? I would not be far behind you. smile

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 27th February 2014
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LOVE this, LOVE this- everything from the insane love for this particular car, the W124ness, which is always a good thing, and even to your kids filling your wheels with stones- you come across as a real person, not a guy that has a car kept in cotton wool and who's children are not actually allowed to vomit or eat or rub bogies on the seats. My son has never done any of those things.

This thread and the P1 geeky bit from CH really define the best of PH for me, oh, and the lexspace, the MStewart stuff, and... and...

Keep at it, what a fab old bus, beautifully built and it will be such a pleasure to have shiny and "new". Your kids will never forget this car, that's for sure. Good on you.

r129sl

Original Poster:

9,518 posts

202 months

Thursday 27th February 2014
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Thanks for that Poly. My boy still complains about me selling "his black car" last year, by which he means "my" 500 SEC. He was only two at the time. And I discovered lexspace this morning. Now that is insane!

r129sl

Original Poster:

9,518 posts

202 months

Thursday 27th February 2014
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I have ordered new seals for the front doors. I bought Febi Bilstein parts at £28.96 each delivered (beats the £77 each that Merc want and I have had good experiences with Febi Bilstein in the past). The driver's door seal is split anyway and sometimes blows at 95mph or more. I have also done the deal on genuine, new loadspace seals at £125 for a pair delivered from a very helpful chap in the Merc Club who no longer had any use for them (against £250 at Merc). So far as I can tell, rear door seals are only supplied by Merc and at £98 each. I think I'll give them a miss, the rear doors in theory getting a lot less use than the others.

I am not keeping count of my expenditure. If you are, keep it to yourself, I don't want to know. I have yet to tell my wife about this thread (although of course she knows and approves the project).

Edited by r129sl on Thursday 27th February 13:46

SebastienClement

1,950 posts

139 months

Thursday 27th February 2014
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This is utterly wonderful. There is far too much chat about residuals, balloon figures, 'high' mileage etc... etc... on PH these days. It's fantastic to read about someone who loves their car, and is passionate about maintaining it well, and undertaking substantial mechanical work on it.

Will definitely be watching this thread, and can't wait to see pictures on its arrival back from the bodyshop!

decadent

2,126 posts

174 months

Thursday 27th February 2014
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Love it, good effort. W124 (and the BMW E30+E34 Tourings) are my favourtie 80s/early 90s estates.

It's pretty "green" keeping an older motor on the road so definitiely not insane! Plus the bond you have with it and it's character would be almost impossible to find in its modern equivalent. Something I quite like about our family Exeo ST is that ist based on a 10 year old Audi so doesn't feel really modern with a spaceship dashboard.




anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 27th February 2014
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r129sl said:
Thanks for that Poly. My boy still complains about me selling "his black car" last year, by which he means "my" 500 SEC. He was only two at the time. And I discovered lexspace this morning. Now that is insane!
And mine about "naughty car", our clio 172 cup with sparco seats and lots of trackday bits. Carseat fitted snugly in the racing bucket (to passenger, not drive), he still cries sometimes on the way to nursery (in a frigging alpina) about why we sold naughty car. makes me miss it more too.

Back to 124- any idea of a rough total cost of your custodianship so far? sorry to raise it!

jamest

31 posts

266 months

Thursday 27th February 2014
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My daughter asks me why we don't have 'the croissant car' anymore, referring to my old track prep'd Porsche 964. Due to being a time-poor parent, it rarely went near a track day and was much more frequently used to pick up croissants on a Saturday morning. The W124 has been labelled 'the dictator's car' as, according to my wife, it is the sort of car that west african despots ride around in!

I notice you listed the outside temperature gauge in your list of things completed, did you manage to fit a new lcd display to the instrument cluster? Mine has gone and is one of the jobs on my list.

billywhizzzzzz

1,982 posts

142 months

Thursday 27th February 2014
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Delicious. I've been doing similar with a BMW e30 325i touring here http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

I know exactly where you are coming from. I've spent far too much money over the years on it. Also, I've done exactly what you describe to a 1995 Land Rover Defender which I've gone through systematically and replaced pretty much everything except for the engine block and head - which has now covered 228,000 miles.

The costs involved in keeping e30, the e39 touring, my wife's 2.7t Allroad Quattro and 2 Land Rover Defenders in good nick are pretty meaty and of course I could lease most things for the cost. But, as you know, it wouldn't quite provide the same delight in fettling honest and dignified older cars.

r129sl

Original Poster:

9,518 posts

202 months

Thursday 27th February 2014
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Realistically? Most of ten grand.

Some of that has not been wisely spent, even by my warped standards. I still think it's cheap motoring: after all, I've had two years (well, 21 months, of which it has spent at least five off the road at the garage) and 47,000miles out of it.

After this, I don't expect it to cost much at all to run. Maybe £1,000 a year but hopefully less (excluding fuel, tax and insurance). It costs about £35 and 15 minutes to service every 6,000miles (the interval is 9,000 but, you know, it can't do any harm), doing it myself (2 gallons Castrol GTX, oil filter, fuel filter). And I expect to be using it for five years or more.

I've seen a Bosch alternator for £110... It doesn't need an alternator... Must resist buying unnecessary parts... And I am trying to make up my mind (opinions invited) whether to have my roof box painted to match. I use an enormous Kamei Corvara 390 which is glossy metallic black. I am thinking it would look damned cool (if a roof box could ever be so described) satin painted mussel grey to match the Saccos.

r129sl

Original Poster:

9,518 posts

202 months

Thursday 27th February 2014
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jamest said:
I notice you listed the outside temperature gauge in your list of things completed, did you manage to fit a new lcd display to the instrument cluster? Mine has gone and is one of the jobs on my list.
Yes, I bought a new old stock one. It is dead easy to fit but you need instrument cluster hooks to get the cluster out and nimble fingers to detach and reattach all the wires. I noticed that there are a couple on starpartz.net at sensible money.

BGarside

1,564 posts

136 months

Thursday 27th February 2014
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Currently considering a W124 purchase so this thread is interesting to me, and scary at the same time when I see how much you have replaced on your car!

Would welcome any info. on sources of new and secondhand parts though to avoid Merc main dealers!

r129sl

Original Poster:

9,518 posts

202 months

Thursday 27th February 2014
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For NOS, these two are quite good:
http://cart.euromercmercedesparts.co.uk
http://www.starpartz.co.uk

I also do daily ebay searches under "mercedes 124" (which takes a while due to very irritating bulk listers). This is how I found my door: I've been watching it for about 18 months.

You need to learn how to use the Mercedes EPC in conjunction with the online catalogues of Behr, Bosch, ZF (includes Sachs, Boge and Lemförder), Febi Bilstein, Bilstein, Hella, Ebersparcher. A good working knowledge of these systems enables you to identify by part number the correct part for the car from a range of high quality suppliers.

The website findpart.org is great for checking the compatibility and interchangeability of similar parts made by different manufacturers. Put in a Merc part number and it tells you who makes alternatives and what numbers they use. It is not infallible, however.

The following motor factors are good:
Seekpart24.com
Mister-auto.co.uk
Onlinecarparts.com

And several others. There is a wide range of prices for identical items. Like my alternator fetish: I've seen the same Bosch alternator priced from £115 to £470.

Finally, when you have a part number, google is excellent.

Last but not least, mercedes-benz-parts.co.uk gives you the dealer price for any Merc part number which is still available.

By way of example, I bought my door seals as follows:
(1) I obtained the correct Merc part numbers using the EPC
(2) I priced these using the MB website above,
(3) I identified that Febi and Lemforder made OEM alternatives using find part.org,
(4) I checked the Febi and Lemforder catalogues to be sure,
(5) I googled the Febi and Lemforder parts and also looked on seekpart24,
(6) I found them cheapest on Ebay from a factor who deals in Febi parts.

You also need to be sure that the vendor supplies the brand you ask for: many will swap, say, Febi for, say, Monroe, without telling you. A lot of this is just about being sure you are ordering the correct thing!

Edited by r129sl on Thursday 27th February 19:49

soxboy

6,018 posts

218 months

Thursday 27th February 2014
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Well Sir I can't decide if you should be applauded or are clinically insane!

3 years ago I bought an E280 estate, a) because I needed a car, b) because I always fancied a W124 and c) because it came with a personal plate which I thought was worth more than the car (oh and d I had drunk a bottle of red wine).

It was quite a shed but I loved it for what it did, it was a shame in a way that it didn't have the things that would make it more of either a luxury car or a modern car, I.e. If I found one that wasn't in dog cock red, had leather seats and air con it would be a keeper. Sadly a combination of the above and the fact that I already had a Golf GTi 16v mk2 (couldn't justify keeping both) meant it had to go.

Still, sold the car and plate for 4 times what I paid for it so can't grumble too much.

To have one that is being brought close to perfect like the OPs would be fantastic and having seen that it's a long term keeper and how many miles you do, your logic almost begins to make sense!

Emeye

9,773 posts

222 months

Friday 28th February 2014
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soxboy said:
Still, sold the car and plate for 4 times what I paid for it so can't grumble too much.
You should go on ebay while drinking plenty of red wine more often!

jonclancy

139 posts

137 months

Monday 3rd March 2014
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Lazy boy says: Do you have the link to the door seal vendor, please??

r129sl

Original Poster:

9,518 posts

202 months

Monday 3rd March 2014
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Well, it has started...

I dropped the car off this morning. Rather irritatingly, over the weekend it picked up a really nasty car park scrape but the body shop say they can take care of this. Already they were working on the new old stock near side rear door, just levelling out a couple of fine dings. The rear window seals arrived this morning in perfect order (thanks again, Paul, if you read this). And the front wings have arrived from Merc, all boxed up. I am just waiting on the front door seals but they will not be needed for a couple of weeks anyway.

I have also ordered a new driver's door sill cover to replace the existing one which is really tatty. £40. I am still pondering tail lights.

I will be going down there later this week to take pictures and will post them here.

In the meantime, do I get my roof box lid painted and, if so, what colour? Mussel grey to match the Saccos or smoke silver to match the main colour?