Titivating my Mercedes 124

[r129sl]

Meanwhile I've been offered a 2004 E500 estate, 60k miles, bit tatty, good spec but avantgarde not the infinitely nicer elegance; weak colours, tealite over black leather. £3,000.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

Interesting. Possibly lovely. But will you love it?

[b4bby]

If you have not bought those parts you mentioned yet pm me, I think I'll have most of that here.

[0a]

Lowtimer said:

That's probably just sheer mechanical grip rather than handling, unless you're cornering it with your feet as well as your hands. Which in that thing I doubt.

My Mark 1 Mondeo 24V handled well but that was old school Parry-Jones with proper steering and only on 195/65 15 tyres, so the limits of grip were not unapproachable

I followed the "local" vito fish van for 60 miles on some quick roads tonight, I overtook at 110 on a long straight. There is something amusing and satisfying about driving these old mercs with gusto that I don't get from modern cars (probably just that the limits are lower!).

[bmthnick1981]

r129sl said:

Meanwhile I've been offered a 2004 E500 estate, 60k miles, bit tatty, good spec but avantgarde not the infinitely nicer elegance; weak colours, tealite over black leather. £3,000.

Sounds good suggest you purchase it immediately! Let me know when you want to sell.

Edited by bmthnick1981 on Friday 2nd September 22:12

[r129sl]

b4bby said:

If you have not bought those parts you mentioned yet pm me, I think I'll have most of that here.

Thank you for this offer but too late, I'm afraid. In my eagerness to get it fixed I'd already ordered the body parts.

The car was recovered to Gateshead on Sunday morning. Phew.

As well as the body parts, I have ordered a new condenser, dryer and radiator, all Behr-Hella, for £265 and a new fan clutch, Sachs, for £80. Quite an expensive business but much cheaper than buying from Merc with no diminution in quality as far as I am concerned. It will be the middle of next week before work starts and I expect it will take until the end of the following week. I'm going to stick a new water pump on it, too: the engine is 340,000miles old with no evidence it has ever been done, so it seems like a sensible precaution for the sake of £60. This does mean that of the major mechanical components only the starter motor and the a/c compressor haven't been replaced...

I am going to stick Dynamat Extreme to the underside of the bonnet followed by an aftermarket (Febi) insulation mat. The Febi bonnet insulation (09505) is £30 against three times that price for the Merc item. So just the labour to pay for now. Hopefully.

Edited by r129sl on Wednesday 7th September 08:25

[anonymous-user]

r129sl said:

Meanwhile, I find my wife telling me off for driving the Ford too fast. There's no doubt it's quicker over a twisting road than the 124. Which somewhat undermines my handling thesis. But it's still too wide, too complicated and any feel is far too filtered, inconsistent and overlaid with electrical and rubbery interference.

Think you're confusing ride with handling.

The W124 will ride well, but ultimately the Ford will be quicker point to point on 'interesting' roads even if the ride will make it feel like a less pleasant journey.

[r129sl]

That is what I was acknowledging. The Ford is quicker point to point, but the ride is inferior. The handling is unrewarding all the same.

[crosseyedlion]

cb1965 said:

r129sl said:

Meanwhile, I find my wife telling me off for driving the Ford too fast. There's no doubt it's quicker over a twisting road than the 124. Which somewhat undermines my handling thesis. But it's still too wide, too complicated and any feel is far too filtered, inconsistent and overlaid with electrical and rubbery interference.

Think you're confusing ride with handling.

The W124 will ride well, but ultimately the Ford will be quicker point to point on 'interesting' roads even if the ride will make it feel like a less pleasant journey.

I think you're confusing grip with handling.

[r129sl]

I don't really give a st: the Ford wasn't as nice to drive (or passenger) as the Mercedes designed and built over quarter of a century earlier. Which is not how it should be.

[anonymous-user]

crosseyedlion said:

I think you're confusing grip with handling.

Do you? Wow! Bully for you!

[spreadsheet monkey]

r129sl said:

I don't really give a st: the Ford wasn't as nice to drive (or passenger) as the Mercedes designed and built over quarter of a century earlier. Which is not how it should be.

Everyone has their own definition of "nice", and car buyers' priorities have changed in the last 25 years.

The Mondeo has plenty of fans of its chassis. I don't think Ford is overly concerned about its Mondeo customers cross-shopping against the Merc W124.

[bmthnick1981]

I think i'm confused.

[r129sl]

That's my permanent state. So confused I can't even get the pictures the right way up.

Edited by r129sl on Wednesday 7th September 17:28

[tobinen]

Looks like it should be back on the road in no time

[Lowtimer]

I've never previously noticed or appreciated the church-organ of manifolding under the bonnet of those diesel 124s

[burrotaxi]

Good luck with the repair, you seem to be making good progress. Someone ran up the back of my wife's E39 528i and the Mondeo we have on loan is undoubtedly a competent car but is completely soul less.
You have been the motivation for me to run older cars and not to be reluctant to spend good money to maintain them so the E39 keeps company with an E46 328ci. It's not all BMW though we also have R129 300SL and W201 190E 2.6 but those are kept for high days (22k and 13k miles respectively).

Hope the estate is back on the road soon.

[r129sl]

Thanks for the positive comments. Modern cars aren't about driving, that's the problem. There was some interview in Car this month with a Porsche sound guy. He was enthusing about car stereo and connectivity, how this is what people would be obsessed with in the future. Great. Can I play my Nintendo in the car? Who cares? If I weren't so mad about this Merc, I would certainly be getting into this: http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/b... Indeed, if someone made an acceptable offer for my s124, I'd probably take it and buy the BMW. Not that I am out of love with the Merc, simply that the BMW looks like it may be even better suited to my needs. The trouble I have is that I cannot part with a car and am not allowed any more.

Not much to report this week. Almost all the parts are in. buycarparts.co.uk (which is one of about a thousand trading styles used by the German company Auto Doc Gmbh) sent the wrong radiator albeit in the right box. I have sent it back but whether I ever get any money back remains to be seen. This prompted a bit of shopping round. I would not hesitate to recommend Advanced Radiators just along the Tyne from me (www.adrad.co.uk). They could not have been more helpful or cheaper albeit in the end they had no stock. Finally I found a genuine Merc radiator at one of the NOS merchants for £150. Pretty much the entire cooling system will have been replaced by the end of this job. All the hoses were done last month; this month the water pump, fan clutch, fan, radiator and condenser will all be replaced.

I've also been musing about retrofitting air con to the little Spartan w201. Alpinair.co.uk seemed to know what they were talking about and offered to do a factory retrofit for £2.4k. Plus VAT. Need to save up a bit for that one.

Meanwhile, the Man has been pulling on the old slam panel in order to straighten out the slight damage at the front of the offside near wing.

[Parisien]

I can see the temptation, its a splendid and very desirable BMW, none of us would condemn you 129sl, well not in a big way





P

[r129sl]

The sheet metal work is all complete. Here you can see the old slam panel and headlamp surround removed, the spot welds having been drilled out.




The new slam panel offered up and spot-welded in:






And the whole primed:




While the wings are off, I noticed some surface rust on the 'A' pillar, so this was dealt with:








Some of the interior is coming out to address some little holes in the floor where the fuel pump package cover is attached (obviously there is no fuel pump package on this car but it still has the aerodynamic faring). At the same time I am going to add Silent Coat damping panels to the rear floor, the transmission tunnel, the boot floor and sides and the tailgate with a view to reducing noise in the cabin. I think I will also but some kind of barrier mat on the floors, too.

I have ended up replacing the entire cooling system. The hoses were done last month, but it will now have a new water pump, fan clutch, fan, radiator and condenser as well as myriad bits of trim. I am also replacing the headlamp wash wipe system in the hope of finally making it work for more than two minutes. Chasing down all the parts is a ball ache but so far nothing has been NLA.