£500 W126 ... Mercedes S class barge delight

[iggletiggle]

This is outstanding.. I am truly envious!!

At 28 years old i didn't think i would be considering the journey you have recently embarked on but off to search for a barge..

£500 for that plus elbow grease seems much more rewarding than driving anything near modern. I look forward to your continuing updates - Well done, sir!

[pscl227]

Spectacular, would love to cross Europe in one of these, if you ever want to sell give me a shout

[IanA2]

Notadoctor said:

Nope. Can understand your point that luxury=W126=leather, but I like the cloth.

It's non-aircon so cooler with cloth and it's thrown about therefore cloth so-less-slippy.

Also, my own experience centered paradigmatic perception, cream leather (often grubby at 26 years) is a little golf club or mature fellow (I'm in my 30s), black leather too miserable in a cabin unless offset with "sports" features and "sports" seats, and I enjoy the unique cheerful modern chequered pattern in the seat fabric and door cards.

The original options include blue heat tinting to all windows and a graduated blue windscreen band - which works nicely with the blue, black and woody cabin methinks.

I tend to agree with you. MB tex/cloth of that era are exceptionally high quality. It's condition after so many miles attests to this.

ETA: Glad you got you the mirror thingy even it it did cost a bottle of wine rather than a couple of pints

[TurboHatchback]

That is a lovely looking car. I had a 1988 560 SEC for a while so I'm a huge fan of the W126, in fact I'm rather tempted by a saloon at some point. My poor wallet .

[somnv]

Wow, what a bargain... well done to you sir! Same interior as my 300SE.

You may find this club a useful resource, forum is free to join - http://126-sclass.com

Hope you enjoy the car!

[somnv]

FYI, the easy way to remove the instrument cluster is to remover the driver side speaker in the dash and push the instrument cluster out from behind.

[sinbaddio]

Truly superb sir. Had great fun over the past few years with firstly a W124 E320 coupe, and currently an early R129 500SL. Never let me down, cheap motoring, and smiles per mile immeasurable! Enjoy!

[somnv]

Notadoctor said:

Thank you! Will approach with caution as wary of too much specialist knowledge damping joy of ignorant amateur approach to problems, but nice new resource.

Removed wheel trims. Liking new look.



Edit - amused by www.halfordsautocentres.com who fitted tyres - stated they'd inspected the aircon, issued an written "AMBER ALERT" for it and quoted for an aircon service at £50 - but there's is no aircon fitted...

Edited by Notadoctor on Wednesday 13th August 09:56

I love that pic! That's hilarious about the halfords auto centre!!

Yeah the club is pretty laid back and friendly to be honest, not full of people telling you what you "have" to do, like some clubs! Just a small bunch of enthusiasts trying to help others keep their W126s on the road. They are starting to get rare these days! It's been months since I've seen another one on the road.

[GringoG60]

That is a fantastic barge for £500 I'm very impressed. It's from an era when Mercs were incredibly robust before they moved the factories to the likes of Bosnia and South America when it all when down hill. Mercs built after your car were horrendous plagued with rust.

The CEO of Mercedes recently admitted that they needed to return the level of quality they offered in the 80's.

[Hooli]

Notadoctor said:

Proper S class shedbarge solution to offside dipped beam malfunction, individual old-fashioned fuse for each light and it had corroded. Sandpaper. Worked. Sandpapered all the fuses. Suddenly boot light works, glove box light works, lighter works and glove box light works.

Very common with that style of fuse, I had to do the same on an E class shed I had a few years ago.

[mywifeshusband]

I'm liking the back box deletion. How easy was the conversion to LHD?

[Wing Commander]

Notadoctor said:

mywifeshusband said:

I'm liking the back box deletion. How easy was the conversion to LHD?

Confuzzled re. LHD ... did one perchance mean LSD?

Think he is referring to the black and white photo which shows the car as LHD but the earlier photos are of it as RHD... assume you have flipped the photo??

Also, just want to add that this is fantastic barging!

[Simes110]

I'm most impressed with this.

Having test-driven a nearly new S500 recently and decided against as my Range Rover entertained me more, a similar exercise to yours (with residual funds stashed for another rainy day...) could well work.

I love your old-school approach to fault finding and remedial work. Congratulations!

[mike-r]

Cool to know people who are fully capable of running modern machinery aren't doing so. The limited amount of time I've spent in newer BMWs certainly makes me think late 90s/early 00s is as modern as I'll be going.

Did you manage to find an original stereo? I remember spending a few hours extending the wiring loom on a Kenwood stereo in my E30 so it could be hidden away in the glovebox generating music while my original (broken) stereo could replace it and sit pointlessly in my dash.

[Simes110]

For my previous W210 E-Class, and ever the seeker of originality, I sourced a refurbished OEM unit from a seller on eBay in Germany for a reasonable amount.

In your case, it's for looks and nothing else. I would imagine there must be a 'find' somewhere out there.

By the way, just found a 'Barn Find' 500SEL on eBay. 47,000 miles. Looks lovely. But the dealer wants over £2,500 for it. I daren't call...

[kamilb1998]

Absolutely fantastic barge!

[mike-r]

Notadoctor said:

mike-r said:

Cool to know people who are fully capable of running modern machinery aren't doing so. The limited amount of time I've spent in newer BMWs certainly makes me think late 90s/early 00s is as modern as I'll be going.

Did you manage to find an original stereo? I remember spending a few hours extending the wiring loom on a Kenwood stereo in my E30 so it could be hidden away in the glovebox generating music while my original (broken) stereo could replace it and sit pointlessly in my dash.

Thanks. Not yet! Man maths whispered "spend £120 on deleting the back box if you want tunes".

I do like your E30 dual-audio approach, any photos?

Sadly not but was a pretty simple job, just time consuming. Ran an aux cable back the other way to save leaning over changing CDs, volume etc. As mentioned ebay.de is a good shout, or if the slot is a standard size any stereo from that era would at least look correct. I suddenly want an old car again..

[Funk]

I could be seriously tempted...

[jimmymidnight]

This is amazing, what a find, what a price!

I want it!

Hats off to you for buying it. I've been wanting to by a budget barge for a while, the closest I got was a sub £2k Audi A8 that then got written off 3 months into ownership. But i'm a big Merc man, and would love an older S!

I hope you do keep it - it's a cracker!

[IanA2]

Notadoctor said:

1200 trouble-free smiles4miles since purchase, still owes me £827.35.

I did write a PH advert, need to sell it, but it felt so wrong, so didn't.

The second cog has just turned for the sixth time in 26 years...

Don't sell it.

I guarantee you will regret it.

About the only car I have ever regretted selling was my 126.