Progress thread 2001 Mercedes SLK230

[B'stard Child]

Still putting it back together





but very pleased with it

[B'stard Child]

Finished.............





MOT tomorrow (hopefully) and refurbished wheels and new tyres

Then Saturday some small altitude adjustment

[B'stard Child]

Back home - washed it.







Give a wax tommorrow and then Retro Kings show on Sunday at Snetterton.

[B'stard Child]

Bloody IPads and photo orientation.....

1. needslowering #noitsnotawrap

[paulwirral]

I've had a couple of these and while they aren't a boxster they are a lot better than anyone gives them due for . Both mine were manuals , which made most people laugh even more , although again , I never had a problem with it .
Check out " speers chip tuning " in Germany , I bought his larger bottom over pulley and it made a noticeable difference , even better when I fitted a larger intercooler , induction cone and speers re map , all cheap mods .
I all but gave the car away last year , what I sold it for paid for electric seats in my new car ! The guy that bought it is a good friend and drive it to the ring without even thinking about it , I myself drove it to France , onwards to Spain and back up to Germany without problem the previous year , great old cars .
Quentin Wilson wrote an article in a magazine I read on holiday saying that they are a viable alternative to a ropey mgb these days !

[B'stard Child]

It looks a lot less frightened now.........

[B'stard Child]

paulwirral said:

I've had a couple of these and while they aren't a boxster they are a lot better than anyone gives them due for . Both mine were manuals , which made most people laugh even more , although again , I never had a problem with it .

Missed your post sorry - I like the car - I like it a lot and it fills a nice gap in the fleet that can't be covered by anything else

paulwirral said:

Check out " speers chip tuning " in Germany , I bought his larger bottom over pulley and it made a noticeable difference , even better when I fitted a larger intercooler , induction cone and speers re map , all cheap mods .

Next on my list is a custom bottom pulley which will give a 15% overdrive on the supercharger

Then larger intercooler and maybe a re-map

paulwirral said:

I all but gave the car away last year , what I sold it for paid for electric seats in my new car ! The guy that bought it is a good friend and drive it to the ring without even thinking about it , I myself drove it to France , onwards to Spain and back up to Germany without problem the previous year , great old cars .

Old cars - even when they have loads of life left in them they are worthless in the UK marketplace

I spent more on a re-spray than mine is worth but it's worth way more to me than it's market value

paulwirral said:

Quentin Wilson wrote an article in a magazine I read on holiday saying that they are a viable alternative to a ropey mgb these days !

I agree with Quentin on most things - he rather liked the old Senator 24V's and I've had a bakers dozen or more of those over the years and if I could find one that was solid I'd have it in a heartbeat

[paulwirral]

The speers one is a bargain and takes about half an hour to bolt on , it comes with the belt . I believe he can send you his re map via black magic on the internet but I got it done while I was in Germany by the guy himself . I sold the car to a mate and it's done at least 20k miles since modded and it's still ok .

[B'stard Child]

paulwirral said:

The speers one is a bargain and takes about half an hour to bolt on, it comes with the belt .

I'm not a huge fan of the pulley over a pulley approach - I know it works but I'd rather do a proper complete pulley assembly

paulwirral said:

I believe he can send you his re map via black magic on the internet but I got it done while I was in Germany by the guy himself . I sold the car to a mate and it's done at least 20k miles since modded and it's still ok .

Handy to know - thank you

[B'stard Child]

PHEA Rolling road day - every year Pistonheads East Anglia have a little rolling road day - last year I ran the LC but this year it booked up so quickly it appeared that I'd missed a chance to run the SLK however a few last min drop outs meant that a space became available

Waiting for it's turn



On the dyno



1st run



2nd Run



Not bad for a car that's done 126,000 miles - originally they were rated at either 193 or 197 bhp

At least now I have a base line for where it starts before I change the drive pulley for the supercharger

[B'stard Child]

Well this ones coming to an end

Her "plate" been removed and as is often the case with me and cars it ends up saving others as I'm sadly going to be parting it out over the winter

The underbody rot makes it a project to many for me and it's developed a problem with the body control module (it applies the brakes to stop a wheel spinning that actually isn't - which made it fun (not) in the wet

Been a fun little car - engine and box are great and really enjoyed the practicality of a folding hard top

Would recommend 100%

[sanguinary]

Ours went the same way in the end. Mechanically it was pretty bullet proof, but I couldn't keep chasing rot forever.

It was I car I really enjoyed driving. As standard, just enough of the supercharger whine to make you smile and nailing that perfect (auto) downshift into a corner was great fun, as you had to anticipate the delay from shifting to the gear change physically happening.

The roof was down all the time unless it was torrential weather, to the point I got in the habit of packing light to always leave room in the boot for the roof to stow.

It was replaced with a CLK 280, which ending up in a similar state underneath....

[B'stard Child]

sanguinary said:

Ours went the same way in the end. Mechanically it was pretty bullet proof, but I couldn't keep chasing rot forever.

It was I car I really enjoyed driving. As standard, just enough of the supercharger whine to make you smile and nailing that perfect (auto) downshift into a corner was great fun, as you had to anticipate the delay from shifting to the gear change physically happening.

The roof was down all the time unless it was torrential weather, to the point I got in the habit of packing light to always leave room in the boot for the roof to stow.

It was replaced with a CLK 280, which ending up in a similar state underneath....

It really is a shame that Mercedes has this "period of history" where the cars just don't stand the test of time - mechanically the SLK as you say has been really good but rust on these cars is frankly terrible........

PS I judge my cars tendency to fizz on several decades of running old Opels and Vauxhalls and christ they fizz for fun!!!!

[B'stard Child]

So plan was to strip the car for parts - Mrs BC doesn't like this being done on the driveway

Luckily I have a gate on the back of the garden so as we don't use the garden much in the winter plan was to strip it as parts were required



The wheels on the car went on ebay - so the track wheels got thrown under it while I listed stuff on ebay

I got asked if I would sell the running gear engine, box, diff, prop, rad, intercooler and all the ECU control to someone who wanted it for a transplant - I figured £650 would be good for that - I then got asked what would I want for the whole car as it stood - I said my aim was to get £1100 back from the car (I'd already sold some bits) so £1000 would take it

Today it now looks like this



Back garden back to being a garden again - just the track wheels remain to be put back in the shed

The End.

[sanguinary]

That’s the way to do it. Saves the effort and hassle from stripping it down and getting rid of the bits no one wants.

I’ve still got loads of random and pretty much useless MR2 spares from the good old days of trackdays and buying cars just for the parts on them.