1990 Mercedes 300e - The Charity Rally bhan-stormer!
Discussion
So after entering a banger rally earlier this year and not thinking much of it, its soon come around!
The last few weeks we've been hunting down our steed, and I always secrectly hoped for something 'interesting', but it was turning out less that fruitful. Our search turned up all sorts of lemons, boring shopping cars and absolute death traps with tax and a ticket... we finally got lucky... and boy did we get lucky! There are 3 of us going on the trip so doing it in a KA or 106 was going to be a struggle.
The budget is between £300 / £400 or must be 20 years or older, we pretty much hit both counts!
Its a 300e-24 which gives it a silky smooth straight 6, driven by an auto box with 209k miles under its belt. It was owned by a lovely old couple of had just replaced it with a new Merc, having owned it for 5 years. Tax for 5 months (rally in september so perfect) and MOT until May next year. All this for the princely sum of £425.
Plans are some routine maintenace prior to the rally (Midlands to Venice via the ring, stelvio and modena amongst others). If anyone has any tips for these engine please let me know. The rally suggests a theme / decorating the car which to be honest, I think this is a bit to nice for. So we might end up doing reverable stuff (stickers rather than paint etc...) and drive it back to sell on for the charity.
Anyway, onto the pics
photo
photo
photo
photo
photo
I'll update this as we do the work and have any news, but any tips on these from past owners would be great!
Thanks
The last few weeks we've been hunting down our steed, and I always secrectly hoped for something 'interesting', but it was turning out less that fruitful. Our search turned up all sorts of lemons, boring shopping cars and absolute death traps with tax and a ticket... we finally got lucky... and boy did we get lucky! There are 3 of us going on the trip so doing it in a KA or 106 was going to be a struggle.
The budget is between £300 / £400 or must be 20 years or older, we pretty much hit both counts!
Its a 300e-24 which gives it a silky smooth straight 6, driven by an auto box with 209k miles under its belt. It was owned by a lovely old couple of had just replaced it with a new Merc, having owned it for 5 years. Tax for 5 months (rally in september so perfect) and MOT until May next year. All this for the princely sum of £425.
Plans are some routine maintenace prior to the rally (Midlands to Venice via the ring, stelvio and modena amongst others). If anyone has any tips for these engine please let me know. The rally suggests a theme / decorating the car which to be honest, I think this is a bit to nice for. So we might end up doing reverable stuff (stickers rather than paint etc...) and drive it back to sell on for the charity.
Anyway, onto the pics
photo
photo
photo
photo
photo
I'll update this as we do the work and have any news, but any tips on these from past owners would be great!
Thanks
ReaperCushions said:
The rally suggests a theme / decorating the car which to be honest, I think this is a bit to nice for. So we might end up doing reverable stuff (stickers rather than paint etc...) and drive it back to sell on for the charity.
And you will make more money back for the charity so making stuff removable is worth it.Perhaps try contacting sticker/vinyl companies and asking for cheap / free stuff as it's for charity?
Nice, don't do stickers and paint though. Just tint the windows and get some of those little diplomatic flags on the front wings from a made up former Sovert Bloc state. Get Some natty military uniforms made (preferably orange or lillac) and mirrored aviators; you're look perfect as some military Junta on tour. Always ride 2 up front, though.
It looks a lovely old thing, so should make light work of the trip.
I'm pleased you're not going to drill holes all over it to fit things like most charity banger ralliers seem to. XJ40s are often used for banger trips too, but though they're also strong cars, all the holes racers drill in them means they're almost always scrapped afterwards.
I'm pleased you're not going to drill holes all over it to fit things like most charity banger ralliers seem to. XJ40s are often used for banger trips too, but though they're also strong cars, all the holes racers drill in them means they're almost always scrapped afterwards.
stongle said:
Nice, don't do stickers and paint though. Just tint the windows and get some of those little diplomatic flags on the front wings from a made up former Sovert Bloc state. Get Some natty military uniforms made (preferably orange or lillac) and mirrored aviators; you're look perfect as some military Junta on tour. Always ride 2 up front, though.
You read my mind! Small update, but considering our complete lack of mechanical knowledge, we were pretty pleased with ourselves today.
The drivers side window has never worked, although we always thought it was fixable because we could hear the motor turning, but nothing happening.
Stripping the door down was suprisingly easy considering the build quality, only 2 screws and 1 bolt to get the card off. We set about getting the mechanism and motor out, while taking care not to let the glass drop. Certainly a 2 man job!
We get the mech on a bench, and its in a horrible state, all gunked up and pretty nasty.
We test the motor, and that spins no problem, so thats not the issue. We give it a good old clean too.
It turns out this is the issue, missing teeth on the regulator arm / cog thing and its ground to a halt with all the gunk.
So a quick spruce up, re-lube and we test it again, with success!
It doesnt quite go all the way back up (due to the missing teeth) but nothing a quick shove with a hand won't fix
Put it all back together and we have two working front windows!
The drivers side window has never worked, although we always thought it was fixable because we could hear the motor turning, but nothing happening.
Stripping the door down was suprisingly easy considering the build quality, only 2 screws and 1 bolt to get the card off. We set about getting the mechanism and motor out, while taking care not to let the glass drop. Certainly a 2 man job!
We get the mech on a bench, and its in a horrible state, all gunked up and pretty nasty.
We test the motor, and that spins no problem, so thats not the issue. We give it a good old clean too.
It turns out this is the issue, missing teeth on the regulator arm / cog thing and its ground to a halt with all the gunk.
So a quick spruce up, re-lube and we test it again, with success!
It doesnt quite go all the way back up (due to the missing teeth) but nothing a quick shove with a hand won't fix
Put it all back together and we have two working front windows!
Edited by ReaperCushions on Saturday 21st July 17:30
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