Titivating my Mercedes 124

[r129sl]

E65Ross said:

R129sl - may I be so cheeky as to ask......

Of all the mechanical work you've done, how much have you spent? I know the paint and welding etc you said £2.5k but I'd be interested in knowing what you've spent on the mechanical side of things.

Thanks

Ask away. I have been open about money because it is much more useful for anyone who is thinking about doing the same.

I haven't added everything up. But I did go through my records last night and I'd say that the total cost, including purchase (almost £1,076 the cheapest bill of them all), all mechanical work, 47,000miles of servicing and tyres and such like, and the recent bodywork is about £14,000, maybe a bit less. I could (and should) have saved about £2,000 of that by buying things more wisely. I should have made more of my wrecked 320 TE (I sold it for £500 then bought it back in bits for about twice that). I wasted a few hundred quid on a Mercedes-Benz Exquisit head unit and CD-changer which I very quickly replaced with the Becker Indianapolis 7950. I shouldn't have bothered getting Mercedes-Benz Inverness to fix the vacuum pump: it would have been better to tough it out until we got home and left it with Baister. There's a small mountain of unused parts in my garage which I have bought just in case they come in handy. And I should have learned how to do more myself.

Now, no doubt you're thinking, that's insane. But what else could I have bought for that kind of money? As a bare minimum, any alternative would have cost me £2,500 to run doing the mileage I do. So say I had £12,000 to spend. I couldn't have leased a new Merc for that; and even had I done so I would have nothing to show for it now. I could have bought a car from one of the specialist dealers but, with the greatest of respect to them, my experience suggests they all need work, no matter how pretty they are. I could have bought a Golf. Or a Passat. Or a Sierra or whatever they call them now. I could have bought a smarter one and put up with its faults.

OK, it is irrational. But I couldn't care less. I love the car and I have enjoyed doing it up. I've learned a lot of mechanical skills that I didn't have previously. And now I am going to enjoy using it for the next five years or more.

Tonight I dealt with a bit more of the snagging. I noticed that the vacuum line had not been connected to the central locking actuator in the new nearside rear door. How annoying. So I removed the door card and fixed that. How satisfying. Re-assembly is always so much more difficult than disassembly. Especially when you forget to fish out the wiring for the window switch and have to do it twice.

I also replaced the pedal rubbers and added a windscreen decal.







ETA: I will have the car's records and documents available at Mercedes-Benz World next weekend if you're interested.

Second edit: I didn't get that sticker very straight, did I? And I need to clean that pedal area a bit better.

Edited by r129sl on Wednesday 16th April 21:09

[r129sl]

Dent man has been this morning to remove those remaining dings I mentioned. Crumbs, he's good. Four dings in two different doors, took him maybe five minutes. He wanted £40 cash but I gave him £50 so impressed was I. If you're in the north east and you need a dent man, pm me and I'll give you his name and number.

I also ordered a new rear wiper arm from the main dealer. My wife reckons the existing one is a bit rusty and lets the car down. Another £66. Hopefully it will arrive before next weekend. Then it has to stop.

A serious clean up of the interior and maybe the engine bay is on the cards for the weekend. I am going to use the Surfex HD in the engine bay. All of the metal parts are stained and blackened and nothing I've used in the past has had much of an impact. What concentration do you recommend, Ross? And I am assuming I should just agitate it with a brush before rinsing?

EDIT: I'll start at 20% with warm water and agitate with a brush.

Edited by r129sl on Thursday 17th April 11:34

[r129sl]

I think they're a great first car: they're safe, they've a certain style or cool-factor (I kid myself that this is so, anyway) and they're easy to work on. As long as there is nothing terminal wrong with it and as long as you're not chasing perfection, you can't go wrong. See the bargain barge thread for cheap parts sources.

[r129sl]

E39 is a league ahead of the 124 in NVH. The 124 was incredibly advance aerodynamically. It was the most aerodynamic car of its time with a Cd of 0.28 for the 250 D saloon.

[r129sl]

The diesel 124 is very happy at 75 to 95mph; the 129 really likes to be above the ton.

I didn't get much done today. Properly fixed some interior trim that the body shop had improperly fixed, started the interior clean, and dusted it. More action, better reports and some photos to follow. The engine bay is a bit better but it still looks like an old and dirty engine bay to my eyes. One thing, there is a tiny amount of primer overspray on the dashboard and I just cannot shift it. Any ideas?

[r129sl]

OK, more engine bay detailing. I failed miserably to get that brand new motor show preparation look. I just can't get the metal bits to loose the heavy staining.

Before:




After:




The interior, on the other hand, has come up great:

[r129sl]

Actually, I think I'm going to give up on engine bay detailing. This is a well-used car. The engine is clean and dry and out of sight and that's that. The important thing is that I've done about four hundred miles this week and really enjoyed them: the car is for use. All that remains are the following snags:

(1) adjust window in N/S/R door (it does not fully close, giving wind noise at speed),
(2) replace rear wiper arm (on order),
(3) fit missing trim inside N/S/R wheel arch (ditto).

It gets an MOT on Tuesday and also will have the air con re-gassed as it lost its gas when the nearside inner wing was done. Just needs re-gassing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The sunroof failed to work yesterday, but happily it was just a bad fuse. I'm going to renew all the fuses as they're ancient.

[r129sl]

Today I loaded up the lunatics and we had a run out to Holy Island. For an old banger, it certainly attracts a lot of looks.





Then this evening I stumbled across two brand new wheel centres while tidying my garage and used them to replace the worst two on the car.

Tomorrow it goes for a MOT and the roof box goes in to be painted smoke silver, gloss finish. I've just spent half an hour picking the decals off it, removing the glue residue with meths, and also removing the little screw covers. It just fits in the boot. Which may beg the question, why have you got a roof box in your boot?

The light was nice but I just couldn't be bothered to do proper car photography and it wasn't perfectly clean anyway. To be honest, I just can't wait for the coming weekend. I have some fine steel wool which I may use to have a go at the intake manifold again. It would be nice to get that back to silver. It is actually a complex moving part so I can't just take it off and get it blasted and powder coated.

Still, tell me the 124 this isn't the best estate car of all time:

[r129sl]

I'd probably take the 124 and, with double the range and police car invisibility, I suspect I'd get there just as quick. Despite being a confirmed speed merchant, I find myself eschewing my 129 for the long-legged comfort and low-key guise of the 124.

[r129sl]

Sailed through the MOT without any advisories and the air con seems OK again.

[r129sl]

A lot of titivating tonight. First, I fixed up the loose boot trim with the new screws specially ordered from Germany. Then I replaced the missing wheel arch/bumper trim. It just pushed into place so probably will fall off on the M1 on Friday. And finally I replaced the rear wiper arm. Although I didn't know it, my life was incomplete before this.

Old one:


New one:


Then I had another go at the intake manifold and this time I got results. Using a combination of Surfex HD (mixed about 1:4 with water) and fine steel wool plus a brass brush, I really got a big improvement. I am a bit wary of the steel wool, lest some tiny fragment enter the engine (unlikely) or the electrical system (there isn't one) or foul up the poly-v belt. But what the hell. If I had time, I think I could get this really very tidy indeed. Presumably the next stage would be to polish it up with some aluminium polish?





Finally, and this is really tragic, I cleaned up the tail pipe and back box (which is very visible on the S124) using the the Surfex HD and the steel wool. I will not be polishing that.

[r129sl]

I've got Autosol Metal Polish (hasn't everyone?) so I might give that a go. I need to get some little brushes and sticks for the nooks and crannies. In my dream world I'd get one of those passivating kits to re-do all of the plated stuff, that always looks the business. But it isn't going to happen.

[r129sl]

Time, time, time. Very little of it for car polishing... This threads shows what can be done but it is not on the cards for me: http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

[r129sl]

This place is near me: http://www.tdinternational.co.uk

They seem to start at £250 for an "enhancement detail". Too rich for my blood.

I did a similar job on my father-in-law's Jaguar S-Type at the weekend. It took me about three hours. It transformed the car. I find it quite a satisfying activity but I well understand others don't. The mindlessness is part of the appeal. Anyway, once you have the car at a decent standard, it only takes 30minutes to bring it back up to scratch after a week's motoring. You only have to do the full mentalist effort once a year.

[r129sl]

Dropped the car off at MB World tonight. They are brilliant there. So enthusiastic and pleasant. It must be a ruse! They're only putting it in the middle of the whole damned place! It looked a bit sorry for itself after 350miles in the rain. Spent two hours travelling 10miles on the M25. I couldn't live down here.

That said, the car was brilliant on the trip, the first long trip since it came back to me. It is very happy at 100mph, quiet, refined, comfortable. It is narrow, un-ostentatious, easy to handle and to see out of. New screen and wipers make a big difference in foul conditions.

I am really looking forward to the Sunday Service on... Sunday. I feel like a real tragic case, but it really has made my day that MB has involved the car.

PS, I figured out the ruse. They've given me a CLS350 CDI shooting break to knock about in. My barge-faith is going to be sorely tested...

[r129sl]

If you're willing, both!! The degreaser sounds like it's the business. Do you want any money for them?

[r129sl]

Thanks again for all of your positive comments. Here are some photos from MB World. It's all back to normal service now. Roll on the next project.

[r129sl]

Tom Lynch, the curator at MB World, saw this thread and all of the enthusiasm it was generating. He got in touch and asked me to bring it as part of the Pistonheads Sunday Service. It would be impossible to exaggerate how excited I was about this and how pleased I was on the day, it was a total thrill. The car has been done on a very tight budget and is in constant and heavy use, so I was terrified that it would not be up to snuff, that MB World would be regretting their invitation, that you all would be laughing up your sleeves and pointing out many solecisms in the renovation, but we received a really, really warm reception and the car acquitted itself superbly. I can't thank MB World enough for the opportunity. It was also a huge pleasure to meet jke11y, CdeG, E65Ross and IdiotGap. I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to meet everyone else. There has to be a next time...

[r129sl]

My r129 needs some attention now. There's a bit of mechanical work required then a bit of bodywork. That'll be it for this year. I probably won't start on the r129's bodywork until after the summer.

[r129sl]

An update.

The car turned 300,000miles the other day having provided good service without incident since April last year. I have serviced it myself about four times, an easy job; I do the fuel filter every other time.




The car has taken us as a family to Belgium, loaded with gear:




And to Scotland yet again:




Unfortunately, a rear wheel bearing then failed and the rear wheel fell off! This was attributable to bad workmanship by the dealer who fitted new rear wheel bearings in December 2012. They failed to secure the crown nut on the end of the driveshaft on both sides. Hey ho, little harm done except to my pride and bank balance. New driveshaft, wheel bearing, hub flange, rear discs and pads and one rear calliper £788 plus £75 recovering the car and getting it to my mechanic. I also managed to duff the rear bumper on a post and last night my wife duffed the front bumper to match. I'll get these fixed next week.




When it is looking so sad and when it is suffering the worst of the winter's dirt, it is easy to forget what a super car this is. I took these pictures at the end of the summer:








I will report the cost of the bumper repairs. I anticipate it will be about £300 including some parts. I have also bought an Alpine KTP-445U add-on amplifier (£118) which will be concealed in the dashboard. The intention is to get more out of the Rainbow speakers which you will recall I fitted to the dash. They seem to lack volume and clarity, so I am hoping this little booster will make a difference. http://www.alpine-usa.com/product/view/ktp-445u . I don't know whether to put Rainbow DL-X4 co-axial speakers in the rear doors. Might, might not, we'll see. I have also noticed an exhaust heat shield has come loose, so I will have to get that fixed. It has come loose because one of the screw holes in it has rotted out wider than the screw. I am just going to fit a big washer for the time being rather than spend £80 on a new item.

Edited by r129sl on Wednesday 18th February 13:06