CLK430 W208 Project
Discussion
My car ownership history involves an extensive list of old and new cars. To note a few so you get an idea of the different cars I have owned:
BMW 330ci E46
Ford Fiesta ST mk7
BMW Z4 e85 3.0
BMW M135i (decat + JB4 @ approx. 380bhp)
Audi TTS mk2 (stage 1.5)
I am no self-confessed driving god but I enjoy driving. With the arrival of our first child, I decided it would be wise to own something a little bit more sensible (although my wife has a mk5 Golf GT Sport Diesel which may just be all the car anyone ever needs!). A good friend who is a huge Mercedes aficionado owns a number of old German classics has had a C32 AMG for a number of years swore by it and somehow convinced me to look into these. I was looking every now and then on Autotrader but these are quite rare cars and nothing came up that really tickled me...until this popped up:
A C32 AMG estate! Now this is a particularly rare beast. HML reckons 250 C32s are on the road and I imagine a very small number of these are in estate guise. This one was owned by a previous enthusiastic and a lot of tasteful modcons had already been done (Android Auto head unit, rear parking cameras etc). This one had even been LPG converted so the man maths meant running costs would be comparable to a diesel. Happy days. Most people know that Mercedes of this era were not built with the same level of rust-proofing they used to be and this car definitely suffers from a bit of this. Nothing horrendous and it may be something I sort out in the future. I have owned it for about three months now and done the usual stuff I do to get the car driving the way I want (service, brakes, tyres and wheel alignment)
So for the first time, I now owned a V6. A supercharged hand-built V6 at that. I now had another scratch I wanted to itch...the V8 itch! I was looking on Facebook marketplace for nothing in particular and I stumbled across a very cheap, old 4.3L V8 German muscle car. A few messages later and a deal was agreed. I wasn't paying a lot of money and I wasn't travelling far so felt fairly low risk. After setting out and a few hours later, I was home with this:
This is a CLK430 Avantgarde. This was the top of the range model before the CLK55 AMG. The CLK430 still comes with the much coveted M113 V8 engine that made its way into numerous AMG models but in this variant, it a 4.3 V8 pushing about 280bhp. So its no slouch but of course will not have the same sort of tenacity as the AMG versions. This car is also equipped with the 722.6 5-speed gearbox which is just a tremendous piece of engineering even by today's standards. I read this gearbox is still in production today!
Since owning it, I have done the oil service, oil filter change and air filter change. Upcoming services still are rear brake pads, cabin filter and transmission fluid change. I felt the car looked far too understated for a car packing such an enormous engine so I bought a body kit from eBay which arrived last week. The car is currently in a body shop having the body kit fitted and the rust on arches being attended do. Updates to follow!
BMW 330ci E46
Ford Fiesta ST mk7
BMW Z4 e85 3.0
BMW M135i (decat + JB4 @ approx. 380bhp)
Audi TTS mk2 (stage 1.5)
I am no self-confessed driving god but I enjoy driving. With the arrival of our first child, I decided it would be wise to own something a little bit more sensible (although my wife has a mk5 Golf GT Sport Diesel which may just be all the car anyone ever needs!). A good friend who is a huge Mercedes aficionado owns a number of old German classics has had a C32 AMG for a number of years swore by it and somehow convinced me to look into these. I was looking every now and then on Autotrader but these are quite rare cars and nothing came up that really tickled me...until this popped up:
A C32 AMG estate! Now this is a particularly rare beast. HML reckons 250 C32s are on the road and I imagine a very small number of these are in estate guise. This one was owned by a previous enthusiastic and a lot of tasteful modcons had already been done (Android Auto head unit, rear parking cameras etc). This one had even been LPG converted so the man maths meant running costs would be comparable to a diesel. Happy days. Most people know that Mercedes of this era were not built with the same level of rust-proofing they used to be and this car definitely suffers from a bit of this. Nothing horrendous and it may be something I sort out in the future. I have owned it for about three months now and done the usual stuff I do to get the car driving the way I want (service, brakes, tyres and wheel alignment)
So for the first time, I now owned a V6. A supercharged hand-built V6 at that. I now had another scratch I wanted to itch...the V8 itch! I was looking on Facebook marketplace for nothing in particular and I stumbled across a very cheap, old 4.3L V8 German muscle car. A few messages later and a deal was agreed. I wasn't paying a lot of money and I wasn't travelling far so felt fairly low risk. After setting out and a few hours later, I was home with this:
This is a CLK430 Avantgarde. This was the top of the range model before the CLK55 AMG. The CLK430 still comes with the much coveted M113 V8 engine that made its way into numerous AMG models but in this variant, it a 4.3 V8 pushing about 280bhp. So its no slouch but of course will not have the same sort of tenacity as the AMG versions. This car is also equipped with the 722.6 5-speed gearbox which is just a tremendous piece of engineering even by today's standards. I read this gearbox is still in production today!
Since owning it, I have done the oil service, oil filter change and air filter change. Upcoming services still are rear brake pads, cabin filter and transmission fluid change. I felt the car looked far too understated for a car packing such an enormous engine so I bought a body kit from eBay which arrived last week. The car is currently in a body shop having the body kit fitted and the rust on arches being attended do. Updates to follow!
Edited by ahmedre88 on Saturday 4th April 00:50
Edited by ahmedre88 on Tuesday 28th April 17:24
I've been a BMW lover for years, but I'm on my first Mercedes now which is a C207 E Class coupe and I'm loving it. I wish I had either of your engines in mine though, mines a oil burner. Is it just panel rust on those CLK's or do things like sills go too?I believe its just panel rust. Depending on where you read, supposedly the accountants at Mercedes wanted to save money and skimped on there galvanising spend. Such a shame as there are some great Mercs from this era. My plan is to give the car a deep clean under the car and then coat with Waxoyl to take some preventative measures.
I've had the car back from the bodyshop now. They completely resprayed the car and have fitted a new body kit:
A couple of things a I have learnt about buying a £250 body kit from Poland on eBay - these are bad quality and fitting is far from perfect! lol The only thing that fitted well was the rear bumper! The side skirts had some gaps after fitting which I addressed with black silicon sealant which actually blended in well with the bodywork. The front bumper did not align correctly to the original fixtures either! Suffice to say, I am still quite pleased with the results. I took the time to also plastidip the front grill and changed the badge to a black flat emblem.
The long Easter break gave me the opportunity to work on a couple of other bits. The driver side door only wants to go down half way and would often get stuck.
I lubricated the rubber seals and it no longer gets stuck but the window still doesn't want to go below halfway! Still needs further investigating. I also decided to replace the rear pads. I had never seen pads fused this badly to the calipers before! The retaining pins were also heavily corroded and were a nightmare to remove. Replacing the pads on these shouldn't take any longer than an hour but after a lot of swearing and persistence, I got some new Brembo pads fitted:
A couple of things a I have learnt about buying a £250 body kit from Poland on eBay - these are bad quality and fitting is far from perfect! lol The only thing that fitted well was the rear bumper! The side skirts had some gaps after fitting which I addressed with black silicon sealant which actually blended in well with the bodywork. The front bumper did not align correctly to the original fixtures either! Suffice to say, I am still quite pleased with the results. I took the time to also plastidip the front grill and changed the badge to a black flat emblem.
The long Easter break gave me the opportunity to work on a couple of other bits. The driver side door only wants to go down half way and would often get stuck.
I lubricated the rubber seals and it no longer gets stuck but the window still doesn't want to go below halfway! Still needs further investigating. I also decided to replace the rear pads. I had never seen pads fused this badly to the calipers before! The retaining pins were also heavily corroded and were a nightmare to remove. Replacing the pads on these shouldn't take any longer than an hour but after a lot of swearing and persistence, I got some new Brembo pads fitted:
Edited by ahmedre88 on Tuesday 28th April 17:28
As a former owner of a W209 CLK430, you're a brave man.
I bought a cheap-ish one in winter because I fancied a v8 convertible to potter around London, and it could have potentially been a moneypit so I shipped it on after 6 months. It didn't have many miles, but it was showing signs of a tough life.
Mercifully it had no rust, but its steering was wayward and the setup was incredibly complex to replace. It also liked a drink of oil, and judging by the apparent reputation of the engine made this likely to be very costly.
It was fun while it lasted, but this definitely wasn't a high point in Mercedes engineering.
Curiously it was bought, sight unseen, and collected on a flatbed by a Mercedes 'collector' in the westcountry.
I bought a cheap-ish one in winter because I fancied a v8 convertible to potter around London, and it could have potentially been a moneypit so I shipped it on after 6 months. It didn't have many miles, but it was showing signs of a tough life.
Mercifully it had no rust, but its steering was wayward and the setup was incredibly complex to replace. It also liked a drink of oil, and judging by the apparent reputation of the engine made this likely to be very costly.
It was fun while it lasted, but this definitely wasn't a high point in Mercedes engineering.
Curiously it was bought, sight unseen, and collected on a flatbed by a Mercedes 'collector' in the westcountry.
ahmedre88 said:
I've had the car back from the bodyshop now. They completely resprayed the car and have fitted a new body kit:
A couple of things a I have learnt about buying a £250 body kit from Poland on eBay - these are bad quality and fitting is far from perfect! lol The only thing that fitted well was the rear bumper! The side skirts had some gaps after fitting which I addressed with black silicon sealant which actually blended in well with the bodywork. The front bumper did not align correctly to the original fixtures either! Suffice to say, I am still quite pleased with the results. I took the time to also plastidip the front grill and changed the badge to a black flat emblem.
The long Easter break gave me the opportunity to work on a couple of other bits. The driver side door only wants to go down half way and would often get stuck.
I lubricated the rubber seals and it no longer gets stuck but the window still doesn't want to go below halfway! Still needs further investigating. I also decided to replace the rear pads. I had never seen pads fused this badly to the calipers before! The retaining pins were also heavily corroded and were a nightmare to remove. Replacing the pads on these shouldn't take any longer than an hour but after a lot of swearing and persistence, I got some new Brembo pads fitted:
Nice. I have a cl500 with the m113 and it is a peach. Unfortunately I have corrosion issues also. Do you mind me asking the cost of the respray? Trying to find a cost effective solution...A couple of things a I have learnt about buying a £250 body kit from Poland on eBay - these are bad quality and fitting is far from perfect! lol The only thing that fitted well was the rear bumper! The side skirts had some gaps after fitting which I addressed with black silicon sealant which actually blended in well with the bodywork. The front bumper did not align correctly to the original fixtures either! Suffice to say, I am still quite pleased with the results. I took the time to also plastidip the front grill and changed the badge to a black flat emblem.
The long Easter break gave me the opportunity to work on a couple of other bits. The driver side door only wants to go down half way and would often get stuck.
I lubricated the rubber seals and it no longer gets stuck but the window still doesn't want to go below halfway! Still needs further investigating. I also decided to replace the rear pads. I had never seen pads fused this badly to the calipers before! The retaining pins were also heavily corroded and were a nightmare to remove. Replacing the pads on these shouldn't take any longer than an hour but after a lot of swearing and persistence, I got some new Brembo pads fitted:
Freenote - I paid £1000 to get the car resprayed
In terms of the paint looking flat, I think that's my fault. I had waxed the car and hastily tried removing the wax residue (and doing a bad job at that!). I've been meaning to wash the car again so will post some more pictures once the car is looking better
In terms of the paint looking flat, I think that's my fault. I had waxed the car and hastily tried removing the wax residue (and doing a bad job at that!). I've been meaning to wash the car again so will post some more pictures once the car is looking better
Edited by ahmedre88 on Wednesday 15th April 09:58
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