Mercedes 129 titivation
Discussion
Alternatively, you could order a sample size leather cleaner.
bolidemichael said:
Alternatively, you could order a sample size leather cleaner.
Sadly the shipping charges make it more costly than 500ml of Autoglym delivered to your doorstep.ferrisbueller said:
bolidemichael said:
Alternatively, you could order a sample size leather cleaner.
Sadly the shipping charges make it more costly than 500ml of Autoglym delivered to your doorstep.bolidemichael said:
ferrisbueller said:
bolidemichael said:
Alternatively, you could order a sample size leather cleaner.
Sadly the shipping charges make it more costly than 500ml of Autoglym delivered to your doorstep.
I have Autoglym in the garage, not just Leather Cleaner but Leather Balm, too. It's like Aladdin's cave in there.
Well what a successful day in the garage. For the first time ever, I came out richer than I went in. I cleaned up the new driver's seat back with the aforementioned Autoglym products. Is it just me or does leather cleaner never really make much difference? I reverted to Bilt Hamber Surfex HD. Then when the cushion was dry, I put the balm on. Transformative. Not. Not my hands still smell nice.
I set about removing the seat cushions. This is very easy and well-documented on the internet. Even I couldn't cock it up. Under the base I found £12-odd in change, some missing Lego including a rare Lego brain and a lot of Panini wrappers from the 2018 World Cup. Mid you, £3 was in old pound coins. Can you still cash those in? What I was most pleased about was the wooden box from a dancing bug.
Here you can see the difference between old and new. That is 290,000 miles for you, hardly surprising. If I was a fat b
d, I imagine it would be a lot worse but, as the ladies of the north east will rush to tell you, a fat bd I am not.
While I had it out, I did the same cleaning job on the base cushion but it is showing its age but it is not too bad. I'll keep my eyes peeled for another one from a LHD market.
Well what a successful day in the garage. For the first time ever, I came out richer than I went in. I cleaned up the new driver's seat back with the aforementioned Autoglym products. Is it just me or does leather cleaner never really make much difference? I reverted to Bilt Hamber Surfex HD. Then when the cushion was dry, I put the balm on. Transformative. Not. Not my hands still smell nice.
I set about removing the seat cushions. This is very easy and well-documented on the internet. Even I couldn't cock it up. Under the base I found £12-odd in change, some missing Lego including a rare Lego brain and a lot of Panini wrappers from the 2018 World Cup. Mid you, £3 was in old pound coins. Can you still cash those in? What I was most pleased about was the wooden box from a dancing bug.
Here you can see the difference between old and new. That is 290,000 miles for you, hardly surprising. If I was a fat b
d, I imagine it would be a lot worse but, as the ladies of the north east will rush to tell you, a fat bd I am not.While I had it out, I did the same cleaning job on the base cushion but it is showing its age but it is not too bad. I'll keep my eyes peeled for another one from a LHD market.
Great job there JR looks much better. I love following your Mercedes thread especially this one.
I have decided to use my SL320 40th anniversary as my daily now as standing around is not doing it much good. My 500SL R107 has done nothing this year apart from sleep under a cover in the garage.
The E320 Cabriolet with the Wiesmann hardtop is getting sold, need to consolidate a little and the house needs some new windows!
Keep up the good work!
I have decided to use my SL320 40th anniversary as my daily now as standing around is not doing it much good. My 500SL R107 has done nothing this year apart from sleep under a cover in the garage.
The E320 Cabriolet with the Wiesmann hardtop is getting sold, need to consolidate a little and the house needs some new windows!
Keep up the good work!
300sl-24 said:
Great job there JR looks much better. I love following your Mercedes thread especially this one.
I have decided to use my SL320 40th anniversary as my daily now as standing around is not doing it much good. My 500SL R107 has done nothing this year apart from sleep under a cover in the garage.
The E320 Cabriolet with the Wiesmann hardtop is getting sold, need to consolidate a little and the house needs some new windows!
Keep up the good work!
How about your estate? What's that going to be used for?I have decided to use my SL320 40th anniversary as my daily now as standing around is not doing it much good. My 500SL R107 has done nothing this year apart from sleep under a cover in the garage.
The E320 Cabriolet with the Wiesmann hardtop is getting sold, need to consolidate a little and the house needs some new windows!
Keep up the good work!
And a question for the salad-embracing OP, what's a Lego brain? A photo would be welcome.
bolidemichael said:
How about your estate? What's that going to be used for?
And a question for the salad-embracing OP, what's a Lego brain? A photo would be welcome.
Hi Michael,And a question for the salad-embracing OP, what's a Lego brain? A photo would be welcome.
The W211 is used mainly by my wife, however I will use it when the weather is really bad (like now!) after 12 years of ownership that is going nowhere.
The Subaru Legacy manual Spec B Estate went to a new owner on Saturday (just as the snow came) as it really was one car too many. The E320 Sportline Cabrio is also currently up for sale.
Edited by 300sl-24 on Monday 8th February 09:24
I have been very quiet on here but I have been using the car, working on it, having work done on it and planning more work for it.
I am still keen on a 5.5litre engine swap. Bugger originality, I just want to go faster. I went down to Swansea the other day, via Birmingham on the way and then Kenilworth on the return and the car still has what it takes to cover ground seriously fast. North of Doncaster on the well-known A1(M)-ring, I was able to knock along at 120 to 140mph for long, long stretches of time. And, of course, it is in daily use now the sun has arrived in Geordieland.
It needs new front lower control arms. These have arrived, along with a fan clutch, and await Baister's attention.
This evening, I changed the hydraulic oil in the roof mechanism. This is a very easy job. The hardest part is removing several years' worth of crap from the boot. Then haul out the spare wheel, remove the pump cover (3 x 10mm plastic nuts), take the lid off the pump reservoir, take the return line off the pump (11mm spanner), put the return line in an empty bottle, cycle roof and roll bar, adding fresh fluid each time, continue until fluid is clear.
I used about 2litres of Febi 02615 (about £5 a bottle), the system capacity is 1.25L. I was scrupulously clean: I even cleaned the funnel with brake cleaner before using it. While I was in there, I cleaned out years of debris and then sprayed the little bits of rust with ACF50. Obviously, I had no idea which line was the return line, took a 50:50 chance, removed the supply line, pumped fluid all over the boot floor, before realising the error of my ways. The original fluid was black, the new fluid is transparent. A worthwhile exercise and beats talking to the wife.
Spare wheel well sans spare wheel:
A rather dirty wheel well. The return line has been removed and placed into a bottle. Now cycle the roof. You can see the fluid is very dark.
Nice new fluid and a slightly tidier well.
The various products in my "stores":
I am still keen on a 5.5litre engine swap. Bugger originality, I just want to go faster. I went down to Swansea the other day, via Birmingham on the way and then Kenilworth on the return and the car still has what it takes to cover ground seriously fast. North of Doncaster on the well-known A1(M)-ring, I was able to knock along at 120 to 140mph for long, long stretches of time. And, of course, it is in daily use now the sun has arrived in Geordieland.
It needs new front lower control arms. These have arrived, along with a fan clutch, and await Baister's attention.
This evening, I changed the hydraulic oil in the roof mechanism. This is a very easy job. The hardest part is removing several years' worth of crap from the boot. Then haul out the spare wheel, remove the pump cover (3 x 10mm plastic nuts), take the lid off the pump reservoir, take the return line off the pump (11mm spanner), put the return line in an empty bottle, cycle roof and roll bar, adding fresh fluid each time, continue until fluid is clear.
I used about 2litres of Febi 02615 (about £5 a bottle), the system capacity is 1.25L. I was scrupulously clean: I even cleaned the funnel with brake cleaner before using it. While I was in there, I cleaned out years of debris and then sprayed the little bits of rust with ACF50. Obviously, I had no idea which line was the return line, took a 50:50 chance, removed the supply line, pumped fluid all over the boot floor, before realising the error of my ways. The original fluid was black, the new fluid is transparent. A worthwhile exercise and beats talking to the wife.
Spare wheel well sans spare wheel:
A rather dirty wheel well. The return line has been removed and placed into a bottle. Now cycle the roof. You can see the fluid is very dark.
Nice new fluid and a slightly tidier well.
The various products in my "stores":
Thanks for the update, it's quite timely. Since I got my SL55 4 years ago my 1994 SL320 has been getting neglected and hardly driven which in turn has lead to glitches and less attention and mileage.
I've the 55 almost perfect and will probably sell it and that means either fettling the R129 or also selling it as is. I put a new battery into it recently and the improvement is noticeable. It starts and idles better, the hood works perfectly everytime, there's very little rust visible or underneath by looks of it. Last Sunday I gave it a good inspection with the roof half open. I shone a torch down into the rear hydraulic cylinders and they seem to be dry, no leaks. The reservoir in the boot is also at a good level but that's something I'm keen to refresh. My boot area was rust free too.
My fear is am I better leaving well alone? The colour isn't too dark either. Is that Febi fluid better or the same as the Pentosin? Main priority will be getting it serviced and used more as they hate inactivity.
As much as I like my 55, I have a love for the older car as it's such a simple yet tough unit. When funds allow it will get some paint and tidy up. The driver's seat does fold forward and the side bolster was rough when I bought it.
Keep up the good work!
I've the 55 almost perfect and will probably sell it and that means either fettling the R129 or also selling it as is. I put a new battery into it recently and the improvement is noticeable. It starts and idles better, the hood works perfectly everytime, there's very little rust visible or underneath by looks of it. Last Sunday I gave it a good inspection with the roof half open. I shone a torch down into the rear hydraulic cylinders and they seem to be dry, no leaks. The reservoir in the boot is also at a good level but that's something I'm keen to refresh. My boot area was rust free too.
My fear is am I better leaving well alone? The colour isn't too dark either. Is that Febi fluid better or the same as the Pentosin? Main priority will be getting it serviced and used more as they hate inactivity.
As much as I like my 55, I have a love for the older car as it's such a simple yet tough unit. When funds allow it will get some paint and tidy up. The driver's seat does fold forward and the side bolster was rough when I bought it.
Keep up the good work!
EdmondDantes said:
Great thread, I'm looking at getting a jdm import (no rust) in a couple of years time if they are still obtainable!
I guess that must be a RHD drive because in Texas, I have two completely rust free 6 cylinder cars that I will likely sell for what they weigh on the scales once I take off what I need from them.
On the subject of SL500 performance, boy one and I ran down to Goodwood for the Festival of Speed this weekend. En route we took M6 toll. Coming out of the tollgate, we had a drag race with a new Toyota Supra. It must have been the cooking model but even so, it is a car with 258bhp weighing 1,470kg, with a super-modern multi-ratio automatic transmission and a quoted 0-60mpg time of 5.2seconds. To my astonishment (and that of the Supra's passenger), my r129 kept pace up to about 85 and then edged away. Boy one was desperate to take M6 toll on the way home...
As for the way home, we covered 360miles in 4hrs40minutes on the road (we stopped for a bite to eat at Leeming Bar services and fell through a wormhole into the 1970s). The 137 speed-camera-infested miles M25/M1 to M1/M18 were dispatched in 1hr35mins. Although the journey average was only 77mph, the first 20miles were on very slow (but rather nice) local roads, there was that endless average speed section north of Luton, and on the whole I kept the speed below 110mph just in case. Mpg was 25.4.
For a 22 year old car with 296,000 miles on the clock, for a 32 year old design, the r129 is a remarkable vehicle for covering real world ground fast. Even though prices are on the rise, they represent an enormous amount of car for the money. The m113 5.0litre V8 is very flexible (as the flat torque curve suggests) and is just the ticket for making progress at real world fast cruising speeds.
As for the way home, we covered 360miles in 4hrs40minutes on the road (we stopped for a bite to eat at Leeming Bar services and fell through a wormhole into the 1970s). The 137 speed-camera-infested miles M25/M1 to M1/M18 were dispatched in 1hr35mins. Although the journey average was only 77mph, the first 20miles were on very slow (but rather nice) local roads, there was that endless average speed section north of Luton, and on the whole I kept the speed below 110mph just in case. Mpg was 25.4.
For a 22 year old car with 296,000 miles on the clock, for a 32 year old design, the r129 is a remarkable vehicle for covering real world ground fast. Even though prices are on the rise, they represent an enormous amount of car for the money. The m113 5.0litre V8 is very flexible (as the flat torque curve suggests) and is just the ticket for making progress at real world fast cruising speeds.
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff