Justas22 / GG. - W126 SEC

[GG.]

Look close and you will see cracked solder joints.


Aliexpress FTW


Assembly. The dials are very delicate due to age.



Psst psst plastidip


Voila


The rear shelf was sooooo dusty that I was sneezing the entire evening.



Rear compartment lids before/after


Clean parts piling up. Everything is ready for assembly.


I lightly polished the exterior chrome trim. You can't be too agressive as it is aluminum with a very thin coating of chrome or nickel.


One of the headlight lenses was a little cracked. I sourced a good used lens.



The reflectors were just dirty, no problems there. Wiped them clean with a microfiber.


Need to wrap the lenses in PPF


As for the dessert: the engine is pretty much done.


Ceramic coated headers, just for looks.



This is the paint shop progress, dated last Thursday. It was primered one last time and should be painted by now.






Thank you for your attention!

[FUN500]

I am really impressed your passion level. As well as much as can see it is going right way. When you expect to finish the process and start to get satisfaction? For enthusiastic people process giving an emotional as well, but if this is not a commercial project, on my opinion you can not get full relax, until you become a one part with the car. I mean when you not just a regular driver on a regular car, but you know exactly what you expect to get, you predict car reaction and it response to you.

[GG.]

Pradžioje rašė FUN500

I am really impressed your passion level. As well as much as can see it is going right way. When you expect to finish the process and start to get satisfaction? For enthusiastic people process giving an emotional as well, but if this is not a commercial project, on my opinion you can not get full relax, until you become a one part with the car. I mean when you not just a regular driver on a regular car, but you know exactly what you expect to get, you predict car reaction and it response to you.

Thank you! For me, a big part of the satisfaction is the process of building and getting to know the car. When you put your hands on each and every little part, you sort of become one with the car, as you say. You know every little sound the car makes, you know what to expect. This is my first experience with Mercedes, and through this process, I really fell in love with these cars. The attention to detail is amazing, everything is engineered with longevity and repairability in mind.

I was hoping to be on the road around May/June, but due to the delays in the paintshop, I start to doubt that it will happen this season.

[FUN500]

How is about spare parts? Where are you getting? Because when I was looking couple specific parts for w126, I got 2-3 phone numbers from Riga and Liepaje, but due conversation, prices get me shocked.
What you gonna do with exaust system? Stock or? M117 has the most purest sound of all MB V8 engines.. IMHO

[GG.]

Pradžioje rašė FUN500

How is about spare parts? Where are you getting? Because when I was looking couple specific parts for w126, I got 2-3 phone numbers from Riga and Liepaje, but due conversation, prices get me shocked.
What you gonna do with exaust system? Stock or? M117 has the most purest sound of all MB V8 engines.. IMHO

Yeah, I know the guy from Liepaja, he is a perekupas His prices are astranomical. I have bought some things from him. Wear parts, like suspension etc are no problem, they all can be bought in standard shops. For small bits and pieces my friends at Family Garage in Riga always help me out and their prices are fair to say the least. Coupe specific parts are very expensive, but it makes sense, it is a pretty rare car and not that many of them are left on the market. Plus good ones usually don't get parted out. I paid 500Eur for a whole front bumper because I needed the middle chrome piece. I got the headlight lens with an entire headlight, swaped the lenses and sold the cracked one. The difference was about 150eur. The biggest problem is the rather unique interior. There are veeeeery little coupes with the Palomino/Dattel interior in velour.

For the exhaust I want to do a replica of AMG exhaust. When I bought the car, it was very quiet, and I only later realized that the two middle exhaust silencers (the kidneys) are removed and there was only the catalyst and rear silencer. But it still was very quiet. I don't want it to be loud, as I like driving a lot, especially long trips.

[GG.]

Good evening, keeping the thread alive. Not much progress, but it is moving forward.

Started working on the belt presenters that worked intermittently. Turns out the plastic gears are partially stripped and one of the microswitches was dangling in the air.





Since I had to learn solidworks for another project recently, I figured out I will sketch and print the gears myself from nylon plastic.
While working on the mechanism, I really appreciated the very analog overload protection built in to the mechanism. When there is too much resistance on the belt presenter arm, the part that holds the bigger gear swings downward and presses the mircoswitch that stops the motor. Fantastic and very analog design to avoid damaging the gears and/or motor.

Next up, I restored the rain tray plastic. The car did not have these parts, so I bought used ones. They were wrapped in plastic and I did not check them when buying. Turns out they were covered in silicone (appearantly somebody tried to repair a leaking winscreen) and the metal mesh was all bent.

Kinks in the mesh


Sketching the lost shape of the mesh


Wooden blocks and a rubber mallet do wonders.


Pssst pssst


The glovebox looked like it had suffered water damage, it was too deformed to restore.


I bought a good used glovebox plus some bits and bobs for the interior.


The seats will not be reupholstered at this time, since I cant find the striped fabric. But I still needed some fabric for other parts, namely the rear parcel shelf and rear door cards. I found a matching fabric in a local upholstery store. Given the fact that the original fabric is very faded, the match is perfect.


Somebody along the way had installed a "very neccesary" thrid brake light by drilling holes in the parcel shelf.


I removed the original fabric which was super fragile from the UV damage.


Making the template



Heat resistant adhesive does magic




I think it turned out very good!

[GG.]

Part 2, too many images.

When I was removing the rear door cards, I noticed that the middle inserts are DIY handmade. They were made from laminated pressed cardboard, covered in sintepon and wrapped in gray faux leather that was spray painted beige to match the interior. It was held in place with supeglue and double sided tape.



It looked very grim, everything is dirty and covered in glue.


Yikes, it is a bit dirty.


I spent a few hours with a scalpel, scraping off the excess glue from the vinyl.


Continuing the DIY theme, I used the existing laminated cardboard as a backing plate. I trimmed it slightly so it fit better and compensated for the thickness of fabric. I then laid down some foam to make it softer and to make it look more 3d.


Making my own template.


I think it looks much better now. The inserts are supposed to be striped, same as the front door cards. But I think the difference won't be that obvious. I could not find original replacements, so I had to get creative.


10 months later FINALLY the car is painted. I am about 80% satisfied, but I must say that I am super picky about bodywork and paint. So it actually is very good.

Blauschwarz metallic 199


Engine bay is in semi-gloss








I love this color. Depending on the ambient lighting and environment it looks gray, bluish gray, black and even a bit golden. I have no idea why anybody thought it was a good idea to paint it in a different color. But I guess it was considered cool in the 2000s


I finally found a photo of a car that looks exactly like I imagine mine. Matching color bumpers and moldings, amg bodykit, chrome, amber turn signals and amg aero 3 wheels. It will look just like this when finished.


The engine and transmission are being installed next week. And then the rest of assembly. Thanks to the bodyshop I won't be able to drive it this season, but it will be ready for the next spring.