Hello All, I thought I would introduce myself since I’m somewhat new around here. My name is Steve, and I’ve been a Mercedes nut my whole life. I’ve been a MB dealer tech since 1992 here in the NW. It’s not only my profession, it’s also my passion. I have an addiction for 16v 190’s, 124’s, 126’s, and anything AMG. I absolutely love the 50’s-60’s cars (pontons, pagodas, 111 coupes, etc..) and help maintain a couple of local guy’s collections. I have a tool business that I run after hours where I specialize in MB specialty tools that I have designed and done R&D work for a manufacturer in Taiwan. I sell mainly on Amazon and eBay, so if there’s anything you need or have questions about, feel free to let me know.
Ok, enough about me. Here is a 124 wagon project that I’ve been working on for about 10 years. I’ve always loved the 124.036, but also love wagons and am of the opinion that MB made a mistake not making a 500TE. I wanted to build my own and started collecting parts for the project at least 10 years ago, parting out a couple 500E’s, about a dozen 400E/E420’s, half a dozen wagons and a couple C36 AMG’s.
While my plan was always to do a full wide body and V-8 swap, I’ve put off the V-8 swap for now because I just don’t have the time. I made a conscious decision to hold off on the V-8 swap because I know I would get half way through and the car would just sit for years because my 2 young boys are much more important to me at this stage of my life. So, I’ll be swapping in a 3.6l AMG M104 from a 1995 C36 because I know I can do it in a day and be done with it and that way I’ll get to enjoy the car with my boys.
I started with a really nice 1995 E320 blk/blk wagon that I bought about 6 years ago. I bought it from the second owner who had given up on it when the reverse stopped working, which most of you know is a pretty easy fix. It was a local car it’s whole life with just 2 owners and was a Starmark car. I fixed the transmission and drove the car daily for 3 years, then about 3 years ago decided to start with the body work. I had a pair of decent front fenders from a 500E I had parted, and also a couple sets of 500E quarters that I’d cut off of parts cars for the project. I started by stripping all the lower cladding and bumpers off at work one Saturday. Then got busy with the sheet metal work with some help from a neighbor who specializes in 993 Porsche’s.
After measuring and planning for several weeks, we cut the old quarters off at the original seams and spot welds on the inner wheelhouse. Then made some quick cuts on the outside to remove the outer skin so we could get an idea of how to mate the 500E quarters. We had to reform the door edge for the rear doors because the flare goes too far forward into the door jam and the angle is much different, so it had to be cut back. We then trimmed the donor quarter panel way down so that we wouldn’t have to reshape the fuel door opening, since the wagon’s is in a different spot than the sedan. After countless hours fitting/cutting/trimming the donor panel to the opening we had cut, it was finally tacked into place, then finish welded, filled, sanded and primed. I used Wurth undercoating to match the inner wheel well to the old finish and seal it from corrosion, then cleaned and painted the entire inner wheel wells. It now honestly looks completely factory and impossible to tell any work was done. It took much longer than I expected because I’m a crazy perfectionist when it comes to stuff like this, but I think the extra work was worth it.
Then it was time to swap the front end over to the 500E style, which I thought would be really simple, but instead took over a week because the donor fenders I had were terrible and took a lot of massaging to get to fit right. These were also filled, sanded and sealer primed. Then the car sat for about 6 months until I could get space in a friend’s body shop to start with the block sanding. Once there, the body was completely disassembled and blocked for weeks, constantly rehanging and removing parts as needed to get the lines all perfect. I was doing a complete color change, so all the jams and everything was prepped and fine sanded.
In about 2008 I had bought a full AMG original body kit with Gen2 front bumper from the dealership I work at. It took a little work fitting the AMG front and rear bumpers as I stretched them to fit the wider fenders/quarters. This was actually a little easier than I anticipated because the original AMG material is very flexible and forgiving. I had to make custom bumper mounts on for the sides on the front, because neither the 500E nor the standard E320 mounts would fit. In the rear I had to add some spacers to the side mounts where they attach to the body to get the bumper depth to look right. I decided to keep the chrome trim on the bumpers so it would match the chrome strips in the lower side cladding (which is not very normal on most AMG’s), and so drilling the bumpers was required to install the chrome trim strips. In the end, it actually helped to keep the bumper spread and in the correct shape even when removed from the vehicle so turned out to be very useful. The rear chrome trim was a little tricky because there is a little more gap than normal on the sides of the rear bumper, so I drilled the chrome strips to sit a little more inward to the body to hide the gap. It turned out much better than I expected., but took a lot of trial and error while fitting to get it to look right. The rocker panels on the side bolted up just fine, but the fitment at the front edge is still not perfect and I will need to do some adjustments to get it right.
I also filled the antenna hole before finishing blocking for a cleaner look. The car was then sprayed on New Year’s day 2013 with a complete color change to black opal (code 189), which is my favorite color. We put the clear on really heavy (5 coats!) and baked it, then let it cure for about 2 months before hanging the doors back on and started wet sanding. Most of the wet sanding was done by a good friend who owns a local detail shop, because honestly I was paranoid about cutting through. After a month of wet sanding and polishing, I brought the car back home and have been slowly reassembling when I have free time.
The last few pictures I took a couple months ago and are pretty close to what it looks like now. I still have some final assembly to do on the body and interior. I have a full ‘silver arrow’ brake upgrade I need to do. I need to decide which wheels to keep on it. I also need to go through my 3.6l AMG donor and get it swapped in. My goal is to have it done and ready for the local MBCA show n’ shine in August, which has been my goal every year for the last 2 years……maybe this year I’ll actually make it happen!!
And while I'm uploading pics, here's my nicest 16v and my daily driver E55.
Ok, enough about me. Here is a 124 wagon project that I’ve been working on for about 10 years. I’ve always loved the 124.036, but also love wagons and am of the opinion that MB made a mistake not making a 500TE. I wanted to build my own and started collecting parts for the project at least 10 years ago, parting out a couple 500E’s, about a dozen 400E/E420’s, half a dozen wagons and a couple C36 AMG’s.
While my plan was always to do a full wide body and V-8 swap, I’ve put off the V-8 swap for now because I just don’t have the time. I made a conscious decision to hold off on the V-8 swap because I know I would get half way through and the car would just sit for years because my 2 young boys are much more important to me at this stage of my life. So, I’ll be swapping in a 3.6l AMG M104 from a 1995 C36 because I know I can do it in a day and be done with it and that way I’ll get to enjoy the car with my boys.
I started with a really nice 1995 E320 blk/blk wagon that I bought about 6 years ago. I bought it from the second owner who had given up on it when the reverse stopped working, which most of you know is a pretty easy fix. It was a local car it’s whole life with just 2 owners and was a Starmark car. I fixed the transmission and drove the car daily for 3 years, then about 3 years ago decided to start with the body work. I had a pair of decent front fenders from a 500E I had parted, and also a couple sets of 500E quarters that I’d cut off of parts cars for the project. I started by stripping all the lower cladding and bumpers off at work one Saturday. Then got busy with the sheet metal work with some help from a neighbor who specializes in 993 Porsche’s.
After measuring and planning for several weeks, we cut the old quarters off at the original seams and spot welds on the inner wheelhouse. Then made some quick cuts on the outside to remove the outer skin so we could get an idea of how to mate the 500E quarters. We had to reform the door edge for the rear doors because the flare goes too far forward into the door jam and the angle is much different, so it had to be cut back. We then trimmed the donor quarter panel way down so that we wouldn’t have to reshape the fuel door opening, since the wagon’s is in a different spot than the sedan. After countless hours fitting/cutting/trimming the donor panel to the opening we had cut, it was finally tacked into place, then finish welded, filled, sanded and primed. I used Wurth undercoating to match the inner wheel well to the old finish and seal it from corrosion, then cleaned and painted the entire inner wheel wells. It now honestly looks completely factory and impossible to tell any work was done. It took much longer than I expected because I’m a crazy perfectionist when it comes to stuff like this, but I think the extra work was worth it.
Then it was time to swap the front end over to the 500E style, which I thought would be really simple, but instead took over a week because the donor fenders I had were terrible and took a lot of massaging to get to fit right. These were also filled, sanded and sealer primed. Then the car sat for about 6 months until I could get space in a friend’s body shop to start with the block sanding. Once there, the body was completely disassembled and blocked for weeks, constantly rehanging and removing parts as needed to get the lines all perfect. I was doing a complete color change, so all the jams and everything was prepped and fine sanded.
In about 2008 I had bought a full AMG original body kit with Gen2 front bumper from the dealership I work at. It took a little work fitting the AMG front and rear bumpers as I stretched them to fit the wider fenders/quarters. This was actually a little easier than I anticipated because the original AMG material is very flexible and forgiving. I had to make custom bumper mounts on for the sides on the front, because neither the 500E nor the standard E320 mounts would fit. In the rear I had to add some spacers to the side mounts where they attach to the body to get the bumper depth to look right. I decided to keep the chrome trim on the bumpers so it would match the chrome strips in the lower side cladding (which is not very normal on most AMG’s), and so drilling the bumpers was required to install the chrome trim strips. In the end, it actually helped to keep the bumper spread and in the correct shape even when removed from the vehicle so turned out to be very useful. The rear chrome trim was a little tricky because there is a little more gap than normal on the sides of the rear bumper, so I drilled the chrome strips to sit a little more inward to the body to hide the gap. It turned out much better than I expected., but took a lot of trial and error while fitting to get it to look right. The rocker panels on the side bolted up just fine, but the fitment at the front edge is still not perfect and I will need to do some adjustments to get it right.
I also filled the antenna hole before finishing blocking for a cleaner look. The car was then sprayed on New Year’s day 2013 with a complete color change to black opal (code 189), which is my favorite color. We put the clear on really heavy (5 coats!) and baked it, then let it cure for about 2 months before hanging the doors back on and started wet sanding. Most of the wet sanding was done by a good friend who owns a local detail shop, because honestly I was paranoid about cutting through. After a month of wet sanding and polishing, I brought the car back home and have been slowly reassembling when I have free time.
The last few pictures I took a couple months ago and are pretty close to what it looks like now. I still have some final assembly to do on the body and interior. I have a full ‘silver arrow’ brake upgrade I need to do. I need to decide which wheels to keep on it. I also need to go through my 3.6l AMG donor and get it swapped in. My goal is to have it done and ready for the local MBCA show n’ shine in August, which has been my goal every year for the last 2 years……maybe this year I’ll actually make it happen!!
And while I'm uploading pics, here's my nicest 16v and my daily driver E55.
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Fantastic work Steve!
neil
