Considering another 500E for my fleet (video attached)

[e500.org]

Considering adding a 500E to my fleet, like many of you I'm addicted to these cars and this one is being sold for a fair price. The plan would be to probably send it back to the UK at some point as a driver there. Needs some bodywork but seems to be a nice foundation for restoring.

I would want to make it as good as possible.

Good to hear your thoughts! For those more experienced a punch list would be good!

 

[dionphaneuf]

Looks nice! I need to polish mine so it looks like this one

 

[Jlaa]

Considering adding a 500E to my fleet, like many of you I'm addicted to these cars and this one is being sold for a fair price. The plan would be to probably send it back to the UK at some point as a driver there. Needs some bodywork but seems to be a nice foundation for restoring.

I would want to make it as good as possible.

Good to hear your thoughts! For those more experienced a punch list would be good!

Thanks. Who is shooting / narrating the video? The person knows these cars really well! I watched the whole video. I felt that the car has lived a very hard 136,000 kilometers.

It had way too much rust for my liking, as well, the video showed rust under the right rear wheel opening fender lip too (and forget to mention it). Wiring bodges, lots of corroded fasteners, rust in the trunk around the battery, rust in the upper left portion of the trunk, rust in the rear left door jamb, lots of miscellaneous rust ugh. Who knows how much rust is below the battery tray too. I bet a lot. I bet you'd want to replace the battery area sheet metal, and that piece is definitely NLA.

Lots of deferred maintenance - As well, underneath, there's surface rust everywhere. Are new front control arms avail? Clearly all the steering components / drag link / steering damper need to be replaced. Trans mount gone? This means more than likely one is gonna need new motor mounts? Needs flex discs. Rear CV joint boots are cracking? Weird wiring in the front wheel well and yet more weird additional blade fuse on the LF shock tower. It just looked like a hot mess underneath to me. Maybe I'm spoiled living in a place without much rain and no snow.

Interestingly enough, you can tell some effort was put into the maintenance - new door limiting straps on the front doors (b/c they are gold) and new aft rear subframe mounts.

I dunno. If you are a meticulous kind of person, I can easily see USD 25K+ worth of work put into this car, assuming you can get all the parts. The punch list for a meticulous person would be a mile long.

 

[szvook]

I almost want to say get a 500E instead of another E500, but if you can get a good price on this one and are willing to put some coin into fixing it, go for it.

 

[e500.org]

I almost want to say get a 500E instead of another E500, but if you can get a good price on this one and are willing to put some coin into fixing it, go for it.

Its actually a 500E from birth (1992), a prior owner in Japan facelifted it to an E500 before it arrived in the UAE. If I bought the car I would probably would revert it to a pre facelift car with the painted bumpers and unpainted impact strips (as I already have a colour coded 94 E500).

Luckily I have headlamps for 500E, body panels should be relatively straightforward to source.

 

[e500.org]

Thanks. Who is shooting / narrating the video? The person knows these cars really well! I watched the whole video. I felt that the car has lived a very hard 136,000 kilometers.

It had way too much rust for my liking, as well, the video showed rust under the right rear wheel opening fender lip too (and forget to mention it). Wiring bodges, lots of corroded fasteners, rust in the trunk around the battery, rust in the upper left portion of the trunk, rust in the rear left door jamb, lots of miscellaneous rust ugh. Who knows how much rust is below the battery tray too. I bet a lot. I bet you'd want to replace the battery area sheet metal, and that piece is definitely NLA.

Lots of deferred maintenance - As well, underneath, there's surface rust everywhere. Are new front control arms avail? Clearly all the steering components / drag link / steering damper need to be replaced. Trans mount gone? This means more than likely one is gonna need new motor mounts? Needs flex discs. Rear CV joint boots are cracking? Weird wiring in the front wheel well and yet more weird additional blade fuse on the LF shock tower. It just looked like a hot mess underneath to me. Maybe I'm spoiled living in a place without much rain and no snow.

Interestingly enough, you can tell some effort was put into the maintenance - new door limiting straps on the front doors (b/c they are gold) and new aft rear subframe mounts.

I dunno. If you are a meticulous kind of person, I can easily see USD 25K+ worth of work put into this car, assuming you can get all the parts. The punch list for a meticulous person would be a mile long.

Thanks, good insights. The problem is I am quite meticulous and whilst my E500 LTD was in very very good condition when I first bought it, I have still spent a small fortune getting it 100%. Admittedly it is still not there.

I did not spot the rust at the battery tray, need to look over that again, thanks. The car does appear to have had a hard life and previously wore 20" rims, hence the damage to the arches. Nothing that a good paint shop can't repair though if you did a full paint job. Luckily a good paint shop in Dubai won't set you back the earth, approx $3k for paint and prep.

Eagle eyed viewers will also note the SLS is gone. Current shocks are junk. I would not revert back to the SLS and rather fit something like OEM front shocks and KONI rears.

It's never going to win any awards but could make a very good driver. Prices are solid, especially in Europe, so a good candidate for UK import once done.

 

[e500.org]

Looks nice! I need to polish mine so it looks like this one

Trust me its much worse in real life

 

[gsxr]

How low is the price? As others have said, it will take a decent amount of $$$ to get this one sorted.

Random observations include: wrong spark plugs, and there shouldn't be 2 horns between the electric fans behind the grille (10:14). The missing strut stop buffer & dust boot, to me, indicate poor maintenance in general... ditto the rusted brake rotors and wheel bearing leakage... broken ball joint dust boots... missing both front fender liners... front brake dust shields both bent at the bottom... missing cooling ducts at bumper (20:32)... green coolant... eeeek. @Jlaa is correct, the punch list is extensive on this one, and that's not including cosmetics like paint.

BTW, the bracket shown at 14:50 at the center of the rear bumper, does appear original - just new? Unless he means it appears to be fabricated? There should be a bracket in that location, and it is shaped correctly. Also, the ball joints MUST be replaced with the boots that damaged. Those are the early LCA's with replaceable joints, just install new ones. Note this car has late 320mm brakes and the dust shield has a hole cut for clearance, plus the face of the LCA might have been ground for additional clearance.

The poor maintenance and rust all over would scare me away unless it was crazy cheap. This car had a HARD life, assuming the odometer reading is accurate. Is there documentation proving the odo reading? I own cars with ~220kmi (~350k kilometers) that are in far better condition. You'd pay more for my '92 up front but it wouldn't need nearly as much restoration work as this car will need.

 

[maw1124]

Man I love what YouTube has become... great walkover... I felt like I was inspecting a car for a friend... I agree with all that's been said up top... just depends on how low is the price of the car and how high is the price of your time and attention... basically how much of a project are you after... I'd probably pass on that one just because too much mangling has apparently been done already so getting it "right" is an illusion.

maw

 

[Jlaa]

I did not spot the rust at the battery tray, need to look over that again, thanks.

Both the battery tray and the sheetmetal of the car under the metal battery tray are especially vulnerable to rust.
Just FYI there is already rust here:



I am willing to bet that if you remove the battery and the metal battery tray underneath the battery .....



That there will be lots and lots and lots of rust. There might be so much rust that you need to cut all that out and start over with new trunk-floor / battery area sheet metal. If you have to cut away all that cancer, it might look like this:



But then you need to get new battery/trunk area sheet metal which looks like this:



The only problem is that this battery/trunk area sheetmetal is NLA and is very difficult to find. You typically will only be able to find this sheetmetal still attached to a donor car. I remember @lowman scoured the ends of the earth to find a donor car with in-tact battery/trunk area sheetmetal to replace his rusted battery/trunk area sheetmetal....

 

[TerryA]

Both the battery tray and the sheetmetal of the car under the metal battery tray are especially vulnerable to rust.
Just FYI there is already rust here:

View attachment 138230

I am willing to bet that if you remove the battery and the metal battery tray underneath the battery .....

View attachment 138231

That there will be lots and lots and lots of rust. There might be so much rust that you need to cut all that out and start over with new trunk-floor / battery area sheet metal. If you have to cut away all that cancer, it might look like this:

View attachment 138232

But then you need to get new battery/trunk area sheet metal which looks like this:

View attachment 138233

The only problem is that this battery/trunk area sheetmetal is NLA and is very difficult to find. You typically will only be able to find this sheetmetal still attached to a donor car. I remember @lowman scoured the ends of the earth to find a donor car with in-tact battery/trunk area sheetmetal to replace his rusted battery/trunk area sheetmetal....

Jlaa, Are you shamelessly flaunting your sheet metal again?

 

[e500.org]

Thanks all - my overall conclusion is going towards probably not purchasing this car, basically in my experience such cars need far more work than it would be to purchase a nice example in the long run and given how I am, I would not be satisfied with the car as-is, so therefore I would need to get all the work done and make it really nice. NLA is also a contributor to this discussion, for example the trim on the front wing is missing, battery tray, front headlight lenses, etc etc. The other point that slightly nags me is maybe I should try something else, I already have a very nice E500 and this car will not add anything to my driving experiences. Perhaps it is time to scratch an itch and purchase a W140 (get that out my system) in the 600 guise as I have always admired the M120 V12. Anyway I am still thinking and considering but usually my instinct turns out to be correct.

 

[maw1124]

The current Mercedes Enthusiast magazine features an interview with Porsche’s then technical manager for the 500E (here... https://www.500eboard.co/forums/threads/10-2021-mercedes-enthusiast.16998/). A data point that sticks out is the over 1,100 modified or bespoke components for the 500E over the 300E. That’s a LOT of NLA fodder; and food for thought when you already have a nice one. Another is that they were originally doing 10,000 units and the 479 over that started getting close to the limits for 10 years of spare parts. Whether MB decides to commission more spares is anyone’s guess; but Yes is a heady bet there.

maw