OWNER doolar

[doolar]

This is how the sunroof liner looks like, it looks way worse in the picture. I’ll clean it and of course the cassette, and check if it is good enough. If not I’ll clean until it is, and then reupholster the liner.

 

[500AMM]

That looks great, Thomas!

This brings back good memories from when I did sort of the same job on my first 124 back in 2000. That was a wagon so the headliner was the umbrella type held with bows. I took out the sunroof tray for cleaning, checking drainage, replacing a broken leading bridge and felt pads. I asked the dealer for advices on the sunroof alignment and got a horror story of how complicated that was. But all worries to no avail - just focused on function and it gave itself. The biggest issue was how surprisingly heavy the sunroof tray is!

 

[500AMM]

Installed the rest of the parts, no drama there. Finished the day off with Meguiars Air Freshener, I heard it was good. The car just smells of industrial cleaning products now, so I thought I’d give it a go. ”New Car Scent” - I suspect nobody at Meguiars ever bought or sat in a new car, because it smells good, but definitely not new car.

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@gerryvz - the forum definitely needs an "odor generator".

 

[doolar]

A lot going on with work, so I've had little time to work on the car. I've used it quite a bit though, which is nice.

I managed to clean out the sunroof cassette and clean enough of the residue on the sunroof lid liner, so I decided to keep it and not reupholster it.

I received the Bruno Sacco sticker:



I ordered these license plate holders, they are really clean and makes it easy to switch out the plates for show plates. When I removed the rear plate I found horror, someones murdered the holes and the plate holder was fastened with screws through these holes. I will use threaded inserts to fix this, but maybe I'll replace the rear lid since I have one in the same color:



The front one was easier:



I moved to a shared workshop, this is how it looks right now:



My two stroke 125cc is being worked on too:

 

[doolar]

Got the inserts riveted in, it’s not pretty, but it’ll do:



It’s obvious someone made a mess out of this a long time ago and did a piss poor repair. At least there’s no corrosion!

 

[500AMM]

Got the inserts riveted in, it’s not pretty, but it’ll do:

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It’s obvious someone made a mess out of this a long time ago and did a piss poor repair. At least there’s no corrosion!

I've seen this on many cars and I've been into this myself. The OE inserts are made of aluminium and after some use the threads may be stripped, frozen or snapped screws, or the insert start rotating when tightening the screws. So to replace the inserts people try to just drill them out, but then they start rotating and the fun starts with various ideas. But the cladding on the lid has to be removed to hold the inserts with a plier and then it's easy to drill them out.
Good job, Thomas - you recreated at least an OE solution, and those hacked wounds are hidden behind the reg.plate anyway.

 

[doolar]

I didn't post after- pictures of my headliner, so here they are! I’m very pleased, it’s not perfect but good enough.

It really made a huge difference to the interior replacing the old stained and sagging fabric with new.

 

[doolar]

A couple of pictures of the car today, I’ll never get tired of this design, it’s so perfect IMO!

 

[lowman]

I didn't post after- pictures of my headliner, so here they are! I’m very pleased, it’s not perfect but good enough.

It really made a huge difference to the interior replacing the old stained and sagging fabric with new.

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Looks amazing. Great work.I need to do this job aswell...but its going to be a nice winter project for me.

 

[doolar]

The front dash speakers were making a horrible noise with just a little bass and volume, so I thought they were busted. I know that it’s not the original speaker, but had no idea what was installed.

Found old Clarions that were just dropped in, so they were moving around making the ruckus, so they were not broken, just not fitted properly.

The speaker grille foam is crumbling so I removed all of it too.

Ordered ESX speakers made for the W124, they are 4 Ohms and quite alright.

Yep, that was a huge upgrade for little money and effort.

 

[doolar]

I had no idea someone made a 1:18 scale model of the 500 E in Nautical blue, so when I saw it I bought one, and here it is, almost identical to my car (wrong interior colour).

 

[lowman]

I had no idea someone made a 1:18 scale model of the 500 E in Nautical blue, so when I saw it I bought one, and here it is, almost identical to my car (wrong interior colour).

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Awesome On the hunt for a 1/18 scale 500e myself...but silver ones are not made as far as i know...Pretty strange since silver is such a " standard" color..

 

[doolar]

Today I moved the 300 E out of the old garage into my new. I bet this is a rare sight, a Nautical Blue 500 towing the same colour 300;



The plan for the 300E is to assemble the top end, recondition it and sell. It will hopefully be someone’s project car, paint is bad but it’s not too rotten.

Sold new in Sweden, very rare with full automatic klima here. It’s grey leather inside in quite good condition.

I will post updates on it here!

 

[doolar]

260.000 kilometres hit today!

 

[doolar]

I just realised when looking at the records that between my father and me the car only done 25.000 kilometres during our ownership since it was bought back in 2008.

I’ve driven 5.000 km’s over the last year and a half. Looking forward to using the car more, I really love driving it, it’s such an amazing classic to use.

 

[doolar]

Changed engine oil and filter today, Mobil1 5w-50 FS and a Hengst filter. I’ll do the brake fluid during the winter, that’s about it for service for now.

 

[doolar]

I also dabble with my Honda two-stroke 125cc bike sometimes, I've fully rebuilt the brake system this year, and replaced the rear shock with a new one that needed some fabrication to fit. Thicker oil in the fork and hopefully it'll ride a lot better.

Here she is my little ring-a-ding, some minor jobs left but running well:



Next in line is the 300E that I currently have on stands in my garage.

 

[doolar]

Refilled my headlight wiper blades today. These Bosch H341 rear window blades are only €4 each on Amazon and fits perfectly after the usual cutting etc.

 

[doolar]

I promise these are the last pictures (for now) of my totally non-Mercedes content, but I’ve come really far with my 125cc two stroke and want to share it:


It finally is how I want it, still a lot of minor things to do, but all the mechanicals are sorted, all 30 hp is live and kicking. Such a hoot to ride!

Now work starts on the 300E, and after that I have a big project coming up on my 500E!

 

[doolar]

I've gotten hold of a blue Recaro backrest piece from a S124, and will have my upholstery guy try to repair my fluid damaged seat pad. It will most likely not look 100% original due to size differences. But It will be a lot better hopefully. The damaged leather is very hard and will not last much longer, so I have to do something about it.

I found the backrest on Ebay.de and it was only about €80 shipped from Germany to Sweden. I disassembled it removing the leather skin and pad which I left off at the upholstery shop alongside my pad.

I'm still on a lookout for a rear left seat pad if someone's got one for sale!

 

[doolar]

To my joy I noticed that the snow is back here on 500Eboard, so I did my part at home: