OWNER MercEdi (E420)

[MercEdi]

Hey there,

i figured it's time to share my journey of V8 W124 ownership now as well. I joined the 500Eboard a few months ago and i've really been enjoying all the content on here. The amount of valuable information on here is really mind boggling. A big thank you to everyone being kind enough to share their knowledge.

The car is a 1993 E420 with the code 953 Sportline option, which i bought in November 2023. It's got about 342.000km (212.500mi) on the clock and has very terribly been resprayed in the past (more detailed pictures of the paint job later):


50 shades of silver... I also don't have any better photos of it in assembled condition - the car is currently in the paint/body shop of my gf's family, but more on that later.

I'll throw the option list (wrong one) that lastvin gave me in here:

FIN WDB1240341C043422
Model 400 E
Engine 119975 12 013984
Transmission 722366 03 910387
Order Number 0 2 249 02283
Order Location AUGSBURG BRANCH
Approx. Build Date 1993-09

Code Description

• 240 OUTSIDE TEMPERATURE INDICATOR
• 260 TYPE DESTINATION ON TRUNK LID - ELIMINATION
• 305 DUST FILTER
• 404 MULTI-CONTOUR SEAT, FRONT LEFT
• 412 ELECTRIC SLIDING ROOF WITH TILTING DEVICE
• 471 ACCELERATION SKID CONTROL (ASR)
• 480 SELF-LEVELLING SUSPENSION
• 531 AUTOMATIC ANTENNA
• 551 ANTI-THEFT/ANTI-BREAK-IN WARNING SYSTEM
• 570 FOLDING ARMREST, FRONT
• 580 AIR CONDITIONER
• 620 VEHICLES WITH CATALYST TECHNIQUE
• 682 FIRE EXTINGUISHER
• 751 BECKER RADIO GRAND PRIX 2000 VK RDS
• 859 MODEL UPDATE II
• 864
• 884 TRUNK LID ADDITIONAL LOCKING MECHANISM (HZS)

So what's really odd is that it's not the right option list. I have never experienced lastvin giving out wrong ones. Does anybody have a clue why that is? I got the correct option list on another website though (mb.vin):

• 240 outside temperature indicator
• 243 sports seat in front and rear
• 260 elimination of type sign on trunk lid
• 278A leather perforated grey
• 281 steering wheel 390mm and gearshift in leather trim
• 305 dust filter
• 412 electric tilting/sliding roof steel
• 471 acceleration skid control (ASR)
• 538 automatic antenna and front loudspeaker without radio installation
• 580 air condition
• 590 heat-insulating glass all-around with rear window pane laminated glass
• 611 courtesy lamps for front and rear doors
• 620 exhaust emission control
• 653 sport chassis with light alloy rims 8-hole
• 682 fire extinguisher 1.3 kg
• 744U Brillant silver metallic
• 859 MODELLPFLEGE II
• 864 ?
• 873 heated front seats
• 953 Sportline with 8-hole rims

So far i have driven the car about 1500km with the only noticeable issue being a clunk in the rear when shifting load. Well, i will be adressing all the technical stuff (engine, chassis, etc.) in the future.
Right now the car is undergoing a looooot of welding and being prepared for a full respray. I started working on that in the beginning of March and have taken a lot of pictures of the work i've been doing. I will try to post everything i have done so far in chronological order.

 

[MercEdi]

03-02-2024

So, it has begun. I've taken some pictures and videos of the condition the car was in before removing all the bumpers etc.:


Here you can see where they taped off the door when respraying it (the clear coat line next to the mirror cap)


They didn't have the tail lights out when spraying... look at the paint right under the light.


The perks of aftermarket fenders: a panel gap for extra airflow into the engine. I tried to adjust the cover under the headlight, but i couldnt get it nearer to the fender as the latch, where the cover is bolted into the fender, already hit the fender and this massive gap between cover and fender remained.


x)

The list of spots like shown above goes on and on...

 

[gsxr]

The Mercedes EPC shows the "wrong" list (screenshot below), and LastVIN pulls directly from the EPC database.

It is VERY odd that the mb.vin site shows "correct" data, my guess is the previous owner somehow contacted that site and had them update it? I've never seen a discrepancy like this where the EPC was wrong and missing a pile of optional equipment. It's more likely the mb.vin site was modified.

It will be difficult to determine if the car left the factory with the full Sportline package, but I suspect it did not - all that equipment may have been converted post-delivery? I'd measure the sway bars to verify they are correct (28mm front, 18mm rear)... see if the front struts are 036-spec (but, may not be original)... and verify the steering box is really the Sportline box (look for the white paint stripe on the Pitman arm, if there's no part number stamped on the housing, which might not be visible without removing the box anyway).

 

[MercEdi]

03-02-2024


The driver side door after taking all of the panels off... I think they just painted over the rust with some silver color. I have already gotten a replacement door.


The front left rocker panel. Evidence of rust has tried to be covered up lol


Right under the right tail light. Very odd spot for these to rust in my opinion


Front right rocker panel. Doesn't look too bad from the outside, but it has been poorly welded on the inner side

 

[MercEdi]

It will be difficult to determine if the car left the factory with the full Sportline package, but I suspect it did not - all that equipment may have been converted post-delivery? I'd measure the sway bars to verify they are correct (28mm front, 18mm rear)... see if the front struts are 036-spec (but, may not be original)... and verify the steering box is really the Sportline box (look for the white paint stripe on the Pitman arm, if there's no part number stamped on the housing, which might not be visible without removing the box anyway).

Thank you, i will check for that. Although i find it to be highly unlikely that they would swap out the whole interieur? I also find it unlikely that any of the preowners contacted mb.vin to have the options list to be corrected...

Ah, now it came to my mind; it shows the correct option codes on the plaque next to the hood latch and in the service manual. If i remember correctly.

 

[gsxr]

Ah, now it came to my mind; it shows the correct option codes on the plaque next to the hood latch and in the service manual. If i remember correctly.

The metal tag next to the hood latch has the paint code, and few other options (if any - I forget what data is on the metal plate).

Look for the paper data card that may be in the owner's manual, if available. That should be accurate. It looks similar to the image below:

 

[MercEdi]

The metal tag next to the hood latch has the paint code, and few other options (if any - I forget what data is on the metal plate).

Look for the paper data card that may be in the owner's manual, if available. That should be accurate. It looks similar to the image below:

Here's some pictures of the tag and the data card. The tag contains some of the option codes.

So the data card indicates the correct option codes. Whatever the reason is that the ones in the EPC are wrong... maybe the first owner was enlightened after the order had been taken to swap out the multi contour seat with sport seats and the self leveling suspension with a sportier one and the order change wasn't updated in the system?

 

[gsxr]

Wow! That sure seems to confirm your car did indeed come with the Sportline package from the factory.

I don't think I've ever seen an EPC data card error like this before, with multiple codes missing / added / changed.

@036? @Rouven036? @WDB748372?

 

[MercEdi]

03-02-2024


This is what the trunk ventilation on the right side looked like... the metal bracket that the battery sits on has absolutely no rust though luckily.


This the only major spot i could find on the undercarriage... until now at least. The rear subframe mounts and other neuralgic spots are in pretty alright condition (not rusted through at least lol)

 

[MercEdi]

03-10-2024


This is what's hidden behind the plastic airflow cover thing... Look at this mess... the rusty spot on the beam is hidden by a foam piece... i guess the foam being soaked in (salt) water for a long time favored the rust in that spot?



The front inner fenders had been, well, "repaired" at some point too...

 

[MercEdi]

03-29-2024


Some more rusty spots... unfortunately you only get to see most of this when you take of the fenders, bumpers, etc.


The preowner told me that the rear wheel arches had been redone when he bought the car. So i knew that they weren't original anymore, but look at this. Got some bondo? I think most of the "repairs" had been done at the same place.


03-30-2024



The A-pillar after some CSD-action...


....after treatment with a rust remover based on phosphoric acid...


...and brush-coated an epoxy primer. Let's see if/when the rust will peak through again.

 

[MercEdi]

03-30-2024



The first sheet of metal that i've ever welded into a car... not the prettiest, but i'm happy with how it turned out. I got the replacement piece from a junkyard car.


03-31-2024




The right tail light section. As good as new...

 

[MercEdi]

04-05-2024


The replacement piece for the inner fender was a charm to fit... if you need replacement sheet metal which is preformed already, check out www.trabhan.com (absolutely no affiliation). They have lots of them available for different parts of the W124 body.

04-06-2024


This part i got from a junk yard car again. I cut out the rusty part and fitted the piece. The hole in the beam i just welded a sheet of metal over, which in retrospect i wouldn't do again. I'd rather cut out the beam and butt weld a piece in (i did so on the other side).


All nice and primed up.

 

[MercEdi]

04-13-2024


On it goes with the left side... Same story on the beam. I really suspect that foam piece in being the culprit. Also note the professionality of the foregone repair. They cut out the metal piece behind the headlight and glued it back in. On the beam they at least tack welded a sheet over the rust hole.


That same day i replaced the ignition lock cylinder because a few days prior i wasn't able to pull the key out anymore. I left the key in the lock until the new cylinder arrived.

04-20-2024


After cutting out and fitting the parts that i again got from a junk yard car, i cleaned up the inside of the beam and sprayed some inox. This time i butt welded the piece into the beam and it came out really nice in my opinion.

 

[MercEdi]

04-27-2024


Now look at this beauty of an inner fender... don't you love it...


I drilled the tack welds of the fan resistor bracket so that i could cut out all of the rotten metal. Then fitted the repair sheet and butt welded it in. Looks a lot nicer than before, doesn't it.


Next up was this cooler bracket reinforcement, which was beyond rotten away. Just look at it. This was the first challenging part of not being able to have the car non drivable... i couldn't just take out the cooler, fan and so on because the car needs to remain drivable so they can drive it in and out of the shop everyday. Unfortunately i don't have a spot where the car can just sit. This also means that the car has been getting two cold starts and immediately getting shut off almost every day for two months now which really hurts my soul. But there's no way around it, my girlfriend can't push it out of the shop alone in the morning, so it has to go through that now. By the way, my girlfriend drives a W124 E220 Coupé and is a huge W124 fan as well.



So i started to cut out the old reinforcement and remove the remaining rust on the other brackets. Just look at this mess. They've tried to weld that thing up at some point, it just looked horrible.


Surprisingly, the reinforcement was still available new at MB.


Of course everything got two nice coats of primer in the end. Don't mind the color though, i just pick which ever bottle is open at the moment.

 

[MercEdi]

05/2024

So in May nothing really happened because i was busy with my newly acquired beauty, a 1995 ruby red E220T. I got the car at the end of April and i did some serving work and some light repairs to it such as new (used) headlights.




In the background you can see my girlfriends E220 Coupé in 904 dark blue. It's a 1994 car with 384.000km (238.600mi).


I put my E420s old steering wheel into the wagon.


Some random pictures of the car. The last one being at the Stern Garage meeting with their workshop in the background.


I tried to change the chain tensioner for a new one because of an arhythmic ticking noise in idle, when the engine is warmed up. Unfortunately, when taking out the old chain tensioner, the chain jumped a tooth at the exhaust camshaft which caused it to run rough in idle. So i had to do the timing and i figured i would change the timing chain while i'm in there.

 

[MercEdi]

05-24-2024


I totally forgot to mention that i got a spare 4.2l M119 from a S420 with the car. Well, i don't know what to do with it because the camshafts had been stored in a box outside of the engine and are rusty as hell. I don't have any pictures of them unfortunately. Also, the engine hasn't been running in at least 10 years i presume... i'll probably make an engine table out of it at some point.
My initial plan was to rebuild that engine while it's outside and then swap it in, but i'd rather get a 5.0l, rebuild that an swap that in. I figured that it's a nice upgrade for the same amount of work.

I have already sourced some parts for that such as aluminium oiler tubes, a 5.0l LH module and the proper oil pan/oil pump if i'd get a 5.0l from an S500.


I couldn't get my hands on a full set of the oiler tubes at first, so i tried to collect them piece by piece. I even bought a whole 500SL cylinder head only for the oiler tubes (at a reasonable price though). In the end i was able to find a full set, so i have 8 spares now lol.

 

[MercEdi]

05-31-2024


I finally got to weld on the brackets/mounts for the fenders and the front bumper. The fenders are new original MB as they're the most accurately fitting ones. They have become really expensive these days (over 1000€ for one side). We were able to get three sets for almost 1/3 of the price at the end of last year. Just another example of how ridiculous MB-pricing is...


After that i adressed the front left rocker panel. Surprisingly the jack mount looks like new.


While messing with the rocker panel, i inspected the area above it as there were some sheets welded in. At least i thought they were. They just glued on a sheet of metal over that gigantic mother of a rusthole. Guess they were smart enough not to weld with the insulation still being in the footwell.

06-01-2024




This was one of the more intensive pieces i welded in until now. The hours just pass by while fitting and butt welding everything nicely. I also made a new bracket for the ASR pressure accumulator as the old one was pretty nasty.







Look at this mess... I wasn't so keen on having to unmount everything in the footwell. I unbolted the handbrake pedal and some plastic nuts which held the insulation in place. I decided to cut the insulation in the middle to be able to pull it away as i didn't want to take apart the whole interieur just to get the insulation out. After i made my way i was able to weld a nice sheet in there. The rest of the rustholes are going to be adressed the next time.


Everything nice and epoxied up.

 

[sheward]

Herculean effort! Inspiring to watch along.

 

[TerryA]

Man, That’s a lot of rust! I’m appalled at the severity of the weather damage in the northern climates. I can’t imagine the work you have ahead of you.

You should look at some of @JC220’s threads. He is in Northern Ireland and has been dealing with rust on many MBs. IMOP he is an expert on rust restoration.

Anyway, Good Luck w/ your project.

Take Care

 

[MercEdi]

Man, That’s a lot of rust! I’m appalled at the severity of the weather damage in the northern climates. I can’t imagine the work you have ahead of you.

You should look at some of @JC220’s threads. He is in Northern Ireland and has been dealing with rust on many MBs. IMOP he is an expert on rust restoration.

Anyway, Good Luck w/ your project.

Take Care

Thank you! I will check them out.

Yes, i have a feeling that with cars that ran in salty winters, the welder has to be your best friend… The next time i‘ll get a project like this will be when i have a spot, where the car can sit for months without needing to be moved. Makes it a lot easier.

 

[036]

Wow! That sure seems to confirm your car did indeed come with the Sportline package from the factory.

I don't think I've ever seen an EPC data card error like this before, with multiple codes missing / added / changed.

@036? @Rouven036? @WDB748372?

I hear your scream, Dave
We looked into the fdoc. There were no changes, the car came out of the factory with these options. Most likely some mistakes were made later in the datacard.... It's all very mysterious.

 

[WDB748372]

I don't think I've ever seen an EPC data card error like this before, with multiple codes missing / added / changed.

@036? @Rouven036? @WDB748372?

I haven't either although I almost never see the actual paper datacard to compare, definitely helps in this case.

It's more likely the mb.vin site was modified.

That's got to be the only way. Having scraped a lot of these VIN decoders sites, there's usually an option code or two that may be missing or differences in their translations, not a drastic difference like for this E420.



Btw @MercEdi tremendous amount of work you did there!

 

[MercEdi]

06-08-2024

Last weekend i took on this beatiful sheet of metal, that had been tacked in there at some point. At least they cut out the rusty part this time.



While trying to remove chunks of the old undersealant, my screwdriver would get stuck... oh look, more rust holes! Also i didn't realize that this section is right under the fuse box... i accidentaly cut a cable... I decided to fix it up while it was accessible through the cutout as i didn't want to take out the whole fuse box.





After that unexpected piece i moved on with the larger , angled cut-out. Making a replacement piece and fitting it in was a lot easier than i initially expected. I always spray some Inox on the inside of replacement pieces if there's no access to put on epoxy. Inox is a weldable primer for those not knowing. Now i still have to make a square hole into that piece to be able to fit that plug, which i forgot what will be bolted into.

 

[036]

This car definitely landed in good hands.

 

[MercEdi]

06-14-2024



This weekend I could finally finish up the footwell. But just when I thought I was done, something new popped up. I prepared the inside of the footwell to put on some fresh primer.


After cleaning everything up, I noticed a deep rust scar from the inside of the footwell. After sticking my screwdriver in it looked like this:



On the outside it looked like this. You couldn't see anything of that at all with the undersealant on. It usually doesn't have any adhesion anymore when there's rust under it, but in this case it was still nice and firm. Only after poking the hole in you could see...


Now finally the driver side footwell is done. The only thing I need to do here is weld the studs on for the ASR and tank ventilation filter lines. And some minor rust removal on the lines themselves.

 

[MercEdi]

06-15-2024

After finishing up the driver side footwell, I checked for some rust around the stud on the passenger side footwell:



Again, nothing of this was visible before. I will have to check every of these studs on the undercarriage. Luckily it isn't rusted through on this spot and a simple rust removal will do.

Somehow the spring seat on the passenger side caught my eye when inspecting. The under sealant was still on though really crumbly and there was a lot of dirt on there. For some reason I had the urge to stick a screwdriver into the spring seat. This is what it looked like after:



What a mess... at first a world fell apart inside of me... I wasn't really angry about that spot being rusted through, but rather at myself for not seeing this the whole time. I guess this won't be the last surprise of this sort.
After calming down, I thought to myself that it isn't too bad... I'll have to remove the spring, strut and the brake line to be able to access the seat. I'll cut it out/drill the welding points so I can remove it. I'll weld the area behind the seat as this is what's rusted out so bad. Afterwards I'll weld on a replacement spring seat which I have on order.


Spring seat (no affiliation)

I also checked the driver side and found this:



The sealing seam was super firm and could only be removed with a lot of force on the screwdriver. It has begun to rust under it. Luckily it's not rusted through here yet. I will remove the rust as best as I can and treat it with Owatrol (it soaks into the rust and stops it) before putting on epoxy primer and applying new sealing.

I'm looking forward to get this done next weekend. Wish me luck!

 

[Bahnstormer]

Wow - just read through your posts... Kudos to you for putting the effort in!

Please keep updating on your progress, it's very inspiring.

 

[Jlaa]

03-02-2024
...

View attachment 192416

Such huge progress. You know you are committed when your lady-friend poses pieces of rust with you in photographs (I'm assuming your fingernails aren't pink...).

 

[MercEdi]

Thank you for your kind words everyone. I will keep posting my progress here for sure.

Such huge progress. You know you are committed when you lady-friend poses pieces of rust with you in photographs (I'm assuming your fingernails aren't pink...).

Hah, with this type of work I would probably need to get my nails done every day if I had em like her But yeah, she is as committed to this as I am... I have to give her credit again, without her this "restoration" wouldn't be possible. I'm doing all of this in her family's paint/body shop where she works as well. I wouldn't even be driving 124s without her to be honest as they always have had 124s in her family. When I drove her mother's E280T with the 2.8l M104 engine for the first time, I got hooked.

Yesterday we worked on my girlfriend's car. She's had problems for a while with water getting into her trunk. To find out where the water comes from, I laid down in the trunk and she held the pressure washer onto the back of the car. You could see that water got into the trunk from the antenna hole and up from the rear window (we did that a few months ago).







On Friday her and a coworker cut out the rear window. Luckily, no major rust on the window frame. We wanted to grind away the rust which worked well in some spots. But on other spots only sand blasting would help in my opinion (4th picture for example). Unfortunately they only have a really cheapo sandblaster which sprays the sand everywhere near.
So we now have a vacuum sandblaster on order, which will come in handy for my rust bucket as well.



I will share my experiences with this thing once it's here.

 

[MercEdi]

06-21-2024

So this weekend I took on the front spring seats. This is what the front right spring seat looked like after removing the spring and strut. Also the strut mount was long due for a replacement, it was the original one from 1993.




After taking some measurements and marking some lines from the old spring seat, I was able to cut it out. This is what it looked like behind the seat. Also not only the panel behind the seat was rotten, the seat itself also had a hole already.




Ah yes, the vacuum sandblaster arrived during the week. This was the perfect time to test it out. It works quite well I have to say. Only when you have to blast in corners, you don't get to cover the whole blasting surface and some of the sand still gets out, but it's only a little amount. I think it was a good investment




Then I cut out the rotten part, made a replacement piece and welded it in. After that I treated it with some Inox before welding on the new spring seat. I drilled the holes in the seat like in the original arrangement.




And finally I got to weld on the spring seat. After tacking it on and controlling my measurements, I welded everything through and called it a day. Or rather night by that time lol.

 

[MercEdi]

06-22-2024

New day, new luck. The dome showed some signs of corrosion. To my advantage only really lightly though, so I could easily clean up in there. After that I coated everything with the good old epoxy primer.




The front left spring seat wasn't nearly as bad. I checked for rust under the left side of the sealing seam, but I couldn't find any, so I didn't bother removing the whole seam. The rust was only on the right side.




I coated the rust with the Owatrol oil, which soaked into it. Once it dried out, you can coat over it with any kind of primer you like. I let it dry out and called it a day.

 

[MercEdi]

06-23-2024

Today I had to finish everything up because the car needed to be off the lift by tomorrow. Now that the epoxy primer was dry, I could apply the new sealing seam. In some spots I tried out this sprayable sealing/rock chip protection (the grey dark grey stuff).




While this had to dry before I could apply some silver out of a spray can, I checked out the parts that I would be installing. The 124-320-14-44 Sachs strut mounts (Sachs 802 459, Lemförder branded) have got a 2024 date code on them as well as the strut dust protection (Sachs 900 012).

I also got the standard Sachs 115 070 struts as the sportline .034, which are .036 spec I believe, were not available. For some weird reason, the front springs had the thickest (4 dot) pads installed, which made the car stand up front way a little higher. I changed to the two dot on this occasion.




Also for some reason, the front springs are different. The driver side one is considerably shorter than the other. They also don't look to be too old, so who knows what's going on there... only now in disassembled condition did I notice this. The car was standing pretty even or at least didn't have a noticeable difference in height. I think I'll be getting a set of 35mm H&R lowering springs now that I've seen this... Also don't mind the spring compressor in the left spring, it was fully decompressed.




And that was it. Looks like new! Well looks kinda weird with only the spring seats being so shiny. I will have to redo the whole wheel well in silver at some point.

 

[MercEdi]

06-28-2024

It was time to address the front right rocker panel. This is what it looked like initially:



It had been welded at some point already, but not too pretty... Here's some pictures of cutting the misery out:




A wild 034 on a lift




With this piece welded in, I'm done with the welding work in the front of the car. Only some minor rust removal left. And some sealing here and there that still needs to be done.

 

[MercEdi]

06-29-2024

A day later I did what I didn't want to do the whole time: grinding away some rust on the radiator support / front crash bar etc.
It's just a cumbersome work as there is so many small spots and you gotta keep track of them all.

Took a picture of this A/C sticker (124-817-82-20) as I needed to grind it away. For those interested, it's still available (was kinda surprised that it is). It costs around 7€ at the stealership.



Spots which I couldn't reach with my grinding tool, i just scratched away the loose rust with a screwdriver and flooded them with Owatrol oil. I'm curious to see how this will hold up.



This is what the Owatrol oil looks like after application.




06-30-2024

Sealed these parts back up as they were originally.



Unfortunately I couldn't remove these adjustment screws for the headlights without destroying them... they just wouldn't come loose at all. I had to order them new.



Found some more rust in the drivers side footwell. I didn't want to grind everything down as I'd need to remove the carpeting and so on. Also I already cleaned the footwell out and was ready to reassemble... So Owatrol it was once again.



This screw/washer/nut was left over in a box where I kept all the parts I disassembled from the footwell - anyone know where it belongs?



Started to reassemble the front area of the car. Far from being done, but it feels good to put something back together, feels like there's some light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[MercEdi]

07-06-2024

So I just talked about light being at the end of the tunnel - ha ha ha. Yesterday I wanted to start working on the rear half of the car and chose to start with back right wheelwell as this is the worst area.
Though I didn't really know where to start - I felt really demotivated and decided to call it a day and come back the next day.



On top of that I found out that I have to weld the back shock mounts. I knew that they are rusty and I hoped that some rust removal will do, but now I had the certainty that they are rotten through. At this point it would have been the best to strip the whole car down. Well too little too late, should have done right away... The next time I have a project like this, I will definitely strip the car completely.

Luckily Trabhan has all your bases covered and has a rear shock mount replacement part in their parts catalog.

Rear shock mount replacement




07-07-2024

So today I got to work. I decided to work my way from the inner side outward. This area was the one I was the least keen on welding up.



Discovered another area that I have to weld... luckily there's also a replacement piece for this area available at Trabhan. Also this fuel line is really really crusty... definitely have to replace it. Will do so when I'll change the fuel filter.



So today it was just some cutting out the crusty pieces. There are like three overlapping sheets...



At this point I realised that I'm looking at the inside of the car. I took out the rear right seat and found this:



Cut out some more. Now that all the layers are separated, it doesn't seem all to difficult anymore. This was all that I got to to today, next weekend I'll clean everything up really nice, start building some sheets of metal and hopefully weld all of this up.



I also had a companion today - the Miss did some, you guessed it, rust removal on her car as well.

 

[MercEdi]

07-13-2024

So I started cutting the rot up and make some replacement sheets for that corner. I tried getting that bulge where the water drain sits with two sockets. Didn't work out perfectly, but it will do.



Got this piece tacked in and made the other overlapping stripe and welded all of this up:



Now, in order to get the rocker panel end in, which overlaps the piece with the water drain, I had to cut out the lower end of the wheel arch. As the inner wheel arch was super cut up and kind of messed up from the previous repair, I decided to redo the whole part:




07-14-2024


It didn't end there for the inner wheel arch... found another rusty spot and as the whole edge was cut up, I took the replacement sheet metal for the left outer wheel arch and welded (with CuSi MIG) it in there:



With the inner wheel arch in place, I could take on the rocker panel. And with the rocker panel in place, I was able to put in the outer wheel arch:



All of this was done in two days with a hardcore 14h session on Saturday and an 11h session on Sunday... still gotta finish up that corner though.

 

[MercEdi]

07-19-2024

This weekend I decided not to finish up the passenger side rocker panel, but I turned my attention to these major spots:



Got the under sealant cleaned up to see where all of the spot welds are. Drilled them open and was able to take out the old shock mount:



Cleaned everything up nicely and welded in the new shock mounts. It was the same deal on the other side, so I'm not going to post this twice.





07-20-2024


After grinding down the welds a bit I put on some epoxy primer as usual. Tomorrow when it's fully dried out, I will put on new sealant and reassemble the shocks.



Next up I changed the rear springs. I got myself the H&R lowering spring kit as the front two springs differ in length, as I noticed with the spring mount repair and of course I didn't want to leave it like that.
Just look at how crusty this nut looks from the outside. I was expecting the worst, but it broke free without a hassle. The bolt still looks pretty good on the inner side:



Sooner or later I will have to drop out the rear axle. Everything is just so rusty under there... nothing is rusted through though luckily. So I flooded all the spots I found with Owatrol temporarily.



I didn't want to put in the old bolt, but I also didn't have a new one at hand. Luckily I still have a whole refurbished rear axle for my C124 laying around (for 1.5 years now...) that I could take the bolts from. I let the car down on its feet (without dampers though, only with the springs mounted) and I have to say it came down a considerable amount (note that this car has the Sportline package with 20mm lower suspension than standard). The H&R are advertised with 30-35mm, I have a feel that the 15mm difference is spot on.



Here are some more close up shots of the old shock mounts:



In conclusion I have to say that this repair wasn't nearly as hard as expected. The only cumbersome part is drilling all the spot welds, but with a prober drill you got that in no time.

 

[Eagle01]

Unbelievable work!! Impressive personal knowledge and craftsmanship!! It’ll be super special to you once all done. There are not many people out there that can say that they have been personally involved with every nut and bolt of the car. Awesome work!!!

 

[MercEdi]

Unbelievable work!! Impressive personal knowledge and craftsmanship!! It’ll be super special to you once all done. There are not many people out there that can say that they have been personally involved with every nut and bolt of the car. Awesome work!!!

Thank you!! This car has been the perfect learning mule so far. Almost every 124-specific rust spot that you can imagine, it has/had them all And I have a feeling that I won't be done once all the rust is removed and the car is repainted... But the lessons you learn are invaluable! You're right, I will probably never be able to part with this car after all the work that went into it even until now.

 

[MercEdi]

07-21-2024

Today I finished up the shock mounts. It only was a matter of getting on some seam sealant and some rock chip protection. I also mounted the new rear shocks I got for the car (Sachs 316 945).



I also installed the H&R springs on the front and on that occasion, I drilled the hole on the front shocks from 12mm to 14mm as they are the Sachs 115 070 for the standard 124 models and have the M12 bolts. I used the wrong bolt at first, but got it sorted now.



On the last photo you can see the springs in following order (from left to right):

1. unknown type that was on the passenger side
2. presumably Sportline spring from the driver side
3. H&R spring

I don't know if you can catch it on the photo, but the H&R spring has a slightly convex shape.



Of course I had to test fit the new fenders to see how much lower the car sits now. There is a significant difference to how the car sat before (it had the 4 nub spring pads in the front for some reason and 2 nub in the rear. It's on 2 nubs spring pads front and rear now).

I thinks it sits really nicely and I can't wait to see it finished. Starting to look like a car again!!

 

[MercEdi]

0727/2024

On Saturday i got to finished welding the rear right wheel arch.







07/28/2024

Yesterday i turned my attention to the rear left of the car. It‘s almost the same story as on the right side; there was some foregoing repair, which wasn‘t done too nicely… the inner wheel arch started to rot again.



I also noticed this spot rotting right here… before removing the undersealant, there was no evidence of rust. Luckily, it hasn‘t rotten through yet.


So i started cutting out the outer and inner wheel arch, which allowed me to replace the ending piece of the rocket panel. After tacking the inner wheel arch, i could replace the end piece of the rocker panel. And with the rocker panel in place, i was able to put in the new outer wheel arch.



This was all of the progress i could reach yesterday. Next up will be spot welding the outer and inner wheel arch together and fixing up the two rust holes in the wheel well.

 

[MercEdi]

08/02/2024

I pled guilty... I did it again. I simply couldn't pass on this one: a 1995 E320T in 366 - azuritblau (219.000km / 136.000mi) that I got from a very close friend's uncle. That weekend I was busy with my new affair as you can imagine, so no progress on the E420.

The first owner is from my hometown and they have taken the car with them to their summer residence in Gran Canaria (roughly from 1997-2004). The second owner, my friend's uncle, bought the car from the local MB dealership and owned it until now. He never really used it throughout winters, which is very visible on the undercarriage. Of course it isn't in showroom condition, but I can enjoy it for now without any major welding required. Also, it has gray MB-Tex (from factory), I've never really seen that on MoPf 2 cars.

WDB1240921F332604
Model E 320
Engine 104992 12 098248
Transmission 722369 04 190259
Order Number 0 5 226 62769
Order Location MUNICH BRANCH
Production Number 2122202
Interior MB-TEX - GRAY (178A)
Paint 1 AZURITE BLUE - METALLIC (366U)
Release Date 1995-08-16
Delivery Date 1995-08-18
Approx. Build Date 1995-08

036 No code designation available
211 AUTOMATIC LIMITED SLIP DIFFERENTIAL (ASD)
240 OUTSIDE TEMPERATURE INDICATOR
280 LEATHER STEERING WHEEL AND LEATHER GEAR SHIFT KNOB
291 AIRBAG FOR FRONT PASSENGER
300 STORAGE BOX IN FRONT TRAY
412 ELECTRIC SLIDING ROOF WITH TILTING DEVICE
420 AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION 4-GEAR
512 RADIO MB SPECIAL WITH TRAFFIC NEWS DECODER (VK), WITH RDS
531 AUTOMATIC ANTENNA
541 DOUBLE ROLLER BLIND USED AS LUGGAGE AND PASSENGER GUARD
561 REINFORCED DRIVER SEAT, LEFT
562 REINFORCED DRIVER SEAT, RIGHT
570 FOLDING ARMREST, FRONT
580 AIR CONDITIONER
584 ELECTRIC WINDOW LIFTERS (FRONT AND REAR DOORS)
591 HEAT-INSULATING GLASS, ALL-AROUND, HEATED REAR WINDOW PANE (SINGLE-SHEET SAFETY GLASS)
620 VEHICLES WITH CATALYST TECHNIQUE
673 HIGH-CAPACITY BATTERY
682 FIRE EXTINGUISHER
731 WOOD TRIM, BURRED WALNUT ROOT
819 CD CHANGER IN THE TRUNK - ALPINE
885 LOCKING SYSTEM WITH INFRARED REMOTE CONTROL AND IMMOBILIZER
980 REG. DOC. AND ABE NO. ON TYPE LABEL FOR EXPORT





08/09/2024

I noticed a fuel leak at the check valve of the fuel pump near the fuel filter (the wagons have two fuel pumps as well, one is situated next to the filter, the other one at the fuel tank). I got the whole check valve replacement kit including the washers at the dealership (PN: 000-090-03-10) and replaced it as a whole. No fuel leak since thankfully. Now that I replaced that, I got the next leak: the water pump started leaking coolant, so I have that on order and will replace it this week.

 

[MercEdi]

08/10/2024

On Saturday I finished up the rear left wheel arch on the E420. I spot welded the inner and outer one together and also grinded down the welds on the rear left rocker panel end. I left it unprimed for two weeks and it already developed some light surface rust. After removing that, I applied some spray can primer so that it has at least some sort of rust protection until I finish up the whole rear left area and cover everything in epoxy primer.

 

[TerryA]

08/02/2024

I pled guilty... I did it again. I simply couldn't pass on this one: a 1995 E320T in 366 - azuritblau (219.000km / 136.000mi) that I got from a very close friend's uncle. That weekend I was busy with my new affair as you can imagine, so no progress on the E420.

The first owner is from my hometown and they have taken the car with them to their summer residence in Gran Canaria (roughly from 1997-2004). The second owner, my friend's uncle, bought the car from the local MB dealership and owned it until now. He never really used it throughout winters, which is very visible on the undercarriage. Of course it isn't in showroom condition, but I can enjoy it for now without any major welding required. Also, it has gray MB-Tex (from factory), I've never really seen that on MoPf 2 cars.

WDB1240921F332604
Model E 320
Engine 104992 12 098248
Transmission 722369 04 190259
Order Number 0 5 226 62769
Order Location MUNICH BRANCH
Production Number 2122202
Interior MB-TEX - GRAY (178A)
Paint 1 AZURITE BLUE - METALLIC (366U)
Release Date 1995-08-16
Delivery Date 1995-08-18
Approx. Build Date 1995-08

036 No code designation available
211 AUTOMATIC LIMITED SLIP DIFFERENTIAL (ASD)
240 OUTSIDE TEMPERATURE INDICATOR
280 LEATHER STEERING WHEEL AND LEATHER GEAR SHIFT KNOB
291 AIRBAG FOR FRONT PASSENGER
300 STORAGE BOX IN FRONT TRAY
412 ELECTRIC SLIDING ROOF WITH TILTING DEVICE
420 AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION 4-GEAR
512 RADIO MB SPECIAL WITH TRAFFIC NEWS DECODER (VK), WITH RDS
531 AUTOMATIC ANTENNA
541 DOUBLE ROLLER BLIND USED AS LUGGAGE AND PASSENGER GUARD
561 REINFORCED DRIVER SEAT, LEFT
562 REINFORCED DRIVER SEAT, RIGHT
570 FOLDING ARMREST, FRONT
580 AIR CONDITIONER
584 ELECTRIC WINDOW LIFTERS (FRONT AND REAR DOORS)
591 HEAT-INSULATING GLASS, ALL-AROUND, HEATED REAR WINDOW PANE (SINGLE-SHEET SAFETY GLASS)
620 VEHICLES WITH CATALYST TECHNIQUE
673 HIGH-CAPACITY BATTERY
682 FIRE EXTINGUISHER
731 WOOD TRIM, BURRED WALNUT ROOT
819 CD CHANGER IN THE TRUNK - ALPINE
885 LOCKING SYSTEM WITH INFRARED REMOTE CONTROL AND IMMOBILIZER
980 REG. DOC. AND ABE NO. ON TYPE LABEL FOR EXPORT


View attachment 197542View attachment 197543View attachment 197544View attachment 197545View attachment 197546View attachment 197547View attachment 197549View attachment 197550View attachment 197551View attachment 197552View attachment 197553


08/09/2024

I noticed a fuel leak at the check valve of the fuel pump near the fuel filter (the wagons have two fuel pumps as well, one is situated next to the filter, the other one at the fuel tank). I got the whole check valve replacement kit including the washers at the dealership (PN: 000-090-03-10) and replaced it as a whole. No fuel leak since thankfully. Now that I replaced that, I got the next leak: the water pump started leaking coolant, so I have that on order and will replace it this week.

View attachment 197548

@MercEdi,
Nice looking E320T. I hope for your sake that it’s rust free. Once in a lifetime rusty E420 is enough for anybody. What pics you provided the E320T undercarriage looks great. That should allow you more fun time and less garage time.

Good Luck with it.

Take Care

 

[MercEdi]

@MercEdi,
Nice looking E320T. I hope for your sake that it’s rust free. Once in a lifetime rusty E420 is enough for anybody. What pics you provided the E320T undercarriage looks great. That should allow you more fun time and less garage time.

Good Luck with it.

Take Care

Thank you! Compared to the E420, it‘s like it just off the assembly line. It sure does have some surface rust here and there, but it won‘t need to go through the same procedure as the 420. Will definetily enjoy the fun time with it.

 

[MercEdi]

It‘s been a while since i last posted about the E420, gotta catch up on the progress now.

09/06/2024

Some more bloody rustholes fixed in the rear left wheelwell.

 

[MercEdi]

06/20/2024

So i found a 2.65 differential on the classifieds at a very reasonable price. I liked the thought of having it as a spare. The problem was that it was a 500km drive to pick it up and that would have been a little far just for the differential. So i had a look for different parts in that area and found a close to rust free rear subframe. Sure enough i took the shot on it as i would‘ve replaced it sooner or later anyway. The guy with the subframe also provided me with brand new caps, rotors and ignition cables as well as steelflex brake lines.

 

[MercEdi]

09/21/2024

This is a weird one… you would think that the rust would be at the water drain… which is completely fine. It rusted through right next to it.



Then i fixed this little piece at the lower end of the rear left wheelwhell where it meets the rocker panel. Now the left side is almost done.

 

[MercEdi]

06/29/2024

The studs (where the fuel pump cover is mounted) are another common rust spot… which my car of course has as well. At first i thought that i could get away with only welding up the right one and just removing the rust on the left one, but taking a closer look revealed that the left hand side was just beginning to rust through… so i ordered a replacement piece for the whole area.



While waiting for the piece to arrive, i decided to take out the exhaust. Look at that drive shaft carrier bearing… totally shot.



And yeah, also found some new stuff right here… that‘s why i said the left side is almost completely welded up. I will take care of this when the rear subframe is out. I‘ll be able to remove all of the fuel and brake lines and have better access. They will need to be replaced anyway.