Centennial Park cars and coffee – October 2021

There is another informal cars and coffee event in Sydney that I have been meaning to go to for the last 18 months. Its the one held on the last Sunday of the month at Centennial Park. I finally managed to attend today and I am glad I did. The event is held in the middle of the park near the statue of Charles Dickens. It gets a different mix of cars than the one at St Ives I normally go to.

Today was supposed to be the day of the annual Sydney German Car show. I’m not sure if […]

MBCNSW October 2021 night drive – Clovelly to Kurnell

After a three and a half month lockdown, official MBCNSW night drives were back last night. The route was Clovelly to Kurnell. The night drives were supposed to be back two weeks ago, but freak hail again prevented the Berowra ferry drive. It was a lovely spring Sydney evening of about 20c, perfect for an open top Night Drive, so I took my 250SE Cabriolet. As I have outlined previously, the car hasn’t been running too well since lockdown, so I am trying to put a few miles on it to see if the performance keeps improving with use and […]

Evaluating my 420SEL parts car

Today I spent a bit more time evaluating the 420SEL parts car and the more I look at it the happier I am with my purchase. It has too much wrong with it to make it a viable restoration project, but there are loads of good parts. It didn’t come with a battery, so I hooked up a spare and most of the electrics seem to work. I’ve started to keep a log of what is/isn’t working before I start properly dismantling the car.

I did not want to start the car, firstly because the fuel cap is missing so […]

My 420SEL parts car

I’ve been thinking about buying a W126 parts car for some time. The number of affordable parts cars is getting thin on the ground as the W126 transitions from everyday transport to classic. I would have had better options five years ago, but there are still some decent ones out there. I was particularly looking for an SLS equipped car as I wanted the struts and ideally a S2 V8. Given the numbers sold, this was likely to be a 420SEL parts car.

I found a car on Facebook marketplace last week and went out to see it on Saturday. […]

Troubleshooting stuttering and stalling in my 250SE

My 250SE has not been running well lately. Back in April, I hit a Kangaroo and the car was repaired during May and June. In July, the state of NSW plunged into a strict lockdown for COVID-19, preventing more than minor trips up to the shops for necessities. It was during one of those trips that I noticed that car was stuttering and stalling. It felt like it was not getting enough fuel.

In some ways it reminded me of a fuel delivery problem I had on my 1967 250SE Coupe. That car had been laid up for some years […]

Mercedes lug bolt restoration

I have recently purchased a set of 15×7 AMG ‘Penta’ wheels for my 1977 450SLC. These wheels did not come with lug bolts, but I had a set from when I had the replica Fuchs alloys on the car. The other day I got those bolts out to check them for when I install the wheels on the car.

The bolts were in pretty good condition overall, but suffering from surface rust, particularly on the heads. That wouldn’t look very good with the new nice wheels. Instead of buying new bolts, I decided to see if I could perform some […]

W107 Foglight lens replacement

Earlier this year I managed to smash a foglight lens on a MBCNSW drive to Berry. I drove over a large stick on the road that flicked up and smashed the lens. I saw the stick, but there wasn’t really a way of avoiding it without risking an accident. The low slung floglights on the 107 model look cool, but they are always at risk of road debris. I’m pretty lucky that after 18 years of ownership, this is the first time I’ve smashed a W107 foglight lens.

In the short term, I removed the broken lens so I didn’t […]

C107 rear windscreen installation

Back in May, I had the rear windscreen removed on my 450SLC. The idea was to replace the old windscreen that was delaminated with a good used unit I had purchased from the MB Spares clearance sale. I had the rust under the screen fixed in 2006, so I assumed it would be a straight swap. Sadly, during the C107 rear windscreen installation, no sealant was used. over the years since, water had seeped between the seal and the body creating rust.

Obviously I wasn’t going to put the new window in with the rust around the aperture, so I […]