W107 Subframe mounts

The Mercedes Benz 107 series uses a separate front subframe. The engine and front suspension attach to the subframe, and then the subframe attaches to the body. The subframe uses rubber mounts (very similar to motor mounts) to isolate noise, vibration and other harshness from the driver. The subframe itself was basically lifted from the W114 series. It wasn’t really up to the job with the larger and heavier engines of the 107 series and there was a recall to strengthen the lower control arm mounting points.

Over time, the W107 subframe mounts collapse in just the same way as […]

107 107’s across the harbour bridge

2021 was fifty years since the introduction of the R107 and C107 models. The R107 would go on to be particularly long lived model, finally getting the axe in 1989. Despite being obviously old by then, it was still selling well right through the 80s.

As part of the celebrations for the model, the Mercedes Benz Club decided to attempt driving 107 107’s across the Harbor Bridge. According to club officials, the 107 is the most popular model in the club. That meant we may be in with a shot! It was still going to be a big ask. […]

Youngtimer Sacco Day 2021

Today was the MBCNSW Youngtimer Sacco Day 2021 – The second annual event. The day is to commemorate the cars of Bruno Sacco, head of design at Mercedes-Benz from 1975-1999. As with last year, the event was held at the HARS aviation museum. This event has become one of the biggest on the MBCNSW calendar.

Unfortunately we had heavy rain most of the day. Not ideal for a drive day, but that didn’t stop a fairly good turn out on the day. It’s a real credit to some of the owners in the MBCNSW that they still brought their cars […]

W126 handsfree solution with original Becker

My one owner 560SEL still has its original Becker CD player. Australian delivered 560SELs and SECs came standard with the CD player, which also has a control box in the boot. Mine is still working well. My goal was to find a good W126 handsfree solution with the original Becker. While a modern radio and speakers would probably sound better, the Becker is a part of the original character of the car and worth keeping.

This era of Becker do not have an aux input like the 60s models do. Therefore, the only solution is to have the unit modified […]

Fitting the AMG Aero I wheels to my 560SEC

I’ve had the AMG Aero I wheels ready to go for a couple of months. I couldn’t fit them until the Penta wheels were on the 450SLC. The reason was that I wanted to use the lug bolts from the SLC on the 560SEC. I do have another set of the long style lug bolts, but they are not nearly as nice as the ones that were on the SLC.

As with the 450SLC, I planned to clean the wheel wells at the same time as changing the wheels. After I had set up my new pressure washer, I figured […]

Fitting my 450SLC with AMG ‘Penta’ rims

I had previously purchased a set of original AMG ‘Penta’ wheels and had tyres fitted. My next step was to fit them to the car. I waited until the car was back from having the subframe mounts done – It seemed silly to fix nice new wheels to a car right before they are being taken on/off in a workshop. At the same time I also wanted to clean out the wheel arches. I learned a couple of years ago these are supposed to be body coloured. Due to the state of mine, I had assumed they were black!

A […]

450SLC radio wiring

I’ve been doing quite a bit of work to my 450SLC lately. One of my more recent jobs has been to fix the A/C condensate leak. While I was there, I noticed that rats nest of wiring for old amplifiers, car alarms and car phones. I removed most of this, but the result was that the radio in the car was no longer working. The photo below shows just some of the old wiring I removed from the car. My task today was to investigate the 450SLC radio wiring to work out why.

The radio in the car is […]

The Adventures of my E-Type

Today we are used to E-Types being coveted sports cars which are treated with care by their owners. Few of them ever even see a drop of rain on their paintwork. However, for many years they were just old sportscars that were not treated with the same reverence. This is the story of my E-Type before it settled into its post-restoration life.

I had never really thought of owning an E-Type until I lived in the USA for four years. Certainly, I had seen them at car shows and always admired the model. However, in Australia they felt out […]