Classic Mercedes in Surat Thani, Thailand

Surat Thani is a mid sized city in southern Thailand. It is home to about 120,000 people and is a regional centre for agriculture. The main business is trade in crops such as Rubber, Coconuts, Palm oil etc. It is not a tourist destination, but it does function as a connection point for those traveling to islands like Koh Samui via ferry.

I’ve been surprised how many classic Mercedes are still on the road and in daily service. I see a lot more of them than I do in Sydney. On most days I’ll see a couple of W123s and […]

2022 Fleet Update

With yet another year almost finished, time for an update on the Classic Jalopy fleet. Similar to last year, I will go over what I did with each car, any issues, and future plans. As with last year, I don’t own (or desire) a modern car, so these cars are used as a combination of hobby and everyday transport. Last year I had a couple of months between jobs, so I had more time to drive the cars. This year I did just under 14,000km across eight cars. The cars are listed in order of how many miles they did […]

MBCNSW December 2022 night drive on Picton Rd

Last night was the final MBCNSW night drive of the year, and the final MBCNSW event of the year. The drive was a variation of the one we did in December last year. We started in Camden and took some back roads, before joining Picton road towards Wollongong. From there, we took the M1 up to the infamous Engadine McDonalds.

The route was curtailed from last year due to all the roadworks on the main roads and the state of the smaller roads. The storms and flooding this year has really taken a toll on the sorts of roads we […]

W126 Self Leveling rear suspension low ride height

Ever since I owned my 560SEC, it has always ridden too low in the rear. I have attempted to adjust it a couple of times, but was never able to get the correct height. Using the factory procedure to set the neutral height did not work.

At this point a lot of workshops would suggest to rip out the system. This is a really bad idea. The self-leveling rear suspension is a simple system that works really well. Most problems can be simply fixed and are generally cheaper than ripping out the system. Factory SLS cars never ride properly once […]