Monthly Archive: November 2023

The Concours Run 2023 – Summary 4

The Concours Run 2023 – Summary

Last year I did a road trip in classic Mercedes to the National Rally in Adelaide.   The friends I went with all agreed that we wanted to do it again this year, and in many ways the road trip was better than the actual event.   This year without a National Rally, we picked the MBCV Concours in Melbourne as our anchor event.  We dubbed...

The Concours Run 2023 – The Cars 1

The Concours Run 2023 – The Cars

On the Concours Run, we had 9 cars on the trip.   While I don’t mention people’s names on this site for privacy reasons, this article goes through the cars that came on the drive, with some background on them and how they went.  All the cars made it back under their own power, and there were few mechanical issues to speak of. They are...

The Concours Run 2023 – Day 5: Leeton to Sydney 2

The Concours Run 2023 – Day 5: Leeton to Sydney

The final day of our road trip came up quickly.    After a pleasant evening in the historic Hydro hotel in Leeton, it was time to head back to Sydney.     Our first stop for breakfast was a bakery in West Wyalong.     The drive was 130km, and went through far more farmland than we had seen yesterday.   I guess this all part of...

The Concours Run 2023 – Day 4: Melbourne to Leeton 4

The Concours Run 2023 – Day 4: Melbourne to Leeton

Day 4 was a very busy day for the Concours run group.   Not only did we spend the morning at the excellent MBCV concours event, but we planned to drive 520km.   Part of this was getting to the MBCV Concours event, but the majority of it was our road trip home.   Our stop for the night was Leeton.   Our group was reduced by two...

The Concours Run 2023 – Day 4: MBCV Concours 5

The Concours Run 2023 – Day 4: MBCV Concours

Today was the MBCV Concours event.   This was the show that we built this whole trip around.    I had wanted to attend this event for years, as I had always heard the standard of the cars was high.   It always looked like a big event and with more rare older cars than we get in NSW. The event was held at Wandin East...

The Concours Run 2023 – Day 3: MBCV Garage Day 2

The Concours Run 2023 – Day 3: MBCV Garage Day

The third day of our classic Mercedes road trip was focused on a MBCV Garage Day.   The subject was electrical troubleshooting. However, before we could have the MBCV Garage day, we had to get there.   We started in Traralgon, and drove to Ferntree Gully (A suburb of Melbourne) to the MBCV club rooms for the garage day.     For the once and only time...

The Concours Run 2023 – Day 2: Great Alpine Road 2

The Concours Run 2023 – Day 2: Great Alpine Road

The second day of our classic Mercedes road trip between Sydney and Melbourne focused mostly on driving the Great Alpine Road (B500).    On Day 1, we started in Mt Victoria and ended up in Tumut. We started early, at 6:30AM to maximise daylight hours.    Our destination was Corryong for a breakfast stop.    This first leg was rather scenic and we stopped...

The Concours Run 2023 – Day 1:  Mt Victoria to Tumut 6

The Concours Run 2023 – Day 1: Mt Victoria to Tumut

Today was the first day of our epic road trip to Melbourne in 9 classic Mercedes Benz.   Our goal was to head down for the annual MBCV concours event and a tech day they were running the day before.  I previously covered the plan for the trip.   Our destination today was Tumut. Before we even started, we lost one of the cars.   One of...

The Concours Run 2023 – Summary 3

Planning a 2023 Classic Mercedes Road trip – The Concours Run

Last year, I went on a 4,000km road trip with some friends from the Mercedes-Benz club to the National Rally in Adelaide.   We all took classics, and we took the scenic route there and back.   In may ways, the trip there and back was better than the event. For 2023, while there was no National Rally, we were keen to do another.    We...

Refurbishing a W124 instrument cluster – Part 4: Installation and testing 1

Refurbishing a W124 instrument cluster – Part 4: Installation and testing

Last night I finished the installation of the refurbished W124 instrument cluster.    I’m really happy with it, and its really lifted the car. I ended up installing it as part of my failed attempt to change the centre vent.   Even after changing the bulb, the vent illumination was not working.   I realized that it must require the instrument cluster to be plugged in. ...

Failing at changing the W124 centre vent 2

Failing at changing the W124 centre vent

One of the items on my todo list for the 300TE was to replace the W124 centre vent.   A couple of the slats were broken, so I could not direct the air, and the open/close control was not working either.   The open/close control is especially important in winter, as heat doesn’t come out of the centre. I was told that the RHD part is...

300TE speaker upgrade – Part 2 – fronts 2

300TE speaker upgrade – Part 2 – fronts

In a previous article I had been undertaking a 300TE speaker upgrade.   I started with the rears which were very simple.    Next was the fronts.   As I outlined in the first part, the W124 uses an odd size and mounting system for the front speakers.   They are 12cm and use these clips on the side rather than the normal mounting ears.   I guess...

Youngtimer Sacco day 2023 1

Youngtimer Sacco day 2023

Today was the third annual Youngtimer Sacco day.   This is an event run by the Mercedes-Benz club to celebrate the cars of the legendary designer, Bruno Sacco.    As with the last two, the event was held at HARS.   HARS is an aviation museum located at Shellharbour Airport in Albion Park NSW. The event is focused on the cars designed by Bruno Sacco, but...

300TE speaker upgrade – Part 1 – rears 3

300TE speaker upgrade – Part 1 – rears

I wasn’t very happy with the sound from my 300TE.   The front passengers speaker rattled badly and the sound wasn’t the best.    As I’m taking the car on a road trip in January, I wanted better sound.    I’ve already put the Becker 1402 back in, so all I needed was some decent speakers. In researching what was possible, options were not extensive...

W126 rear speakers 2

W126 rear speakers

I had previously replaced the front speakers in my 1987 560SEC.  Now it was time to look at the rears.    As I outlined in the article about the front speakers, I am replacing the W126 rear speakers with Crunch 16.5cm speakers.    These speakers should fit into the factory brackets and underneath the factory grilles. Changing the rears in the second generation W126...

W126 drag link and alignment 3

W126 drag link and alignment

I’m planning to drive my 560SEC down to Melbourne in a few weeks.   I’m going see the Mercedes Benz Club of Victoria concours and attend a tech day on electrical troubleshooting. A drive like this meant attending to a few things I had on my to do list for the car.   One of them was to replace the W126 drag link.   It was supposed...

Classic Jalopy