Given the earlier roofs are far more reliable, I’m not sure the tilting feature is really worth the effort.   The broken arms got all jammed up in the mechanism, and since the roof lining was already out for the roof racks, it was easier to drop the whole sunroof cassette.

Unlike on the W126, the genuine lifting arms were still available for the W124.  However, to get both sides would cost over USD$600, before GST and delivery.  While I prefer to use genuine parts where I can, I couldn’t justify it.  There are quite a few aftermarket options, of varying quality.  The ones from China were much cheaper, but I’ve not heard good things about them.  In the end I went with an AIN kit, that looks like it came from Turkey.  It cost about USD$200 including delivery and GST.

When it arrived it looked quite good quality and was made from metal.  Comparing it against the old one it seemed to fit quite well.   This didn’t solve the complete problem.  Even with the new lifting arms, the sunroof was still binding. In the end, the issue turned out to be a broken rivet in the rails.  This was causing one of the rails to sit a few mm higher than it should.  Its probably why the original lifting arms broke.

The final part was the bracket that holds the sunroof cable to the sunroof had broken.  This is part 126 782 01 40 and is still available new.  It was USD$16 before shipping and GST.   I was also missing a rubber insert for the bumper on the left side – part number 124 885 05 23 which was also $16.  I was lucky to be missing that side, as the right hand side seems to be NLA, although aftermarket parts seem to be available, but more expensive.

Those were the last parts required and from there it was re-assembly.  The repairer made sure to use lots of sealant for the rear windows so water couldn’t get in under the new seals. I’ve now collected the car and it looks great, better than ever.

The post w124 crash repair – sunroof repair appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

In 2022 they had a car representing every year from 1950 to 2022.  In 2024 they did generations of the S-Class. They also did an AMG display one year, but I wasn’t able to make it.  This year the theme was 50 years of the W123.  Given the theme, I took my 1981 240D.   This is the second trip my 240D has made to Canberra this year, as I also attended the 50 years of the W123 event in January.

I’ve always enjoyed this event, there are normally a good variety of cars.  The last few times i’ve been it was held at Queanbeyan showground.  However, from what I hear, Queanbeyan council are not as friendly to car clubs as they once were, so its was moved to Canberra.   The new location is Thoroughbred Park, which is a horseracing track in Lyneham.

I had refuelled my 240D at $1.879 on the days the pointless war in the middle east started.  My goal was to get there and back on one tank and have fuel to spare since diesel is almost at $3 per litre.   I left Saturday afternoon and ending up driving through quite a big hail storm near Marulan.  There was so much hail on the grass beside the highway it looked like it had been snowing.   The W123 is made of thick steel, so I didn’t encounter any damage.

The Wheels event was held in the customer parking area and some parks nearby, not on the actual track.  Lyneham is a central location, and easier than Queanbeyan showground, but there is far less room.   In previous events the ACT club has been able to spread out and make a really good display.   This year the space allocated was quite small and the cars were all jammed in.

Nevertheless the club attempted to show off the W123s by having a ‘fan out’ display in the middle of the allocated area.  It worked reasonably well, but would have ben better with more space.  There were quite a few cars that had to park outside the main area.  The issue seemed more allocation than lack of space in general, as there was a big paddock behind the military vehicles that was mostly empty.

As with the W123 event, I was parked next to the 300D in 476 Goldbraun.  Such a great colour and a car that has been in the owners family since 1981.   There was a good selection of nine W123s including a coupe, a wagon, and all the popular models (280E, 230E, 300D etc).

In addition to the W123s the ACT club also had a nice selection of other cars, starting with a pair of nice roundies, a lovely red finnie, a beautiful W111 3.5 coupe, a W109 a couple of W116s, W126s W124s etc.  It was a pretty good selection of all the major models of Mercedes-Benz.

As for the other marques, space seemed to be a bit of a challenge for the too.  The BMW display only had a couple of classics.  The new ones are all nostrils and a bit hard on the eye.  Getting past those, there were some really nice and interesting cars on display.  This included a huge American convertible with a folding metal roof.  the rear of the car was very long to allow it to be stowed away.  There were interesting curiosities like a Stanley steamer, a couple of Bristols and a pair of landcrab utes.   The Jaguar section was quite good.  There was a lovely Series 1 XJ6 with a manual transmission and a red interior.  While white isn’t my favorite colour, a red interior and a manual transmission makes it very tempting.  The red XJC was also very nice.

They didn’t just have regular cars, there were also military vehicles and micro cars.   The Microcars were quite good.

The ACT club had a catered lunch which was a nice touch.  The food at these sort of events is normally pretty bad and overpriced.  Sandwiches and fruit from the club was a far better option.

The drive back was pretty uneventful.  I arrived back late afternoon after covering 610km with abut a quarter of a tank left.  I’m still undecided if I should refuel the 240D now, or park it for a few weeks to see what happens.  Most of my other cars are full and I don’t really fancy $3 diesel.

The post Wheels 2026 ACT appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Once all the rust was repaired, the next step was obviously paint. Since the whole car was not being resprayed, just the rear quarters and roof the colour had to be blended in. The goal wasn’t to get my car perfect, but to fix any rust and get it looking really good without the expense of a full respray.

While most of the work is in the preparation, it’s when the colour goes on that the car is really transformed. Seeing how much better it was looking when I visited made a big difference.

The car looks really sleek without the roof racks and rubbing strips on the roof.  However, I do plan to put it back to the stock look.

The bumper was painted separately and will go on later.  One of the things that attracted me to this car at the time of purchase was the colour – 888 Beryll.  Its a great colour and looks so much better without the badly faded roof.   By 1990 it was getting rarer for a Mercedes-Benz to be sold in an interesting colour.

I was also impressed with the red XJC parked under the hoist next to my 300TE.  I’m a big fan of the XJC, and red is a great colour for one.

The post W124 crash repair – rust repair and repaint appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

While I was aware of the rust traps in the S124 rear window design, I wasn’t prepared for how bad the rust would be would be without any real external evidence.  I’m really glad I did this repair now, as while it was bad, it was still very much repairable.

Both sides were pretty bad with one slightly worse.   The challenge is that if any water gets under the seal, there is nowhere for it to go.   It sits and rusts away the metal under the seal.  The low point seems to be at the front of the aperture, although there was some rusting at the rear.

Fixing the rust was going to be more effort than I had planned, but at l was getting it repaired all at once.  It would have been quite a shame to fix one side only.

Preparing the roof for paint was more effort than I had hoped.  The strips on the roof are just attached with adhesive.  But the actual roof racks require the headlining to come down.  Seeing the strips off the roof showed how badly the paint had faded from original, the main reason why I was having the roof repainted.

The post W124 crash repair – disassembly and rear window rust appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

The most obvious part was the rear bumper.  Mine was cracked in a few places.  My repairer said worst case it could probably be repaired, but we would get a much better result with a good second hand bumper.  The wagon bumper is different to the sedan.  They are now no longer available new and not easy to find second hand.

After a few calls, I found a friend in Melbourne had one.  It was in good shape, but missing the impact strip.  This wasn’t a big deal for me, as the insert (called the rail, rear bumper in the EPC) is still available new from Mercedes-Benz (124 885 07 21) and cost USD$200.   The cover from my existing bumper was good enough to repaired.

I also needed a few more parts.  The right hand side rear quarter needed to be repainted.  Therefore, I needed the seal for the rear fixed window to the cargo area.  This was still available new (124 670 20 39) and cost USD$160.  This is a very complicated seal which also holds a metal strip in place.  The aftermarket seals don’t have the best reputation so I was very happy to be able to get it new.

Since I needed to have the rear quarter repainted as part of the repair, I also opted to pay my repairer extra to paint the roof and the left quarter.  I therefore also purchased the left window seal (124 670 19 39) out of my own pocket.  Interestingly it was no longer available new, but I managed to get a new one from one of those Benz parts sellers from Latvia.   Due to this, It cost about USD$250.

I would encourage anyone who has a 124 wagon who has never removed the rear windows to get a set of those genuine seals while they are still available.  The biggest design flaw in the 124 wagon is the rust traps behind the seals of these windows.

In addition, there was a small crack on one of my taillights.  The wagon tail lights are also no longer available,  but I managed to find a second hand unit for the right hand side.   My left hand unit wasn’t that great, so I also purchased on myself for the left so they would match.   The new old stock seal was more expensive than the actual light!

The post W124 crash repair – parts required appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

I think the club made a good choice to hold the rally outside Sydney.  Sydney is no place for a car event   Terrible traffic, expensive parking etc.   A regional centre is a much better choice.

I didn’t do the whole rally but when the club announced they would offer day passes, I decided to go up for the Saturday.   The events on that day were much more in line with my interests than some of the other days.   The programme was to a convoy lap around Mt Panorama, led by former racing driver Colin Bond.   Then a show and shine at pit lane, followed by a tour of the Bathurst racing museum.

I decided it would be a perfect day to take my 250SE Cabriolet and two of my kids wanted to join me.   We left early, departing home at twenty to six, as the start of the guided lap was 9:30.  It was absolutely perfect weather for a convertible after weeks of hot and muggy weather in Sydney.

Complicating things were the surge in petrol prices due to yet another pointless middle east war, plus the structural failure of the convict built Victoria Pass, the main road over the blue mountains from Sydney.   I would have normally taken bells line of road anyway, as I detest the great western highway.  However the media were predicting it to be a parking lot.   Turns out it was totally overblown and the traffic was even less than normal.   We used the extra 20 minutes for a pitstop at McDonalds Lithgow.

Coming out of Lithgow, all of sudden i heard something, like there was something on the road that had hit the underside of the car.   I figured perhaps a stone or something like that.  Nothing else seemed to be amiss.  However, going around the next corner i realized I no longer had power steering.  Water temperature and the charge light were both fine, so it looked like I had lost my power steering belt.

Since there wasn’t much I could do by the side of the road, I proceeded to Bathurst.  The car was perfectly drivable, but with increased steering effort.   Lower speed and tighter turns were obviously a lot more effort.

We arrived at the Rally at 9:35AM, perfect timing as the convoy was just assembling for the lap of the track.  We joined up the rear behind a 420SE.   It was quite a cool sight driving behind over 100 Mercedes-Benz around the track.  We ended up doing four laps as it took quite a while for the cars earlier in the convoy to get into pit lane and parked.   The extra laps certainly gave my arms a good workout.

I was surprised how many of the cars were moderns, I had assumed more classics would attend.   I’m not sure if it was due to the fuel prices, or that is what people planned all along.  Certainly I am sure that some people dropped out altogether and I’m sure more would have come up from Sydney from the day too.  Having said that, while the prices are very high, they are not substantially higher than they have been over the last couple of years.  I filled the 250SE up at 2.539 per liter, and looking at my fuel log, it was only 10c less than this at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

As well as all the moderns, there were some nice classics on display from interstate.  My favorite was a Horizon Blue 280SE W116 from Queensland.  Apparently it had been in long term family ownership and it’s a real credit to the family for keeping it in such nice original condition.     Not too many older cars, although a couple of roundies had come in from interstate which was awesome.

There were some new MBs on display.  Chief among them was a massive Maybach SUV.   I don’t see the appeal at all.  To my eyes, it was tacky and overdone and more of a conveyance for footballers and rappers to be seen in than anything else.  I would have the blue 280SE any day of the week.

It was also good to catch up with a few interstate members that I know at this event.

Lunch was at a food truck near the event which was overpriced and had a massive wait. The quality wasn’t worth the wait either. I would have thought the day pass should have included lunch, as it wasn’t cheap.

After lunch we went to the museum which is quite good.  I covered this more extensively for Youngtimer Sacco day 2024.  The tour back then was more comprehensive, at the Rally it was more of an introduction to the museum.   There are some very interesting cars there and its well worth a visit.

We left at roughly 3:30PM.   As with our arrival, the traffic from Lithgow to Darling Causeway was less than normal, so we made good time, finding more traffic through Dural and Pennant Hills than the area with road closures.  Taking the W111 through these roads sans power steering certainly gave my arms a good workout.   We arrived home at around 7PM after covering 472km for the day.

The post MB Clubs National Rally Bathurst 2026 – Day Trip appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

When I visited last year, the special exhibit was for the cars of Maserati.  I really enjoyed that exhibit, as it showcased many cars that I’ve not seen in Australia.  It is easy to forget how special some of the cars were, before they moved to making unreliable SUVs for people with more money than sense.

I was back in Belgium again for work and I had a free Sunday morning.   The exhibit running at the moment is ‘Mercedes – The story of the star’.  Naturally, I had to go and see it.

I was pretty impressed.  Not only were there nice examples of all the usual models, there were also a few special cars from the Mercedes-Benz museum, as well as cars from the King of Belgium.   The first thing you see when you arrive is a W111 230S universal parked at the front entrance to the museum.

There were three parts to the exhibit.  the first was on the left when you walk into the museum.  In that section, there are some eye-catching cars.  Of course a silver 300SL Gullwing with a red interior is the first car you see.  it is probably what most people think of when they think Mercedes-Benz.  I had a poster of a car in this configuration as a child.  It was quite a nice example.

In that same section was a 540K roadster, which is another really iconic car.  Perhaps not as iconic as a 500K, but almost.   Next to the 500K was a 220Sb W111.  An excellent car and the first one that would be in reach of most enthusiasts.   Next to the 220Sb, was an unusual choice, an O319 minibus.  People forget that trucks and buses have always been an important part of the Mercedes-Benz brand and the minibus had a lot of 50s charm.

While the minibus may have ferried regular people, it was parked next to a 600 pullman, on loan from the King of Belgium.  It was the four door pullman, which is the one I would have and is still in very good condition.  It is apparently known as King Baudouin, who was the uncle of the current King and King when it was purchased.  I guess he must have liked it.

past that there was a 220SEb coupe and a 560SEC.   This is a great pair of cars, and almost identical to the pair I owned in Detroit – except I had a 250SE.  My 250SE wasn’t nearly as nice as the museum car though.   There was also a 190E-16 2.5 Cosworth, and then a replica AMG 300SEL 6.3 red pig.   I know everyone loves a red pig replica, but I would have preferred to see a stock 300SEL 6.3.

There were some more modern cars and then upstairs was the rest of the exhibit.

Along one whole side was an evolution of the S class and the SL, which was visually quite nice.   In the first row, there was a 220S Roundie, 300SE W112, 280SEL 3.5 W108, 350SE W116 manual, a 560SEC and a W140 AMG.   It was quite nice to see them all lined up like that.

The Roundie and the W112 were both driver quality cars, and their condition probably wasn’t in keeping with the rest of the museum.   The Roundie was in many shades of green, and the paint job on the W112 was quite poor.   However, it was good they were there as they completed the set.

The next few cars were a different matter.  The 280SEL 3.5 was in much nicer shape and the velour interior was immaculate.  In Australia it is highly unusual to see a W108 in veolour, and the velours are in a different pattern to the W109, which is more commonly seen with velours.

Next was a 1977 350SE manual.  This car had very low kilometers and was in almost immaculate condition.   Typical for a 350SE in Europe, it was not fitted with air conditioning.  To my eyes it is odd seeing a W116 without A/C, even though some early cars were sold without it in Australia.

The 560SEC parked behind it was another car in great condition, in a superb colour with velours.  And the W140 started out life as a 5.0 liter car, before the previous King of Belgium had it changed to a 6.0 by AMG.

The SL line up was also good, although I found it odd they had the 190SL before the 300SL.   Then there was a lovely Pagoda, although it had my pet peeve of the horn pad in upholstery colour which I think looks terrible.  Behind the Pagoda was a manual 300SL R107 in an excellent colour.  After that there was an R129 and R230.

There were also a few other interesting sections.  Near the S class was the original diesel, the 260D, fittingly in a taxi setup.  This car was a hugely important car for Mercedes-Benz and set the scene for the highly popular midrange diesel saloons like the roundies, W110, W114, W123, W124 etc.  It was parked next to the 300 Adenauer, which was for transporting upper class people.

Behind this car as a 220S roundie cabriolet alongside a 170S cabriolet and a 170S saloon.   Behind them, almost tucked away as an afterthought was a W123 280E.   Since it is 50 years of the model, I would have expected a more prominent showing.   And there was no W114/W115.

There was a section that had a 190E, a W124 500E and then a W210 and W202.    Its a shame we never got the V8 W124 in Australia.

Beyond those were the two highlights of the exhibit for me.  They had a C111 (a rotary example) parked next to a red 300SL gullwing.  Seeing the two cars together was great.  It was also possible to get right up close to the C111.  While I had seen one in the museum in Stuttgart before, I wasn’t able to get as close.  You can see all the Mercedes parts bin stuff in the car, such as the bonnet release being the same was a W108, as well as many of the switches.

Past those cars, The 1928 630S was a car I had never seen before or even heard about.  It really looked like a car from the roaring 20s.

Finally they had some period rally cars a W201 and a 500SLC.   I thought the selections were pretty good.  The models I was surprised were not there was a W114/W115, a 770K, a W111 Cabriolet, W123 wagon and so on.

Regardless, Mercedes – The story of the star.   The rest of the museum was largely unchanged from my visit last year, so I didn’t repeat those photos.

The post Autoworld Brussels: Mercedes – The story of the star appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Considering the last minute change, the event went off without a hitch.  The change in venue ended up being to the advantage of one attendee, the Helios yellow 300D with black badging and door surrounds I had affectionately dubbed bumblebee arrived on the back of a tow truck.   Poor old bumblebee wasn’t starting, due to a blown glow plug fuse.

Turns out one of the glow plugs had shorted internally.  We were then treated to an impromptu demonstration of how to troubleshoot a glow plug issue in the older series glowplugs while eating rather excellent bacon and egg rolls. Since we were at MB Spares and Service, a replacement glow plug and fuse was on hand.  About 30 minutes later bumblebee roared into life again.

Bumblebee was the third car that suffered from an issue on the trip, which I think is testament to how W123 owners use their cars.  There was a Queensland car on the first day with a plugged fuel filter and apparently a local car suffered an engine issue, which is a shame.

The other interesting thing I saw was a Turbo wagon under construction.  On all the internet sites, the accepted wisdom is that the 617A does not fit in right hand drive vehicles due to clearance issues with the steering box.   Having seen the turbo being test fitted with an NA engine, its clear that it does fit.  Perhaps not to the standards of Mercedes-Benz, but I think the real reason why there was no right hand drive turbodiesels is that Mercedes-Benz did not see the market for them.  The not fitting thing seems like a convenient excuse.

Its been well documented that Mercedes-Benz did not originally plan to make a right hand drive version of the W123 wagon.  It was only due to the fierce lobbying of the UK importer that they did.  I suspect there could have been right hand drive Turbodiesels had the same sort of case been made.  Even if a little engineering was required.

seeing the wagon under construction, it is easy to see how different the OM617A is to the NA engine.  It is fitted with a much higher capacity oil pump, complete with double row chain.  There is an oil squirter under each piston as well as a tube in the bottom of the piston for the oil squirter to cool the piston.   In addition, on this car, the crankshaft is being balanced for a manual transmission.

After the farewell breakfast, I went and checked out the Australian National Museum with my family before heading back to Sydney around 3PM.   It was a really hot day, but the 240D did very well in the heat. The AC keept me very cool.  The coolant temperature sat around 90c at most times, going up to 100 during long sustained hills.   The uprated condenser I installed seemed to have done wonders.

From leaving home Friday morning to returning Monday evening, I covered 1,022km in the 240D.  Probably because I left later, I didn’t see a single W123 on my drive home.

Reflecting back on the event, I think one of the key things that made it so good was its flexible nature.  There was something for everyone.  Tt was perfectly fine for attendees to pick and choose the parts of the event that suited them.   Some like me wanted to do the whole thing.  Others just the show and shine, or something in the middle of those extremes.

Canberra is a very good central location for such events. It was also great to see how well all the interstate clubs embraced it.

I also think having no registration cost was great.  Its much better for each activity to be user pays, or in the case of the dinner room booking, sponsored.  I was very happy to be part of this event.  I am looking forward to mounting my grille badge on the 240D.  It seems unlikely that 80+ W123s will ever be assembled again in Australia.

The post W123 50th Anniversary – Day 4: Farewell and return appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

On the way I filled up my 240D for the first time on this trip.  I had gone through 627km from 62.7 liters of diesel, which I don’t think is that bad with my foot to the floor the whole time and the A/C on max. I have a 80 liter tank from a 280E in my car, giving it very good range.

We had a pretty good turn out of W123s at the cafe and everyone was able to grab some breakfast before heading over to the Show and Shine at the Spanish Club for the 10am start.

As each car drove in, they were allocated a number for judging.  This also made it easier to see how many cars we had.  The numbers slowly ticked up and up as more cars arrived.   We had the cars arranged by body style, with a couple of rows for Saloons, plus a row each for wagons and coupes.

In the end, we had 83 cars there on the day.  That was an amazing result.   I went around and cataloged all the cars on display.  I must have missed a couple, as my count ended up as 80 cars, which consisted of:

• 300D – 17
• 280CE – 17
• 280E – 16
• 230E – 10
• 300TD – 7
• 240D – 4
• 280TE – 3
• 250 – 2
• 200 – 2
• 230TE – 1
• 230 – 1

Like with the number of cars from yesterday, the models were heavily skewed towards enthusiast models.  It also had at least one example of every model sold new here in Australia, and a couple that were not like the 200.   The 230 and 250 were sold new here, but few now remain and it was good to see a few examples.

The states were also well registered, with the 80 cars I counted registered in the following states.  Some of the NSW registered cars were probably local, from places like Queanbeyan.

• NSW – 34
• Victoria – 23
• ACT – 11
• Queensland – 10
• SA – 2

As would be expected, we didn’t have any cars from Northern Territory or Western Australia.  It would have been a stellar effort to drive one across the Nullabor in the peak of summer.  Regardless, it shows the popularity of the model, with so many people driving so far to attend the event.

It was also striking how many really nice cars there were on display.   Additionally, how well some cars wore their milage.  There were plenty of cars that were totally immaculate with over 300,000km on the clock.

As well as displaying the cars, everyone got to compete for some prizes.   The first two awards were by vote.  The crowd favorite was exactly as it sounds.  I voted for a lovely 300D in 476 Goldbraun.  It had been in long term family ownership and these period seventies colours are so thin on the ground now.  The deserving winner was the 300TD that won best in show at the ACT concours last year.

The next award was the workhorse award, which was for a car that had lived a full life but was still on the road and being used and here at the event.  The fitting winner of that car was a 300D with over 600,000km and plenty of battle scars to show for it.   This car was also piloted by the winner of the youngest owner award, fitting to see the next generation of W123 owners at the event.

We also had an award for the rarest and most unusual options.  Each person had to fill in the options list for their car.  My car, being a 240D, scored a goose egg for the options list.  Its not even sporting a lockable glovebox.  I did pick up some points for still having my Becker radio.

After some confusion with quite a few cars apparently having ABS brakes and column shifters, we worked out that the car that had the rarest options was a 300TD with a five speed manual transmission, cloth interior, sunroof and a few other options.

The next award was for the car with the highest mileage, standing at almost 850,000km.  Quite the contrast to the car that won the lowest mileage award with 28,000km.  There was also an award for the longest distance travelled to the event, a little over 1500km from Queensland.

There were plenty of cars that has been in low term family ownership.  However, the car that won the award had been picked up by the owners father brand new from the factory in 1977.  That car was one of the now rare 250 models on display.

As well as the awards, everyone was able to get a commemorative grille badge for their car.  These were only available on the day, so it will become quite a status symbol of being one of the 83 W123s that were there on the day.

The number of cars really exceeded all expectations, and it really showed the passion of the W123 owners group for their cars.  Not just for owning them, but also for using them.   I think its a bit sad that some models of Mercedes-Benz have become so valuable that they have passed into a different type of owner who rarely use them.  Pagodas are now like that for the most part.

I really enjoyed walking around and seeing so many amazing W123s.  And the range of colours on display was pretty special too. The weather was very hot, but that didn’t seem to deter anyone.  I know a few cars that left after the show and shine to head back to Sydney struggled in the heat a little.

After the show and shine, there were some optional activities.  I did the one at Questacon, which is a favorite of my kids.   Surprisingly they are far more interested in this than W123s.   Given how how it was, it was air conditioned which was good.

The final part of the day was the official dinner at the Belconnen Labour club.   This was where the awards detailed above were handed out, as well as a trivia competition and some other prizes, such as Penrite Oil.   The dinner was fun and low key, much better in my opinion than the ‘gala’ dinners that often go with events of this nature.

The post W123 50th Anniversary – Day 3: Show and Shine appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

I have more W126 spares than W123, but I brought a few things that I thought could be useful.  The set of mudflaps I removed from my car, a used grille insert, some HD motor mounts I found too harsh, some suspension bushes and a few other miscellaneous things.  The only thing I sold as a reproduction exhaust Y piece for an early W123 M110 engine.  This is the same as on the W116 280SE, and I had bought this to put on my old 280SE, before realizing the entire exhaust needed replacement.

I ended up taking home more than I arrived with, which is either a big success or a terrible failure, depending on how you look at it.  I’ll go with the former.  I managed to get a brochure set for my W123, some spare hubcaps, a toolkit, a first aid kit, a non-working Becker 1402 and a few other bits and pieces.   I was pretty happy with my haul.   It was good to see many people embracing the swap meet and I think it was a big success.

After the swap meet we did the scenic drive.   The organizing team picked a great route for us.   We came down Black mountain and headed towards Anazc Parade towards the National War Memorial.  We then turned back down Anzac parade so we could see the W123s on both sides of the road.

After Anzac Parade, we crossed over Lake Burley Griffin and drove past Parliament House.   A Parliament house we had a photographer stationed to take photos of the cars driving past.  We probably couldn’t have actually stopped, as the AFP are probably not lovers of W123s.  Their loss.

Photo Credit Kanwal Singh.

From Parliament House, we headed over for a lap through the National Arboretum.   This has quite tight corners with views back over Canberra and is quite scenic.   We then left Canberra city and headed out towards Cotter Dam and onto Paddys River Road and Tidbinbilla Road.  These turned out to be a good driving roads and a good place to exercise the 240D.

Our final destination of Lanyon Homestead.   Despite the organizers sending out detailed route instructions, a google map link with waypoints set and even printed instructions for those who wanted them, it was surprising how many cars went shooting off the route.  I don’t think the organizers could have done any more and I think everyone took it in good spirits and reached the end, even if not quite on the roads planned.

Lanyon Homestead is a restored 1850s homestead which pre-dates Canberra.  It was quite interesting and there was lunch available.   While everyone went to queue for lunch, I was curious about the different models we had on the drive, so I did a quick Inventory:

• 300D: 9
• 280E: 9
• 280CE: 9
• 300TD: 7
• 240D: 4
• 230E: 2
• 200: 2
• 230: 1
• 280TE: 1

I’ll be curious how this changes for the show and shine tomorrow.  I don’t think this spread of models is probably that representative of the surviving W123’s in Australia.   It looks like it skews hard towards ‘enthusiast’ models such as coupe, wagon and diesel models.  The mainstream cars like the 230E are hardly represented at all.   On the other hand, you have to be a big fan of the W123 to dedicate an entire weekend to celebrating it.   And even more so to go roaring around twisty roads in 34c heat.

I found myself parked nose to nose with another 240D from Queensland.  I found out that it is also a 1981 model and was produced a month before mine and is only 209 cars separated in the VIN sequence.  That car was originally a Sydney car with a Yorkstar inventory plate, and my car was sold new in Melbourne by Lanes.   There was another 240D, nearby, that one a manual, which was a few thousand cars earlier than ours.

While I counted cars and obsessed over chassis numbers, most sane people did a tour of the homestead.   After some of those tours, it was possible to get some photos of the cars in front of the historic homestead, three cars at a time.

With that done, it was time to head out and back towards Old Parliament house for the tour of the Museum of Australian Democracy.  The tour was quite interesting.  I shared my 9 year old daughter’s astonishment that the first female toilets were installed in the mid 70s.  Apparently in 1927 it was assumed there would never be female Parliamentarians.  However, in 1943, a female MP and a Senator were elected.  For the next 30+ years, they and every subsequent female MP and Senator had to use this absurd system where they would take off their shoes before entering a male bathroom, with the men knowing not to enter if ladies shoes were outside the door!

The bathroom is still in use today for tourists and a rather bemused lady came out as a whole tour group were all standing and looking at the bathroom door.

With the tour over, last order of the day was to go and wash the 240D, now quite dusty from the dirt driveways of the homestead.

The post W123 50th Anniversary – Day 2: Swap Meet and Scenic Drive appeared first on Classic Jalopy.