Classic Jalopy Blog

MBCNSW May 2024 Night Drive – Northern Beaches Loop 0

MBCNSW May 2024 Night Drive – Northern Beaches Loop

Last night was the MBCNSW May night drive.   This drive was a little different to what we normally do.   Instead of a longer drive on semi-rural twisty roads, this one was shorter and far closer to the city. The genesis of this drive came from remembering how peaceful it was up at North Head in the evening.   The views back to the city and...

Centennial Park cars and coffee May 2024 0

Centennial Park cars and coffee May 2024

This morning I woke up early and so decided to head to a cars and coffee event.    I hadn’t been to one in a while, and it looked like a lovely Autumn day in Sydney.   The event on this weekend was the one in Centennial Park.   Last time I attended this one was back in mid 2022.   This event has moved around a...

240D motor mounts, engine shock and thermostat 0

240D motor mounts, engine shock and thermostat

I just got my 240D back from having the motor mounts changed.   When I purchased the 240D, the motor mounts were one of the few obvious things that needed attending to on the car.   They looked pretty bad and the engine was shaking at idle. On a W123 or W126, normally I would go with the Lemforder motor mounts, which are excellent.    I...

107 under bonnet insulation 0

107 under bonnet insulation

The under bonnet insulation was starting to reach the end of its use by date.   Bits of it in the air filter were a pretty good indicator of this.   I’m not sure how long it had been on, but it pre dated my ownership of the car.   Looking more carefully, I could see the main insulation mat, which was falling apart.   However, I could...

W123 under bonnet insulation 1

W123 under bonnet insulation

The under bonnet insulation on my W123 240D had started to crumble on the edges.   While it had only just started happening, it also appeared that the car didn’t have a proper insulation mat.   I’m not sure if it was an older aftermarket option, or something cut to size but it looked like some thin light coloured foam.    Since I was doing this...

S211 cheap antenna fix 0

S211 cheap antenna fix

Like a lot of modern cars, the S211 E350 my wife drives has a ‘shark fin’ antenna on the roof.   There are generally maintenance free, in contrast with telescopic power antennas.   However, in our case, when the antenna was broken after hitting a garage door, the fix was not obvious. The proper fix would be to replace the antenna with a new Mercedes-Benz unit. ...

Guest Post: 2024 Jensen Car Club National Rally 0

Guest Post: 2024 Jensen Car Club National Rally

The Jensen Car Club of Australia (JCCA) was formed in 1987 though the amalgamation of two former Clubs, “The Jensen Interceptor Car Club of Victoria” and the Australia Jensen-Healy Owners Club”. Our feature event is the National Rally, the first which was held in Canberra in 1983. The 2024 National Rally has just been held in Perth, Western Australia (May 3-6th). This is the...

What is a 1981 240D Automatic like to drive? 0

What is a 1981 240D Automatic like to drive?

Yesterday I did my first proper drive in my 1981 Mercedes 240D.   More information about the car can be found here.   My overall impression is that the people who talk about the performance of the 240D automatic on the internet have clearly never driven one.  I’m used to driving fairly powerful cars like my 220KW 560SEC but I didn’t find the 240D especially slow...

MBCNSW April 2024 Night Drive – Bridge to Bridge 0

MBCNSW April 2024 Night Drive – Bridge to Bridge

The April 2024 night drive was a repeat of a route we last did two years ago.   On that night, I tried two different cars before withdrawing, both of them having brake issues.   In addition, recent bad weather kept the numbers down.   This month was a much better experience all around. The drive was dubbed the ‘Bridge to Bridge’ drive.   Basically we would take...

First jobs on the 240D 0

First jobs on the 240D

With the 240D now registered and in the garage, there were a few simple jobs to undertake.    The first was a set of floor mats.   The original carpets were in such nice shape I wanted to protect them. I though the ideal floor mats for the 240D are the dealer fitted thick rubber mats from that era.   Its likely what the car had...

Enter the slow lane – My first W123 diesel 1

Enter the slow lane – My first W123 diesel

Sometimes you don’t go looking for classic cars – they find you.   While I have always wanted to try a W123 diesel, I wasn’t specifically looking for one.    However, when I saw this 1981 Mercedes-Benz 240D, I thought it was something special.    I was able to secure it for what I thought was a very good price. The main thing that appealed...

W126 stuck power window 0

W126 stuck power window

Late last year the power window on my 1987 Mercedes 560SEL stuck in the down position.   I lowered the window to exit a parking station and the window would not go back up.  The first test I did was to check the switch.  This would have been the easiest and simplest repair.   It is very easy to swap the plug on the front and...

W124 Blower motor replacement – part 2 0

W124 Blower motor replacement – part 2

A few months ago, I started replacing the blower on my W124.   I figured this would be a simple job and I would be back up and running a few days later.  Little did I know that that the car would be off the road for months. In part one, I removed the old W124 blower motor.  I was not able to install my...

USA Junkyard visits 2024 0

USA Junkyard visits 2024

I’m back in the USA for an annual conference I attend.   I normally have a free day before it starts, to get acclimatized to the time zone and to allow a buffer for flight delays.    The conference is in Las Vegas, which has become really expensive.    I’m not all that interested in spending money on overpriced entertainment, or gambling when I could...

M117 450 Timing chain and valve stem seals 1

M117 450 Timing chain and valve stem seals

I just got my 450SLC back from having the timing chain, tensioner, camshaft oiler tubes and valve stem seals replaced.   These are all jobs that any owner of a Mercedes V8 of this era will need to undertake at some point. The primary driver behind this was the need to replace the valve stem seals.   A couple of my sparkplugs, #1 in particular, would...

The Fox Collection, Melbourne 2024 0

The Fox Collection, Melbourne 2024

I’ve wanted to visit the Fox Collection in Melbourne for over 10 years.  I used to have a job where I would commute to Melbourne twice a month but the opening hours never lined up with when I was there. This weekend I am traveling through Melbourne and happened to have the Saturday morning fee.    I went along for the morning with my...

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