The 280CE is finished. New muffler, passed blue slip and sold. My brother has purchased the car as he wrote off the BMW that we ‘dismantled’ earlier. That means that it will still be featured on this website from time to time even though I no longer own it. There are still a few things needed to do on the car,...
After replacing the water pump and test driving the 280CE, it was time to get it registered. Unfortunately it failed due to a small rust hole in the body work. This is not structural, but NSW is very strict in this regard. There was also a minor leak from the power steering and minor leak from the rear muffler. All...
The 280CE finally has a new water pump and no longer leaves an embarrassing puddle where it sleeps. After fighting with the bolts on the visco fan, it was finally able to be removed with a combination of drilling and vice grips. After that, the rest of the disassembly was not nearly as bad. In total, to get to the water pump on...
I had a problem with the 280CE sticking ignition key. This can turn into a real problem as the way to change the tumbler requires you to be able to move it, so if you cannot, then you end up having to take drastic measures to remove it. It is much better to replace it while it can still move. You have two...
Today was the 2014 French car day. Like last year, the event is put on by the French car clubs in Sydney, i.e. Peugeot, Renault, Simca etc. It was a lovely day and a good turnout – especially of DS including a few cars I had not yet seen in the club. A couple of cars in particular: – A yellow D Special...
My brother has been removing items from the interior of the E39 BMW before it goes off to become beer cans. Scrap dealers only offer a few hundred dollars, so this can be a good way of making a bit more from the wreck. The black leather front seats will make great chairs in the house too!
These photos are a good example of how the Rigid passenger safety cell works. You can see how the front of the car has crumpled, the bonnet is crumpled, both front wings are crumpled – as they are all designed to. However, the passenger cabin is still intact, all four doors open and close properly and there are no intrusions into the...
NSW already has the most expensive car registration in the country, with no change from $1,000 to register the typical car – and that is just the Greenslip, Registration fees and other Government taxes. NSW also has a particularly useless conditional registration scheme, whereby collector cars can go on ‘club’ plates and be used only for club events. Great if you are able...
This is the second in a series about interesting cars that have not had their prices driven up so much they become trailer queens. While Volvo is still known for it’s boxy and unbreakable 240 series from the 70s and 80s, in the late 50s, Volvo was still looking to add a sports car to their range, despite the failure of the P1900. ...
Sydney is bounded by National Parks to the north and to the south – With Ku-Ring-Gai Chase in the north and the Royal National Park in the south. The Royal National Park is the second oldest national park in the world after Yellowstone in the USA. These national parks are also great for going to a drive in a classic car away from...
In order to get to the water pump on the 280CE, the fan assembly had to be removed, which is held on by four rather inaccessible bolts. Two of he bolts came out ok, but two were stuck firmly and became even more rounded in trying to remove them. Mercedes must have used high quality bolts, as 20 hours and 5 drill bits...
I had wanted to check out the Grand Pacific Drive for a while, and had a few hours free the other day so took the 250SE. The 250SE’s transmission linkage was still playing up, so I didn’t make too many stops (as I didn’t want to crawl under the car and reset it every few times I put it into park), but once you...
Even on winter days, the DS had been getting a bit hot under the collar. Granted, D’s have never been the coolest running cars, and the heat of the Australian summer can tax them and their passengers, but they should easily cope with most days, especially outside the summer months. I had a few problems – the water pump was leaking and getting...
The 280CE was leaking quite badly, and it looked like it was coming from the water pump. I ordered a pump and not have finally started on the replacement. First job was to drain the coolant – which wasn’t in bad condition, disconnect the radiator, and remove it. The radiator is easy to remove with four metal clips that can be prized...
The 450SLC’s gear stick had become more and more floppy, and given my experience with the 250SE, I thought it was better to take a look and potentially fix the issue than have it totally fail on me. The gear selector bushings are a common issue on these cars. Looking under the car, by 1977, Mercedes had gone to a better design. As...
This month’s Shannons Auction had a few cars I wanted to drop by and see. The first was a W111 Convertible – A manual 220SE. The car looked nice from the photos and the price range seemed a bit low to me. ($54,000-$60,000). The car is nice for that price – I would rate it at a nice driver condition – the leather is...
The DS from what I can gather had been run on rainwater by the last owner – not sure about prior to that, but I do know it was in South Australia for a while, which has hard water. In any case, it looks like it was actually run on ditch water.
There are plenty of interesting classic cars out there that I are fun to own, and drive on the weekend. My E-Type is one of those for example. Not so many can be realistically driven every day though. In my opinion, the Mercedes-Benz range from the 60s is one of those who can. I just saw an interesting story of a...
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