| This week my 450SLC has been in the workshop having a major service. This was the first time since the big trip to Adelaide last year. There were a few things to sort out, but one of the major ones was having new engine mounts fitted. These were noted as collapsed when I had the car checked over before the trip to Adelaide. There wasn’t time to replace them, so I ordered a new pair and they were finally installed this week. I was pretty disappointed as it wasn’t all that long since I replaced them and I had used […] I am currently in the process of installing a Becker Mexico Cassette in my 1977 Mercedes 450SLC. In part one, I covered buying and testing the radio. In part two, I covered upgrading the speakers, and in part three I covered the wiring. This part will be all about actually installing everything. My first task was setting up the control button and microphone for the Tranzit BLU. The control button makes this a truly hands free system. It is used to control the functions of the Tranzit BLU such as accepting calls, hanging up, skipping a track and so on. […] I am currently in the process of installing a Becker Mexico Cassette in 1977 Mercedes 450SLC. In the first part, I covered buying and testing the radio. In the second part, I replaced all the speakers in the car. In this part I am covering the removal of the old Pioneer CD player and cleaning up the wiring in the car. The challenge is that in the first 10-20 years these cars were around, they had all sorts of radios, phone kits, alarms and so on. Most of the time the wiring for these systems is incredibly shoddy. In many […] I am currently upgrading the radio in my 1977 Mercedes 450SLC. It currently has a Pioneer MP3/CD Player I had installed not long after I purchased the car in 2003. The Pioneer came out of my old 300E and was installed in early 2002. As well as the Pioneer CD player, the car also had Pioneer speakers. These pre-dated my ownership of the car. Looking them up online, they appeared to be late 90s vintage, and were sold as drop in speakers for Chrysler models. They had connectors I had not seen before, which must be the Chrysler connectors. […] Over the last 12 months or so, I have been focused on getting period correct Becker radios installed in my Classic Mercedes cars. I had never experienced these radios until I purchased my one owner 560SEL back in 2020. It was owning this car that made me realize how well they work in the car. I’ve started to view them as part of the overall experience of owning these cars rather than just a way of getting sound. Last year I started to source the right radios for the cars I owned. I originally planned to start with my 450SLC, […] I generally like to keep my cars stock. The exception to that is period accessories that are totally reversible. Things that the first owner may have wanted to do to the car to improve it or customize it. The most obvious of those are wheels, but there are plenty of other things that can be done, like changing the steering wheel. I’ve thought about getting a Nardi steering wheel for my 450SLC for years. There were two main things holding me back. The first was they are quite expensive. Second, their smaller diameter means they obscure the speedometer. In the […] In the two years of owning my 560SEL, one of the things I have appreciated is the original Becker CD player. I’ve owned many classic Mercedes-Benz models over the years, but until the 560SEL none of them had their original Becker intact. The Becker radios just look and feel right in the dash of the car. I had never really understood that before. That got me thinking about putting some of my other cars back to stock. The first car in line is my 1977 Mercedes-Benz 450SLC. When I purchased the car in 2003, it had a 90’s era cassette […] This year I plan to attend the Mercedes-Benz clubs of Australia national rally. The event is being held in Adelaide in April this year. I’ve done plenty of road trips while living in the USA, but not really in Australia. In addition, I am joining a group of friends from the club in an extended drive that will take us the scenic route to Adelaide. Our route will feature five days of driving and almost 4,000km. I’m taking my 450SLC so this week I have been preparing my 450SLC for a 4,000km road trip. The best thing I did was […] The Mercedes Benz 107 series uses a separate front subframe. The engine and front suspension attach to the subframe, and then the subframe attaches to the body. The subframe uses rubber mounts (very similar to motor mounts) to isolate noise, vibration and other harshness from the driver. The subframe itself was basically lifted from the W114 series. It wasn’t really up to the job with the larger and heavier engines of the 107 series and there was a recall to strengthen the lower control arm mounting points. Over time, the W107 subframe mounts collapse in just the same way as […] I had previously purchased a set of original AMG ‘Penta’ wheels and had tyres fitted. My next step was to fit them to the car. I waited until the car was back from having the subframe mounts done – It seemed silly to fix nice new wheels to a car right before they are being taken on/off in a workshop. At the same time I also wanted to clean out the wheel arches. I learned a couple of years ago these are supposed to be body coloured. Due to the state of mine, I had assumed they were black! A […] | |
