| 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 […] I’ve been doing quite a bit of work to my 450SLC lately. One of my more recent jobs has been to fix the A/C condensate leak. While I was there, I noticed that rats nest of wiring for old amplifiers, car alarms and car phones. I removed most of this, but the result was that the radio in the car was no longer working. The photo below shows just some of the old wiring I removed from the car. My task today was to investigate the 450SLC radio wiring to work out why. The radio in the car is […] I have recently purchased a set of 15×7 AMG ‘Penta’ wheels for my 1977 450SLC. These wheels did not come with lug bolts, but I had a set from when I had the replica Fuchs alloys on the car. The other day I got those bolts out to check them for when I install the wheels on the car. The bolts were in pretty good condition overall, but suffering from surface rust, particularly on the heads. That wouldn’t look very good with the new nice wheels. Instead of buying new bolts, I decided to see if I could perform some […] Earlier this year I managed to smash a foglight lens on a MBCNSW drive to Berry. I drove over a large stick on the road that flicked up and smashed the lens. I saw the stick, but there wasn’t really a way of avoiding it without risking an accident. The low slung floglights on the 107 model look cool, but they are always at risk of road debris. I’m pretty lucky that after 18 years of ownership, this is the first time I’ve smashed a W107 foglight lens. In the short term, I removed the broken lens so I didn’t […] Back in May, I had the rear windscreen removed on my 450SLC. The idea was to replace the old windscreen that was delaminated with a good used unit I had purchased from the MB Spares clearance sale. I had the rust under the screen fixed in 2006, so I assumed it would be a straight swap. Sadly, during the C107 rear windscreen installation, no sealant was used. over the years since, water had seeped between the seal and the body creating rust. Obviously I wasn’t going to put the new window in with the rust around the aperture, so I […] My new 15″ AMG Penta wheels did not come with tyres. Choosing a set turned out to be a lot more complicated than I thought. The big downside of the 15s over the 16s is the tyre availability. The table below outlines possible sizes I could have considered. They are all compared to the overall circumference of the original wheel/tyre combination. Tyre SizeRevs per KMDifference 205/70 R14496Standard 205/65 R15492+0.8% 205/60 R15508- 2.4% 215/65 R15482+ 2.8% 215/60 R15498- 0.4% 225/60 R15489+ 1.2% 225/55 R15506- 2.4% 235/55 R15498- 0.4% The easiest and most obvious choice would have been one of the 205 […] | |
