The worst of it was on the rear window, so when I replaced the rear window a couple of years ago, that only left the side windows to do.  Over the past few weeks I’ve been tacking the side windows.

The main issue was that the tint was lifting and tiny air bubbles meant I wasn’t able to see out vey well.  The edges were also becoming rather untidy.   In the end, it wasn’t a particularly difficult job, just time consuming.

The first thing I learned was that the old tint was in multiple layers. I assume the tint was put on as a single piece, but has separated, although I could be wrong.  At first I thought the tint was coming off really easily, and that the window was just dirty, until it became clear I had only removed the first layer.

The first layer was fairly clear, and the second layer was much thicker and had the actual tinting properties.

I found the easiest way was to very carefully use my fingernail to lift up and edge and then peel the stuff off like a sticker.  Once I had both layers off, the time consuming part was using window cleaner and a plastic razor blade to get all the glue off.   With the window cleaner, it was like cleaning snot off the window.  It was just snot that had been there 25 years. The picture below shows all the tint gone, just the glue remaining.

Removing the tint has made a big difference in enjoying the car.  I can now see out of the windows much better, and the car looks better too.

The post Removing old window tint appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

To achieve this, I really had three options:

1. Replace the reflectors
2. Upgrade to higher wattage bulbs
3. Upgrade to more effective bulbs at the same wattage

Realistically option 1 is probably going to make the biggest difference, but is very expensive.  My reflectors are in pretty good shape.   Option 2 is probably the next best, but since all the current goes through the headlight switch, is only advisable if I were to re-wire the headlights with separate relays.   This is a good thing to do, and probably worth it, but is more time consuming.

Therefore, since I was replacing the bulb anyway, I decided to try a more effective 60/55W H4.   The Osram Nightbreaker 220 is advertised as doing this.  It’s quite a bit more expensive than a regular H4 bulb, but since I had to replace one, I decided to give them a try.

There are also LED kits, but these involve modifying the light, which I didn’t want to do.

Bulb replacement on the 107 is a bit of a pain, as the trim beneath the headlight must come off, then the entire headlight assembly is removed.   The trim slides down inside the bumper bar, so once you know that trick its not difficult to get the headlights out.

I re-installed the bulb, tested it and then finished putting the trim back on. So I could do a proper comparison, I only changed the side that was blown. It is very difficult to show the difference in photographs, but the Nightbreaker 220 is brighter. The light is whiter too, but not that terrible blue tinge that cheap bulbs get.

I drove home and I could certainly tell the difference. I would estimate it to be around 10-20% more effective. Is it worth it, given the bulbs were about $27 each? Not sure, I’ll have to do a night drive with them in. So far, it seems like its worth it if you’re replacing a bulb anyway.

The post Trying Nightbreaker 220 Halogen H4s in my 450SLC appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

As a stop-gap, I used the old Pioneer speaker trims.  They were not too ugly and at least fit.  Some of the aftermarket speaker trims are horrific.

Doing some research, I found that some people had 3D printed slightly larger trims to fit under 5″ speakers.   A friend kindly offered to try and print a set of these on his 3D printer, but the printer was unable to cope with them.

A few months later, I found a set for sale on eBay that had already been printed.  I purchased them, and they have been sitting on my workbench for months.   This weekend, I finally got around to installing them.

On closer examination, they look pretty good.  They have an identical pattern to the factory trims, but are printed from a different material.  The factory trims have more of a matte look, as well as some fabric on the underside.

Regardless, they are a much better solution than ugly aftermarket speaker trims.  The installation process was very easy and I had them installed in a matter of minutes.

It is only a small thing, but I think it makes the car look much better. Compare old and new.

Especially looking through the glass, the difference in material is not really all that noticeable. 3D printing is a great solution to simple plastic parts such as these.

The post 450SLC 3D printed rear speaker trims appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Back in 2022, I fitted an upgraded A/C condenser to my 560SEC.   The A/C in that car wasn’t too bad, but the parallel flow condenser made all the difference.  From what I read, this is car more effective when using R134A.

The company that supplied the W126 condenser, Klima Design Works, have just released the 107 version.   This presented an opportunity to finally give the 450SLC the A/C that it deserves.  The kit comes with the upgraded condenser, plus the brackets and lines that you need.   You need to supply your own drier.

I supplied the kit to my mechanic to do the work.   From what I gather it was a bit more involved than the W126 install, probably because space is tighter on the 107.   During the install we found a hard line was missing.  While the line was possibly lost during customs inspection, Klima sent me another at no charge with very fast shipping, which I appreciated.   The kit bolted together well, the only slight issue we had was an existing A/C hose was a tiny bit short, and we had it remade.  Not sure if this was a RHD thing.

In any case, the difference is really noticeable.   While it wasn’t a very hot day when I picked the car up, I was quickly able to make the cabin too cold.   Even on not particularly hot days I was never able to do that.   I’m looking forward to trying it out on a really hot day.    So far I really like this upgrade.

While the new condenser is unpainted and the old one is black, once the bonnet is closed you could hardly tell.   I don’t want to paint it as it would probably loose some efficiency.  It is probably not an upgrade for a show car.  For a car like mine with 315,000km on the clock and used regularly, it is great.

While the car was in the workshop, it had all the bushes in the control arms replaced, and the front brakes done.  Some of the control arm bushes looked pretty bad, and the brake rotors had quite a lip on them.

I’m about to take the 450SLC on a 3,700km road trip.  This 450SLC A/C upgrade should really make a difference to how the car goes on that trip.   I’m also in the process of having the upgraded W126 condenser put on the 560SEL.

The post 450SLC A/C upgrade and front suspension rebuild appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

All the main vendors listed the main insulation, but I guess everyone forgets the small thin one, as it didn’t show up on all the usual sites.   Looking up the part number (A107 880 00 97) I was able to order it as a genuine Mercedes-Benz part out of the USA.   For reference, the part number of the main under bonnet insulation is A107 682 03 26.

I’ve now done this job on the 126 saloon and coupe, as well as the 123.   Those cars are quite easy.   The 107 is much more of a pain.   For starters, the bonnet doesn’t open nearly as much, and there is no service position.   The secondary insulation mat is really hard to see what you are doing with the bonnet attached.   It would be a doddle with the bonnet removed.    It is still possible to do with one person.

I used my normal method I’ve outlined a few times now.   First placing an old bedsheet over the engine and scraping off the old 107 under bonnet insulation.    This was quite easy as it had crumbled so much.    I had it off pretty quickly.     I focused on the main insulation mat first.

To glue the pad, I used the same product as previously.   Seallys quick grip vertical gel.   The main 107 under bonnet insulation required one tin.   This is because the 107 bonnet is quite narrow.   I forgot to take photos of this part, but its the same as the other articles linked above.

The only mistake I made here was not cleaning off the bedsheet I was using sufficiently – bits of debris stuck to the bottom of the new mat, and I had to brush them all off.   It only took a few minutes, so it really wasn’t a big deal.

At that point, since I had used a whole can of the Seallys glue, I stopped and waited for the 123 under bonnet insulation to arrive.   I didn’t want to open a whole tin and just use a little for the smaller secondary insulation mat.   About a week or so later, I then moved to the 123 and completed that job, using one and a half tins of the Seally’s product.

To do the secondary mat, I had to try and get the sheet right in behind the rear edge of the bonnet to scrape away the rest of the old mat.   I was mostly doing it my feel and later missed a little when applying the glue.   Before the secondary insulation can be attached, the windscreen washer jets must be disconnected.   The secondary mat has little holes for the connections to go.

The process of applying the glue and pad to this area was the same as the others, just harder because its difficult to see.   I found that once I had it in place, closing the bonnet was the best way of pressing the secondary insulation pad to the bonnet.   The secondary insulation pad is an interesting design as it has a raised section that seems to seal against the top of the firewall.

The new pad looks a lot better than previously.    I’m not sure how essential the secondary one is, but its obviously there for a reason.   In any case, I hope this lasts another 20 years.

The post 107 under bonnet insulation appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

The primary driver behind this was the need to replace the valve stem seals.   A couple of my sparkplugs, #1 in particular, would regularly foul up.    I didn’t have a lot of visible smoke, but I did see the odd puff of smoke taking off after a period idling.   This is a pretty common problem in these engines.   Age, and lack of use cause the valve stem seals to harden and allows oil to get into the cylinders, in particular at idle.   A number of these engines have been prematurely rebuilt due to this simple issue.

It also seemed sensible to change the timing chain at the same time.    I understood that it had been done a year or so before I bought the car in 2003.    I didn’t have any evidence for this.   Removing the valve covers showed that the chain had been replaced at some point, as had the guides.   However, I wasn’t sure the age of the chain and the guides were now coffee coloured.

I started by ordering the parts I would need.    The part numbers I ordered are listed below.   I don’t guarantee these are correct for any other car.   For a lot of these parts I prefer genuine given their importance to the engine and how expensive this job is.

• Timing chain – 000 997 76 94 – IWIS (In a Febi Box)
• Timing chain tensioner – 117 050 10 11 – Genuine.  This is the tensioner with the port for air injection.   It is quite expensive.   The air injection system on my car has been disabled and it was not clear to me if I could have simply used the normal tensioner.
• Camshaft oiler tube kits x2 – 117 180 00 84 – I wanted genuine, but they are now NLA so purchased Febi.
• Chain guide x2 – 117 052 09 16 – Genuine
• Chain guide x2 – 117 052 08 16 – Genuine
• Tensioner guide – 117 050 04 15 – Genuine
• Guide pin – 116 052 21 74 – got a couple in case they were needed, but they can normally be reused.
• Left valve cover gasket – 116 016 13 21 – Elring
• Right valve cover gasket – 116 016 14 21 – Elring
• Valve cover copper sealing ring x8 – 915035 000016 – Reinz
• Valve stem seal kits x2 – 116 050 01 67 – Genuine

While I was there I also ordered some other parts I needed that will be used later, such as the drier pictured above.    I also grabbed the two pictured air hoses to be replaced at the same time as they were rock hard.

There were no major issues during the job, although my mechanic noted that the valve stem seals are much harder to do in the 107 than the 126.   There is far less room, particularly up near the brake booster.   The oil seals immediately showed why I had an issue with oil getting into the cylinders   A couple had cracked and the rest were so hard they were not sealing properly.

It would appear that Mercedes-Benz revised these seals at some point.   The new ones were rubber, whereas the old ones were a hard plastic type material.     During the timing chain job, a couple of the lifters need replacement.   Unlike during the timing chain job on my 560SEC, none of the guides were broken, but they were all discoloured.   It is not clear how many kilometres were on my chain, but the camshaft sprockets had a reasonable amount of wear on them.

After the job, my mechanic performed a compression test on my engine and he was very happy with the results, even after 313,000km.   The car runs very well now, and seems to even have a little more power.   This was quite an expensive job, but necessary if you are going to own a Mercedes-Benz v8 of this era.

In addition, during the timing chain job, I had the tensioner, guides, and camshaft oiler fittings replaced as per the parts list above.   These should always be done at the same time.

The post M117 450 Timing chain and valve stem seals appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

The set of lug bolts I had were quite scruffy, so I attempted to clean them up by soaking them in a metal cleaner and then using a clear coat on the heads.     At first, it seemed like it was working.   However, it was apparent within a couple of weeks that my bolt restoration hadn’t worked very well.   I now had ugly rusty looking bolt heads.

I’ve had this on my todo list since that time.   This week I finally purchased a new set of bolts for the car.    I really should have done this sooner.   Not only were the heads rusty, but the coating on the actual bolts had deteriorated to the point where the threads were getting rusty too.   Luckily I had used a little copper anti-seize as they came out easily.       In the photo below, it is pretty apparent which is the old bolt in the box of new ones.

Such a simple job has really lifted the car.   Not only do the new bolts look much better, but the rusty threads are not going to be a problem in the future.    As with before, I put a tiny dab of copper anti-seize and tightened them by hand.

Instead of wasting all that time trying to restore the old bolts, I should have purchased new ones in the first place.   I probably spent almost as much on metal cleaner and clear coat, plus my time.

I now finally have 450SLC lug bolts that are in keeping with the car and wheels.    I’ll probably keep the old ones as spares just in case I loose one.  I don’t plan to put them on a car again except as a stop gap.

The post 450SLC lug bolt replacement appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

It seemed obvious that the flasher unit had stopped working.    I had assumed that the flasher unit was built into the switch, like it is in the later cars.   A friend had a used switch from a 450SLC, so I tried it.   It was clear that this switch was very different to the switch on my car.    On further research, the earlier cars had a separate flasher relay behind the instrument cluster.   It looks like the change happened around early 1978.

This was fairly good news, as while the switches are all NLA, the 107 blinker flasher unit was still available from the MB Classic Centre.   It wasn’t cheap at USD$124 plus shipping, but it was available new.  The part number is 001-544-97-32.

On the 107, the steering wheel is very close to the instrument cluster, so the wheel must be removed to access the instrument cluster.    To get to the relay, the cluster does not actually have to be unplugged, there is just enough clearance to get your arm behind the cluster and replace the relay if you pull it out, but leave it all plugged in.

Once the cluster is partially out, the relay is very obvious, on the right hand side next to the metal supporting brace.   It is that black box pictured below, and just sits in with the normal Mercedes pins.

A quick test before I put the steering wheel back on showed that the new relay was working perfectly.   The new 107 blinker flasher unit fixed the problem.    Taking the steering wheel on/off is the most annoying part of this job, so it makes sense to check first.

You’ll also see that the speaker cover is missing on the drivers side speaker.   I was having problems getting it to hook onto the mount.     It was far easier to do with the steering wheel off.  I was able to use a credit card to get the hooks to line up and then attach the small screws at the bottom.    The final piece of my radio install is now complete as well now.

The post 107 blinker flasher unit appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

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 genuine mounts.   The genuine mounts were quite expensive, but I couldn’t find any from a brand I would use.   The Lemforder mounts for the W126 are excellent and inexpensive, but I could only find the Meyle  mounts that have a reputation of collapsing after 6 months.

I went back through the service history and I had the mounts fitted in September of 2019.   Given they were already collapsed in March of 2022, that was less than three years of life.   The last genuine set I used went over ten years.  The picture below shows the old engine mounts removed.   They were in a pretty bad way.     I hope I just got a bad batch, as I’ve put another genuine set in.    Not only did they last less than three years, but also only 5,000km.

With the new engine mounts fitted, the car is so much smoother.  There is another downside though, the engine is up high enough now that the exhaust touches one of the heat shields under hard acceleration.   The engine mounts were only a year old when it was fitted, so I guess they had already collapsed a bit after a year.   My mechanic thinks they will settle a bit and it will be fine, but its quite an annoying vibration.

While the car was there, I discussed with my mechanic doing the valve stem seals next year.   I wanted to get his view if it made sense to do the timing chain at the same time.   We agreed that it would make sense.   The chain was last done over twenty years ago, and while its only done about 60-70,000km, the guides are now over twenty years old, as is the tensioner.

The service also highlighted that the seal in #1 is worse than most of the others.  I hope it is just the seal and not excessive wear in the guide, as the plug was pretty badly fouled up.    My mechanic told me that should be able to tell by looking at the condition of the seal and the guide from the top of we can just replace seals, or if the head will need to come off to replace the guides.  Some of the other plugs were a bit fouled, but not like #1.

My car hardly makes any visible smoke.   There are a few of these cars at club events that produce quite a lot of smoke at takeoff. I would hate to see the condition of their plugs.   These cars don’t like sitting around, and bad valve seals is a common issue on cars that don’t get driven a lot.   At the same time as changing the chain, tensioner and seals, we’ll also change the sprockets, camshaft oiler tube fittings etc.     Other than the vibration on hard acceleration, the car is driving extremely well.

Looking at the car on the hoist, it is still very dirty from the Adelaide trip.   At some point I’ll have to give the underside a good clean.

The post 450SLC major service and poor quality engine mounts appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

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.   This should be an any easy to reach, but unobtrusive spot.   I chose the underside of the steering column, just where it comes out near the underdash panels.   The microphone is used for hands free calling and I put it at the top of the drivers side A pillar – where there was an existing microphone from a long removed phone car kit.

To access this area, I had to remove the drivers side under dash panel.  These are very delicate now, so I had to take a lot of car.   I was then able to use electrical tape to bind together the wires for the button and microphone to push them through the back of the dash – firstly to the where the head unit would go, and then to the passengers side where the Tranzit BLU be.   This is a very fiddly job.

Because the car previously had a modern radio, all the speaker wires ended up behind the head unit.   For the Becker, they need to be in the passengers side foot well to join to the amplifier.   Normally, they would go through the fader unit, but I just joined them all up instead.    I wired them up in parallel as this is what the car appeared to do originally, albeit with a strange shared ground arrangement.

As far as I can tell, the original speakers were 5 Ohms.   Mine are 4 Ohms, so while not identical, quite close.  In parallel this should be 2 Ohms vs 2.5 Ohms, which I hope is ok.   The specifications for the Becker amplifier talk about it having 7W per channel with four speakers for 5W per channel with 2.  This also led me to believe parallel is the way to go.   The speaker wires and amplifier connection also needed to be pushed through the narrow spot behind the dash to the passengers side.  Anyone installing a Becker I would encourage you to do your own research here.

The hardest part of all of this pushing wires through narrow gaps was the antenna connection from the Tranzit BLU.   This goes from the passengers side to the head unit.  It has a 90 degree bend in the plug, which makes it very hard to push through small gaps.   Even using a guide wire to pull it through and a lot of tape to smooth it over, it took about 30 minutes of trying before I finally had it through and plugged into the Becker Mexico.

To install the Becker Mexico, the knobs front face is gently removed.   It is very easy to crack the faceplate.   There are two securing brackets that are normally used, but this part of my dash is quite cracked so I didn’t use them here.   Unlike the earlier cars it sits quite well.   While the face was off, I took the opportunity to clean it.

Before I properly installed the amplifier, I did another system test.   I found everything was working except for the control button for the Tranzit BLU.   I checked and it was connected properly.   The manual that came with the Tranzit BLU didn’t have any more help.   However, I found another version of the manual online which had an extended troubleshooting section.   This section covered using the dip switches on the unit to put it into ‘learning mode’ so it could ‘learn’ the value of the button.

The first time I tried this, it seemed to work, but pressing the button would disconnect Bluetooth.   I had managed to make it worse.   I was starting to worry I had damaged the button somehow pushing it through various dash gaps.   Trying the process again seemed to fix the issue and I now had a working control button.   The only slight annoyance is that each time I turn on the car or radio, I have to ‘engage’ the Tranzit BLU.   On the 560SEC and 300TE, I don’t.  I’ve emailed iSimple to find out how I change this.

Now it was time to install the guts of the system in the dash behind the glove box.   The original bracket for the amp was still there, and since I had the original amp, it snapped right in.   I used a couple of cable ties to hang the two relays off the bracket as well.   Looking at the photo, I see I forgot to bend back the tabs to hold in the speaker wires.  This needs to be done before I re-install the lower dash panel.

I put the lower dash panel back on the drivers side, but so far I have left it off the passengers side.   I want to drive the car a bit to make sure I am happy with everything first.   Those panels are so brittle, I am very careful how often I handle them.   I need to do a dry run for the June 2023 night drive, so I’ll probably take the 450SLC.

At least in the small test drive, I am really happy with the result.   Granted sound quality isn’t quite as good going through an FM transmitter, but its good enough and the Becker fits so well into the dash of the car.   So far the only thing I have noticed is that the ‘Stereo’ light on the Becker has stopped working for some reason.   It worked during testing, although at one point it stopped working and them seemed ok again.

The post 450SLC Becker Mexico Cassette install part 4 – Final installation appeared first on Classic Jalopy.