| My 450SLC was originally sold with 14″ alloy wheels. This style of wheel was the standard Mercedes alloy wheel from the late 60s to 1985. It has a few nicknames such as Bundt Cake, Baroque, Fuchs etc. On the V8s it is 6.5″ wide but narrower versions (5.5″ & 6″) were available. The challenge with these wheels is that good tyres for a heavy car like an SLC are now hard to find. They are also hard to keep clean and I find the 195/70 tyres too litle for a car like the SLC. When I moved back from the […] The windscreen washer has not been working on my 450SLC for a couple of months. The wipers started up, but no water squirted on the windscreen. On quick inspection, I assumed it was the pump as it was rather rusty. The W107 windscreen washer pump is a poor design in my view. It appears that the motor is below where the water is sucked in, so any minor leakage gets into the mechanism and it rusts out. Since I purchased the car in 2003, I am now on my 3rd pump. They are not expensive, at around $60, but […] NSW has a great historic registration system. It allows for classics to be used for 60 days on a logbook for a drastically reduced fee. For unknown reasons the plates issued are tiny plates with purple numerals. The plates are so small they are not wide enough for the mounting holes on most cars. As these plates don’t end up on some disposable SUV where new holes can simply be drilled, a mounting plate is required. On the 250SE and Traction Avant, I fabricated my own mounting plates out of sheet aluminium. I didn’t have time to do this for […] The Achilles heel of M116 and M117 engined cars is the timing chain. As the engine is an overhead valve engine, the chain is used to make sure the valves open and close when they should. On the V8 the chain needs to go to both heads and down to the crankshaft and so it is very long. This exacerbates the potential problems compared to other engines. Over time the plastic guides become brittle and the chain stretches. The most likely failure is either due to a stretched chain or brittle guide, the guide breaks and causes the chain to […] The 450SLC is complete and I picked it up over the weekend. What a difference from the faded original paint at the front of the car – it is like having a new one. The respray took place over three weeks (Week 1, Week 2, Week 3). In addition, rust was cut out, and the air cleaner was re-painted. The 450SLC is now completed. Last week the actual spraying was done, and this week the car was polished, re-assembled and checked. I do my final inspection and collect the car this weekend. In addition to having the car re-sprayed, I had the air cleaner resprayed in black and the chrome arch covers removed as they can attract rust. The brackets that attach the fog lights were also done. I personally find the chrome arch covers gaudy. They are not factory, but were a popular period accessory. The respray was a good opportunity to remove them. The resprayed 906G […] Another week has gone by at the panel beaters on the 450SLC and the car is getting much closer to completion. Last week was mostly rust repair and preparation, this week completed the preparation and started the actual re-spray. Where components could be reasonably removed, they were to ensure that they were painted correctly. The 450SLC is 906G which is Grey/Blue metallic. I’ve always really liked this colour, more so than the 930 Silver blue that replaced it (which I had on the 280CE). And the 355 Diamond blue (which I had on my 300E) which replaced Silver […] My 450SLC has now spent a week at the panel beaters having rust removed and being prepared for paint. The starting point was the chassis rail on the drivers side. This is as very common W107 rust spot. This was welded and then painted. From there, work moved to the boot where both sides were rusting and there was some rust starting in the spare tyre well. Again this is a very common W107 rust spot. Even Australian delivered cars that have been garaged can develop rust here. This section was probably the worst on the […] The big Achilles heel in the R/C107 chassis is its propensity to rust. They are pretty much bullet proof mechanically, but the rust proofing from the factory was poor and there are a lot of areas where they can and do rust, even in climates such as Australia that are not prone to it. Once the rust gets to a point, the cars are pretty much scrap. My car is pretty rust free – but I had some rust cut out about 10 years ago. There were four places and they are all common rust points in these cars near […] My 450SLC was starting to slip a little in reverse, especially under load (e.g. up a hill). The transmission was shifting gears very well other than this one area, and the fluid looked clean and at the right level. The 450SLC uses the 722.0 transmission, which unlike the later models has an adjustable B3 band (which is used for engaging reverse). This was not something I was aware of, but I was able to find threads on various Mercedes forums outlining how people who had similar issues had been able to adjust this band to cure them. I wonder how […] | |
