I’ve been slowly tidying up my W123 since I purchased it.  However, I had a couple of last things I wanted to do before the event.

Cleaning the wheel wells

The wheel wells of a Mercedes-Benz of this era should be body colour.  Many people assume they are supposed to be black.  That is mostly because they are normally so caked with dirt and grime.   Some even get painted back due to that wrong information.

It seemed like a good idea to remove the wheels and clean all the dirt and junk out.    I found a toilet brush (that hadn’t been used in a toilet) with its long handle and plastic bristles good for this task.

I had done one of them before when I had to remove a wheel, so I only had three to do.  You can see why these cars rusted out in certain climates.  In both the front of rear there are so many places for dirt and mud to accumulate.  All you need is a bit of road salt for it to eat the car from the inside out.

For example, at the rear there is a sort of ridge or lip that allows a whole bucket full of dirt to get trapped up there. This can’t be easily seen unless the wheel is off.

Removing a stain from the boot lid

I had noticed a stain on the boot lid of my car.  It looked like something had dripped onto the boot and then left a stain.  It was probably either some hard water that dripped from a parking lot, or perhaps bird droppings I had not removed fast enough.

Given there were some swirl marks in other places on the car, I though it would be a good opportunity to give the whole car a bit of a polish.   I started by masking up the rear of the car, before getting out my polisher.

The problem was, I hadn’t used it in 10 years and the fitting to attach polishing pads had perished and couldn’t be used.  So I ended up using a pad in my hand and polishing the boot lid manually.  I think I was able to get it done well enough to get rid of that stain, although I wasn’t able to do the whole car like I planned.

At some point in the future, I’ll do the whole car properly.

Regassing the AC

The AC had become tepid, no good for a drive to Canberra in the height of summer.  I used my blacklight to see if I could see any leaks, and I couldn’t.  With that, I took the car in to be regassed and since it held vacuum, we did.  At this stage I’m not sure where the minor leak is from.  Perhaps under the dash.

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A friend of mine runs a detailing business, and he suggested using a diluted wheel cleaner for this job.   I was able to source this through him, which was a big help.
As I started cleaning, I could see the black colour was a thick gooey mud like substance that took quite a lot of effort to remove.   The wheel cleaner certainly helped to get it off.   On the first wheel, I just used a regular spray bottle and sponge.   This took hours.   The wheel was not really compatible with the spray bottle and I could not get enough on.   The sponge did eventually get the stuff off, but it took a lot of scrubbing.

The stuff dripping down reminded me of one of the anti-smoking ads they aired here in Australia during the 90s.   They had a sponge that was supposed to simulate a set of lungs and all the tar and residue from a long time heavy smoker.   It was quite an effective ad campaign at the time and this stuff certainly reminded me of it.

With 8 wheels to do, I wasn’t going to be done this year if I kept up this method, so I purchased a small pressure washer the next day, which I used for the other seven.  It took me a bit of time to get the hang of it and I think I may have slightly damaged the paint in one or two places I need to touch up.   There was already a bit of damage from when the 8 hole wheels rubbed before, so I anticipated this.

The second wheel was much faster than the first, and this included assembling and trying out the pressure washer.    On the first evening, I got one wheel done.   On the second, I also got one wheel done, but set myself up to do the next six in a marathon that lasted to 2am.

I didn’t get the wheel wells as clean as I hoped, but they were certainly much better than before.   As well as the dirt there was a thick tar like substance that wouldn’t come off without damaging the paint in some places.

The car did look rather interesting after just the rear wheels were done.  Its an interesting contrast and you really notice the fatter 225 width tyres with the deeper dish Pentas over the other wheels and their 205 width tyres.

I finally got all four mounted and I am really happy with the look.    This is now the 5th type of wheel this car has worn.   It was delivered with the colour matched hubcaps.   At some point a set of Australian made ‘Bundt’ wheels were fitted.   I never really liked those wheels, so fitted the 8 hole replicas for a couple of years.   Those wheels look better on the W126 than the C107, so I replaced them with the 15″ ‘Gullideckel’ wheels that were fitted on the 86-89 R107s.    Finally, I have the 15″ Pentas.       The Gullideckel wheels will go on my 560SEL, as the wheels on that car are in need of refinishing.

The only thing I would change is the bolts.  Even though I made them better, I am still not all that happy with how they look, especially contrasted with the wheels.   I’ll probably look to get a better set at some point.  Overall I am really like the look of a 450SLC with AMG ‘Penta’ wheels.   I think they really suit the car – far better than the modern wheels some fit.

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