kraftwerk
Active Member
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2008
- Messages
- 193
- Location
- London
- Car
- 97 R129 500; 78 Fiat 238 Weinsberg; 74 Fiat 128 Special; 99 Honda X11, 99 Suzuki GSX1300R
Panoramic glass hardtop for the SL appeared on eBay late on Saturday. Right colour, inside and out. It's the one thing I miss about the Avantime, all that glass above my head creating a lovely atmosphere in the cabin.
Dropped the seller a message asking him to call me on Sunday so I could go and have a look if it was convenient. He did and it was.
Duncan, a retired chap, lives in Sunningdale, only an hour or so from me. I arrived at his place to see a 2000 SL500 on the drive. Turns out this is his fourth R129. The blue roof came from his previous car, an SL600, with which, incidentally, he'd experienced lots of trouble from the adaptive damping. So glad I don't have that option
The car was on one of its regular visits to the dealership to have the suspension looked at. While in, another car in the workship was having its fuel system drained of the wrong fuel. The offending fuel duly decanted, while laying around the workshop in a drum, a spark ignited it and the workshop went up in flames, taking several cars with it, including Duncan's. The glass roof was still in his garage, and since he'd had his car replaced under the dealer's insurance, became surplus.
I got it for a really good price - dead chuffed.
Incidentally, Duncan's garage was converted in to a workshop for his hobby of modelmaking, with a lathe and various other impressive-looking tools. He showed me the drawings and the early build stage for a working steam locomotive he was building. 'How long will it take to complete?' I enquired.
'Oh,' he replied; 'Two-and-a-half to three years.'
Dropped the seller a message asking him to call me on Sunday so I could go and have a look if it was convenient. He did and it was.
Duncan, a retired chap, lives in Sunningdale, only an hour or so from me. I arrived at his place to see a 2000 SL500 on the drive. Turns out this is his fourth R129. The blue roof came from his previous car, an SL600, with which, incidentally, he'd experienced lots of trouble from the adaptive damping. So glad I don't have that option
The car was on one of its regular visits to the dealership to have the suspension looked at. While in, another car in the workship was having its fuel system drained of the wrong fuel. The offending fuel duly decanted, while laying around the workshop in a drum, a spark ignited it and the workshop went up in flames, taking several cars with it, including Duncan's. The glass roof was still in his garage, and since he'd had his car replaced under the dealer's insurance, became surplus.
I got it for a really good price - dead chuffed.
Incidentally, Duncan's garage was converted in to a workshop for his hobby of modelmaking, with a lathe and various other impressive-looking tools. He showed me the drawings and the early build stage for a working steam locomotive he was building. 'How long will it take to complete?' I enquired.
'Oh,' he replied; 'Two-and-a-half to three years.'
