Modernising & perfecting a minty W124 300D Turbo!

[Newera]

The conversion has gone to plan.
Lots of parts needed changing to make this work, but it's pretty much done at last.



This is how it looks now. Might put a discreet lip spoiler on the back & I have a spare pair of panels to go under the headlights which I'll cut carefully and have painted before fitting black mesh, to add ventilation. Also have a front number plate trim to fill the ugly gap at the centre of the bumper, which needs fitting and painting, but aide from these 3 intentions that's about all I am thinking of doing for the exterior.

Next will be some high quality carbon fibre laminating on the centre console and retrimming the headlining with one piece of alcantara, plus the B pilar trims and a few other bits by Robson Leather, in Tokyo.









Wheels sit nicely spaced within the arches. No rubbing at all, after having trimmed about 1cm off the inside of the rear arch, to accomodate 10mm hub centric spacers at the rear.



Front didn't need any work on the original 500 fenders.



The front looks much better now than with the narrow original W124 bumper, E500 headlights, Avant Garde Grille and the Turbo's air intake. I wonder how many people will realise the work that's gone into making this, when they see it on the road, or if they'll think it's a standard body for a 300D Turbo?

 

[M.KANE]

Brilliant work. A work colleague had one of these, and before it was written off, it had covered 248,000 miles and was his daily driver.

keep up the good work. Lovely car.

 

[Newera]

A few hurriedly shot pics from yesterday morning (In the rain!), to show the recent improvements.
Carbon laminating for the centre console came out perfect, as always from Robson leather. Matches well with the E500 Limited's birdseye black wood.



There's electro luminescent stainless door sill trims.. took a lot of faffing about to get the wiring neatly installed and working with the courtesy light circuits.



I forgot to shoot the black alcantara C pillars with their logo embroided on... next time.
The head lining came out very nice with real suede. It's now stronger than OEM and Robson says it'll never delaminate again.
Must make sure the kids don't wipe their hands on them!



E500 original Recaro front seats are now replaced with condition better used ones and all electrics incl. seat heaters are working perfectly.





I'm sending the old leather sections of previous E500 front seats to Robson leather for them to take apart & cannibalize for the E500 replica - but with a twist - 3 bucket rear seat. They said if the heater pads can't be removed easily, they can fit some they carry in stock... so seat heaters will certainly be fitted to the rear.



As I don't really like the AMG rear arches there's a new set of replica E500 rear arches to add and blend in (Found an unused set in Japan!) and then some minor cosmetic repairs, to make the paintwork 100% perfect as my son dropped his schoolboy motorbike on the back bumper and I dented one of the front arches slightly... ah, and some rare vented headlight under-panels I got from someone breaking a special E500 - just because they look cool, since the air intakes aren't from there on a 300D.

Then it'll be nearly impossible to tell it's not a real E500 at a glance, except for the truthful boot badges and the giveaway Diesel idle..

Then maybe, just it'll finally be finished.

 

[d w124]

Steering wheel looks out of place,otherwise perfect

 

[Newera]

Steering wheel looks out of place,otherwise perfect

Thanks for the compliment. Being a 1991 model that's been converted to look like a last of the breed, with the last design of bonnet, grille, headlights, boot lid, etc. Truth is it's not a car that was originally equipped with an airbag, and as such I wouldn't have been keen to add such a steering wheel and the older ones available tend to be ugly big things in my eyes.

I'm not really a fan of airbags anyways, nor of a non-existent glovebox, as is typical of W124's equipped with these later features.

I like the 4 horn buttons where they are since they're easy to use without moving the hands off the normal driving position.
I could have gone for a black Birdseye wood & leather wheel (With fake airbag) but the leather rim's feel is smooth and fuss free when the wheel twirls in my hands whilst correcting itself - which means less interference with my senses when driving. Not excessively large either, so this is why I chose this wheel over any other really.

I had been looking for a Weichers alloy front strut brace for a long time but they seem to be hard to come by so today I ordered a new red steel one. I suppose if the paint chips off I can paint it with crackle finish and put a nice Mercedes alloy rectangular badge on it. Might make a slight difference to steering response, but mostly it'll pretty up the engine bay.

After 24 years and 258,000km the original exhaust hasn't any significant external rust (testimony to how clean & well cared for Japanese roads are & without use of salt in winters here) but it's got as couple of small, almost imperceptibly quiet holes from the inside due to condensation in the centre & back boxes. As it's due a bi-annual safety test in a couple of months, I did consider having some custom stainless steel replacements made by a specialist in Yokohama, but at over the equivalent of around £1,300 for the two, plus a day spent not working in order to go there and have them build it (loss of time!) this option didn't seem so attractive.

Since the mild steel originals have lasted this long I ordered a dirt cheap pattern centre box via Ebay Germany and found a good used custom stainless steel twin pipe back box from a 280E, which cost about £250 equivalent. All in - around £400 incl. delivery. Not too bad. Just need to order the gaskets from MB now.

Will try to find time to fit sometime the next couple of weekends, along with all new apparently low dust performance brake pads I've been hoarding away whilst we wore out the existing OEM ones.

It'll look nicer with some shiny exhaust tail pipes. Shouldn't be any noisier either. I'll update further when I have pics and more news...

 

[noogieman]

that's one hot looking w124!
the w124 had the nicest looking dashboard design than any other MB

keep up the good work

 

[Flyinspanner]

Great to see a car living on, especially as it can't be the easiest to get access to parts etc - though you appear to be managing it very well!

Well done.

 

[Newera]

Thanks! Nice to hear you guys like it.

It's really not difficult to get parts. So many W124's were built and so many survive today as a result of being such well assembled & engineered cars that even if a part is discontinued or too expensive, used parts tend to be available. I usually collect parts over a leisurely period then when I have all I need and the time is right, a project can proceed... that's how it's gone with this one.

Japan is a country where a lot of top spec W124's were sold incl. rare AMG models and E500's and so many have also been broken for spares, when E500's weren't worth as much today as in a few years past. I'm also in the modern classic car business, so I have several channels to get parts in UK, Germany & Japan.

Speaking of which, I've been able to obtain some new replica E500 rear arches made in FRP, which as I understood it - people in the UK were after, but could never find. One company in Scandinavia offered metal weld-on conversions, but they're discontinued...

I can supply now and could purchase again if there's anybody else wanting to do a similar conversion - send me a PM and I can order & ship worldwide (We run a parts business for Japanese performance cars too, so we're experienced for such things as these). Unfortunately there's no similar kit to replicate the E500 front in FRP that I know of, but E500 front panels, bumper assembly, inner fenders and headlights are available used (from time to time), or of course new.

We also tend to come across a fair share of Evo II wheels in Japan although we don't have any sets spare right now though, as we use them for E500's that we stock and the odd Evolution AMG 190E that passes though our hands!....

As this 300D is used daily by my wife and kids for school runs, I am thinking I will probably send it to the paint shop in the summer whilst we're away on holiday for a month or so. This way they can take their time and do a perfect job, letting the small amounts of filler shrink completely before paint, etc.
Naturally I'll update with pics when this work takes place.

 

[Newera]

Did a few improvements last weekend incl. cleaning the entire car again.

Fitted a new centre exhaust box. I'd bought a used stainless steel tail section from an E280 doesn't fit - the design is different.... so I put the original back on for now... will have a company in Yokohama custom make what I want when I get a chance to take a day out...



Fitted new Performance Porterfield brake padss and washed each entire suspension & inner arch area of grime, etc. ready for a coating of corrosion inhibitor aircraft grade wax once the pit area being built in our garage at home is completed. Aside from some on the front lower arms, I found no corrosion at all - none expected but still it's good to know the underside remains in such great shape after 25 years, before additional protection!

The oil cooler on the 300D meant the original front E500 plastic inner arch liners wouldn't fit right. Not happy with a used set, I'd ordered new MB ones. Cut an area neatly to allow the oil cooler bracket to protrude slightly and now they fit - perfectly.





With the wheels off, it was a good opportunity to give them a proper clean and polish.



The front bumper has a small scratch & chips. etc. as does the rear. Also still have E500 replica arches to have done, but I'm - saving this work to be done whilst we're away for the summer, maybe...

Cleaned the interior again and replaced the B pilar trims with good condition used items, since MB has discontinued these parts. Happy with how the carbon console came out...







The thought crossed my mind I could replace all of the birdseye E500 Limited wood with carbon laminated trim, but I like the birdseye too, besides - it was so hard to find (Couldn't get the centre console with these air con controls - hence the carbon laminating instead), so I'll stick with the contrast I guess. It works well I think.



The Jenhert speaker conversion is working well. Once I had figured out how to assemble the replacement door pockets so the screws wouldn't work their way loose from vibration produced by 2 subs in each door!



Sill plates are working well too, happy with these.



A better picture of the 1-piece suede head lining. Had to find a used driver's grab handle, as this car originally didn't have one there. Found it cheap on Ebay. Sorted.



Still haven't fitted a set of c-pilar reading lights from an E500 Limited, as I'll need to wait till the next time we have one of those around and I can take measurements, etc.

??????????????????????????????? are currently in the process of making a Recaro styled 3 person rear seat to match the front Recaros. The newly re-trimmed seat will be done in Nappa leather and include full seat heaters too.

Still haven't fitted a new Weichers front strut brace, as I want to paint it with crackle finish red & black paint, then put a nice badge in the middle...

 

[Newera]

Forgot one pics. For anybody interested, these pedal covers work perfectly. So glad I never felt tempted to buy the type that need drilling and screws to fit!

 

[Newera]

Fitted a complete set of new rear suspension arms today in a little over 2 hours, rear camber is noticably reduced. Another job ticked off the list. Not many left - at last!

 

[Newera]

Not much to update, the car keeps running like a swiss watch despite being at 274,000km and 25 years old now - it's still used daily and the engine barely ever gets cold except overnight.



Recently got the re-trimmed rear seat back from Robson leather. Made from a standard rear bench, it's now the same style as the AMG 400 rear seat, but has seat heaters too (Controlled from the centre console).



The bucket design matches the Recaro E500 front seats now and 3 people have commented that it's now more comfortable at the back than the front (Softer foam cushioning).

Could have - but wasn't tempted to try and make a pair of E500 rear seats & central veneer box fit - since the tunnel is of a different design and more importantly we need the car to remain a 5 seater (2 kids and the occasional guest) .

Last week as I drove it, I realized it was running lower Turbo boost than usual (0.95 bar is normal) Traced to a split piece of rubber connecting hose, repaired in 2 minutes.
Bought another one today (1991 W124 LHD 300D Turbo 3 litre). I have a weakness for these...

 

[merc85]

Stunning!

 

[320 CLK]

Fantastic looking car.

 

[zipdip]

Great thread you have transformed that W124,I must admit I thought that these old diesels were impossible to get through your MOT because they cannot past emissions.

 

[alabbasi]

The kid that does some side work for me installed a 722.6 behind an OM603 Turbo motor in his W124 wagon. The extra gear really woke the car up. He seems to be always in peak torque.

 

[Newera]

Great thread you have transformed that W124,I must admit I thought that these old diesels were impossible to get through your MOT because they cannot past emissions.

Kinda right, but not quite:

Shaken in Japan is based on the age of the car, so provided emissions are what they were expected as when the car was in production, it passes still. The other restriction is that older Diesels cannot be registered to owners residing in cities of Japan after 10 years of age. As we live in the countryside, that's not a problem in this case.

 

[Newera]

The kid that does some side work for me installed a 722.6 behind an OM603 Turbo motor in his W124 wagon. The extra gear really woke the car up. He seems to be always in peak torque.

Nice idea. I think I'd prefer the strength of the 4 speed, as opposed to the 5, which is less reliable though. It goes well enough as is....

 

[alabbasi]

Nice idea. I think I'd prefer the strength of the 4 speed, as opposed to the 5, which is less reliable though. It goes well enough as is....

Of course this is up your choice. However the 722.6 is an incredibly strong and reliable transmission. When Mercedes Benz moved to the 7 speed, they kept the 722.6 for the most powerful AMG cars. It's behind my CL65 motor which produces more than 700ft/lbs torque.

 

[Druk]

The kid that does some side work for me installed a 722.6 behind an OM603 Turbo motor in his W124 wagon. The extra gear really woke the car up. He seems to be always in peak torque.

Since the .6 is a canbus box presumably there is an external controller. I’m aware of the one made by Olefejer but wondered what your ‘kid’ uses. Thanks.

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Derek.





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