Last night I joined the ranks of SL owners .
A month or so back , fellow member Steven Sharp had placed an ad in the classifieds here , looking to exchange his R129 300SL-24 for an estate car ; to which I replied with a view to swapping my C270 and my Ponton for it .
Those who have read my posts on here will know that I became a bit cheesed off with the C270 following the numerous repairs I had to have carried out within a short time of buying it and following that , it is hard to turn one's feelings about a car round again .
I was completely straight with Steven , pointing out the problems I had had with injectors ( all five now having been replaced at not inconsiderable cost ) , swirl flaps , the exhaust starting to blow and the beginnings of corrosion here and there .
The Ponton was almost part of my family , having been in my ownership some 33 years , but latterly I was watching it slowly deteriorate every time I visited my mum's where it was kept , and with the realisation that , at the age of 57 ( one year younger than the car ) I was unlikely to ever get around to restoring it , I offered it in exchange along with the C Class .
We both had a good look over each other's cars , went away to have a think about it , then agreed it was a deal = straight swap .
Last night I picked up the SL and drove it home to my home in Ayrshire . The SL is not without its issues - as to be expected from a 'bargain basement' R129 . There are the beginnings of rust on one front wing and also on one rear wheel arch - no worse than the C Class I was exchanging . Besides that , there are issues with the central locking not working and electric adjustment of the passenger seat - these are things I can deal with . There are also a lot of minor things like little bits of trim missing or broken - all can be dealt with .
The car drives very well , the exhaust sounds a bit loud , but I was underneath and couldn't detect any obvious leaks
The coolant level warning light came on driving home last night - no obvious leaks and the exhaust looked clear enough ( no steam ) - reservoir was low but not empty so topped up and hasn't happened again , but I will keep an eye on it . I will do an oil/filter change at the weekend as oil pressure is dropping to 1 bar at hot idle , but in my experience fresh oil and a new filter will generally sort this out .
All in all I think we made a fair exchange of two cars that each had their separate issues and both quite pleased with the deal .
I'm planning to just run the SL over the next month or two , pretty much as-is , but attending to some of the smaller issues while I get the 190E ready for the road , then once I have it to fall back on again , I can treat the SL as a rolling restoration and a fun car for the summer .
I will take some pictures of the SL later and post them up here .
A month or so back , fellow member Steven Sharp had placed an ad in the classifieds here , looking to exchange his R129 300SL-24 for an estate car ; to which I replied with a view to swapping my C270 and my Ponton for it .
Those who have read my posts on here will know that I became a bit cheesed off with the C270 following the numerous repairs I had to have carried out within a short time of buying it and following that , it is hard to turn one's feelings about a car round again .
I was completely straight with Steven , pointing out the problems I had had with injectors ( all five now having been replaced at not inconsiderable cost ) , swirl flaps , the exhaust starting to blow and the beginnings of corrosion here and there .
The Ponton was almost part of my family , having been in my ownership some 33 years , but latterly I was watching it slowly deteriorate every time I visited my mum's where it was kept , and with the realisation that , at the age of 57 ( one year younger than the car ) I was unlikely to ever get around to restoring it , I offered it in exchange along with the C Class .
We both had a good look over each other's cars , went away to have a think about it , then agreed it was a deal = straight swap .
Last night I picked up the SL and drove it home to my home in Ayrshire . The SL is not without its issues - as to be expected from a 'bargain basement' R129 . There are the beginnings of rust on one front wing and also on one rear wheel arch - no worse than the C Class I was exchanging . Besides that , there are issues with the central locking not working and electric adjustment of the passenger seat - these are things I can deal with . There are also a lot of minor things like little bits of trim missing or broken - all can be dealt with .
The car drives very well , the exhaust sounds a bit loud , but I was underneath and couldn't detect any obvious leaks
The coolant level warning light came on driving home last night - no obvious leaks and the exhaust looked clear enough ( no steam ) - reservoir was low but not empty so topped up and hasn't happened again , but I will keep an eye on it . I will do an oil/filter change at the weekend as oil pressure is dropping to 1 bar at hot idle , but in my experience fresh oil and a new filter will generally sort this out .All in all I think we made a fair exchange of two cars that each had their separate issues and both quite pleased with the deal .
I'm planning to just run the SL over the next month or two , pretty much as-is , but attending to some of the smaller issues while I get the 190E ready for the road , then once I have it to fall back on again , I can treat the SL as a rolling restoration and a fun car for the summer .
I will take some pictures of the SL later and post them up here .
