'My first SL'

[219]

Just to further update this , Carl Burgess at W140parts is sending me the correct contact ring for the steering wheel ; with that in mind I've also ordered a R129 wood/leather steering wheel which I got on eBay for a very reasonable price .

I got the rear fusebox lid , complete with fuse chart last week , still awaiting the one I ordered against the chassis no , and found the front fusebox chart under the passenger seat !

The W202 donor car I got the steering wheel from ( at least I will use the chrome star airbag from it ) also yielded a pristine tool roll - I now just need the special Combi tool for the hood .

The car seems to be running fine with the Bosch ignition coil from the M102 and still returning high 20's fuel consumption on mixed driving . The engine remains dry and free of oil leaks , despite having to top up the coolant the night I got the car it hasn't dropped again having now covered 1000+ miles .

The electric passenger seat continues to work fine , although occasionally the alarm sounds to suggest it isn't locked back properly despite being securely locked ( I'm sure just a microswitch ) .

With the new battery , the car starts first time , every time .

Things still to do : track down central locking fault ; sort out noisy exhaust ; address clonks from back ( which only happen if being brutal with throttle , never in normal driving ) ; 3 point belt for back seat ; replace driver's door mirror ( on order ) ; sort out steering wheel issues ( parts on order ) ; sort out leather seat covers ( no hurry , just watching eBay ) ; address non working aircon ( waiting for Kwik Fit to do their summer special offer on recharge as they usually do ) ; re stitch the back window in the soft top and do something about the cigarette burn sized hole ( thinking about a bicycle puncture repair patch as the hood is fine apart from this one tiny hole ) ; oh , and the 'Federal' tyres ( albeit a matching set of four in reasonably new condition ) will be replaced with 'proper' tyres in due course - most likely Contis as they are my preference .

In short , this was a cheap car which I knew had issues when I got it ( but no worse than those on my C270 which had been a money pit ) and at least the problems on this car are within my DIY comfort zone , unlike the S203 . I have already worked round many of the faults , with the rest ongoing , and so far haven't spent a fortune on the car , mainly just my time and effort . I'm sure that before long I will have a reasonable fun car to use in the summer .

In the meantime , work is also progressing on my 190e which got 5 new Continental Eco Contact 3's yesterday . New engine should be going in soon and that car back on road as well .

 

[jonnyboy]

Derek

Carl 100% has the tool - there was one in the boot of the breaker he had off me a couple of weeks ago!

 

[IMD]

I had a small cigarette burn size hole on the top of my roof when I first bought my SL. I did eventually replace the whole roof, but I couldn't afford it at first. I stuck a bicycle repair patch inside the fabric, between the roof fabric and headlining, waited until dry and then applied a small blob of flexible black sealant to the outside of the hole. It was barely noticeable and lasted all winter before I replaced it.

 

[219]

Thanks , that sounds like an idea .

I had thought of two bicycle puncture repair patches - one on the inside and one on the outside .

Likewise , if I end up keeping the car long term , I would replace the soft top .

The repair only needs to last over the summer as I will have the hard top on over winter and through the worst weather - so it really only needs to be proof against light showers .

 

[219]

This morning I was working from home , editing some video material I had shot over the last week or so , and , not having received the door mirror I ordered last week , decided to chase it up .

Carl at W140 was quick to reply with a Parcelforce tracking number which revealed that a delivery had been attempted on the 6th of May and the parcel had been left at my local post office - pity the delivery man had neglected to leave a card telling me this - not in any way Carl's fault .

Later I went down to the Post Office and collected my parcel , before going into the office for the afternoon . I also popped up to M-B Glasgow where my '300SL-24' boot lid badge had come in , along with my two fuse charts .

On getting home , my neighbour cheerily greeted me with yet another parcel - this was my steering contact ring - Carl had kindly sent me two , to suit the two different kinds of steering wheel as the one I currently have is not correct according to my chassis no .

First order of business was to get the type designation badge onto the boot lid . In preparation , I gave the area a quick once over with some T Cut to remove wax etc and polished to produce nice clean paint for it to adhere to . The badge had an adhesive backing with peel off greaseproof paper . To get correct alignment , I compared the location of the 190E badge on my other car , then got a plastic rule and used a little bit of gaffer tape on each end to stick it temporarily to the SL boot lid with the bottom edge of the rule lining up with the bottom edge of the panel . I warmed up the panel with SWMBO's hair dryer ( didn't want to risk damaging the paint with my heat gun ) then , having peeled off the backing paper , pressed the badge on along the top edge of the rule . With the rule removed and a quick wipe with the T Cut cloth to ensure no sticky residue from the gaffer tape - result : perfect .

Next , I decided to tackle the mirror . I only needed the glass , although Carl had sent me a complete mirror assembly . To practice glass removal I first tried on a spare W124 mirror I had lying around : pressing the glass fully in at the inner edge I was able to create enough space to get a knife blade inside and pop the glass off close to its mounting point without damage . Encouraged , I did the same with the defective glass on my car . By now confident in my abilities , I then popped the new glass off the supplied mirror .

Now , I had also been aware that the drivers door mirror was not keeping the same position over time , and noticing that the motor assembly on R129 mirrors is a replaceable part , I decided to swap this over with the one from the new mirror .

With the new glass and motor assembly built up into my existing mirror frame the unit looks brand new and seems to work perfectly .

As I'm still awaiting my wood/leather steering wheel , I'm going to hold off messing around with contact rings until the weekend . In the meantime , I have ordered a new mast for my Hirschmann electric aerial , and hopefully will get this in place soon .

 

[219]

Due to working 18 hours yesterday , I didn't do a lot to the car today . Intermittent rain today also meant I didn't embark on anything major .

The steering wheel hasn't arrived yet ( delivery was quoted between Friday and Monday , so it could still come on time .

I spent a little time going over vacuum connections re the central locking and found the connector off the o/s headlamp levelling device , but on reconnecting the CL still isn't working ; drivers' door next to be investigated , then the various cubby holes within the car which lock with the CL ( passenger door , boot lock and petrol flap all already checked ) . Have also been listening carefully for hissing when the pump is running but to no avail so far . Strangely , when I took the washer bottle out , I found a little colony of snail shells nestled underneath , but no corrosion .

The mast for my Hirschmann aerial arrived the other day . Alas , despite having sprayed penetrating oil into the top , when I tried to undo the retaining collar it sheared off , leaving the most part still in the tube . I now need to see if I can remove the tube from the rest of the unit and knock the old mast out downwards after first cutting the end off .

Otherwise I will get a new aerial and keep the spare mast .

If it remains dry tomorrow , I'll open up my drivers' door and check the vacuum connections in there .

 

[219]

I thought I ought to update this thread as I haven't added anything for a couple of weeks .

I really have just been driving and enjoying the car , top down as often as possible with the nicer weather . I have seen a couple of other R129's out on the road , but they are not such a common sight .

Talking of top down , the soft top generally goes up and down fine , but sometimes doesn't lock in at the front - as if it hasn't quite landed in the right place - but I found that either pulling down gently on the grip at the middle front , or reaching behind and pushing the bow back a few inches , gets it to lock in correctly then the cycle completes . It may be a small adjustment , either to the front locking pins or I see a sliding adjustment at the front end of the side rails where the marks show that the bolt heads have previously been in a different position - in either case I will mark the starting point before disturbing anything .

The other week , I had got a horn contact ring from Carl Burgess , and got the horn working correctly via the steering wheel ; the horn fitted to the car , though , was an inoffensive pipsqueak type thing and not the proper pair that would have originally been fitted . As it happened , I had in my shed a couple of pairs of Bosch horns from Fintail/Pontons which have a more authoritative sound , so a pair got cleaned up , tested and painted before fitting - connecting them was easy enough but I had to make up a bracket - I now have a properly loud horn with a nice tone .

The wood/leather steering wheel finally arrived today : there had been a delay of my own making as I had ordered the wrong type of wheel for my car ( due to the wrong type being on the car when I bought it ) but Ali ( the seller on eBay ) very kindly held off while we determined the correct type and was then able to supply one .

While I was changing the wheel over , I planned to replace the SRS lamp which had been removed and also fix the OTG illumination . Although it is a job I have done dozens of times before on other MB cars with improvised tools , the instrument cluster was very , very tight and I ended up cracking the edge of the bezel - now kicking myself . I ended up removing the carpeted trim below the column and pushing the cluster out from behind . I only need the front cover which is a separate part , but still annoyed with myself . Anyway , the SRS lamp was easy enough - I had spares from a 190 cluster - all back together and SRS light now coming on and going out when it should , so one less MOT fail point to worry about .

Having taken the cluster apart , I found the OTG is illuminated by a tiny lamp soldered to the board - as I didn't have one I removed it and will see if I can source one from Maplins , RS Components or the like - it can wait till I get a new bezel to put in .

I also got a phone call today from Pawel at Quickfit SBS to say that my rear seat belts were ready , now paid for and expected early next week .

Since the registration document came through the other day , I went up to MB Glasgow to order a couple of spare keys ( I only got one with the car ) at a reasonably painless £22.50 each plus vat ( I like simple mechanical keys ) .

I also ordered the missing hyphen to complete the '300SL-24' badge on the boot and the blower knob for the heater control which was broken on my car - I was a bit shocked at £22 odds for a plastic knob but that is the way with MB pricing : some things are very reasonable whilst others are steep .

I also asked about the special tool for manually opening or closing the roof . After seeing an eBay seller asking £47.50 plus postage for a used one , I expected it not to be cheap ; what was my surprise when I was quoted £10.30 for a brand new one ! No prizes for guessing who I ordered from . I couldn't resist emailing the eBay seller and asking him to justify his price - still awaiting a reply ....

I still need to trace the Central locking fault ( vacuum leak ) and have eliminated a lot of the system , but will get there in the end .

I will also need to replace the exhaust as the noise is driving me crazy - this will probably be a return visit to P ad Gough as I was well pleased with the system they made for my 500SEL .

I got a fibreglass repair kit to tackle the cracked front valance and will see to this soon ; also need to investigate the knock from the back end which only happens occasionally .

I'm still running with the M102 ignition coil and ought to get the correct one ; that will come out of next month's pay as I can only do so much each month .

 

[renault12ts]

It just occurred to me , I haven't posted any pictures of my new toy yet . These are just iPhone snapshots as I've yet to take proper ones .

That's something you'll not see from the rest of the UK...a reg. mark younger than the car.

 

[MD5]

That's something you'll not see from the rest of the UK...a reg. mark younger than the car.

That's interesting. How is age deciphered on NI plates?

 

[grober]

Knock from the back end?-----soft differential mountings?--propshaft flexible coupling?
Keep up the good work.

 

[219]

Thanks Graeme - it could well be any of these things ; I had thought of the rear subframe mount bushes that had gone in my last W124 since the R129 has the same setup .

It only happens very rarely , part throttle kick down doesn't cause it and you have to be really brutal to make it happen , so I'm not hugely worried . I'll get a good poke around underneath before long to track it down .

 

[219]

Anyway , more updates , including a bit of bad news and some good news .

First the nice wood and leather wheel I fitted the other day , horn and SRS now working as they should .



The not so good news is that yesterday morning I was going to attend the funeral of a colleague , exiting the Southbound M74 at jct 2A , a long slip road which has a 30 mph limit from the top , on a grey drizzly morning with damp road surface , I approached the traffic light controlled roundabout at the bottom where half a dozen or more cars were waiting . I saw the lights change to green from the distance and traffic started to move , and I was rolling down towards the queue at about 20 or so mph . The lights went amber as the second car in front of me went through , and the car in front also went through on amber , but , knowing these lights to have a shortish phase I was braking gently and , indeed , they went red while I was still a car length or so from the stop line and I pulled up safely . The next thing was , I heard the sound of tyres skidding on the damp road and - BANG - I was shunted from behind by a SAAB 9-3

No point getting upset about these things - it happens - we both pulled round the corner and exchanged details without any recriminations . It turned out we were both insured with Privilege and later that day , when I was literally just home from the funeral and had my documents in my hand , they phoned me up to say that the other driver had accepted full responsibility and that they would arrange to have my car repaired at no cost to myself and that my insurance would not be affected .

Anyway , here is the car following the bump , I didn't take any photos at the time as it happened only half an hour before the funeral was due to start , but I returned to the scene later to take a series of photographs from the top of the slip road leading down to the lights , in case there was going to be any dispute , and took a couple of my car at the same time .



As the picture shows , it was only a bit of scuffing caused , I think by road dirt on both vehicles - there wasn't any paint transference .

Once home I washed the car with a bucket and sponge , and it looked like this with all the loose dirt removed .





I then got out my polishing machine and gave it a going over , firstly with T Cut , then with 'zero swirl' polishing compound , and 20 minutes or so later it looked like this .



I checked that the boot still opens and shuts fine , there is no water ingress ( it was a rainy morning ) the lights are undamaged and all working , the boot floor is undamaged and the wheel well is fine , the bumper alignment looks fine as do the shut gaps on the doors ; most importantly , the hood still goes up and down fine - I cycled it about half a dozen times and it never failed to complete - so I am confident there is no hidden damage .

I had left it with the insurer that an assessor was going to get in touch before any repairs were authorised , so I will probably let him look over the car in case I've missed anything and then leave it at that .

Since it was a nice afternoon and I had washed the car , I took a few more pictures .

 

[Charles Morgan]

That's rather a bore, but soon sorted I would have thought.

 

[219]

Given that the car has been poorly painted at some point in the past ( and that I suspect the colour may have been changed : in hidden areas such as behind the instrument cluster the metalwork is a darker colour , more like Almandine ) and if I end up keeping the car long term - which I increasingly feel I will as I get things sorted out - then I will probably get a full respray done to a better standard . Hence , I'm not too bothered about making good out of this incident given that there already were imperfections in the bumper and elsewhere .

If it turns out that the colour has been changed and I can verify that it was , indeed , Almandine , then I would probably return the car to that ( must do a VIN check ) .

 

[Doodle]

Is the build sheet not stuck in the back of your service book?

 

[219]

Is the build sheet not stuck in the back of your service book?

Sadly , no - it is missing

 

[C43AMG]

It would be a very rare beast if it was originally Almandine !!

 

[219]

I put my VIN into one of the online decoders last night and it came up with paint DB 588 - Signalred , so it is correct - just odd that hidden area looks a darker colour.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Red exposed to sunlight fades a lot over the years.

 

[BTB 500]

Sorry to hear about the rear-end bump. These are tough old cars - some years back mine got hit by a Ford Galaxy when I stopped at a pedestrian crossing and the person behind me didn't More than a gentle 'nudge', it shunted my car forward several feet.

There was no visible damage, even to the paintwork. I had the rear bumper removed for a thorough check and everything was perfect underneath. Some degree of luck I guess in that the bumper heights were obviously compatible, but a pleasant surprise nonetheless.