W123 restoration story... & pics

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joeywarren

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Joined
Jun 3, 2008
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Here are the pics so far:
see here http://s280.photobucket.com/albums/kk174/joebonnemay/E36/W123%20Resto/?albumview=grid for the consolidated picture story! More will be added as time progresses and I'll update this thread as required.

Here's the cut & pasted storyline!!

People did also say the car may probably not be worth what I spend on it. That's true, but spending Ford Focus money on a car which will not depreciate the same as a Focus and probably outlast it (again!) is actually better economincs in my book. Put simply, it's worth it.

Just to add to the background story..

There's chap near Norwich www.starpartz.com who buys in genuine MB parts by the trailerful and stores them away in any farm buildings he can get his hands on - in order to then sell them on in a controlled manner. However, in the "early days" of his venture, he really didn't have any idea where his parts were or what he had in. So, I offerred to go round & catalogue all his W123 parts and offer him for the job lot if I found parts in there I was likely to need.

Of course, the parts were from cancelled dealer stock, "new old" stock and the like. So amongst the many throttle cables and window regulators, there were a few gems. So - I offered him a deal and we shook. He'd now doing a roaring trade after I lent him my dealership pricelist cdrom - what a resource! He now had access to part code input and Euro price RRP output.. how nice am i ?
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I then catalogued up my W123 stock - got onto WIS/EPC and made the parts lists of what I needed, what I needed to sell on etc. After removing the stock I needed, I broke even by selling the parts individually on eBay. Crazy times. Of course the chap in Norwich had gotten wise and is selling choice parts on his eBay store. He's still looking for trade disposals, however and his postage is quite reasonable! Tell him i sent ya ;-)

Of course this parts ventue was just the trim and a panel or two! I then ordered the remainder from autotiele in Germany, as well as ordering up the remaining new panels from MB UK via the old restorers much later into the restoration. When I first enquired about restoring a 20 year old car with him, he said taking it down to bare metal would probably not be a requirement. As you can see, I was wise (for a change!) to insist paying the man to do so! Next time, ensure you get a rust free shell from california... and a donor car from the UK and convert to RHD!! It's cheaper ;-)

So, after that investment and flurry of buying & selling, I was about £4,000 lighter including the car purchase.

Now, we're into phase 2 - which is making good any hidden areas which the previous restorer's missed, painting the car Thistle Green, fittng up *all* new exterior trim, rubers, felts, aluminium, bumpers, roof-bars, irons, radiator grill... yes it was expensive stuff, but it's cheaper by far to order from Germany than from the UK stealers. The guys at autotiele really know their onions.

After that, budgets will decide on the following options:
  1. Modern ICE installed into passenger glovebox (keeping original in place)
  2. Satnav / GPS / DVD / mps / bluetooth installed with slimline amps mounted underneath seats 3/4/5 and/or in/behind glovebox area
  3. Rear / front subframe overhauls
  4. All suspension bushes / rubbers replaced
  5. Anti-roll-bar replacement
  6. All drivetrain rubbers/bushes replaced
  7. 5 speed manual conversion from 4 speed auto (preferred)
  8. Longer-legged diff? (3.07?)
  9. Gearbox / engine overhaul (depending on existing condition)
  10. Interior retrim with original blue tufting carpet (rear loadbay needs doing anyway)
  11. Interior retrim in leather (trouble is, the existing blue mb-tex is almost perfect!)
  12. Electric seat retrofit from W126 donor. (will need to decide this soon ;-)
  13. Fuel tank replacement (got a new one for £85!)
  14. New boxed MB Fusch 14" alloy wheels from Germany (300Euro!) I tried getting set of 15", but they are over triple that price. Ouch.
  15. plus loads of other smaller bits like an electric window retrofit from a donor car..
  16. The engine swap may (will ) have to wait until we get her back on the road.
What did I miss?
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I am not a millionare, or particularly flush. I have a budget and a need. I'll pay what I can when I can, and this monthly amount is agreed with Martyn. As the refit takes shape, and mechanical parts are looked over, there will be some decisions to make which mean priorities will change, no doubt.

Sorry for the major essay on this one, but I thought it might help out those asking.... "why?" ;-)
 

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