archiechiang

Hi MBworld!! I have a 1989 W124 206E just stuck outisde my house. We never used it cause it was so crappy already) so I decided to bring it back to life. Im making my own wide body kit (custom fron and rear bumper, side skirts, fender flares, and rear spoiler) to change the look, make it sportier, and make it sexy again.


Here's the photo of it before everthing happened.(this is not my car, I forgot to take a picture before starting the project! haha this is just a sample picture of what it loked like)
*note: the front bumper was busted, the paint was faded)




Here, I glassed the plate holder to make it even and flat:


Then I used a sheet of fiberglass I made to make the "base" or template of the bumper.



Then I cut off the holes with a dremel.





Then off to make the wide fender flares! I used the expandable foam to make the shape of the fender:



Then I trimmed it with a cutter, then further shaped it with a sander



Glassed the fender flares and also made a vent on the bumper to make it wider, and fit well with the new wider fenders. Looking sexxy!!





Also tried to fix up the interiors also.. bought cheap pedals to make the existing ones look a BIT better) (gas pedal is too long. it looks weird...)

Bought this to make it look better:

The result: not that bad..



Im doing the rear fenders and bumper now, and i havnt taken pics of it yet, will update soon!!

Please comment and give sugestions on how to make things better Im not a pro. also, this is my first time glassing)

cragigotgame

Good luck. Keep us updated, looks interesting.

archiechiang

@cragigotgame Thanks man! Will do!

stormtigers

Go for it buddy !
What size wheels you planning on ? And will you be adjusting ride height ?
Don;t want that spoiler work dragging on the ground !

archiechiang

I'm planning to put 18's on this. the brabus ones that came out?
Im not so sure about how much I will drop the car.. probably an inch or two? We'll just have to see... Here's a photoshopped picture of what it could look like: (with the brabus 18's and projector headlights)






What do you guys think about cutting springs? Anyone tried it yet? How was the look and the ride?

stormtigers

I'll be honest with you - you will find two camps with spring cutting.
Tose who will and those who won't (obvious isn;t it)
I fall into the latter.
Springs are made to very specific calculations and cutting really invites catastrophic failure by interfering with what was purpose built.

Search the forum you will find a lot of advice on that topic.

The best advice I can have read on this came from long time Member RBYCC who has a beautiful twin tuirbo powered 300CE. Have a quick read using this link.....

https://mbworld.org/forums/3388235-post11.html

Basically at the end of the day you are going to go to a lot of trouble to take the things out to cut them. So why not put tuned spring and struts back in so your sure of what is going back in ? You will see unhappy tales everywhere on cut springs, there's the risk of over heating them, cutting a section where the tension is actually at it's greatest and leaving you with a limp spring etc etc.

Looking at the photo they look like they are 18's or 19's ? That gains you a bit of height BUT that front air dam looks very very very low already. If you drop the front you are gonna come to grief for sure !

Keep on going - love watching projects come to fruition - envious you have the skill and tools to do it !

W124Extreme

You should think about making 1/2 inch wooden templates of the wheel arches & measure equal distances on both sides so that you have a consistent edge & distance so that your flares come out even. Just a suggestion. Good work by the way.

Kind regards,
Albert S.

archiechiang

Thank you for the feedback man, I really appreciate it.Ive been reading a lot about cutting springs and man, you're right. I dont think its such a good idea... Ill just see how the height of the car is once ive gotten the rims on already. just to see how it sits.

Oh and btw, the photo is jus photoshopped. I dont have the rims yet, I jsut photoshopped them on there just to give me an idea on how it would look. I think it looks great! dont you? hehe

archiechiang

Hey albert! Thankyou for the advice. I never thought of doing that.. but I saw that in another forum wherein this guy was making his own wide body kit as well. I think it was for a lotus of some sort... But its kinda too late for that. im already done with the flares.. Thank you for the suggestion tho! Ill be sure to keep that in mind nexttime!

Saijin_Naib

I never thought I'd see expandable foam put to any good use ever :P

Awesome work man, it looks really interesting. Perhaps the front bumper vents are slightly TOO aggressive for the w124 body, but I'll reserve judgement until I see the finished project.

Keep us posted.

archiechiang

haha thankyou man! i was initially planning to use the floral foam. I bought a box of those for like $15. but it was too damn fragile. sucked. So i tried expandable foam and it worked great!

hmm... I was going for an aggressive look, so i guess i got what i wanted hehe. The look wont be complete without the headlights. Lets just wait till then.

Thank you for your comment! I appreciate it man!

Saijin_Naib

Yea, floral foam is pretty weak stuff. Have you checked any art supply stores? They have really great foams there that people use to carve and model things. I think that foam is used to make vacuum molded plastic parts even, so it has to be fairly tough.

Yeah, highly aggressive :P So long as you carry that level of aggression into the fenders, sideskirts, and rear bumper it should all tie together nicely. It just looks odd right now as only the front has its treatment, and the rest is stock.

No problem. It is nice to see someone else living the dream and making the w124 into their vision of it. I'm many years off doing that to mine, but its nice to see it happen for others.

archiechiang

Im stickin with this expanding foam. it works like magic! it expands upto 20x its original size, and is much cheaper than other foams that i know of. Ive finished the rears as well, im just finishing it and cutting fiberglass to contour with the door opening. Ill update this soon

W124Extreme

Ive used the stuff for years, just hate the mess it makes lol. Another fast way to do with less work is; cut a MDF wood in a half circle, super glue it to ur stock fender to the desired distance & height. Then mark off on your stock fender (with some tape) to where you want the blend of your flare to end on the stock fender. Buy some speaker mesh (fleece) and just glue the fleece across the edge of your tape as smooth as cou can; then just stretch the fleece to the outer edge of the wood. Once it's all glues, run some polyester resin over the fleece & you have a nice solid flare to do your final putty work.

Good luck & have fun...

Albert S.

archiechiang

Thanks Albert! That sounds like a great idea... sounds A LOT easier too.... i shouldve done that instead... anyways, im dont with the rears! Im posting it in a bit

archiechiang

Okay so ive finished the rear fender lares too. just gotta clean it up a bit.

Next step is the Rear bumper and skirts! But first, ima buy a new battery for this thing.





I also removed the things on the side. I think those are the cladding things to make it more modern and sleeker. I just removed it, and filled the space with some fiber and bondo. I like the look! looks clean!






its looking beter than ever! I washed the car to clean up the dust and dirt.




More updates soon!

tec nine

Wow impressive, you surely like to play with fiber glass

John's 94 E420

that looks good for being home made, nice job man, cant wait to see the finished product.

archiechiang

Thank you! Yeah I kinda too. Its actually my frist time playing with fiberglass) its prety hard stuff to work with:|

archiechiang

Thanks man! Ill be sure to keep you posted!

archiechiang

Moving the car to a friend's shop! Im having some trouble with the rear fenders and bumper. hehe

So far here's how it looks! The bumper is sittn pretty low. I dont think ill be lowering the car anymore. I wouldnt want it scraping the ground the whole time! Considering the road here in the Philippines sucks ***...

John's 94 E420

dame bro once its all done and fully painted its goog to a hole new ride for you , btw what color are you going to give it, and also where did u fine those brabus wheels and headlights that you used on the photo shop picture and where would i be able to get them myself.

archiechiang

Yeah, I cant wait to finish this monster! I will be repainting it glossy black.

The headlights are just from the net. here's the link of what kind of headlights im getting ( the headlights on the photo was just a sample. not the actual one im gettin. Unfortunately, i cant find those ones...)

This is the one that I actually ordered: it will be arriving first week of june!
http://www.tunersdepot.com/Lighting/...W124-4777.html




What do you think?

And the rims, i just found it in a local secondhand online store it was around P30,000 philippine pesos. around less that $700 US Dollars. Pretty good price for some 18's with tires i think!

John's 94 E420

yeah i think those headlights and wheels look good it will for sure make the car stand out a lot more once its all done and thanks for the link i think i may get some of those lights myself

ZorroAMG

I've seen those headlights in person and they are terribly gawdy. The other ones you posted in the photoshop look better, I used to have them on my car. Personally, I'd just use glass lensed euro style lights.