Nero Tenebre

That vanilla sky made for some great reflections

KorsMichael

MBCLK60

I use to own this car. I purchased from the original owner - build sheet nearly $50k. Four words...regret selling / bad ***!

Nero - I still have the original / stock blacked-out Renntech Monolite wheels with tires. Will sell CHEAP!

Let me know.

Fatz

C'mon Man!!!!! You should be totally ashamed......
Nero, if you think I'm gonna give up on catching you because you posted these pics you're totally mistaken......... I'm gonna try harder...

Just gorgeous!!!! (And I had to look up the spelling of that word since I use it so infrequently).........

Nero Tenebre

It's still in good hands and being looked after well! I've changed the coil overs to KW, changed the finish on the wheels, swapped all the rotors to two-piece so they are even lighter than before, replaced the pads with Disc Italia Hyper Ceramic so no more brake dust accumulation, and added the interior Renntech Badge and K&N air filters.

Now it's a near perfect daily-- NA, 7speed auto w/ paddles, decent fuel economy, regular MB 550 maintenance not AMG maintenance, folding front seats (not fixed race buckets), has back seats unlike a 63 BS, and has a huge trunk. Plus, I'm glad that MB stopped making the CLK because that means this will remain the latest model (I don't care for their new look much anyway). The only thing that's not entirely daily friendly is the low ride height, huge wheels, and low pro tires, but it all looks amazing and sets the car apart. I just replaced the rear tires (down to cords in 7k miles ) so the car is fast and fresh again. It could use an amp and sub along with an updated head unit w/ BT but that's nit picking since the HK surround sound is very clear I just think it could be much louder.

I thought those Renntech wheels were pretty much sold last time I looked… I still don't have any real use for them because I have a spare set of AMG wheels I use as my backups…

I couldn't find any info on your car, but the more badass CLKs out there the better! Thanks for the kind words.

MBCLK60

Miss the car...I'll buy it back when your bored of it.

I'll make you a deal you can't refuse on the Monolites...I think the wheels should stay with the car since the car was built with these wheels....$1000 rims/tires?

Nero Tenebre

Very tempting, still going to put that on hold though as I'm doing major work on the NSX right now and I've just completed some maintenance on the CLK.

I had a huge scare with the dreaded defective balance shaft and idler sprocket (V8) on the M273 engine. Luckily, I checked my VIN against the engine number and my engine was out of the range and MB had already fixed the problem otherwise it would have been a $7000 engine out repair.

But I still had a check engine light that threw me a generic OBDII code P0014 which was not a balance shaft symptom as I originally feared. It turns out it corresponds to MB code DTC0059 which is a symptom of camshaft position sensor (a.k.a. "cam magnet") failure. The car's engine number did fall into scenario 2 listed here (http://benzbits.com/BalanceShaftTSB.pdf) which covers the "cam magnet" failure and replacement even though the sprockets were not defective (which is scenario 1). This was great news though so I just replaced all four cam magnets and the cam plugs which were leaking too (also typical) while I was at it and now the car is perfect again!

I've also just done the 722.9 transmission service as preventative maintenance (turned 40k miles) since I was also concerned about that after reading about it on the forums, and I found that the car already had the redesigned oil pan and spill tube from MB as well. The oil filter was filthy though so I am definitely glad I paid attention to this as recommended by our community experts. I made sure to have the transmission and the torque convertor both drained and then the lines flushed as well. Oil level was checked via infrared thermometer and pan bolts replaced (they are designed to stretch and be used only once). 2007 was a great year for this car and it's been decent to me so far with only some minor issues to resolve and regular maintenance. It's a far simpler car than the SL55 and CL, which I think is a good thing.

Shots out to Glyn and Rudeny for all of their help. I feel like I'm in the matrix dodging bullets LOL

betrezra

This clk looks even better in person.

Nero Tenebre

I might try something a little different for a little while...

ahmadk

You need custom headlights lol
Or or... Give me your car

Nero Tenebre

I may do that someday, I look around for some oem bi xenons occasionally because I haven't liked the aftermarket offerings that much and I am afraid of the quality and condensation issues. I'm afraid that the oem quality isn't that good either for that matter, I don't want to have constant ballast issues like the SL55. It is unbelievably annoying, and there is no fix for it because replacing it just means putting in the same crappy OE French electronic ballasts. Drive that car after dark and it's traffic ticket roulette, and it's more embarrassing to have something non functional than something not as pretty but working.

ahmadk

Oh dude I would take OEM projector headlights over the depo quad crap .
Also, you can your halogen headlights retrofitted with projectors that would outperform the OEM ones by far and for less price than projector headlights.. how much do these cost anyways? like $1,200 a piece? lol

Honestly, you can get yours retrofitted for around $500.

And for ballasts you can get denso or matsu****a ballasts from theretrofitsource for cheaper than OEM and they have warranty on them.

I know this because I've been doing retrofits on Japanese cars and mostly mitsubishis since I drive one now lol

Nero Tenebre

Interesting, got any links to the process in perhaps a write up so I can see what's involved? I worry about cracking the seal on headlights, I have seen other cars have constant issues with condensation and/or improper sealing... or worse a really terribly messy seal job. Probably not your work though

ahmadk

I don't really take pics while I work on the headlights just some before and after.. I tried making a how-to thread one time and I ended up forgetting about it and did the work without taking pics lol

There's nothing to worry about honestly, probably the scariest part is baking the headlights open but if you do it right you'll be fine.

Also, for resealing the headlights, you can add some more sealant and clamp the headlights together for a couple hours and you'll be fine

Nero Tenebre

Thanks Ahmad, I'll get around to doing something about the headlights one day.

I am trying on some new wheels right now but they are super aggressive and I'm not into the whole stanced/stretched tires thing so I picked my favorite tire which I know runs wide and has an effective bead protector. The wheels still sit outside the body but the tires roll in nicely so we'll see how it goes as I work out the kinks. I love the HREs on this car but the lips are insane on these 19x9.5/19x10.5 which are more street friendly than the 20". IMO, these look mean as hell and this is definitely something different. From certain angles it just looks like pure reflection and this isn't even cleaned up! I'll find a pic.

Gary C

Love those wheels!

ahmadk

Just let me know whenever you're ready to do it. I can help you out with the process

Loving the wheels on the car

BenzoBoi

LOVE the new look!

Nero Tenebre

Here is an angle showing the reflection in the lips.

ahmadk

what offsets are you running ?
Those lips are huge !

Nero Tenebre

CLK Gold Volk GT-V Rear 3/4 by Nero Tenebre, on Flickr

As pictured:
19x9.5 +4 (4" lip I think)
19x10.5 -5 (6" lip I think)



The fitment is a touch too aggressive for my taste... but we'll see. Obviously my car is already pretty low so I get camber wear on the rear tires like other CLKs, so I really shouldn't be looking to add more camber just for fitment purposes. Though that was my first thought before I read that the rear camber is not even adjustable on the CLK and all the camber kits are used to reduce it to stock specs after lowering so that won't help anyway. I've taken some measurements for caliper clearance and I think I'd want to mill off a few mm at a machine shop to get them to tuck where I want them but we'll see about that after alignment.

Benzboy21

Man your car is pure porno O.O

Nero Tenebre

I can't believe this thread has over 22,000 views- that's crazy! From time to time I get someone asking about how this widebody was created, so I found this link at hotrodding which pretty much shows how it was done:
http://www.popularhotrodding.com/tec...fender_flares/


Well I have been thinking about making some more changes but it's mostly just a lot of research still-

I haven't been really using the Volks as the fitment was so aggressive even after I added a camber kit in the rear and maxed it out around -2degrees, which is not really that or "stanced" which is usually -3 degrees or <yikes> more. I couldn't really drive the car how I'd like still... It "worked" but it was annoying- stanced and slow is definitely not my cup of tea so I started to think about a solution to make the wheels fit more properly since that was the whole point of running 19" wheels instead of 20". Anyway, I explored multiple options to modify the wheels, from shaving the wheel hub down a few mm at a machine shop, to getting them re-barreled into 3 piece wheels resulting in different offsets. I had reservations about shaving down the hub because it was a permanent modification and costly, and I could only remove 5mm practically. Rebarreling them would work but it's expensive and my barrels weren't even damaged... considering the price I paid for these, I could have just had a set of HREs made instead, so again I had to think it over some more.

After some time, I finally had a thought that I had never seen anyone do before (it's simple and obvious, but it's an obscure scenario where a person is trying to modify wheels to reduce the offset). I am not going to jinx it since I am working on sourcing the absolute correct parts (down to the smallest details) to make it work like factory. I am researching different alloys of metals, their tensile strengths, coatings, their effects on strength, sizing, configurations, etc. to make sure I have an engineered solution. I don't take my modifying cars lightly! I am pretty confident this will work but since I am pioneering it myself I won't know what hurdles I have to leap until I get started. Hopefully my measurements are correct!

After seeing some threads about the Vorsteiner DTM spoiler, I thought it would go nicely with my car. I had been looking around for one and I am happy to say that I purchased one! Reason I went with a real Vorsteiner:
The CLK 63 AMG Black sport rear DTM add-on spoiler is designed to bolt onto the factory rear boot lid to replace the smaller original oem version. This spoiler is designed with a more aggressive profile to further improve aerodynamics & stability of the vehicle. The carbon fiber rear spoiler has been track tested at speeds over 321km/h (180mph) and is proven to increase downforce & driving accuracy during high speed laps. Vorsteiner’s Carbon Fiber Honeycomb Matrix (CFHM) structure gives our parts superior stiffness, strength & durability compared to traditional hand laid carbon fiber and fiberglass materials.

I hope it fits and finishes well, and looks good on my car even though it doesn't have the fender flares of the black series. A lot of times even the best aftermarket parts don't fit right so I hope that's not the case here. Hope to have another update soon, with pics.

Here's one, not of my car, that I think shows it best:

kb24forlife24

Can't wait for the pictures of that Vorsteiner spoiler. Love this thread!

Nero Tenebre

Pic