NardoNZ

Hi guys, I'm Michael from New Zealand and I've been surfing on this forum for a while now and been an active member since januari. I work in sales at a Mercedes-Benz dealership and absolutely crazy about the brand. Never really given any info on my own car, mainly because importing it into New Zealand has been hell so far. It's nearly impossible to find the CLK AMG's here, and this time I didn't want to settle for anything less than an AMG. I know myself, I'll always be building my cars to AMG spec, so its easier just to start (almost) at the top.

I'll be updating this thread as often as I can with plenty of pics and hope you guys can and will assist in my build.

Here you see my car when I bought it in the UK:





This is when my cars first arrived off the boat, as you can see the bumper got ripped off by the idiot that drove it off the ship:





I got my insurance to pay out for a CLK63 bumper, an upgrade that I had in mind for a while

work in progress:


Bumper fitted, no mesh on the sides yet



Much needed tail light upgrade:


so thats what my car looks like ATM. I'm getting some surface rust cleared at the moment, which will take about 3 weeks but I rather have it done right. I'm getting them to take everything off and sandblast it all. It's not needed as they said, but I'm having it done anyway. As of import laws here I'm not able to import it as a normal vehicle due to emission regulations, but as a special interest vehicle I still managed to sort it. I needed to prove the next things though: It must be a coupe or a cabriolet, it must be a high performance vehicle, It cannot be made in amounts of more than 20.000 annually and it must be nominated as a future classic by one of the major US or AUS magazines. I needed to comply with 3 out of those 4 and prove it. HELL I tell you!!! But I managed the only trade off is that I MUST keep the car for 4 years.. I'm not allowed to do a change of ownership. which I'm fine with after a lot of thinking, it was that or parting out the car

When the car arrived I got a ful service done on the engine, rocker covers were leaking, did transmission flush and seals, new spark plugs, some bushings here and there, just to have it all done.

here are some upgrades I bought already in addition to the already fitted 3fin grille and the taillights which you can see in the previous pics:

NEW WHEELS! C63 19'' upgrade wheels, absolutely LOVE them!


KW coilovers: used but in very good condition, and CHEAP!


Dynavin headunit, my COMAND is old and useless in New Zealand, so I find this a great upgrade!


Got a LOT more on my list for the future, including (but not limited to):

Brake upgrade
Headlight darkening (not black just darker and not chrome)
Swaybars
CF lip
CF Diffuser
E63 Steering wheel with decent aluminium paddles
Eurotech ECU+TCU tune
Quad exhaust
suede or black rooflining
real Carbon Fibre dash and door panels

Dreaming about:
Supercharger
BS wide body kit in matte silver

cm60k

BeautiFUL car with a great tune-up, very nice bumper,, like a black Rims as well,,

Enjoy every SECOND.......

ZAYED,,

NardoNZ

Holy crap! you drive a W210 E60 AND a W202 C55?

thanks for your kind words... dont think the black wheels are wrong on the car, but too small, I'm sure my new wheels will look awesome!

cm60k

Sure,, Black wheels with silver car, always gives a nice combination with a sporty shape......

ZAYED,,

cm60k

Also Your CLK55 looks soo clean & deserve to be a BRIDE,,

don’t forget to give a Brake Calipers freshy colour like "Red or light shiny green",, im sure it well be a wonderFUL with your new Wheels.......

ZAYED,,

lowpost

Looks nice! I like the 63 bumper without the mesh - looks mean. What are the offsets on those c63 wheels?

togaclk55

Looks good man. Guess I'll be seeing you around here for a while

SL55_Forever

Subscibing... your build looks nice. Any plans for turbo/supercharging the engine?

DRBC43AMG

Nice and clean car and some great mods planned. Pity the KW suspension was not cleaned beforehand by the seller....

Kevwood

Awesome, another build thread It's great watching these transformations. My advice, quit dreaming about a supercharger - doooooooooooo it

cm60k

+1....,

one of the BEST idea.......

ZAYED,,

Kevwood

Hey Z, good to see you! I'm getting my car back this weekend finally, we should meet up sometime. The last time I saw your C was at Team Speed, I'd love to see it out on the street now

cm60k

Thankss Kevin,, pleasure to see you of course,,

your car is AMAZING,, you have a great touch in it........

ZAYED,,

discoduck

63 bumper is such a nice upgrade

togaclk55

Group buy lol?

NardoNZ

I'm not a fan of the bumper like this. it has been a struggle deciding wether i wanted to go with universal mesh, no fogs and use LED DRL's, but in the end i decided to go OEM. so as soon as I got my car back the fogs and mesh covers will go in. The wheels are 19x8,5 ET35 and 19x9,5 ET37 made for older model Benz's.

Need to save first, also this is my most powerful car ever, the previous quickest car was a Supra TT,(we love pics, so see my last supra below) which was years ago, so I'm good for a while at least. If I can pick up a good deal I will get one though

Yup, i'm in it for at least 4 years!

my 4th and last supra:

BRIZZOK84

The project is moving along well. Keep us all up-data on the progress.

NardoNZ

GOT MY WHEELS ON! i'm so excited it looks AWESOME! what do you guys think?

DRBC43AMG

Looks great

Np55

That looks absolutely sexy.. I've got my clk cabriolet with the 63 bumper as well and my dad has those same rims on his e550 cabriolet and I've always wanted to see what these rims would look like on the clk.. Very nice

togaclk55

Well done

cm60k

Very Nice Rims,, completely compromise with a car........

ZAYED,,

Richard75

Congrats ! Looks awesome especially with those new wheels on

NardoNZ

thanks guys! means a lot...

elijah

Nice upgrades!! The wheels looks amazing