harrison1277

Less than a week ago I decided to finally paint my calipers.

I was very indecisive between blue and red, but went with red because it matched the big red tail lights.

I only had time to do my front two, but I have more than enough for the back 2 on another free day.


Went over to autozone and picked up some dupli color caliper paint kit

it was like 17$

Easy steps--------------

Step one: Jack up car both sides of front end



Step two: Remove Wheels

Step three: scrub the **** outta ur dirty calipers

- wire brush and caliper cleaner spray, I bought 2 cleaner bottles you will need more than one if they are pretty dirty like mine where



Step Four: Tape surrounding area and paint away!

Mine was painted with a brush, it wasnt a spray can. The paint is very forgiving to novice painters. It dries glossy and smooth! I decided to keep the Mercedes benz font in the middle of the caliper, its not a 100% perfect rectangle, Ill fix it up with some masking tape and paint when I do my back calipers...




Step Six: lay down 2-3 coats, 20 min between coats

Then un-mask and enjoy your work!




A few days later, with some dirty wheels!

Peydidy

Thanks so much, appreciate it. Great DIY. I am going to go to auto zone and buy the paint and cleaner right now and do it tomorrow. Thanks so much

harrison1277

No prob man, take a pic I wanna see how it turns out

tommy

Easier thing to do would be to paint the whole caliper and get some rub-on MB decals from fleabay. You can even pick what color you want for the decals.
Just something to think about...

harrison1277

thats a great idea... Ill look into that!

harrison1277

Had a LONG week of driving in my 230k SS and man I love this car! always will

drove to palm springs (desert) and was able to reach 130+ mph late night on the ride home. Have hit really high speeds on the 60 freeway on some late nights hehe

Heres some pics before the sun set on my way to palm springs







Then When I got back to my home in Orange County I set off to Big Bear for a few days with some family. Wasnt much snow but the snorboarding was still great, My summer ZR tires handled Ice and some snow pretty nicely! Plus coming down the mountain with little traffic is nice in sport mode

Heres a pic of my ride with some family on the ride up



One thing I noticed, when the temp dropped below 30 and frost was on my car, my plasti dipped rims turned a flat grey/charcoal color

I actually liked the look but once I got back to 50f+ weather the black color returned.. interesting


Got some decent mileage on the trip back

kluvsbenz

Man, those plasti dipped rims and grille might be the ticket for my ride. Trying to be all black like BlkBenz08. Love how you painted the calipers as well. That plasti dip seems to be holding up well. No cracks or peeling. Good job!!

harrison1277

Haha not all black, too bad I have a pewter paint job! go for plasti dip- reversable and saves $$

rims hold up solid, and I finally got around to painting my back calipers as well

BlkE55K

Is the driver side headlight misaligned? Looks like the top is set too far in.

I_C_Class

Woww looking more and more aggressive !

harrison1277

Well the hood isnt Perfect.. From the accident the hood is slightly slightly misaligned, Ill post more about that soon im trying to fix the problem

The body shop that fixed my car this last time told me the previous work done on the car wasnt properly done and they cant fix the hood because it wasnt related to the accident its very slight but yes u can tell barely if you look at the alignment

Thanks! Sounding very aggressive now too

harrison1277

This morning my friend Este and I went to his uncles buddy's exhaust shop.

I was pretty set on a dual exhaust but I didnt want to go through all the trouble of cutting another outlet and messing with the stock bumper.

I went with a single exhaust tip, I got a Borla Pro XS, and man I love it!

My old exhaust getting chopped





Chopped.... anyone wanna buy a stock stainless exhaust?



Fitting the Borla to my liking



Underview



Finished product



I really enjoy the purr, Start up sounds like a completely different car

Most of the growl is around 2-5k and sounds much deeper than the stock exhaust

Feels much quicker! Im gunna go back in a few weeks to get wider 3.5'' pipes all the way



Quick question though guys, Is there a resonator? if so where? The shop said there wasnt one..

rocafel1a

The 05 models do not have a resonator, but two cats.

Btw, i wouldn't suggest getting 3.5" pipes. I'd stick to 2.5", which i believe is OEM

harrison1277

Why not? I was reading that I should stay smaller too somewhere else on a site but out of curiosity why is that?

The dude at the shop said it would increase the flow and noise, but then again he only spoke spanish and my spanish isnt perfect lol

If I cut one cat do you think it would pass smog? would there be any benefit?

FrankW

The 1.8 does not have enough flow to benefit from larger exhaust piping. In fact you will lose back pressure which in terms kill your low end torque. Also larger pipe does not = more flow, when your engine cannot produce enough exhaust velocity you actually loose performance because the exhaust flow is sent into a larger pipe that it cannot fulfill which when your exhaust velocity slows down you air intake also slows down.

My explaination is fairly crude, so you'll want to look it up yourself.

Also, sound clip please...finally someone went with Borla instead of magna-drone....i mean flow. Been saying Borla is much higher in quality for years.

CoupeCrazy03

I would love to hear what a m271 sounds with a borla exhaust

modifiedw203guy

[quote=FrankW;4992243]The 1.8 does not have enough flow to benefit from larger exhaust piping. In fact you will lose back pressure which in terms kill your low end torque. Also larger pipe does not = more flow, when your engine cannot produce enough exhaust velocity you actually loose performance because the exhaust flow is sent into a larger pipe that it cannot fulfill which when your exhaust velocity slows down you air intake also slows down. quote]


+1

harrison1277

No not crude at all, I understand what you are saying frank

The only reason I was thinking about wider pipes was because my friend was gunna get them on his 3 speed and the exhaust guy said it would be nice on mine too, plus he has amazing deals that I wouldent want to pass up on hehe..

So not enough back pressure for the piping, what about removing a cat? Anything for that matter lol im looking for performance upgrades or just upgrades in general and I know you have quite a bit of knowledge on that subject

Ill put a clip up soon!
such an improvement over stock!

harrison1277

its surprising how much more you want to drive your car once there is an exhaust... just to think I already loved the car but now woooooooo vroooom

I_C_Class

Agreed man! After I got my eisenmann it was an entirely different car LOL. The driving experience was instantly +1000 points lol

harrison1277

haha seriously! makes me feel like is a c32 amg

once i get some legit amg rims theres another +1000 points hehe

FrankW

the performance gain from removing the cat on the 1.8 is insignificant. if you want performance look for the kleemann header + their high flow cat.

btw, i'm gonna correct myself here on the back pressure losing torque btw. what i meant to say is that by going to a piping that is too large for the car's own good you lose "exhaust velocity" which is the main reason for losing power & torque. all because your exhaust system becomes inefficient at extracting exhaust waste from the combustion chamber.

all engine will ultimately perform better when you have a free flow exhaust system that reduce back pressure and increases exhaust velocity.

tommy

Killjoy!

There is no more accurate measure than the buttdyno. I dare you to prove me wrong!

rocafel1a

Frank, would there really be any significant gains anyway, especially on the small 05 engines? I've been pretty reluctant to do anything performance wise for that reason lol

FrankW

significant gains with just rear exhaust...probably not...lol

your best bet is to do what Charlie has done to his ccoupe. kleemann header + cat, 2.5" cat-back, tune, and maybe Brabus or Carlsson pulley kit for the M271 if you can find them for cheap. you may be looking at a healthy 35 crank increase. I remember both Brabus and Carlsson rated their C230 ver. 1.8 at around 250hp with all the performance upgrades.