Hello everyone,

Welcome to my build thread! This one probably isn't going to be that helpful or informative like some of our fellow W203 compatriots, however, I felt that since this summer I'll be getting quite a few things done to the old girl I might as well start a thread to keep track. Kinda my own personal diary of the vehicle too.

Here's a little bit of the background to the story. Ever since I was about two years old I was fascinated by Mercedes Benz, particularly the SL and S of the early 90's generation. My parents got a divorce when I was really young and whenever I went to visit my dad in Hong Kong he would have a black W140 pick us up from the airport. It gave a feeling that the family was back together and I guess from that point on my fascination with Mercedes Benz grew stronger with the feeling as if my family was one again.

In late 2000, my mom and I were out shopping and saw the new C being displayed at a local mall. I fell in love from that moment on, I loved the body lines, the way it carried over some characteristics from the S. It really was the "Baby S". One day while getting off of school in April 2001 (I was 10 at that time), I was surprised to see my mom yelling at me to not get on the school bus and that she had come pick me up to drive me home. While walking to the parking lot I saw a 01 C240 in Brilliant Silver and pointed it out to my mom that it was the car we saw at the mall several months back. She paused looked at me in the eye and with a smile put the key in my hand. Instantly I said, "oh nice you took it out for a test drive?" To which she replied that she had bought it. I was worried, the economy wasn't very good and government was cutting back on salaries at that time so I asked if we could even afford it considering we drove a simple early 90's Toyota Tercel at that time. Later that night before I went to bed I said to my mom "if the car is still the in garage tomorrow morning, then I know this wasn't a dream." Sure enough the car was still there.

Fast tracking to today. I'm almost done my Bachelor of Commerce Degree (just a week away) and I've been saving up for a very very long time to buy the old girl off my mom. She believes in hard work and saving to truly earn and appreciate the things we have.

Within the last year, I've been putting some small modifications on the car and saved for a few others. I've also given her a name: Angelina. So here ladies and gentlemen is my build thread, it might not be much but it is my pride and joy that no one can ever take away from me.

Cheers!
TTR

 

Here's some bone stock pictures:

 

Fresh new shoes:

Sport Edition ST3 in Bright Silver Paint


Slapped in some MB centre caps from eBay:

 

Freshly washed (last summer):

 

Put on a C55 AMG replica spoiler from eBay and took off the stupid dealer tag:

 

Grille swap:

eBay vendor accidentally sent me the wrong one so I ended up having two to decide between


Decided to go with the chrome one for now until I maybe get some black rims

 

Grille swap process

Before:


Don't really need much in terms of tools:


Sans-grille:



There's tabs from the OEM ones that you have to move to the new one so that the screws will hold it in place with the hood:


And the finished product:

 

Update:

Edmonton's road are bombarded with potholes right now and we're still getting snow so the summer wheels and H&R lowering springs are gonna have to wait until May. Gonna talk with Eurocharged Canada later today to get ECU tune. :P

 

I'm confused, you said that in 2011, you were 10 years old. How is a 12 year old have money for a Benz and aftermarket parts? :o

 

Hahaha my bad, typo corrected to 2001.

 

Finally got to debadging.

Before:


After:

 

misquote?

 

Finally got to installing the EZ Lip, it's not too bad looking I think. We'll have to see how it looks after I drop the car onto H&R springs.

Without:


With:


With (3/4 view):

 

i see you have chinese news paper, welcome to the Geely Merrie Club

 

Lol! However, I'm of the Hong Kong variety where we don't buy government sponsored copies.

 

 

Cars become part of the family and can hold so many good memories.. welcome aboard.

 

If it's not too much money for you, I'd give serious consideration to getting some coilovers and selling off those springs. You could then have a summer height and a winter height, which would make sense for your area.

 

[QUOTE=azn.ttr;5611178]Fresh new shoes:

Sport Edition ST3 in Bright Silver Paint

I usually browse another Mercedes forum, but saw your post while checking out vehicles with the ST3 wheels on them. I am also thinking of getting those wheels for my 2007 C230, in the stock 17inch size as winter wheels. I'm also in Edmonton and my C230 has never been driven on snow. This year, I plan to drive it in winter, so plan on getting some Blizzaks wrapped on these ST3's. Like you, I also plan to get a few different centre caps, just to change things up a bit.

Btw. seeing how those rims look on your 'girl', I am convinced about buying them. Did you get them from tirerack??

 

Cars become part of the family and can hold so many good memories.. welcome aboard.

 

Thanks!

 

[quote=thareek;5631485]Ya I got them from Tire Rack. Just one thing though, they are heavy as efff. You will definitely notice right after switching from an OEM set that these babies are some heavy wheels.

 

For some reason the gap at the front end is super super tall, so for now I think I will go with just the springs option. I also already booked an appointment for them to get installed and I would feel bad for backing out. :S

 

Quick update of what the car looks like.

 

Had a little impromptu shoot with some friends the other night: