amgen

Congrats to a beautiful car!

Had a race against a 4S Cab a couple of years ago when I only had a ECU
tune on my C55. It was a tricky one but he was finally beaten but we had
to go way past 200 km/h before AMG´s big torque could beat his pancake-
engine...

I´m going down the C63-route in the future, I need the space and a wagon
again. But I can´t really let go of my C55 wagon with it´s tunes and rarity.
It´s so damn nice!!

Should I get a proper sportscar sometime, it would be a Porche, for sure.

Saaboteur

Removed the no-name, slightly ill fitting roof spoiler that was on the car when I bought it - replaced with a genuine Lorinser piece acquired from a fellow forum member.

Too lazy and cheap to have it repainted diamond black to match the car, so I plasti-dipped it. Matches fine with the satin black vinyl I used to wrap the front grille. I'm going to continue wrapping the rest of the chrome trim on the car's exterior too. Should change the look of the car quite nicely, bit more aggression. Looking forward to it!

FutureAMGxx

Looks great!

Saaboteur

Started the vinyl wrapping on the chrome trim - did the front last night, looks great. However, I think I will redo one or both sides - there are some parts where I think I cut it too tight, and some of the chrome is showing. Boo.

Looks good in the pictures though!! You have to get up close to see the issue.





Bonus shot with the stablemates:

TTR

Hmm I'm liking this vinyl idea.

cm60k

+1,

Also Rims are great & suitable for W203 as well..

ZAYED,,

Saaboteur

Slow progress! Only able to spend a bit of time on the car, and in the evenings, on my driveway - so it's dark and cold!

Car looks slightly ridiculous at the moment with only the front doors done, but hopefully I can make more good progress in the coming days.





Contemplating how to best tackle the chrome trim right under the side windows. I actually like the gunmetal coloured portion, so I think I will keep that and just try to apply the black vinyl to the actual chrome portion. Leave that for last though, priority is to get the rest of the chrome on the bumper wrapped first!

Saaboteur

Finished wrapping the chrome bumper trim on Saturday evening. Now all blacked out except for the little bits under the windows. Might just leave it, we'll see.

Unfortunately, the car is quite dirty, as it's parked outside now that I have my 997 in the garage. And it's supposed to rain again later today or tomorrow, so no sense in washing it just yet!



More photos later once the car is clean again!

Saaboteur

Last week, lent the car to my Mom as her Jag and LR2 were both in for service, and she had to make a short out of town trip. Pleasantly surprised to find the car returned washed! Probably my Dad did it though, it was kinda half-assed...

Anyway, took some photos with the car nearly all blacked out. Just have to do the little chrome strips on the windows. I think I've figured out my strategy for them now too. After that...got to find time for the engine mounts and front lower control arms. Then I will look into aftermarket seat heaters to get that capability back too. Both of the heaters were busted since I got the car back in 2011.

I've also got to find time to remove the left rear spring and figure out where the left rear tire is still rubbing. That was dsp_tdi's suggestion, but my spring compressor is too large to fit the rear spring. Might have to go old school with the crappier two piece type compressors.

Saaboteur

Re: rear spring removal - did some searching, and perhaps the easiest way to go about it is the 'hackspeed' method of jacking up the rear lower control arm, removing the inner control arm bolt, and then lowering gently.

Hack for sure, but probably 10x easier than fumbling with those cheap spring compressors which I hate. I mean this type:

http://www.princessauto.com/pal/en/S...ssor/2920186.p

Supgee

Hey saaboteur, yes that is a very easy way of removing the springs. Honestly thats how I did it on my 203.. Just be careful!!!

Saaboteur

Good to know! I'll give it a whirl when I can find the time.

C230 Mulac

Car looks good with that blacked out trim!

You definitely need those seat heaters up in Canada lol.

For the rubbing, you sure it's not rubbing on the outer fender? That's where mine was rubbing. Not enough to cuz any damage to the tire but you could see it on the inside of the wheel well.

Saaboteur

No idea where it's rubbing now, and it's really occasional, only when the car is really loaded. I've cut and ground away a lot of the bumper bracket and such, and thought I had it cured, but obviously not.

Saaboteur

Last weekend, did the hackspeed rear spring removal method (was a piece of cake actually) and cut away some more material. I think I should be okay now - course I've said that before, but being able to articulate the whole wheel up and down in the wheel well helped to find other rubbing spots.

Also ordered some seat heaters off eBay:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-Carbon-Fi...E:L:OC:US:3160

Canadian made product it says, and ships within the country, so much easier for me. Can't wait to get them into the car! Soon I'll be putting the 911 away for the winter, and then drive the AMG some more until really heavy snow, then back to the Audi. Roll on spring....thank goodness it's hockey season to keep my mind off winter!

Saaboteur

Boo. Notwithstanding that the eBay ad says there are enough seat heater kits are available, I got a message from the seller yesterday stating that they are out of stock. Not very impressed. Went with another seller instead, www.canadaseatskins.com

Hopefully will have them here soon. About time too - it snowed yesterday!

Saaboteur

Did all three engine mounts this morning. Took a couple of hours, but that was because my mechanic buddy helped and we did the work on a hoist at his workplace.

The slight vibration at idle I felt a couple months ago has disappeared. The cause was obvious - the driver's side engine mount was torn and leaking fluid, the passenger side wasn't far behind. I replaced the trans mount too, even though it looked fine.

Next - going to swap out the seat bottom heater pads for aftermarket units I bought a while back, and after that, I have got to find time to get at the front control arms.

Hopefully the new 203 sedan compatible emergency triangle will show up soon too, so I can retrofit that. I've been waiting for that piece to come in so that I can do the licence plate LED modules. No sense in tearing into the trunk lid liner twice if I only need to do it once.

Funny thing is, I bought the complete LED modules I think a couple of years ago. Shortly after, the clear plastic cover on the passenger side fell off, but the LEDs worked fine. Then this summer, the plastic cover on the driver's side fell off, and now it's only been working intermittently. Go figure.

Saaboteur

Just spent an hour and a half installing the aftermarket seat heater pad on the driver's seat. All in all, not too difficult - especially with the ground laid from the DIY on the forums.

The hardest part for me was getting the seat leather back onto the seat frame. One of the posters in the thread, Slacker32, said he managed to do it without getting the seat out of the car. That would make it really hard I think. I did all the work on the seat with it laying on a work bench.

Duncan64

I agree, completely worth it to remove the seat. Hardest part was definitely getting the plastic clips back on in the seat.

Saaboteur

Going to do the passenger seat tonight. I only have a very short commute to work (~7km) so the seat heater doesn't heat up that much on the drive in. Better than nothing though!

Saaboteur

Had to re-aim the headlights. When my buddy and I did the engine mounts, we loosened up the front sway bar mounts to allow the passenger side mount to get out. The level sensor is attached to the sway bar on the passenger side, and I think it must have weirded stuff out.

I did try cycling the sensor arm (per some threads on the main 203 forum) but that didn't seem to help. I ended up just manually re-aiming. The past few nights the headlights have been aimed way to low, so a bit disconcerting!

Also, it seems like my seat heaters work best at about the 10 minutes mark. Doesn't help much when my commute is about 7 minutes!

PC Valkyrie

I'm very late to congratulate you on your 997 C4S. I haven't been on mbworld for quite a while, as I'm spending most of my free time on Rennlist!

Great choice in choosing a 911 rather than going for a C63. I completely agree that driving a 911 is a completely different experience.

Saaboteur

Pix of the GT3 or it didn't happen, lol!

Definitely very much happier with the 911 than a C63, and I am glad I made that choice. I still want a C63, so maybe one day, but likely not any time soon.

ghiaguy

Saab, looks like you need to update your sig! Congrats man!!

Saaboteur

Lol, I tried to update my sig. But mbworld has a character limit!