Hello! I posted in the welcome section about my recently bought C63 project, but I think this is perhaps a better place for me to seek advice and a bit of guidance.

The week before Christmas, I went down to a local junkyard to buy a few parts for my BMW E39 which had suffered in a recent snowstorm. I saw they had a few damaged cars for sale, so I wandered into the office. Lo and behold, there was a sorry-looking 2009 C63. I knew nothing of MB, much less AMG...but it had to be mine. (I have a bit of an addiction to fixing up derelicts and pouncing on ill-advised 'great deals'). It had a clean title, 77k kms on the clock and was missing some body panels.

Motivation's high, I've got a tiny bit of surplus cash...so let's cue the music and see if I can have myself a C63 for a song.

The idea is to add up my purchase price and the cost of repairs and try to keep that total lower than the insurance's estimate of the damage. Without getting into specifics, I have about 5k CAD to play with.

The first pic shows her as I bought her. You may notice it has no driver's door nor front bumper. The left rocker cover is missing, the left front fender is mangled, and the rear bumper is a bit dented as well. Left front wheel is curbed halfway to the...well, curb. More concerning, the left a-pillar is quite banged up--think ripped-off door hinges and a lot of dents and creases. Aside from that, looks good! See pics...

I bought a OEM fender on Ebay, picking up a bumper assembly from a forum member in LA this week and I bought a used door from a wrecker in Quebec.

On to my first question: the door I bought is from a loaded C350. I have swapped over the main computer box, the lock tumbler, speakers (the donor has L7, mine does not) and mirror. Moving on to the card tomorrow once I pick up some replacement clips. Is there anything else I need to swap (thinking specifically about seat memory)?

 

idk but good luck!

 

Good luck!
Show the continued progress, would be cool to see before and afters.

 

Thanks!

I don't have much time to work on her, so I tend to skip photography, but I'll do my best. Here's the new fender. So light! I love it.

Why does MB use rivets to assemble door components??? What a bear...

 

They use rivets in lots of other areas as well. Sometimes as a way to discourage modding/more of a hassle though. Good luck though!

 

Good luck with the repairs. Hope it turns out great.

 

Yup, so I bought a riveter, some carbide drill bits and rivets and went to town. Speakers are replaced. Just need to wait for a couple more clips tomorrow and a heat gun to reshape a couple of plastic bits, and I should have the door back together in time to install tomorrow afternoon. I have to say that I am impressed to see how massive the MB rivets are compared to regular ones. Pretty serious stuff!

Shoutout to callmiro for some nice wheels I picked up this evening. Love the stable and thanks for the demo!

 

That car does not seem to have structural damage. That is what I would be worry about.
That C350 door should fit.You might not have the Harman kardon HP though. Also you might not need reprogramming for the door switches depending on the options of the donor (particularly for mirrors). Heated seat function is enabled by the rear SAM which I suppose was not damaged. So you should be find and no coding needed.
GL

 

Keep an eye out on this section for parts:

https://mbworld.org/forums/parting-out-104/

I see a few w204 c63's out there. Could prove useful.

 

Thanks guys. Door was almost put together, but a silly little clip that retains the bowden cable to the handle broke. It's always the little things. Aside from that, I was able to reshape and repair much of the broken plastic, so it actually looks a bit better than I'd expected--the attached pic shows my biggest area of concern, as it was completely mangled. It's far from perfect, but it'll do for now, until I find a new door card.

The electronics don't worry me too much--the c350 door I bought came from a loaded car, so I think it'll have options that mine doesn't, which would simplify things.

On the bodywork side, the car is straight. All three layers of the a-pillar and side sill needed some kind of repair, which is going to be pricey. See attached.

 

Damn good luck man. Did you test cylinder compression? Dont want to do so much body work and have the engine be junk or have the rear end blown as some youngsters have learned on non p31s

 

Just came back from LA (I hate redeyes). Got me a bumper and part of the foam core. Hopefully the bodywork will be done later this week, and I can start assembly shortly.



Not yet. I know it has a CEL, but with so much of the car missing, it was impossible to get an accurate reading of the issues. I plan on doing a full inspection once I can get it out of the body shop and to my tech's. I intend to do the head bolts at some point in the near future anyways.

On another note, anyone have some spare front bumper bracketry? I need basically everything...

 

Nice progress. Sidetrack...what kind of alfa spider do you have? And the F456...is that a Ferrari 456? Pics of your other cars too please!

 

Chiming in here as I too would do a compression test. Speaking of that, does anyone know what the compression specs are for the M156?

 

I love sidetracks like this. I've a 1974.5 S2 Spider (my long-term rolling project), and yes, a 1995 Ferrari 456GT--it's my retirement fund at present. Has 12000 kms on the clock. I also have a couple of BMWs for daily duties--a E39 540i testbed (manual swap and a few goodies) and a E30 convertible.

I've been reading a lot about the M156's foibles. I'm a bit more worried now--maybe I should have looked at that before buying!

 

That's a nice collection! And I did the same thing with my C63. I came back from deployment and had spent maybe 6 months researching the e60 M5. After a couple disappointing test drives in that (and maybe 10 different other cars), I drove a C63, couldnt stop giggling and brought it home. And then I read about the headbolt issue. It was a CPO so I wasn't worried. Now that I'm out of warranty I will be replacing them very soon. Knock on wood. The car is generally bulletproof.

 

As far as compression test, did you guys notice that when you start the car, the ECU decides how long to crank ? Try to release the key before the engine starts, it will continue to crank.
Now in a compression test, you and not the Ecu have to decide how long to crank.
This may not be possible with this car.
At the same time, the star connect has a compression compare test.
This measures differences in cylinders while cranking.
I have seen a YouTube video of this in an older car that uses the DAS.
Ours use the Xentry. And I could not get the test to work properly.
As a precondition., it asks that a large capacity charger be hooked up to the battery and I don't have one. I wonder if somehow it knows there is no charger hooked up.
I asked in the technical forum and they said no. But the fact remains the test is not going through.

 

Interesting. That will complicate things...I know in my 5-series I had to bypass that same feature when I did the manual swap. I'm sure there's a way to do that as well, probably need to bypass the 'autostart' relay.

 

Another couple of questions for the parts experts:


The bumper cover I bought doesn't have the plastic brackets on the sides. I don't see them listed for my car (presumably due to the fact that they should be included with the cover). I see they are listed for the 08-11 C63, but only for cars equipped with the P98 option--where I presume they are separate from the bumper cover. (see pic, part no. 16). The part numbers are 2048854765 and 2048854865. Will these fit my car, which does not have P98? I see that most parts in this diagram are for P98 cars only, most of mine are found in a separate diagram with shared C350 parts.


Secondly, is there any difference in the foam supports between US and Canada cars? Mine is Canadian but the cover I bought is American. I need to make sure it will all fit.


Thanks!

 

Isn't P98 the Black Series package? If yes, that'll be a very different bumper.

 

I think it is. It is however the only listing I can find for that part. Has anyone ever been able to buy the bracket on its own for a non-p98 car?

Edit: looks like I may be looking for parts 2048850765 and 2048850865. Anyone have any insight?

 

I got the Xentry compression test figured out, at this point.

 

Glad to hear it.


The last of my parts should arrive early next week, and at that point I should be able to put the car back together at last and get it registered. Did a test fit of the bumper cover, it looks a bit more complete! Apologies for the blur. Also saw that the bodyshop is almost done fixing the A-pillar. A bit more welding, grinding and filling. I can smell the dollars evaporating.


Anyone have a front OEM wheel for cheap? If not I'll be getting this one repaired, but that will take a while.

 

Absolutely love the commitment it takes to take on a project like this! I commend you as I am a big fan of watching build/repair threads end successfully!

You'll have to host a day for us GTAer's to come by and nit pick at the panel gaps!

Cheers!

-Patel

 

Thanks! Let's hope it does indeed end successfully. I definitely look forward to joining some GTA meets come spring...maybe I should bring the Alfa. You'd love the gaps on that thing.