CL63wide

Hey fellas and ladies...

Allow me the opportunity to introduce myself as I am new to this forum. My name is Pete and I am glad to be another AMG CL63 owner. I currently own a Jag F-Type R that I will be selling when this project is complete because I need a bigger car. The F-Type had been one of my favorite cars I've ever owned. I hope she goes to a good home.

I actually owned another '08 CL63 that I bought new from Oakland MB. It was a rare car that I special ordered that was white/black with carbon interior trim. I sold that car in 2010 to the doctor that invented the sickle cell marker test. He paid me $120K for the car as it was the only one in the country in this beautiful color scheme. I added some staggered custom three piece wheels and he fell in love with the car. I prolly could have gotten another $10K for the car but, hey, he's done great things in his life and he deserved it!

That said, the point of this post is this. I have been lusting to own a wide body CL63. I'm sure that this car will be very controversial and generate many folks who think that it cheapens the look of what Mercedes was trying to accomplish and I get it. Therefore I'd like to create this small space to gather those who may have contributions to help me get through this.

Here are some pics of my previous white CL that I miss so much along with my current car.

CL63wide

After searching for about three months, I found the donor car for $24K. It has 89K miles, pretty high but the car is very clean and had a great car fax as well as two owners. The interior is a 10 and exterior I'd rate as an 9. I was considering getting a salvage title car for the project but they were going for $18-19K so I just figured I'd spend an extra $5 for a clean title since it will be my personal car and not for flipping. Car has a great and detailed service history to boot.

I had my car looked over with a fine tooth comb by my mechanic Gus at Mac Members in Fremont California (great mechanic) and they said the car needs to have the lower control arms changed out at some point because of torn ball joint boots on one side. I also need a bearing on the left side because of wheel wobble. Basically $1.5K, nothing pending or pressing so I will take care of this after the build. Other than that the car is as good as any one he's ever looked at. He said "buy it!". Incidentally, I will get a $2k rebate selling my AMG 20" chrome wheels on CL.

Here are some pics...

CL63wide

The kit I bought and why decided to pull the trigger was because of this...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CL-W216-Body...xYkJsI&vxp=mtr

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MERCEDES-BEN...RYmcms&vxp=mtr

Kits for the W216 used to be $15k when I last looked. They have come down in price by $10K for these knock offs out of Poland. I bought the second kit and made him an offer of...get this $2k plus we split the shipping for a total of $2175! Can you believe that?

The kit includes:

Hood
Front fender flares
Rear fender flares
Trunk lip
Rockers
Front bumper
Rear bumper
Rear diffuser
Front lip
Black meshing

The parts are made and shipped from Poland so I'll let you know what the quality looks like upon arrival but my bodyman is a wizard so I'm sure he can make this work.

Here are some pics of the raw parts for a C class the seller sent me as an example.

CL63wide

I've boiled it down to two wheel types.

The HRE 948

The Rotiform HUR.

These wheels need to be like 0 offset and 10" in the front and 12" in the rear with a deep concave. This low offset will bring the wheels out about 2.4" to fill out the fender flares.

Here are some pics...

CL63wide

I was going to wrap my car lagoon blue at some point bt because my paint is so good on this car, I think Ill do silver oem Iridium. I may wrap it later.

Her are some pics of lagoon blue matte for those who haven't seen it. Stunning.

CL63wide

I have a black interior with black ash wood. I am going to have the wood wrapped in either silver or silver/red carbon fiber. Since my interior is all black with no contrast I and going to give it some character with the CF wrap. If at the end of the day I will leave my car silver, I will use the red, if I move forward with the blue, I will do silver CF on the interior for obvious reasons.

Here are some pics.

CL63wide

I plan to de-chrome the entire car (so much chrome!). I thought of removing all badging to monotone the car so the eyes and be unobstructed by emblems but then had a better idea! ll plan to paint all my chrome pages are trims the same Iridium silver as the car to get me the monotone look but at the same time proudly displaying that the car has the AMG heritage. I didn't think it would be cool to have people think that the car was only a 500. Best of both worlds.

I also plan to wrap the roof in gloss black, door handles in GB, as well as the blackening out the chrome strips on the grill (Distronic). The chrome window trim will be painted glass black.

Deciding on some caliper color choices for silver...

Yellow seems to be the only color choice that would work well with both blue and silver.

CL63wide

I'll provide a total cost of this project for all to follow as well as informal time logs so anyone following in my footsteps will have some idea of how to get theirs done and what one can expect to finish. I will have some help from a few friends that owe me favors and will help me to completion.

Please provide any suggestion/feedback as I will keep you guys posted as to her progress. The kit was bought today and was promised to be put in the mail as of tomorrow, Warsaw time.

My car was missing the chrome trim above the rockers on either side and I'm trying to find a set without dealing with the dealer. The last tidbit I need to pick up is a bluetooth puck that my car was missing. Any leads on these two items would be appreciated!

I will be adding an exhaust and doing a tune. The car will probably lowered using HR spring kit. Window tints and headlight smoke should finish out the monotone theme.

OK, nuff said! We're off and running!

CL63wide

End of the rainbow....

CL63wide

here

1ForcedBenz

Relax bro. Also for allegedly owning one of these cars a decade ago new when they were relevant your excitement seems a bit juvenile.

CL63wide

I'm documenting into a blog "Bro". I made the decision to do it publicly with the idea that it may help others who may be interested. Not to defend myself against guys who may find the info of little use. Therefore, If you find the info boring or irrelevant, you are free to stay away Bro.

My honest opinion tells me that the childish thing here is taking your time to comment on something that doesn't interest you.

Bro.

1ForcedBenz

Oh my bad, I apologize I didn't realize all the over whelming responses you were getting on "your blog" here! You sound like a Mattress salesman pushing the hard sale on your import kit.

And good luck on those H&R springs on your car. Educate yourself on the vehicle before throwing on the ricer fiberglass kit.

CL63wide

And what should I know about these?

http://www.stoffler-autotechnik.de/s...ml?language=en

And by the way, what am I selling? You seem quite mixed up.

BlownV8

So, you think you can just throw springs on a 216CL 63?

1ForcedBenz

It's nice how I don't even need to do anything and you embarrass yourself. Good luck with those springs bud and the Polish body kit. I'm sure the kit will fit just like those springs will....
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CL63wide

I don't claim to know everything. If the spring won't work just say so since you're the forum police. As I said in the beginning this article s a project I chose to do as a hobby using a few connections I have. I'm sure I'll hit a few snags along the way so thanks for the spring warning. I'll read up on it when I get to that part of the build.

I'll be sure to keep u posted!

Mikeki7

The car has hydraulic suspension, no springs and no sway bars.

StarvingArtist

I think it's going to be awesome! Go for it!

Not big on your wheel choices though. A car should look great without looking like it's trying too hard.

CL63wide

Got it thanks.

RonCL55

CL63WIDE, you are obviously very passionate about this. I think that is awesome. You have to follow your dreams and I fully encourage you to keep posting your thoughts. You may not always be right, you may make a lot of mistakes and many others may think your are nuts or going in the wrong direction. But you are only nuts if you listen to them.

Ron

CL63wide

In limbo now....

Car getting motor mounts put in....

I was getting my calipers painted and the mechanic noticed bad motor mounts....

Hear its very common for CL63

RonCL55

With respect to your comment about converting the ABC hydraulic system to a spring kit, I personally wouldn't do it but that is a personal decision. It certainly can be done.

There are lots of discussions about it in the Forum and there is a very detailed thread entitled "My w215 CL55 ABC Delete Thread - Yellow Speed Racing Coilover Conversion and Review" that discusses the pros and cons of the conversion. While I understand the author's points, I go the other way. The author's thought is primarily to replace it before it breaks. I have almost 100K on my suspension and (touch wood) i have never had a problem with it. Yes, if the hydraulic pump fails it will cost $3K, but it is not a common occurrence (at least according to my mechanic).

There are also a lot of advantages to the ABC system. I put wider wheels and tires on my CL55 and with a $100 lowering link kit off of e bay i was easily able to lower the suspension to sit perfectly over the wheels with no gaps and no rubbing (the link allows you to perfectly fine tune it and it is totally adjustable if you go with another wheel and tire combination). I am also able to adjust my ride to stiff or not depending on my mood and my passengers. I also am able to lift my car to go over bumps etc. (which is hugely beneficial now that it is lowered). So in my humble opinion i would stay all day long with the ABC system and you might want to consider the advantages of it since you intend to lower your car.

But as i said, there are a number of others out there that would support your thought of a conversion.

BlownV8

If you have not had any ABC issues, you are living on borrowed time.

RonCL55

Well for my sake I certainly hope you're wrong!

However my mechanic certainly thinks you are. I had my car in for its normal servicing two days ago and I specifically asked him about ABC issues. He said that my car is fine and there are no issues presently. He also said that while there are ABC issues generally with these cars, they are NOT all that common, certainly not common enough to prompt any preventive action at this time. Since he has taken care of my car for 10 years and I have had very, very few problems, I will have to go with his advice.

Essentially my CL55 is the best car I've ever owned. I know there are a lot of people that think the car is over engineered and very expensive to maintain. While I certainly respect that people have incurred costs and repairs are expensive, i respectfully disagree with that train of thought and would encourage anyone to buy one of these cars now. As long as you check them out, they are incredible bargains and are true supercars. So at the price point that they are presently at, you can afford to make them project cars like CL63wide is doing and I think that is a blast.