I was wondering if anyone can snap a picture of the shock tower of the car. I want to see the 3 bolts that come through off the coilover. Thanks a lot for your help.

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Thank you so much. That actually helped greatly.

Might you be trying to make a camber plate for a W203? I have been there and done that to the car.

PM me if you want any info. Its a very ODD strut tower design and the W203 is not the same as the W209 OR the BS. The R171 is different as well.

The big difference is that as you turn the wheel on a W203 the struts tip for and aft allowing for drastic changes in caster. It also allows for very odd sensations through the wheel when tracking the car.

To use a camber plate you will need to re-design the entire strut tower and upper bearing. As it sits now the car does not have your normal 3 bolt connection.

If this is not what you were looking to learn ignore my babbling! I thought I read before you had a W203 C32.

i am actually doing that but i do not have a c32. I have a w209, but i wanted to see if the actual design of the black series shock tower is different then a regular clk. It is different. Also if you look at a picture of a clk dtm, it has the shock tower of a normal clk with a plate spot welded with the stem of the strut coming through. The black series has 3 holes where the stem pivots. I have done weeks and weeks of r&d, but what you are saying contradicts the design of the regular w209 tower because of the design of the clk dtm. Anyways its sounds crazy and confusing but the end product will be good.

If you are trying to convert a W209 into a similar shock towere set up to a Black Series why not just go to your local MB dealership and order up the OEM inner fender wells and other mounting hardware? I assume that would save you a huge amount of time over fabricating your stock set up.

BTW, I believe Evosport is working on (might be complete) some adjustable camber plates for the Black Series...even more reason to try to bolt up the OEM BS stuff. Just a thought

...One more thing, I might be upgrading my factory coil-overs with some aftermarket stuff in the next month, Let me know if you would be interested in buying my stock coil-overs.

hey jim pm me a price for the front and rears. I actually bought the stock set already but I wouldnt mind having another set. As far as oem goes trust me I've bought every single thing from a black series as far as body and suspension goes and at this point getting a shock tower (apron) and installing is a pita. You need to jig the car and try getting jig's for a black series. I will post pics of the entire project when it's done so I don't sound crazy. It's turning out really nice but I'm stuck here.

Don't wait to post pics, speaking on behalf of some people on this board, we (okay, maybe just me) love pics depicting the process. Good luck.

Sounds like one helluva project I was wondering how long it would take for CLK 55 owners to start converting to Black Series wide bodies. I can't wait to see some pics.

PM Sent

LOL mine is actually a brand new clk 350. I have a motor I'm putting in it. The original plan was to build a badass drag radial Mercedes black series but I ended up going the street car route. I'm probably going to end up putting a couple turbos on the beast and running it as a bad street car. I'll post a bunch of pics of the process today. Btw I was probably the first to do this, I started in may but obviously getting parts from Benz and the actual work took this long.

Even better yet, a 350 conversion. Are you going to put turbos on the 6 or are you talking about an entire new block? A tt 350 might be bad as hell

No I'm in the process of getting a 6.2 motor and tranny from an auction E63 that was burnt in the california fires. A buddy and I are going halves on it. The car starts and runs, but parts of the interior, and under the car (mostly rear section) was burnt. My buddy is going to salvage the good body parts brakes wheels etc etc, and Im going to salvage to motor wiring and tranny. Its still in the air because it is still a pricey car but I'm young and I only live once. With the price of Black Series clk's going so low i should of just bought a new one now, but at this point appearance wise it looks like a black series on hre M40's. Once again i will post a new topic with pictures of everything i did and am still doing in detail.

It sounds like you are going to be taking a stab at my record.... Keep us posted, sounds like an awesome project.

It should be quick. The amount of power these motors make n/a and the design of the head is far superior then a lot of motors. I've built and raced many V8 cars and the reason I started this was because the head design was so similar to the design of the ford gt motor that I have in my mustang. That's only a 5.4L making close to 1300 at the wheels and this is a 6.2L that out flows the ford gt motor and has a much better deck design. I know with good size turbos and a built motor it will make some serious ponies. 10's is fast but I want to see am 8 sec time slip

How about those pics

Hey JR Cart,

Since you bring it up and seem to be the relevant BS guru, no pun intended, Do you know if the arms are the same length from a w209 to the bs? The reason I ask is because I am replacing all of the suspension arms on my c55 (w209 front end), and I have all of the BS p/n's but can't find out whether they're the same length.

The reason I want to use the BS arms, is that I am told they don't use the garbage mb hydrolic or liquid filled bearings/bushings which have enormous slop in them but in fact use polyurethane. I want to make the car handle well.

My plan is to use a set of KW v2 coilovers, BS suspension arms, clk63 front strut mounts and have already ordered and am having installed a clk63 front bumper and clk63bs rack and pinion

Here is the deal. I am told and have read all over that the suspension is soo much different than the clk/209. However, irrespective of the coilovers and tower braces, regarding the track, if you do the math on the increased track, it really just adds up to the increased offset and width of the rims. As such, I want to use the bs arms (again mainly for their bushings) to rid the slop in the suspension.

Alternatively if the bs arms are in fact longer/different. I would like to use the bearings/bushings where avail seperately. The upper bearings are avail for the front and so are two for arms in the rear.

Any input is greatly appreciated as there is scant info on the subject other than my great review on EPC. Thanks. Sean

Longer and beefier control arms up front and longer and thicker axles in the rear. The Black Series is not just a body kit with wide tires/wheels with a funky off-set. I have seen a BS and a CLK 63 cab on a lift from underneath, and they are totally different animals. I tried explaining this to Victor at VRP when they did that CLK 63 Cabrio to Black Series wide-body conversion a couple months back. I pointed out these facts and he must have ignored my information, the body conversion turned out beautifully but the wheels need to come out about 1.5" per side, they are tucked so far back in the fenders it's a shame.


Here is a link to the thread, you can see where I mentioned this point to them and they said they had it all figured out...if you fast foward to the end where the pics are posted you will see that they did not have the issue figured out.

https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...ion+clk+cabrio

Good to know! Do you know anyting with regard to the bearings/bushings whether they would work? Thanks, this is exactly what I needed to know.

If you go with BS stuff, make sure it is going to fit under your stock fenders. If stuff gets pushed out too far it's gonna look funny and out of place...but I'm sure you already thought of this issue. Sounds like a cool project, keep us posted on your progress.

Yeah likely I'll axe the suspension arms as that will be an issue. I need to know whether I can use the bearings and bushings in my regular clk 209 arms front and arms rear however.

I would assume the bushings are interchangable, I can't imagine them chamging the mounting bosses on the frame of the car, although you never know. I don't have an answer for you on this issue, other than having the two parts in hand with a dial caliper or having access to both cars on a lift to do a side by side comparo I think you are going to have to rely on the trial and error method.