Saijin_Naib

Nevermind, housemate got a 2007 CLS63, black on black, P2 package + AMG Development package.

I have to quite humbly say that he has the most amazing car in the driveway by far.

Saijin_Naib

However, I think El Bucko has had quite the recovery after 6 or so months in surgery. Not quite done yet, but here is my latest progress report

All comments, criticisms, etc welcome. I still have plans, this is but one step closer to realizing my final vision for Bucky.

Also, the H&R Sports + Koni Yellows (4/5 firmness) with the upgraded swaybars has yielded a carfeel like nothing else. This car is now. It still feels like the 3600lb beast it is (especially after becoming used to the nimble feel of the c280 Sport) but it is direct, with almost no roll & lean, and just feels glued to the road.

stormtigers

How do you whistle on this thing ?

BUCKY really looking the goods mate ! (that Oz slang for looking fantastic)
Love what you've done - looks like he is fresh off the car lot !
Interesting detail on the qwheels how/what did you do to them.
They appear bronze/gold centre on silver rims.

Anyway that's is no doubt a beautiful car my friend !



EDIT : OH PS I'll shoot you of you put roof racks on it !

Saijin_Naib

Because the whistles got a little woo woooo.
Thanks man! It needs much more attention, IE AMG kit and ducktail but that is much later down the road :P Thanks, Dmitry did an amazing job rehabing the paint and fixing my rust and various dings and other imperfections.

My idea was to simply paint the whole wheel the color my hematite trim faded to from Black/Silver to this very sublime bronze. He disagreed, then called my Dad on Saturday simply saying "Don't worry, I've got it under control. Pick it up tomorrow." He decided to do the bronze over a polished lip look and I think its fantastic. I'll be changing out the center caps for the MB Laurel style caps as I think the blue will offset the bronze quite nicely. That is actually my father's idea, I can't take credit for it
You can shoot me after I find a set, I still need some hauling capacity with this car, we got rid of all our SUVs so its either roof racks or a trailer hitch or both. Bucky will need to branch out into CUV territory (Coupe Utility Vehicle)

RHW

Wow, project appears quite successful, the body looks sharp, the wheels look...really incredible. A great idea that I'd avoid for the gamble. Dmitri is either lucky or good.

I'd consider adding a bump to front and reducing a bit in rear, no?

It is always an experience to "refresh" the suspension on such an older car, the ride comes back or in your case, the ride is better than Bucky offered when new.

I still might delete headlight washer arms, and body match the grill too.

Are you color matched? Hard to tell from pics, I think not. On my 92 sportline, I painted the black bumper strip to match the lower cladding, it looked more modern I thought.

Every time I do a significant upgrade, I tend to want to enjoy it more than do more stuff..but you asked.

stormtigers

And Saijin, spoiler, honestly. you have a classy colour.

I think a little bib spoiler on the trunk rather than something large.
Similar to the Zender bib I want to put on mine - just enough to stand out, not enough to insult the overall shape !

Saijin_Naib

Thanks Rich! Dmitry is excellent at what he does. He has been the one that has done all the cosmetic modwork that my car has had done over the past years including fitting the STI Vortex Generator, making my wiper panel inserts, etc. He is meticulous and has a great eye for design. Also, as I learned this time, if you get him excited enough he'll start throwing out his own ideas and you'll end up with something better than what you even had in mind. I kept the stock bump pads as I had no clue how the car would sit, but yes, I think I may have to go 4/8mm or so up on the fronts maybe. I'm going to keep the back is or lower 4mm max as I really want to keep the front->rear rake of the car's suspension setup. I think that little touch lends the c124 a bit more aggression than a 100% flat stance.For the most part, I'm really not fond of full on colormatching components. I like the contrast of the various chrome and black elements to the burgundy and bronze. I think a colormatched grille would lose most of its impact and just look kinda blah on the front. The wiper arms will be functional as soon as I find a set of motors that work. This new set I got hasn't worked since day 1, but what can you do. Cladding is not color matched, but its such a minor difference in tone (darker than top) that I truly don't mind. Again, I like the contrast it provides. The car doesn't have aggressive lines that low on the body, so having a color shift helps provide more visual impact. I enjoyed it yesterday, I'll enjoy it today, but tomorrow, tomorrow I start anew
Thanks Stormy, I agree. I know I was a bit rice with the AMG wing, but I just love the shape of those and I was going to have it cut in half height-wise so it would have been just over the decklid. It would have been borderline perfect. Lip spoilers are nice, but I don't think they provide enough oomph to make up for the unapologetically plain lines of the truck on the c124. Both Dmitry and my father are fans of the ducktail and I have approval/recommendations from both to go track one down. Previously I was not fond of them as I thought you HAD to debadge and lose the car and star, but I saw a member on here who had his ducktail with car and star badges and that clinched it for me. I will unfortunately have to have the AMG filled on the spoiler as there isn't an AMG bit on the car :C

AMGDave

Based on the photos, I'd go up 2 bumps in the front, and see if that even does anything. It's possible the car is sitting on the strut shaft stop buffers, and if so, thicker spring pads may not change anything. This would also be why it feels glued to the road. The rake will also skew the weight balance even more to the front, and these cars are already front-heavy.

Have you measured the ride height, front & rear, from wheel center to bottom of the fender lip? When you do this, note the amount of fuel in the tank, as the rear ride height will vary about 0.5" between full tank & empty tank. Any idea what pads were on the car stock?

Looks sharp though! Any news on the engine performance issues? Get your 0-60 down to factory specs yet?

chlippo

Ducktail rocks! no other thing can match a ducktail, its even a lot better in person than in pictures!

Good to see bucky back!

now tell us whats up with the performance after the engine refresh and you were experiencing a lack of power low down...what went with that?

Saijin_Naib

Hm, okay. I was thinking of going to the 12mm for the fronts as that would at most give me back about .7in or so of ride height. The wheels are quite tucked in the fenders. No rubbing yet, but its certainly possible.
No, not yet. I'll try and do this when I can find a level surface. No idea what stock pads were on there, they didn't get refreshed like I wanted them to.
Thanks! No, no 0-60 runs yet. I will say that I doubt its any faster than 12s 0-60. So maybe a slight improvement but still a dog.
Thanks man Yeah, I do like the ducktail, especially if I can keep my badging No firm numbers for engine performance, buttmeter says still slow as ****.

whipplem104

Looks good but I agree with Dave. You are sitting or close to sitting on the bump stops on the shocks. If you want to be close to that low you will need to put the 129 upper shock mounts on.

Saijin_Naib

Thanks man. What do you mean by the r129 uppers? Is that in conjunction with larger spring perch pads, or is that by its self?

Saijin_Naib

Thought you'd all like to see the horrific state my suspension geometry was in post-lower and the two alignment sheets

teezer

looks like both sheets are after springs installed, since no change in camber front and rear

should handle well but going to be hard on tire tread life till you get the negative camber values down on both ends

here are amg specs on a 300e which should be pretty close to the coupe

Front suspension
-camber -0 degree 45'
-caster 10 degrees 10' (straight ahead position)
-toe-in 0 degree 20'

Rear Suspension
-camber -1 degree
-toe-in is 0 degree 20'

these came from this link
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...300ce-amg.html

teezer

car looks great

always been on the fence with the side pinstripes

with the stripes, they create a panel look on the side, braking up the styling

without the stripes, they let the styling sweep to the roof as i think was the intention, much cleaner

btw ~~~ i believe all the pinstriping was aftermarket and not factory applied, just another dealer money maker

Saijin_Naib

Yeah, both sheets are post-install, just before and after alignment. A lot of the measurements were way out of spec, though the new measurements are much closer to what they should be when compared to a w124 Sportline (what spec they used to align off of). I'll have to look into getting the shortened rear links and maybe adjustable front towers or seeing if using the r129 Strut Towers will help the camber issue by unlowering it a bit.

Yeah, the stripes were done at the dealer in 90 by Paintwerks by Jeff, a pinstriper that did a ton of work out of the dealership the car was purchased from.

I don't mind the pinstripes, they've been on the car since I've first seen it so I've grown rather accustomed to them. But I see what you're saying about it splitting the side profile up.

AMGDave

If you're interested in the shortened rear LCA's for camber correction, there's a group buy in the works at 500Eboard.com for the RDM TEK units (which are out of production, but the mfr will build 10 pairs at a time on special order). These will reduce rear camber approx 1.25°, so if you are a -2.25° now, it would change to approx -1.00°. Also keep in mind that rear camber is a function of ride height, so if you change the spring pads, the camber will change too... and this will also require the rear toe to be adjusted.

Saijin_Naib

I think I have no choice but to get in on that Dave. Would you mind PMing me the relevant info? I hope they're not too expensive, I'm already tapped out from having the car rebuilt :C

Do you have any further info about what whipplem104 said above?

Thanks!

AMGDave

Email sent about the rear camber correction kits - let me know if you didn't receive it.

I am not familiar with the R129 strut mount modification... but would like to know more about it. Note that if the front wheel is allowed to travel further upward, you may have rubbing issues between the tire and the inner fender liner or sheet metal. The R129 was originally designed for a lower ride height & wider wheels, but the W124 was not.

Got measurements on your ride height yet, btw? And have you checked to see if the front end is sitting on the stops as shown here? (It's hard to check this, as the car can't be jacked up to check... need a flashlight & something to lift the dust boot with so you can see what's going on in there.)

Saijin_Naib

Thanks for the email. They are pricey, but I guess I really don't have a choice if I want the car to drive properly. I think the r129 uppers will correct my front camber enough, though I honestly think it is close enough to be acceptable.

I'll check rideheight and the stops soon.

AMGDave

The R129 front strut mounts won't change camber at all, only suspension travel limits. If you want more camber adjustment up front, you'll have to try and score one of the RDM TEK adjustable strut mounts (were $499/pair when available new), but those are gone and not likely to ever be produced again. Your front camber didn't look bad, btw... I'd leave that alone since you autocross, and a tad more negative won't hurt.

Saijin_Naib

Ah, my mistake. Well, if its only travel then I may leave well enough alone or try to put a few more bumps up there. Honestly, I think the suspension travel is fine as-is. But I do need to check to be sure.

Rear might be an issue, though visually (I know it means nothing visually) the c280 Sport looks to be as negative in the rear as the 300ce, as does the 500e.

AMGDave

In stock form, rear camber is strictly a function of ride height. The 500E had the lowest ride height of any factory 124 and yes, it had the most negative camber. With stock wheels/tires, this is not a huge deal; however the wider yours rear wheels/tires are, the worse the problem becomes. I know a guy with a 500E who shredded a set of 275 rears (on 10.0 wheels) inside 3kmi. I'm guessing you have 205-225's on 7.5's in the back, in which case your -2.x° rear camber isn't awful, but if you notice accelerated wear on the inside edges of your rear tires, the only way to fix it is a camber correction kit. And the only one that doesn't have annoying drawbacks is the RDM TEK kit. Real shame they stopped selling 'em.

Saijin_Naib

Front: about 12.5" from center to fender lip
Rear: about 13.5" from center to fender lip
-----------------------
Full tank of fuel, snow tires

neanderthal

I agree with you on colour matching the grille, keep it black for contrast.

I'd lose the stripes though, and raise the front just a little, leaving the rear as is.

Your car is looking like the dogs danglies.....