At least it's the car that's dirty, not me : )

OK, LnkPrkSoldier asked me for pics of my car, so here she is. She's dirty right now, and it's too sunny to wash her (at least that's my excuse).

It's a 92 400E, Brilliant Silver, 99,845 miles when I got it May 1st in exchange for a gold coin collection (more on that later). She was starting to be a bit neglected, and came with three 8-hole factory rims of 48mm offset, and one of 44mm offset, and three different kinds of tires. Her hood was faded. There were some minor dings. I knew the evaporator was gone (no A/C) but the wiring harness was OK. I bargained accordingly.

I had all the fluids changed, using Mobil 1 for the engine, ATF, and differential (not the same fluid, silly - three different KINDS of Mobil 1!) Cleaned the seats with Leatherique & touched up scratched spots with Leatherique dye. Highly recommended, BTW.

My goal in doing mods is to make the car safer first and nicer looking second. Since M-B is such a safe car, it would be silly do do mods that counter that. Also, to be tasteful (of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!) I still have not installed fuzzy dice yet from the new Homelink rear-view mirror : )

To make it handle & stop better, I installed new mags and tires; I currently have a set of 205/55/16's also on Tire Rack replica 8-holes that are 7.5" by 16". Decided to get both 16" and 17" with the same kind of tires to compare ride & response.

After changing to Vogtland springs (thanks to Chris Pham) and a wheel alignment, the car sat way too low at the front. It looked good, but I wanted the tires to not rub with four passengers on board and with weight in the trunk. So I followed the AMG recommendations and rolled my fenders (review to follow on the fender roller tool) and installed the AMG fender washer kit. Then I bought an import copy of a Klann spring compressor and shimmed the front higher. Currently the front has 18mm spring pads sitting underneath another 18mm pad! I wanted to get away from the SUV look but still want to be able to clear curbs. Pics 3 & 4 shows how the fender washers push the end of the front bumper and the trim piece following the front wheel outwards, thus giving more clearance. Pic 2 is the Eastwood fender rolling tool I used.

After debadging the "400E" off the trunk (in its place, I'm thinking of putting M-B "V8" badges on the side fenders), I had the car hood & front airdam repainted and the dings taken out, and two small rust spots repaired, one near the sunroof, and one at the antenna hole. A new sunroof seal was installed, suppplied by Rusty at buymbparts. Pic 5 shows the HID lights, clear corners, and the LED turn signal mirror covers.

 

man bro thats beautiful!

 

Pic 1 shows the new steering wheel (off Ebay seller dctw124 - good guy to deal with, BTW), SLK pedals (thanks to 2phast, again), chrome instrument rings, and the chrome vent covers. I find MB interiors rather teutonic and spartan and, in my car, well, very... dark (especially in the 400E & 500E where we have the darker burlwood insyead of the lighter zebrano). Hence the chrome bits to lighten the colour scheme a bit. Not sure about the chrome vent covers - they are rather glaring, but easy & cheap enough to remove later or swap vents. In fact, that's why I deliberately got gray floor mats instead of black ones.

Pic 2 shows the instrument panel chrome rings. I really like them and found out later that current M-B's have them. A little tricky to install (more on that later). Of course being a Canadian car it's in kilometers per hour - no, Canadian cars speedos do not top out at 260 miles per hour! I also found out what those "I", "II", and "III" yellow marks on the speedo face are for.

Pic 3 shows the factory Becker 1432 stereo. The 400E has the 100-watt 10-speaker system, so I find the sound system adequate, though of course it could be better. (I compensate for that with my home theatre - 92" screen, four 15" subwoofers, Crowson seat shakers, Newform Research ribbon speakers, so don't worry, I'm not deprived of good sound : ) )I sent it to Becker on exchange for a new faceplate ($80). Now all the lights work. They even give you a new cassette door. In old units the letters are worn off; note how new this door's letters look. And, yes, that shift knob says "V8" - I really like it, though I had a &*()_) of a time finding it, as it's an OEM knob. A $25 adapter shaft from Performance Products made the swap painless, and is easier to install then using the method from 2phasts' site. Highly recommended that ,er, you get the shaft from them (sorry). BTW, if you join MBCA (M-B Club of America) for $45 annually, you get 15% discount off purchases from Performance Products. I had an order in for Euro lights there ($500 less 15% = $425) before cancelling the order and going for the HID retrofit.

Pic 4 shows the center console with the chrome trim ring and the burlwood insert. I must say that for a car with one of the best quality interior finishes, the plastic surround & shifter gate looks kinda, well, cheap. Replaced light bulbs so I could see what gear I was in at night : )

Pic 5 shows the modification, as per 2phast's instructions again, for the selectable 1st gear / 2nd gear start. I used a Brother P-Touch labelling machine for the lettring of "1" and "2" on black tape. I will write later on my thoughts on this mod, when combined with the Ebay ECU chip upgrade that moves your shift points higher (and removes your 155 mph top speed governor : ) ).

 

Your 400E looks awesome! I love that shift knob too, it's beautiful and looks totally stock. Question though: Don't 400E's already start in 1st? Or are Canadian/Euro's different? I assume that's the case, since I'm pretty sure that Euro 400E's came with a different rear end, too (like 2.65?)

 

Nope, mine definitely started in 2nd gear before. Has a 2.24 rear end according to the factory brochure from 1992.

 

Nice car and well put together! Silver is an awesome color on the W124's....You should spray paint the grill insert (the faded gray piece on most w124's) black but keep the polished/chrome part so it looks cleaner and somewhat updated. BTW, you know that they sell the "crystal look" turn signals on ebay? I think it would make your front end flow better...just my opinion. How do your headlights work and where did you get them?

 

Hmm, 'crystal look', eh? I got the ones on right now from Ebay and I think they're "smoked". Don't fit very well, BTW - one side is fine, one side is so-so. Last month I had to return a set of smoked taillights, the fit was so poor, then the seller wondered why I left neutral feedback (I did get a refund). In pic 1 you can see the gap between the car and the light cover; in pic 2 you can see the mis-alignment of the bolts in the light covers with the holes in the OEM back covers. It was so bad I couldn't put the two halves together. I'm now kinda leery of non-OEM stuff and have just bought a set of OEM clear corners and non-orange taillights off another board member. Will install later this week.

I retroffited a Hella HID off a ML320 into a set of Taiwanese lights, thanks to instructions on 2phast's site. See link here (scroll about halfway down):

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w124/157732-9004-hid-conversion-kit.html

 

Natural, I freaking LOVE your steering wheel.

great car.

 

Good stuff mang. And im sure both you and your car are equally dirty

 

how much did you pay for that steering wheel?

 

My friend has a similar steering wheel in is 500E and I believe he spent around $600-700 for it.

 

$400 from Ivan on Ebay under the handle dtcw124. Good guy. He actually didn't have one in stock when teh auction finished so he gave me a $30 discount : ) . Then when it was dropped-shipped from Taiwan I got two wheels instead of one! Had to (reluctantly) send one back to him : (

I just checked Ebay; he doesn't have any listed. You can ask him if he's getting any more in at nettw124@yahoo.com

BTW, I asked him last night if he can get those new $480 projector lights. Here's what he said,

The one showing on ebay looks funny since there is lot more space at the bottom has been left out there with a akward seperator
I can get eagle eyes product just their quality is not good, lots of loose and damage during shipping, lots of custoemr return, headache!

Ivan

 

THats a nice car. Where did you get the fender roller kit thingy at?

 

At Eastwood:

http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?i...emType=PRODUCT

I'm actually going to sell it pretty soon. I was thinking of renting it out but it's a lot of hassle. There's a guy on Ebay, however, that does rent is out for $60:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/USING...spagenameZWDVW

All four wheels took about 3 hours.

 

That's the same exact stuff I have done to my car. Fixed a couple of rust spots, going to get her painted soon. mine is a Champagne colored car with Palomino interior. It also has ASR and Orthopedic Seats. I am getting the Drivers sEat leather upholstered again. The old stuff was ripped. I also changed all fluids and debadged her and rolled the fenders with the eastwood fender roller. Also got the 17" AMG monoblocks. I got your steering wheel first and returned it as it was too aggressive for me. I got a standard wood/leather in black. I'll take pictures of it soon. The quality of the wheel is really nice. The first seller has poor quality. Loose stitches, etc... I've ordered a new wood trim piece with all holes cut out so I can add the door lock switch with alarm led, rear sunshade, and power folding mirrors.

 

You need to do the drivers door mirror modification so you have both mirrors that are power. I did that to mine already. 1994-95 had this feature.

 

Actually, I prefer to leave the driver's mirror the way it is. Why? Because it's a neat example of Benz's philosophy (at that time - not any more!) to only put in what's required. For most people, there is no need to power the driver's mirror - it's right there. A mechanical adjustable system means one less motor to worry about. Lighter too.

I believe this was pointed out in a writeup about the car when it came out.

Now, if you have more than one driver, then I guess you can say it's convenient to store into memory the mirror's position. But I only have one girlfriend at the moment : ).

BTW, Sunman, I never got back to u on the *other* (ahem) board about those Vogtland springs. I took mine off to change spring pads and *surprise* they were already 18mm pads with another 18mm one cut down as a spacer above it. All this shimming only gets me 25" from the fender lip to the ground, which is about the tire diameter of a 215/45/17, I believe. How did you fare out with yours?

BTW, I really admire the work you've done to your car. How'd you install a rear sunshade? I presume all the cars are prewired. And have you ever considered retrofitting a set of backup guides (those antenna things in the corners of the rear fenders) out of an S class into ours?

 

I have a #2 pad in my car. I am going to change it to a #4 pad. Check the rubber bumps on the pad to see which pad you have. #4 is the highest. Your car is NOT prewired for a rear shade. Wiring is pretty easy though and you can retrofit the shade pretty eaisly. The shade runs 400 bucks. Switch 25 and harness another 50. You will need to replace the wood with one that has a hole for the switch or make a hole yourself.

I did consider retrofitting the backup guides but would prefer parktronic which came in the later w140 series cars which is what I will probably do.

 

super nice car, keep up all the good mods comming

 

Just to confirm for ya'll here...I am new to the site but i was reading this post about Ivan...He is a great guy and has a new baby (so support his family!) and i recommend him to others here for parts for your MB. I actually bought the silver 4 door he advertises on some of his ebay ads in San jose with the Brabus wheels. Great car..not a lick of a problem since i bought it. Thats all i wanted to add

 

I'm lost...

Who's Ivan?

 

And wtf does that have to do with anything?

 

IVan is Ebay seller DCTW124...the topic of of this thread dealt with some of the parts IVAN sold to members here, (steering wheel, eagle eyes) etc...

 

See previous post. And chill the f out on your holier than thou war in here.

 

Looks sweet...you've got good taste. Upgrade to the avant garde grille (painted to match) and it really updates the look of the car and pulls it all together (if thats something you like).