I posted 2 months ago that my wagon had taken a rear end slam, damaged mainly the hatch and bumper. (BTW, she was parked and it was my work partner that slammed her)

So I picked her this afternoon, with a few upgrades added

door pillars are satin black
lower cladding was painted to match
e320 debadged from hatch
Almost forgot! LED tailights

(If wondering from pics, there is NO tint on front windows for now)
















Photos by blackberry phone

 

Wow. Wheels are a bit big for my tastes, but - wow. LOVE this car.

 

Clean and tasteful as always Rich

Disagree about the debage as I feel the hatch is a bit barren now, but the clean aesthetic works otherwise so :P

 

Thanks for both comments!

Speedriven, I have tried both 18s and 16s, will run 16s with my snow shoes next week. Felt very lucky to find a set of 17 Carlssons.

Brett, I hate that I may agree about the debadge. I only had a half hour of sunlight tonight, so will think some more on that. Mebe it is just that one camera shot


Oh yea, I handed him my Sportline for a few touches:
door pillar satin black
black bumper strips painted to match the lower cladding
a few miniscule dings

 

Man, the door pillars make a huge difference! Looks great Rich. I do agree about the debadge though. It would look better with something to break up the visuals back there.

 

Monochrome paint scheme, big wheels, blacked out pillars - very clean and updated.

Beautiful wagon!!!

 

Nice job!!

 

 

Thank you all, I am perty happy with the work they did.

I am curious, now with the smoked LED tails, the front clear corners seem like they need to be smoked too. Are there choices other than the 17.95 Taiwanese versions I see all over?

And my last wagon was tinted all the way front, but it was a bit dark in there in tight/dark night driving situations. Anyone think the tint is fine as is? I'll probably run matching tint to the front windows soon.

Appreciate any + all feedback, suggestions or criticisms,
and also, thanks to my partner, as I have wanted to paint the lowers and fix my cracked back bumper since I got the car...I only had the car a few months before he gave me the needed 'scuse.

 

The tint is just fine.
I can't tell from the pictures, but if the corners look new - fine! If they look faded, bleached, or cracked, then I'd go with smokes to keep the clean look. Otherwise, those are my favourite corners.

 

Rich, if you're going to toss those 94/95s (if they're real Bosch) let me know

 

The front corners look new...but once I view the car with smokes in rear, I figured it would be good to match, never considered the switch before on this car. My real question though, are there Bosch type quality smokes, or if I wanted to go that route, do I get the occasional disappearing variety (cheap tolerances)

Brett, if you "need" a set, r or l, I probably have a few $17.95 types, but I think you just want to upgrade look?

If so, I am not likely to part with these, I'd shelve them so I can back up to stock even if I find a Hella of a good set.

 

I have Hella smoked tails

The Hellas are perfect fit, of course, and high quality.
I haven't seen Hella smoked corners.

Perhaps on De. eBay?

 

Normally I don't like wagons but this one looks really good

 

Thanks all for the kind words and suggestions. Having stared at the car today too much, and in light and from assorted angles...I like the debadge and will leave it. IF I can pull a favor from my machine shop friend, I'll slip a S124 badge there sometime, fonted like the original e320. But really, in person, I like it clean. Much more than the pic above.

And unless I find higher grade smoked corners, she is done for now. Looking forward to those few spiffs on my sportline then the big decision, do I steal the Recaros out of the sportline for the wagon.

 

Rich, I have one R smoked corner you can have just to see how it looks. It's cheap DEPO, and the reason I'm not running it is because the L side kept falling off even after modification. But hey, couldn't hurt to pop it in and see how you like it.

 

I like it!



Needs more low though....

 

The wagon is looking great!! Monochrome look :-)

 

Smoked corners look weird on the front if the headlights aren't smoked.

Nice wagon!

 

One other comment, I was happy to hear from the body shop friend- he said that when the panels came off, and everywhere he worked, it was like the car was stored all these years in a plastic bag- not a speck of rust anywhere he saw.

Some of you know, I bought this car w no ppi, based on a 15 minute conversation w seller. There was a gamble in there, but I am a decent judge of BSer, and I googled the guy and realized he was monied, highly respected in his field and the car was too low priced to diddle around. Nothing I would recommend to anyone, and foolish, but, this one time, I got lucky.



We have similar taste, as your updated look 500 would be my first choice for a 500 daily driver.

QUOTE=190E 16V;4405798]The tint is just fine.
I can't tell from the pictures, but if the corners look new - fine! If they look faded, bleached, or cracked, then I'd go with smokes to keep the clean look. Otherwise, those are my favourite corners.[/QUOTE]

TY
The corners look new, but that strip of yellow feels out of place since nothing else is yellow. However, if I change them, it will not be with the fly away $18 versions. I still have them on my Sportline, bought a few extras lol, but that has gotten old. And seeing Marks comment, "all clear" is the likely option.

LOL, I am going to view Mark's comment as fact rather than opinion...so no smoked corners. I like the 94/95 headlights too much to putz with them...but thanks much for that offer!!

hehehe, I am going to let you take that trophy, I LOVE your look, especially that rear shot in parking area...but as a daily driver, this is as low as she'll go.

Thanks Mark, saved me some time and maybe a little cost there.

AND REALLY
Thanks to all of you, most of the names on this thread have provided inspiration and great advice to "strangers" for years. This hobby of mine would never have evolved without the kindness and sharing here, and while I remain a noobie in many (mechanical) respects, I DO try to share favors back when I can following the model set by ya'll.

Ze wagon is gonna get snow shows rotated on but then be 99% garage parked this winter.

 

The wagon looks fantastic my friend, I say keep the front corner lights the way they are -- can't wait to see those tail lights in person as I have been weary of 'crystal clear' style tail lights since they just don't look right to me on the older Mercedes & VDubs (I used to have them on my 1989 GTI and looking back now, I shouldn't have =)

 

Ah, a new handle. Quite a difference from when you borrowed the wagon home, aye?

I agree about the clear tails, I had them before they were broken in the collision. The smoked LEDs are BRIGHT at night and I much prefer the smoked look but they cost like $260. and took awhile to actually find in stock. (I think they came from Australia) I would have settled happily for non LED smoked lenses (less than half the price) but could not find them either. Several companies took my order before informing me they were backordered.

BTW, I did find the solution I emailed you about, so forget the bodily harm threat.

 

d@mn you, you have me second guessing my two-tone paint job again....!

a bit late to the party, but i like the debadged hatch myself, and i agree on passing on the tinted corners... like zorro said, tinted corners without tinted headlights will not look good. i would like to see your front windows tinted though, even if they are not as dark as the rest of the car...

one thing i think that would set off the car is an exhast or even just a nice tip to complete the more updated look...

 

Don't blame me for the two tone issue, you know damm well who to blame for that. And he is right, every example I've seen where effort is made to sort of update the look...painted lowers ftw. (I know the complaints, durability, difficult to match, etc)

I am going to leave the turn signals alone, probably no tint change either for now. If I tint the fronts it will be next spring.

And I do like the debadge in person, have looked at it often since Friday.

The chrome exhaust tip on my Cab looked great for a year now is rusty, do you have a suggested source for a quality exhaust tip that'd fit the wagon?

 

I think that on Zed's car, he should NOT ever update the lowers. The flow of color from the lower panels across the rims face to the other lower panels is just so smooth, it matches perfectly. White lower panels would break that up.