Drag0na5h

Recently acquired an 06 E350 and wanted to make some upgrades with a slim wallet.

Why the slim wallet? Wife.

Sold this...


Sold this...


Total left in my pocket... $1500

Let's begin:

Restoring headlights $30 kit Autozone + $30 drill Home Depot


Replaced old shifter (chewed up by dog) $75 eBay + Replaced steering wheel with an OEM wood one $100 shipped AutoGator (local dismantler)


New front grille via Plasti Dip $15 Home Depot + razor $1 Home Depot. Spray then trim.


H7 5000K PIP HID kit $50 Forum Member + T10 5000K City LEDs $19 AZN Optics + 2500K H11 halogens $22 Local Tuner Shop


So far $342/$1500.

Next time on budget wars...

2003 W211 wing mirrors w/ built in puddle lights $200 eBay + $??? Paint Job


2007 W211 Headlamp Facelift $33 passenger housing eBay + $89 driverside housing eBay + ZKW-R clear lenses $40 eBay Retrofitsource


Retrofit in the works



Roof spoiler $65 Craigslist


Planned $769/$1500

Debating on using my unpainted E55 front bumper $500 + $230 Paint Job ($1499/$1500 & get 2 tacos from Jack In The Crack with the remaining $1), acquiring a black E500 front bumper via sale and/or trade or leave it as is and add some money to the budget for some different wheels/tires with about $1200 to spend.

pinebaron

I hope my wife does not get to see your budget else ...nothing really.
Good job done

Drag0na5h

Thanks. Just wanting to showcase options for those who have an itch to mod on the cheap.

beejAMG

great job on the headlights!

Drag0na5h

Thanks. That hazy poor output halogen set up is the main reason I started my mods. Definitely helps when I'm driving on those back roads at night.

fbrglzdrmz

Nice mods! I just did my HIDs, led city lights, all led interior lights and i had the plasti dip ready to do the grill (until i saw the new black sl style on ebay, so got that instead). And I agree, the output is sooooo much better with HIDs. Also painted the side marker lenses black(plastidip) to delete them.

Oh and did you have to run extra wiring for the lights under the sideview mirrors?

Drag0na5h

Nice man. Post some pics of your ride with the SL grille and lights on. I'd like to see the combination. Is the Plasti Dip you used glossy or flat? I'm thinking I wanna redo my grille center glossy. As for the new wing mirrors I haven't actually installed them yet. Plan on doing a test run with wiring first and hoping all the lighting ends up just plug n play with the two plugs attached. One of the reasons I got an oem set instead of an aftermarket type that requires tapping into a light source to work. The other reason being I can swap in a matching temp led canbus bulb. The aftermarket ones use an led panel it seems.

fbrglzdrmz

Yea I actually just ordered the grill and hood emblem today so I'll do so when I get them in. The only plasti dip I've seen comes in flat black. I've added a few layers of clear coat to other items I've painted and it gives it a glossy look, maybe you can try that.

Drag0na5h

Awesome looking forward to it. Yeah flat black is all I found at the store too. I read about adding clear coat before. Did you use any clear coat? Didn't ruin the integrity of the plasti dip?

Drag0na5h

Okay so I had some time (12am ~ 2am) to mod again and this time I wanted to examine the 2003 oem wing mirrors with integrated puddle lights and their plug n play capability on my 2006. I looked at the wiring harness vs the one currently on my car. Same number of wires in the same slot locations. Only thing I noticed was that the car side connection of the white plug had wires 3 & 4 labeled and located in different slots than the plug on the harness.



So I traced the wiring from the white plug to the two leads coming out from the puddle light socket. They are consistent with the labels 3 & 4.



I then proceeded to relocate the number 3 & 4 wires to match the location on the car side connection.



Then plugged both connections into the car side connection points and turned on the "surround lights" feature via the gauge cluster. Switched the lights to "auto" then closed the door and unlocked the car from the remote. As suspected the wing mirrors did not light up along with the city lights and fogs which did. I am assuming I need to set the wing mirror puddle lights to "present". Anyone have experience getting their puddle lights to work I'd appreciate it if you shared your thoughts.

*EDIT: Looks like after some research about folding mirrors and how they have been plug and play for various people, my belief is that the #3 & 4 pins on the door panel unit is for the "folding" function and not "puddle light" function. Hard wiring to the dome light circuit is probably the only way for this mod to truly work. I highly doubt there's any current passing thru EMPTY PIN #'s 5 & 6, which is where the puddle light wires are located, because the dash would have an error about an open circuit. (>_<!)

beejAMG

PlastiDip only comes in matte but they also have PlastiDip clear if you want it glossy. I think its called Glossifier. they also have Metalizer in gold and silver if you want a metallic finish. just make sure you watch a lot of youtube videos and read a lot of forums before you plastidip anything. if you do it wrong, it a pita to remove.

Drag0na5h

Thanks for the tip. I'll look for a can of that Glossifier at Home Depot today. Nice to know they have metallic finish too and pearl finish would be great! I just know that it's best to do multiple coats to thicken up the layer. I did about 7 passes on my grille and when I removed the outer edge that I trimmed off, it actually stretched as I pulled it off and never tore into pieces either. Removing it within the grille vents might be questionable since the surfaces overlap with gaps.

beejAMG

Oh I didnt realize that you've already done your grille! great job!
I also did my grille and my hood vent. Although I only did a couple of layers of plastidip and then 3 layers of duplicolor then 2 layers of duplicolor clear. I kinda like how it came out. You can still peel it off but not like the strechy rubbery feel if you do it with just plastidip.

Drag0na5h

Pretty nifty trick to use plasti dip as a removable base layer and paint what ever color you want via standard paint. My wing mirror rubber seal where the mirror housing meets the door is cracked. I wonder if I can do a band-aid repair with plasti dip.

beejAMG

Yeah its something i read on one forum. It works but like i said, i you make a mistake, its a pita to remove. Which happened on my wheels. Took me half a day to redo.

Im just not so sure about the cack on your rubber but, although thats the beauty of plastidip, if youre not happy with the result, simply peel it!

Heres a photo of what i did.

Drag0na5h

Oh nice I like the gloss black contrast relative to the flat black. Didn't realize you weren't in the U.S. until I saw the RHD haha. Hey does your model have the puddle lights under your wing mirrors?

beejAMG

hahaha! yeah Im here in the land down under!
Yeah mine does. Im just not sure if that puddle light is standard with the Avantgarde model or just another option.

Drag0na5h

I tried to wire mine up last night, but since it didn't come standard the plugs aren't receiving any current. I gotta find out a way to activate it because I really don't want to hard wire them to the dome light circuit. I really wanted to see how well it lights up too. Any chance you can take a photo at night or in a dark garage with your surround lights on? Would hate to hack things up and get minimal performance from this mod.

beejAMG

"surround lights", are those the puddle lights? if yes, no worries, ill post it here as soon as I can. they light up pretty bright for me.

Drag0na5h

Yeah sorry, the puddle lights is what I meant to say. Cool man I think after looking at my wiring, I believe the existing wiring on the door panel side may be for the "folding" function and not the puddle light function. So looks like hard wiring into the dome circuit is my only option. Please tell me you don't have power folding mirrors as well. That combination would be the "bestest" ever.

beejAMG

No i dont have auto folding mirrors. Im not sure about that wire but i know mine has it for the heated mirrors.

Drag0na5h

Ah yes I forgot about that function as well. Do you have a seperate button to activate heated mirrors or does it simultaneously come on when you press the front window defrost button?

FromM3toE55

nice!

do the e63 conversion

https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...tock-only.html

beejAMG

I dont have a separate button for it so i guess it goes with the defeost button.

Drag0na5h

I'd love to if only:
1) Had more money to throw away.
2) Had a e55 and not an e350.
3) Did I mention needing more money?

But enough about me, your ride is super dope man. Do you dd that beauty? I roam Sac freeways maybe I'll see you rolling one of these days.