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The main reason I removed them is too much crud would gather in them and they were difficult to clean. Also, with snow season coming soon, I won't miss having to clean around the guards. Also weight reduction and improved aerodynamics, both VERY important of course.
Not a ton going on with the G. No real time to work on it unfortunately.
Ordered ORC Floor Liners to replace the weather tech liners. Hoping these protect better and move around a lot less.
Ordered some trip tape and redid the steps on the rear bumper. I think I'll actually raptor line the entire step next year when I raptor line the running boards. Another project to put in the queue. A good use of $0.25 of material vs the $30 MB wanted.
Also finally got a pressure washer reel setup with a longer flexible hose mounted to the wall. Hoping this will give me less excuses to not wash the car.
One thing I've been wanting to get for a while is a paint thickness meter to see if there indeed was paintwork done on my G. Suspicions confirms. Several readings on the driver side all came in in the 0.2 range, whereas the passenger side came in about half that thickness. Bummer since my clean title G has paint work that was not disclosed and not recorded in the Carfax. Windshield frame area was the worst with maybe 3-4 layers of paint, which means there was probably a rust repair performed in the past.
Hope to get some time to swap over to the G550 springs in the next few weeks as well as repair/tackle a few other of the planned projects.
Got the ORC Floor Liners today. Thanks again Jack!
First Impressions:
1. These fit leaps and bounds better than the Weather-tech Floor Liners - Very minimal 1/4" of movement that some double sided tape should solve
2. The Front Driver doesn't go up as far under the pedals, but I don't expect my foot to be in that position often
3. The texture is more of a smooth plastic/rubber texture rather than a grip texture of the Weather-tech's. They will probably be more slippery when wet/covered with snow and slush, but we'll see how slippery it is.
4. The thickness comparing the two is about the same, but the ORC's are lighter
5. The features on the ORC liners that lock it into place around the seat and the door opening are much better defined.
6. The rears are 2 pieces that button together in the middle. Not my favorite part of the design.
7. Price was pretty good overall, but shipping from Germany is the killer.
Below you can see the fit difference between the ORC's and the Weather-tech's
Front Passenger are similar also and stay in place better than the Weather-tech's.
Rears are a toss up. I got them just to match and also so I could sell the Weather-tech's as a set. I had no problem with my Weather-tech rear, and the 1 piece rear was also a plus.
These will get put through the paces for sure this winter. Biggest concern is if they will be slippery when covered with snow or slush. There is always the option to raptor line them, as well as using grip tape on some of the design features, but I'll address that when the time comes.
Wife came home after running a few errands and said gas was leaking and it was a big leak.
Didn't think it would be THIS BIG.
After soaking up some of the gas and determining that it stopped leaking after being off, I ventured under there and found this. A completely cobbled together solution to connect the fuel return hard line to the tank.
The transition is ~8mm to ~14mm, so being a non-standard part, a previous owner of my G decided to use 2 sized hoses and an ALUMINUM fitting. At least they used the correct Clic-E clamps, which was a nice surprise.
This is the correct part from MB. Molded tapered fuel hose. $21 from Expedition Imports or $40 from my local MB Dealer with free 2 day shipping.
Ordered the part on Monday and picked it up on Thursday. Installation time took maybe 30 minutes as I also completely removed the fuel return hard line to untangle everything back in this area as the person who was in here last definitely didn't care that lines were cross, wires were pinched, etc. Used the proper clamps and tightened down to spec. The Clic-E are pretty awesome to use when you have the specialty tool.
Organized all the lines, put them into their holders, and tied up all the extra lines so they weren't just loose.
As a reminder, DO NOT USE UNCOATED RANDOM ALUMINUM FITTINGS WITH FUEL. It will corrode and fall to pieces.
Also, I had the kid with me when picking up the fuel hose at the MB dealership (Teacher Conferences) and the service manager came over and gave us this! Pretty excellent service even though I only ever buy small parts from this dealer.
They also had a 4x4^2 in the service entry way and we got to walk around and take a look. Much taller than I had thought and pretty menacing to see one in person. Didn't grab any pictures since it was a private party car, but very cool to see.
Finally got a weekend to give the G a good cleaning. Nothing too time consuming but a good solid winter prep.
Wash, Full Decon, Clay, Hybrid Ceramic.
No time for full paint correction/polishing, but maybe I'll have time to do that one day way way in the distant future.
It definitely does look 100x better clean. Too bad black is so difficult to keep clean.
Took the G out to NYC on Saturday and found some good street parking. I do miss taking good pictures with the Leica Q so I'll probably bring it around more on purpose. Depth and quality is so much better, but smart phone cameras are no slouch now.
Also got a previously used set of spacers from Jack @JACWAGN . Thanks again! Will clean them up a little bit and put them on.
These will go on when I finally make an appointment to swap the current tires over to the black AMG wheels. Hoping to do that in the next week or 2. Still not sure if I'll actually run with these on the roadtrip to FL at the EOY, but will have to see how good the overall wheel balance is with these on to make a decision.
I was wondering who snagged those so quickly when he posted to IG.
I've put about 25k miles on my truck with the spacers on, I did have a bad balance job at the start of the pandemic.
One of those mobile tire installers, they couldn't handle the 36" tire/wheel combo, after a good balance and alignment I have had zero issues.
I'd recommend putting a 100 miles on them, taking the tires off and retorquing them for good measure.
Thanks for the info Ian. I'll do as suggested. Hope to swap next week as time is running out before the EOY trip. Definitely post more updates of your 911 v8 project, or make a thread over on Garage Journal or something. Hope LA has been treating you well.
I picked up the same 18" AMG wheels from another local owner earlier in the summer who had them refinished - center black with silver painted lip. The tires are 100% shot, so couldn't run them this summer. Not 100% the style or look I was going for, but MUCH better condition than my current silver wheels. Picked them up for a great price and need to swap my tires over to those wheels, and also keeping one of my wheels for a matching set spare - then selling the remaining 3 wheels as spares as it seems like a lot of people want matching spares, but no one is willing to break up a set of 18" AMG wheels.
The wheels mocked on my G the last time I rotated tires earlier in the summer:
A bonus Leica picture from the beach a few months back during my roadtrip up from FL to NJ. The Full Frame sensor really shines in lower light or shadow conditions compared to bright sun, so I'll be more purposeful in taking G related pictures in the future.
As an aside, one of my favorite threads on Garage Journal was from Gregor (sakurama) due to his really thought out storytelling and high quality photo journaling. Really kicked me off into taking good quality photos with nice camera gear (and also kicked off my Festool addiction - unfortunate for my bank account for both hobbies)
Yeah. The black center AMG wheels really modernize the look and everyone who I've asked about silver vs black has been 2 thumbs up for black (including the most important decision - the wife), so black wheels it is.
Congrats on the house. I have so many house projects going on at the same time that I'm thinking about starting a thread on Garage Journal. Mostly for my own sanity and record keeping to be honest, which is really what this thread has become.
Seems like there's no one on the W463 G forums anymore here on MBWorld which is too bad. I always end up posting here first and copying my post over to ClubG and linking pictures as this interface is so much easier. More people over there also and more overall repair/DIY knowledge.
Your 911 build looks awesome. The shear amount of work to resto at that level is nuts. That being said, I want to nut/bolt resto a car one day, just need the space and the time. Hoping to get to resto an NA1 NSX one of these days if I can find one that isn't marked up through the roof.
I've had some time lately to take care of the G. First up was a good wash, cleaning, and hybrid ceramic. The coating holds up for about a month so not bad. Should work well enough for now. Maybe sometime next year I'll actually get time to do a full paint correction and real ceramic coating. Really happy to see it working when the rain falls.
Finally got around to swapping out my pretty poor condition OE silver G55 AMG wheels with the newly acquired black AMG wheels. Took the seats out to make transport easier, and for something else I'll be moving on Saturday.
Last pic on the OE silver wheels.
The local store finished up after dark, so this is the only picture I could take tonight. Pretty pumped with the more modern look and much much better condition wheels.
I'll have 2 AMG wheels for sale soon as well as the open teardrop spare.
More on Saturday with the next thing I stuff in the back of the G.
Nice switch up! I go back and forth between lighter colored wheels and black wheels. Do you have center caps for the black set? I think that'll look good. And why are only three wheels going up for sale? Keeping a silver for the spare?
Sometimes I do think the black wheels give a more modern look, but it's also a less 'classic' look. Either way, objectively, it looks newer and arguably better! Enjoy. I can't sell a set because I can't make my mind up on which I like more
Nice switch up! I go back and forth between lighter colored wheels and black wheels. Do you have center caps for the black set? I think that'll look good. And why are only three wheels going up for sale? Keeping a silver for the spare?
Sometimes I do think the black wheels give a more modern look, but it's also a less 'classic' look. Either way, objectively, it looks newer and arguably better! Enjoy. I can't sell a set because I can't make my mind up on which I like more
I definitely went back and forth on silver vs black wheels. The wife said she wanted the black ones, so that's what goes! Simple decision really.
In all honesty, the black wheels are SO MUCH better in overall condition than my original silvers the choice is pretty simple.
I'm keeping 1 for my same size spare. 1 is spoken for already, so 2 more will be for sale. Then the open tear drop OE spare will also be for sale. I have not seen anyone breaking up a set for spares and know there are a few forum members looking for them, so everyone wins!
I have been wanting to switch to one of the AlphaEquipt wheels, so maybe that will come sometime next year with more normal road tires.
Used the G for some real truck stuff this weekend. Conveniently, the rear seats were already removed from earlier in the week, so went to pick up a Peloton Tread from a good friend for a great price.
Everything fit nicely without much trouble at all. Except that the base weights close to 250lbs and my young workout days are long behind me.
It was much easier to get the Peloton into the house from the back door and straight into the bedroom instead of carrying it up a narrow flight of stairs, so it was time to take the G offroading to the back of the house.
All unloaded and set up next to the other Peloton that barely gets any use!
Also picked up this gem to start building a collection of G models for the kid to destroy. Found for ~$2 so also couldn't pass it up.
Got a few things done with the G before our annual road trip, some things that I put off till the last minute that seems to be the norm now Never enough time to get these things done.
After swapping to the black AMG 18" wheels, they didn't have center caps. I took apart the silver ones to repaint and refinished them as the silver paint was peeling pretty badly. Several coats of black paint later, some C.A. glue to assemble, the popped right in and look pretty good.
Next up was to address my broken rear inner door handles. Both of the cable holder brackets were damaged and no longer can support the cable when opening the door. This has been on my list to model and 3D print a fix/solution for a while. You can replace the handles with a newer reinforced cable mechanism, but I can't see paying ~$120 for each.
My rear inner handles started like this. I cut the cable holder in half to get the detailed geometry, and designed the part in CAD.
Took 2 tries to get everything fit nicely, but it fits like a glove. Removed all the features on the handle that I would be replacing, scuffed things up, and used some C.A. Glue to hold it all together. They work like a charm and saved me a little bit of $. I'll probably post these to an Etsy store if others have the same issues and don't feel like shelling out the $ to fix.
Last thing to tackle was building a cargo area shelf to more easily organize during the road trip. We always had issues getting stuff on the bottom, so this should help that considerably. Plywood is 3/4" thick and measures 48"x34.5". I used 2 2x4's flat to raise the shelf slightly higher. Eventually I'll add a center divider/support or a drawer structure, but that is a project for another day. Height above the cargo floor is ~11". I used turn buckles and links to hold the whole thing down to the cargo area tie down rings. I also added a top anchor for the kid's car seat and through bolted it to make it stronger. Last thing was getting a cheap rubber traction mat at Home Depot for $25, which was slightly larger at 4' x 3'. It fit perfectly with a little side trimming.
The space under is pretty open and should work well for easily accessing things like recovery equipment, large suit cases, etc. I shortened the length down to 34.5" so the rear seats can still fold down without any issues. The floor is basically flat when the rear seats are folded down, which was an unexpected/unplanned bonus.
Main reason for the height of the shelf was to fit an 18" AMG wheel under as I'll be driving it down/delivering it to another member. Height also is just about perfect for Frontrunner Wolfpacks and a different collapsible crates I have.
Packing up everything tomorrow and heading down the coast.
Current total: 130.5k miles
~3100 miles
avg mpg: 12.58
max mpg: 14.78
I found that the best speed to drive a OE body and height G is 70-75mph. Any slower and you're just going to slow out on the highways, any faster and wind resistance really brings down the mpg.
I didn't take any pictures of the G all packed up since it was a mad rush and quite disorganized, but of course everything was packed pretty full. The shelf really worked well to separate the recovery supplies/wheel/random stuff below, and the packaged stuff above. I was able to get the wheel out in less than a minute.
The shelf also proved to be very useful when I ended up getting a flat on the way down. Was able to get to a safe spot and changed the tire to the full size and matching spare in around 30 minutes.
Didn't take the time to take a proper picture during the change, but got a screen grab from a video that my dad took.
I always pack and carry a ton of tools with me and never end up using them. Really glad I had everything this time. Had blankets to sit on, gloves to keep my hands clean, full sized tools to make the lug bolt removal easy, and had a torque wrench to tighten the bolts. This was also my first time using the emergency bottle jack and was surprised how well it worked. The location is annoying to get to under the seat with my kid's car seat, but overall it worked well. I'll just add to carry a few 2x6 squares to add height to the bottle jack in the event the ground isn't flat and/or having larger tires.
We got lucky and the low tire warning came up about a mile from our exit, so I was able to pull off to the shoulder, inspect, and slowly limp off the highway on the shoulder to the first safe parking lot with lights to safely change the tire. Good News! it was a very fine wholesome establishment that was for sure family friendly for my retirement age parents and my 4 year old!
Luckily there was a McDonalds next door so we also were able to get a bite to eat.
Turns out the valve stem failed. Rubber was completely dry rotted/cracked, and the inner stem actually snapped and leaked all the air out. I didn't think it would be a BFG KO2 issue and I was right. Good news is no tire damage.
So safe to say I was super glad that I had the valve stem cap TPMS system. I definitely don't think I would have felt the flat for at least a few more miles, that may have permanently damaged the tire/wheel.
I further inspected the rest of the 3 wheels/tires and found the same symptoms of cracked rubber all around, which was definitely a major issue. I called customer support of the tire shop chain that I used when I had these tires mounted to these new to me wheels 2 weeks back and they directed me to take it to a local FL location. they took care of me by replacing all of the 5 valve stems for free.
Super annoying since when I originally had these KO2's mounted to these new-to-me wheels, they charged me for new valve stems but didn't actually change them out, so the probably original valve stems were the culprit. Mavis corporate took care of me nicely though so a minor inconvenience and a story to tell!
Took some time down in FL between family and the holiday celebrations to clean the G and finally got a minute to take some better pictures. The black wheels sure do make the look a lot more modern which I'm warming to.
On the way back to NJ, we left FL with a few more things than we came down with. Tetris was always my favorite game as a kid, so I pride myself with being able to pack way too much stuff into small spaces.
Completely packed to the rear seats (2 adults and the kid in the rear)
And pretty full in the rear, stacked all the way to the top of the roof. Worked perfectly and everything stayed exactly where it was packed. Also, again, the rear view camera coming in clutch for full visibility out the back.
Also found out that the spring that holds the gas door open is actually the gas cap holder. Was blown away when a NJ gas station attendant placed the cap there. FYI
Hope everyone had a Happy Holidays, and Happy 2023 to all!
A quick shout out and special thank you to Shiann for his expertise and documentation of his G55 journey
His write ups should be required reading for W463 owners
More specifically thank you for solving a Glove Box Latch issue on my 05 G500
Very much appreciated.
Great job Shiann
noted you might be looking for an Alpha setup - I still have those all but new black Alpha Echos w/ the 33" Toyo's if they might be of interest.... I'm running back and forth from TX to VA fairly often for biz so could likely meet up with them if interested...
Also ready to buy those speaker spacers... the blown rear speakers drove me nuts on my long drive up !! let me know costs for the setup and what you suggest for speakers ....
Hola Shiann! Long time no see you posting on this (or the other forum for that matter)! Hope all is well. As mentioned many times, but merits repeating, your posts are an invaluable source of information for all of us and I only hope to be able to contribute 1/10 as much as you have. Many thanks for all of the info/knowledge you've shared with the rest of us.
Can't wait to get my truck so I can purchase your hinge repair kit!
P.S.- I never was able to register on that other site. Weird. Very weird....
A quick shout out and special thank you to Shiann for his expertise and documentation of his G55 journey
His write ups should be required reading for W463 owners
More specifically thank you for solving a Glove Box Latch issue on my 05 G500
Very much appreciated.
Great job Shiann
I
Thanks! That really was my goal, to share the real ownership picture with others looking to get a G so there would be few to no surprises.
Originally Posted by Texas E63
Shiann
Happy new years !
noted you might be looking for an Alpha setup - I still have those all but new black Alpha Echos w/ the 33" Toyo's if they might be of interest.... I'm running back and forth from TX to VA fairly often for biz so could likely meet up with them if interested...
Also ready to buy those speaker spacers... the blown rear speakers drove me nuts on my long drive up !! let me know costs for the setup and what you suggest for speakers ....
Hey Erich, I think I'm going to stay with my OE black wheels for now, although AlphaEqupt Echos were on my radar before. Your wheel setup is making me rethink it now, and/or possibly going with a custom setup to not need spacers like your old Forgestar setup.
Originally Posted by GOBP
Hola Shiann! Long time no see you posting on this (or the other forum for that matter)! Hope all is well. As mentioned many times, but merits repeating, your posts are an invaluable source of information for all of us and I only hope to be able to contribute 1/10 as much as you have. Many thanks for all of the info/knowledge you've shared with the rest of us.
Can't wait to get my truck so I can purchase your hinge repair kit!
P.S.- I never was able to register on that other site. Weird. Very weird....
Hey Gus! Good to see you on here too. Strange about ClubG. Hoping you get your G soon
Originally Posted by Scotland@123
Awesome set up .. what length are your turnbuckles.?
Thanks
I think they're around 4-4.5inches, extendable to ~6in. The length will depend on the height of your platform, and also the length of the other hardware you use.
One thing that every G owner knows is how TERRIBLE the Reverse Light is. Maybe this is worse on the older US trucks with halogen bulbs, but it can't be much better even with a bright bulb in the housing.
I decided a while ago to replace both reverse light and rear fog light with a pair of Diode Dynamics SSC2 Sport Flood pattern pod lights, so maybe a year after purchasing them, here we go!
I know that Karl @ g-wagonaccessories has a similar product out now using a baja designs S2 pod light. Their offering does look pretty good but is spendy. Also I had already purchased these so there wasn't a question of if I was going to do it, but just when I would have time.
Just to remind, this is our starting point with the single halogen bulb.
I removed the reverse light and roughly drew it up along with the DD SSC2 Pod. I then proceeded to design a pretty simple bracket that uses the factory mounting points, using hardware that I already had.
A few hours of 3D printing later, and they were finished. The fit wasn't perfect and required a little bit of fine tuning (sanding), but nothing too major.
I wired up a quick wiring harness to bring both Reverse light and Rear Fog signals to both sides, and wired up a plug-and-play harness to the OE spade connections. I tied everything up and used heat shrink to connect the spades. Then added some waterproof tape to seal everything up.
Both lights installed. I think they look pretty cool/modern, yet still subtle since they're so far down low.
They work! I got the reverse lights to work without any issues, but couldn't get the rear fog lights to work since the red 'backlight' only draws 1.4w total between the 2 lights, which is too low for the MB computers to be happy. I may have to add in a power resistor here or just live with it since I never use the rear fogs anyway.
And here is a picture from a similar angle of the old single halogen vs the dual flood patterned pod lights. Safe to say it's a night and day difference.
I'll be running these for the near future and will do some more fine tuning of the brackets. I also may want to change up the wiring harness and how the 'rear fog' backlight works, but that will have to happen another day.
Started getting the expected CEL for Secondary Air Injection Pump a few weeks back. It came and went but in the past week it's come back every drive after clearing the code, so it was time to tackle to fix.
Purchased the kit from FCPEuro that included the air pump, relay, and check valve. I figured if I needed all the parts, I would have everything, and if some components were still good, I could return to FCP for a refund.
First thing to check is the relay and fuse under the glove box. Relay F and Fuse #65 (Maxi Fuse, 40A, 32V). I found my fuse was blown, which is a good indication that my air pump is toast. The relay works fine though.
Got the bull bar lowered, headlight out, and the old pump out in maybe 20 minutes. The 3rd10mm bolt in the back is annoying to ge to, but overall very low difficulty.
Air pump removed. Probably not a good thing it was full of water, all of that in the background.
New pump installed.
Putting everything back took maybe another 15 minutes. I had to run to the auto store to get a new 40A maxi fuse as those are more rare and not included in the standard fuse assortments.
Curious to what condition the air pump motor was in, I disassembled the pump and fond the motor in pretty poor condition. The shaft was actually free and spinning fine, but the water probably killed the motor.
That's all for now.
Hopefully warmer weather is on its way so more projects can begin!
10-02-2022, 11:28 PM
