hotstang_46

I'll go over the trip, the comparison of the cars, fixes I did, mpg's obtained, leveling the front end (via a reverse spring booster type set up) some sound deadening (if you want to skip alot and just read about sound deadening it's in my post number #5 i think)...etc. It's a long read but for anyone that's interested here you go

Thought I'd share my story with you guys. I live in San Diego and was going to be going to my parents house (chicago) for a month and half (Thanksgiving to X Mas....I'm 32 btw) My cars in CA are a 650hp stang, and a 15 yo stang vert with 13k original miles. Needless to say those woud not be good vehicles for the drive or in possile snow.

I'm a die hard muscle car big metal type of guy.. All recent model years, 95 and up. I've owned Vettes, H2, Navigator, Stangs, Z3, etc. An american v8 Car buyer for the most part. I wanted a car I could get really cheap that would be a good car, and stretch my dollar into the coolest car I could for the money I wanted to spend. I always loved the old benzes and so cal is a great place to buy them. I looked at prices in Chicago and said hey....I can drive out there and then sell it, fly home, and pocket a few grand. I looked into the reliablity and found it to be a good car, desireable, with a cult like following. So I set out looking at cars. I looked at everything from 300e's to 300se's, to 560sel's. nothing newer than a 92 nothing older than 80. No diesel's (I never wrenched on one of those) The first two cars I looked at were a shocker. Oil kind of everywhere underneath and just rough cars. Kinda scared me a little. I started doing research and found most of these leak but it matters where it's coming. I was going after these W126's in the first place because of reliability and didn't want a bucket of bolts, but that's all I was seeing. My criteria was a RUST FREE CA car, no major mechanical issues that would leave the car stranded, so with my limited time to leave........ no head, block, major oil leak, tranny issues, etc etc . Looked at probably 8 cars, every single one had a timing chain, valve gasket, head gasket...or any combination there of oil leak. All cars were around the 100k mark. One car even had a leak so bad (was a 560sel) that even before starting it I checked the oil and there was nothing on the dipstick. I looked at the guy and said you have no oil. We added a quart...nothing...another quart...nothing, finally on the third quart it brought it up to an acceptable level. I couldn't believe it...I walked away immediately, lol... Then I wondered upon a 85 380se. Waaaay more miles than I wanted 155k or so. Went to look anyways and man was it clean. Saw almost no oil underneath and the engine bay was clean enough to eat out of. It drove like a charm. Was able to beat the guy up a bit because there were a bunch of small things that I could fix easy but would cost most people a fortune in mechanics bills. (like) plastic window slider broken in two window. Idleing badly. Noise coming from rear suspension, etc etc. Bottom line is the major mechanicals were near immaculate and had clearly been taken care of it's whole life. 2 Owner car. All maint records from original owner and pretty much everything ever done on it till 2009. The people who owned it cared and it showed. So I bought it.

Dropped the oil, changed the tranny fluid, did the brake pads, Made my own plastic window regulator sliders, new rear sway bar end links (rear end noise) and she was ready. I was driving it for a few days and was so Impressed I knew I had to keep this car. So I said screw it. I'm buying another and making my wife drive that one. I had 3 days to find it. I again looked at maybe 7 cars all of so cal and then I found another. An 89 420sel 107k the guy couldn't get to pass CA emissions. Didn't have full maint documntation but the car (minus a few very minor issues like the other one) was mechanically sound. I did the same fluid changes and whatnot and we were ready to go.

The begining of november we headed out. We traveled San Diego north to LA, west to vegas, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, then closed in on IL. We packed in the miles and did the drive in 2 1/2 days. Both cars were an absolute dream. Used not a drop of oil and never had a single hiccup.

I measured mpg the whole way. The black car (420sel) has stock wheels and tire sizes, the yellow (380) has 18in with 245 40 18. From what I read I thoguht I'd be lucky to see 20mpg once. To my surprise over the course of trip the 380 never once got a better MPG rating than the 420, equaled but never better. It was usually about 1mpg shy. I can attribute that to two things. I did not have time to put in a new cruise module so the cruise wasn't working (which I think is the main reason)..plus the increased rotational mass of the 18's wasn't helping either. The worst I saw on the yellow car was a stretch from LA to Vegas We were rolling 75 through the desert on those long uphills and downhills. The yellow car got 19.5 and the black got 20.3 (it's worst number as well) Best number we got, which absolutely blew my mind....and everyone tells me I mis calculated (which I didn't) was a stretch from utah (filled up right before the rockies) clear over the rockies to a fill up in Denver. I was in the black car at that time, set the cruise at 55 and just loafed through the mountains. MPG in the black car was an astonishing 28.7 mpg and 28.2 in the yellow car. When I saw those readings I coudln't believe it. I even jumped on my tablet pc, I kept all my receipts and calculate the distance from the address of the last fill up to where I was at. The numbers were good. It got me thinking I could do better on the flat land if I slowed it down. At that denver fill up I got back on the highway and was heading into maybe a 15 mph headwing over flat boring landscape. We put on about 350 miles and through in some gas. I was dissapointed.....I was nowhere near the previous numbers but still very good. the black car got 24.2 and the yellow got 23.1 I continued to play around with speeds and whatnot and the numbers never really deviated over the flat lands we were traveling for the rest of the trip. The yellow car was consistently 1mpg under. The black car at about 75 would get about 21.5, 70mph about 23 and over 24 at 65. All in all I was very very impressed. I never though the gas mileage would be so good.

After the pics I'll continue with comparing the cars.

HERE ARE A FEW COOL PICS FROM THE TRIP, If you want to see more, here's a link to the album : http://s98.beta.photobucket.com/user/hotstang46/library/Benz%20Cross%20Country#/user/hotstang46/library/Benz%20Cross%20Country?&_suid=13546645430290381431 3266341882

OF NOTE.....before entering the rockies we saw smoke in the distance, you'll see the pic. As we got closer it became very clear it was a fire. It was directly on our route. I've never seen a fire in the wild like this before. We could see the flames and it was huge. We traveled in the direction the smoke was drifting. I've never smelled something so bad for so long. We were 30 miles past the fire where we fueled up in utah and there was still ash coming on the car and floating in the air. How people can live in that area with that constant smell and smoke is beyond me.























My impression of the two cars......They really couldn't feel more different for being essentially the same car.


RIDE: (obviously the yellow car has 18's and this plays a big part). The black car lopes down the road in luxury literally soaking up everything without feeling bouncy like saying a lincoln town car. The yellow car was firm, sporty, but still very comfy. Not the least bit harsh. Somewhat akin to the suspension experience you'd get from a modern day BMW. Firm, but not harsh....the old cliche "a drivers car" For the long straights of the midwest the black car was nice but in the rockies the yellow car was much more confidence inspring and fun. Given a choice to live with everyday I'd take the yellow car. If you were to live in an area with great roads it's really a no brainer, yellow car all the way, so anyone on the fence about an 18 in rim...from a ride standpoint go for it, huge improvement for sure. If you live in a place with bad roads (like I had in SD) it would be a harder decision. I could see the draw to a softer suspension but even with the 18's it's still soft enough to be very comfy. Another observation on yellow car is the 18's with 245/40/18s put the speedo exactly 5mph slow. At an indicated 65mph it was running 70mph.

POWER: The 420 has it hands down. (though the 380 is not bad to say the least). Both cars had enough guts on everything but the steepest inclines in the rockies to hold 55mph without downshifting. As opposed to running the cars hard, on the very steepest of inclines both cars would hold a solid 45mph without downshifting. And that was the steepest of the steep so that was fine. Off the line both cars felt very similair with but a look at the tach would show the difference. You could literally pull away pretty nicely in the 420 without having the tach move past 1600rpm. The 380 simply could not do that. Both cars had more than enough passing power in top gear at any speed. I never pressed the peddle to the point where the cars would downshift....never needed to. Transmission shifting was virtually identical. Very nice shifting in both....though it seems to me the 380 has a very short first gear, and it seems to whine in first gear too (maybe it has straight cut first gear..not sure) but it's definately not a problem, its supposed to be there.

INTERIOR: I don't know what it is about 420 but it just feels so much more luxurious. I don't know if it's because the car has 50k less miles and springs and whatnot are in better shape or if it's the redesign. It just feel more luxurious and alot more modern. I should note the black car has black interior and the yellow is palomino, maybe that has an effect on the psyche as well. The 380 it still amazingly comfy however, and despite having less rear leg room everyone says the rear seats in the 380 are better than the 420.. It feels like your in a different car when swapping between them. The 380 feels like an older car, and to me that's not necessarily a bad thing. I can't really explain it, I've tried, but the two cars do feel very different despite being almost identical inside.

PelicanParts.com

Great story and pics! Congrats on the purchase!

hotstang_46

So once home I wanted to do what I did not have time to before the trip. Both cars needed a thorough clean.....inside and out...which they probably had not seen in a very long time. Both cars got the same treatment. I started with using simichrome on all trim (best product ever). Then I broke out the clay bar. Clean from contaminants I buffed with meguiars 105 and 205, applied by my porter cable. Clean and buffed I polished with meguiars glaze and then Klasse AIO polish. For protection I used Klasse Sealant (which lasts darn near a year out it SD). For more depth in the paint and just for kicks I added two top coats of pure carnuba wax in the from of S100. The engine bay was hit by hand with a little simple green and soap/water. No WAY, No HOW i was going to pressure or steamwash a 25-30yo engine bay. BAD BAD IDEA>>>>

PICS.....

hotstang_46

hotstang_46

Before I get onto some other things I must mention an small change in direction. I realized I would be keeping one of these. I had fallen in love with design behind these cars. In servicing these cars I had seen things that I just never have before. I must say I was most blown away by two things. First was the antenna motors. When taking apart to service it....oh my gosh. Rubber belts and everything in there? complex yes, but what a piece of engineering in just that. You can really tell that this car was built to be rebuilt, and not disposed of. So many things on this car can be fixed without being replaced. Impressive thought and build quality is abound. It's clear there was a lack of computer precense when building and designing this car. There was no computer saying this is how many miles your going to get out of this part. Instead of building to what you can get away with like today, everything was just overbuilt, with human though going into all of it.

And as miniscule as it may seem. I was very impressed with wiring behind the center consolfe for the switches and whatnot. The clips that plugged into the switches were all beefy....not pull it off once and it was broke. The guage wiring used for such simple switches was clearly over the top and more than needed. And if that wasn't enough many of them are then wrapped in a sheath or additional layer for protection. ...... Having wrenched on all my cars. I felt almsot duped by the auto manufacturers. I mean my most most expensive of which was an amost 80,000 09 H2. Beefy vehicle but attention to detail, the robust build quality of all the small things like above is nowhere to be found. I didn't even know they built things like this ever.

I could go on and on but these were two things that just really opened my eyes and say wow..

It was kind of an epiphony going through these things.

So anyways (sorry for that tangent) I simply have to keep one of these.

So which one? well.....I love the black cars power, the interior is sooo comfy. But the color of 380se is stunning. I personally love the look of it and from a passion standpoint the 380 just does it for me. I definatley have driven cars that will "get you noticed" and the 380 fits the bill. I literally can't go anywhere without getting stopped by someone saying wow.....that thing is pretty.

So of course both cars I greased all hinges, metal on metal contact points, aligned hood guides, conditioned all rubber with silicone spray, etc etc etc......

So, for the yellow car first thing I addressed is some leaks. I had a very small engine leak. Seemed to be the rear seal. Before leaving I had put mobil (conventional) 10-30 in the car. I had time to do more research and I decided to put rotella 15-40 in the car. Leak solved. Next was a small tranny leak. It was really just the pan gasket. Dropped fluid in the pan, cleanded the pan, changed the gasket.....good to go. Idle was bad, and it was as simple as some carb cleaner, followed by wd-40....administered to the IAC, problems solved. I also found platinum plugs, so I switched right away to a plain copper core plug. Tires were next. I waited for black friday....I headed to discount tire and bought 4 245/40/18 Yokohama $480 installed (wow). What a nice tire. So quiet...what a difference from the dunlop re760's that were on there. Of course I did a bunch of other minor things but but the only other major thing to mention was the car leaned to the back. Somewhat gangster style in my opinion. I did some research because I didn't see a coil spacer, couldn't find a reason how or why it would be sitting high other than just saggy rear springs. That's when I came accross the whole "nib" thing for the rubber spacers. I checked both cars. Black car was 3fr 2rr. Yellow was 4fr 1rr. I thought ok then, that explains it. I wondered why the previous owner did it and the only thing I could come up with was maybe because of a rub in the front fenderwell?!?!? well, I wanted it level so I'd deal with that if it happened. I pulled the spring and the rubber spacer and removed 16mm of rubber. It got the car very very close to level but not close enough. In seemed maybe an inch high in the front. I wansn't going to shave anymore and am not into doing things I can't change so shaving a coil was out of the question. I did an old trick that most people do to raise a car. It's called a spring booster. Except you use it in reverse. I built my own out of 38in bar stock. I ran two portins of from one side of the coil to the other, then one coild down another. I ran four bolts between them and started cranking. It compressed that one coild and brought the car down. I can now adjust it infinately and it did not effect the rider one bit. The car now site 100% level. Here are some pics of the car leveled out. The first pic is a before....all of the rest are after.

BEFORE


After









Now being that I'm possibly keeping this car I wanted to see if I could improve the sound coming into the cabin, though it was very quiet already. This is another super cheap thing to do, just takes time.

This is another area where I believe mercedes went above and beyond. I have not seen a manufacturer go to the lengths of what I found in this car even through to luxury cars today. However I still found some weak points.

I stipped the car (except the headliner) to form a game plan. I noticed some factory deadening like on the rear fender wells which were there but not adhering properly, so really not doing their job. The floor of the cabin was fine and I decided not to do too much. Some of the weaker areas I found were in general the trunk and specifically the rear pillars in the back of the car (they were horrible in fact). I first did the trunk. I have had great success with a product made by cofair found at home depot. It's called quick roof and costs about $16 per roll. I have used everything under the sun...fat mat, dyno mat, brown bread, etc et etc. Anyone that can tell you they will find a difference in smell, performance, or really anything other than $$ is just being silly. I layed down one layer in the spare tire cavity and the trunk floor. Really weak points were the rear quarter panels which I now had access to, I put down three layers on all surfaces I could reach... made a big difference. Also the trunk lid is horrible to say the least. Layed down one layer on every surface with closed cell foam (great stuff, brand) in the cavities of the truck lid where the matting could not be laid. If you were to do matting in the trunk in one place and one place alone that would be it. But the matting was not all. In case you don't know how it works, the asphalt matting reduces sound by adding weight to panels and reducing vibration. It essentially turn vibration to heat. Combatting sound is a multiple prong strategedy. Now that you have made those panels accoustically inert you must reduce road and other noises. For that I layed down Jute under the rear mat and lined the inside of the trim pieces that line the sides of trunk. (Jute is a carpet padding type product that almost all car manufacturers use. You usually can't find it at home depot and such, you'll need to go to a carpet store or order online. Do make sure that you get jute and only jute, nothing that "looks" like jute. It's super cheap, and super effective too.

In the cabin I did all the doors. I layed down 2 layers of matting on the outside door skins and then 1 on the inside. I then closed off all the holes and sealed the two skins from one another with the quick roof. To go the extra mile I cut a piece of jute and afixed it to the inside of each door trim panel, the whole size of the door and put her back on. Each door closes with a thud akin to a bowling ball being dropped onto a wood floor.

A and C pillars could not be matted for obvious reasons. The C Pillars were probably the worst part of the car next to the trunk. they had nothing in them and a major source of sound. I filled them complete with Closed Cell Foam. You can gain access to fill it by removing the rear seat and trim interior pieces cover them. There are many access holes. just spray and fill. 2 cans in each pretty much did it. I also removed the rear over trim and did a bunch of the structure in the rear roof that was easily accessible. Beyond that I lined the B pillars with jute and layed some asphalt padding. I also added Jute under each of the of the floor mats in the cabin.

All in I spent about $80 and it took about 2 days working casually on the weekend. But boy is this thing quiet now. I am now researching a new noise problem however. The leather is creaky. I've conditioned it but areas where it rubs, like where the rear bench meat the back just make a bunch of creaking.

I'm thinking about fully restoring this yellow car but we will see. Really what I want to do I replace the two front seat bottoms only. Not the whole interior. The interior looks great. I can't go new on the seat bottoms because the rest of the interior is still 30 years old. The front seat bottoms are not ripped just pretty cracked. The armrest in front needs it too. I'm finding alot on ebay pretty darn cheap. I'm also going to do some suspension bits like ball joints and whatnot but they look pretty darn good. New stereo fully rewired as well. I'll just see where it goes. here's a few more random pics.

hotstang_46

The black car I didn't do as much because alot of the work I did on the yellow car was elective. I did have some non functioning things like seat movement and what not (which was an adventure when I opened a switch to have a ton of bb's and small springs to fall out everywhere) But it was all simple and fun. taking all those switches apart, cleaning and reassembling is all very easy. They are complicated but simple at the same time and very easy to understand from an engineering standpoint (does that make sense )

I had a leak to hunt down on the block, turned out to just be a oil level sensor that poker through the block on the lower side (passenger). Pretty easy fix. This car had an idle issue to but a clean of the IAC didn't do it. I ordered a used one on ebay for $30...and done. For some reason there was a rip on the front pass seat bottom. Ordered a fantastic used one on ebay ($38 shipped). Vacuum locks weren't working but it was just a line near the drivers seat, very simple. Same with the climate vent direction switches. Hunted down a vacuum line that wasn't attached...no biggie.

Bottom line just nothing major. It runs like a champ and handles like a panzer tank. Paint is clean for the most part. I could have the bumpers resprayed through a connection for $175 but I just don't know if it's worth it.



So I guess maybe you guys are wondering.....what did I pay for these cars and what do I have into them in inc parts? well.....

Black Car I paid $1650 for. I beat the guy up real bad about the emissions. I knew what the prob was, (other than the fact CA is crazy lol...) All fluids, parts, Everything..... $1895 all in

Yellow Car I paid $1725 for (beat him up bad over emissions to because he had not tested and registration was expired), sound deading, parts, fluids, all in (minus tires) I'm at about 2k.

Both of these cars I already drove cross country, and dare I say I think they'd both do it again 50 times over as they sit today. If you've read this far ...

I look forward to contributing here and researching the ongoing projects.

Gemballa

Nice cars you have there! I have a `87 W126 300 SDL (OM606) ex 560 SEL and I`d like to lower the front coils a little. Can you show your spring boosters here?

Den.

Myself I'd keep the black one, or better keep both and change the rims on the yellow one. lol.

VERY nice cars both, and I VERY much enjoyed your write ups. Cheers!