Hi folks,

Long time since I started this project, and I thought I'd post some of the work I'm doing to my SL55.

I've almost completed updating the technology to include the stereo, electrical, F/R cameras, integrated laser/radar, 3 Mosconi Amp rack, forgot pics, with Kenwood head unit, I/O controls for the MOST network, improved Bluetooth and mic for quality communications even with the roof down.

In the front doors I used Focal's I have 2-6" per door, + 4" and tweets carbon trim tight fit. Sub is in process front passenger side.

I tried to maintain a stock look with some custom work relocating seat controls to the side of the center console and some other things.

I will loose a little functionality to the dash, not much from what I can tell, as the interface appears to be working decent.

It's a pretty cool SL55 with some unique features to the car, and it currently has 13K miles, full R2 with headers.

You can see some of the center console mods, switches and speakers within the doors. I just grabbed some quick pics. I've not lost an inch of space in the car... but it's been a lot of work relocating and updating to fit components.

 

Looks great. I'm sure it sounds great too.

 

Should know better shortly, the sub enclosure... using the same space as the OEM, became a little challenging as I didn't want to encroach on the interior of the car, but to get the sound quality, became a costly adventure. The reason it's taken longer than expected...totally blew the budget by...$10K+... so this car will be around for a while

 

R230s (especially the comand and fiber set-ups) changed several times during their production run. It would be VERY helpful, if you would mention the Model Year of your SL55 so that folks may have a better Ideal as to which of your upgrades may apply to their car.

Looks like nice work!

Chris

 

That would help wouldn't it. It's a 2008, came to the US 11/2007, and has a lot of options. Took me a long time to find the car.

I got it in Va and brought it to Ma in 2015, with 13K miles, it has 13,800 now.

I've been working on it since 11/2015... almost done, these cars require a lot of love when you get into them.

 

Well, it looks really nice!
only thing that it needs now is a nice steering wheel upgrade.

Cheers,
Chris

 

That's a lot of work there. Did you do everything yourself?

 

Outstanding Work.

 

Nope, not this one. I'm just working with a buddy. I've been modernizing cars and motorcycles and playing with technology forever.

I'm an Systems Integrator and work for myself with comms and RF technologies. i did all my own work from design to fabrication, competed in IASCA on SQ a few times with all my vehicles. Now... I have to chose my time as it's not abundant anymore, but I still want a cool car if that makes sense.

The SL55 AMG is my 1st German performance car, and I needed to learn a lot about how they build, who supports with aftermarket, the build quality and materials and they don't leave a lot of room to rework with these cars. I flew to Va to test drive and then bought, as I travel a lot for work, this helped me find the car for me.

I started on this board learning what people do and have, are doing, where I can go, then connected with a local AMG shop to help guide me on what they felt was the best car. I talked to the mechanics and they said the 2008 SL55 in their opinion was a great car to get and work on, checked VIN's, history the reason this is the car.

The reason it's been slow, I knew nothing about these cars... just that it's a very unique, cool, technology laden vehicle that when done right, looks and runs totally badass.

I will say, it's a lot of money to buy parts for this car. I just got Brembo rotors, and the front's, the best price I found was $466 ea via this board, rears not to bad.

I have Cayenne GTS, 2nd German was $750 for fronts, rears and pads via R1Concepts, easier to work on, and access to parts are plentiful.

The Renntech R2 with headers and rear wing for this car was... up there too, so to do it right, has slowed me down as cash and time can be a bottleneck to what I want.

Plus me not doing the work, slows me down as this is additional cost, and like I mentioned, my time, it's a cost benefit so to speak. It's almost done, hell I finished my Cayenne before and I bought it this year, similar work, much more room and for a lot less money and time.

This car is clean, mint, has options related to the SL65, which by the way, I was talked out of by the dealership mechanics. They talked me into the SL55.

Told me to put Renntech in, and it will match the performance of the SL65, and I will say, it's pretty quick and pulls like a mother... so what I learned was to look for the SL55 with options, hence wheels, ground effects, ABC and... they helped a lot.

I think because I'm just a guy that likes cool cars. Me wanting to talk to the guys that twisted wrenches, well, in my opinion quickly was...helpful. I wasn't the same as owners that got a manicure or had an espresso while they waited for their car, which by the way, truly separates this dealership model from others that I spend time with and, just say'n.

MB has some bad cars, expensive, but still very cool none the less.

That's my story.

 

Steering wheel Chris, explain? It does have paddle shifters, and we were able to keep a majority of the functionality, we did lose some for sure.

The maintenance appears to be unaffected with the dash, as the audio and MOST functions appear to not rely on each other for true operation.

I will say, I truly didn't even drive the car enough to learn how to work all the options in the vehicle, so I may not miss what I didn't even knew existed if that sound reasonable.

 

Which model Kenwood di you use? Nice work

 

We are considering a stereo upgrade as well. More info please!
Very nice work!
Vince