mrbeverlyhills

95,000 miles on my 2001, went into the shop with a long list and gave her a physical too, a number of things came up so it was an extended stay. I was in no hurry for the car and wanted it all to be done right without breathing over the wrench's shoulder. This is a very clean and nice driving car I bought as a 24 month lease return with 14,000 miles, all service records before and since, just a clean straight version.

I picked up a new car. Even the wife asked me if it was the same car in the driveway or a new one; she and cars are mortal enemies, for her to notice my car is....well, unheard of.

Brake fluid flush-Pennzoil Dot 4.
Radiator flush
Transmission flush (1st time) complete and BG synthetic ATF, additive and conditioner.
Differential flush
Power steering fluid replace and new reservoir.
New valve cover gaskets
Motor mounts
Transmission mounts
Brake pedal switch
New Battery
4 wheel alignment and corner balance
Front wheel bearings repack
4 new OEM Bilstein sport shocks
New spark plugs
All 4 Monoblock rims repainted and curb rage eliminated (wow)
headlights and foglights polished painted with clearcoat (double wow)
Roof rail strips painted
Ding Dr removed all dings
Light colorsand and buff complete exterior
Steam carpets and headliner.

Drives like a scalded cat and smells/ looks new and at about $3700 I call it a bargain. Should be good for another 30,000 miles without too much trouble. The shop looks after a few W210 E55s, says he hardly sees them, very reliable, "whatever you do don't get the W211, major headaches".

Schweinhund

They are great cars. Good to see that this one is well taken care of and appreciated. I think they return the favor quite nicely!

desired_speeds

How much did it cost to get all the rims refinished? Mine could use it sometime.

mrbeverlyhills

$90 a rim, they did a very nice job, you really notice walking up to the car.

jordanst2

Where did you get the rims refinished? I'm local and actually need mine to be refinished as well. Thanks!

MBFLO

damn $90 /wheel sounds great . i have a reciept previous owner paid 1200 to get refinished

mrbeverlyhills

You can easily pay $300 a wheel if you go all the way and take them off, remove tires, strip, straighten and paint or chrome.

I had them done at the shop ON the car and it is amazing how good they look for it. It is like the ding removers-how do they do that?

I have an old 911 and spent $200 on each wheel sending them out but that is an occasional weekend toy, for a daily driver like the 55 the $90 job is fantastic and you have to get down on all 4s to see any sign of the repair.

Anyway, Boulevard Auto Repair in Van Nuys CA (referral from Benzworld) di the whole car, paint/motor/wheels/detail and I couldn't be happier.
14857 Burbank Boulevard Van Nuys, CA 91411
(818) 989-6028 ask for Nelson.

jordanst2

Much obliged

mtnhouse

Can you post pics of your new repainted rims please $90 is a good deal.

mrbeverlyhills

My wife and my mom (a one time loan) and even I curbed the car and it is really hard to tell now.
Headlights look new and look Ma, no door dings!

mtnhouse

thanks for posting the pics. It looks brand new!

mrbeverlyhills

Drives like it was new too, hard to believe that just refreshing the car could bring such a dramatic change but the shifting, accceleration and overall road eating is phenomenal.
I pure dusted a new S5 getting on the freeway and had trouble with wheelspin in second gear!

Strigoi

I need to find a place around here that will do that to my Monoblocks. They don't look horrible, but they could use a refreshing.

Do you have any before pics of the headlights? Mine are in bad shape and I'm wondering how nice they could come out. A friend of mine works at a body shop and said he could sand/clear coat them and they'd look almost new.

mrbeverlyhills

I don't have any photos of the headlights before, they were so bad it wasn't the kind of thing you wanted to see or think about. I had even thought of replacing them but the alternatives to OEM like Depo are just junk and a pain to wire and set up. Once on the car they look weird, I have seen one done.

I also tried to do them myself with the 3m kit and I wound up screwing them up even more. There are mobile services that come to you but I was not ready to turn the Benz over to some guy in a 90s Honda Civic and a cellphone. I know, huge snob but experience has taught me.

Boulevard is an experienced shop with an impressive cast of parked cars waiting service, both mechanical and paint. I was hoping for some improvement in the yellowed opaque lenses of all the fronts and instead they look new. Moreover, once done the shop guarantees them for life. I'm sold.

desired_speeds

wow those headlights and the paint are glowing! looks like they painted over the polished lip on the rims though.

Strigoi

Sounds like your lights might have been like mine. They look a little worse in person than they do in this pic.

mrbeverlyhills

Haha mine were so bad (CA sun) you couldn't see the bulbs.

Yes the polished lips are Hors de Combat but honestly, they were so badly curbed in the front it is a small price to pay. They look great and most modern wheels are all painted now anyway. I am stunned that a pseudo hand built limited edition Mercedes Benz AMG like mine sells for less than 14k. It seems a little crazy to spend %10 of that total value getting just the wheels redone, especially as I was spending so much already on all the other maintenence items.

Strigoi

E55s are going for $8,000-$9,000 on CL here. I was going to sell mine but have decided to keep it since I've dumped way too much money into it fixing stuff over the last 10 months.

mrbeverlyhills

Shockingly I have seen one advertised for 6k! But that was a broken down salvage title.

There are some high mileage cars or some that were ridden hard and put away wet for under 10k but to buy a nicely maintained stock car that looks good and needs nothing(especially in a great color like yours) a buyer should expect to pay 12k-14k.

Sure, there are howls from the tire kickers about how they can find great cars for 9k but that is BS: change the fluids, belts, plugs and shocks on a 100,000 car is 3 grand.

The most expensive car you can find is often the cheapest car you buy.

roguewrester

Thanks for the heads up on the shop in Van Nuys. Im in Simi so not far.

hyperion667

looks nice, and love the phone booth too

Nocturnal-G

Beautiful car... looks pristine.