500e mot passed with flying colours
Apart from Dave having to argue the case that no, it didn’t need and has never needed side repeaters.
Then on the way back to his workshop all the dash lights went off
. I’m hoping it’s the common fuse issue, they are bullet style fuses and they need twisting in their holders every year or so. As it’s been sat so long I’ll get some miles on it and then in the spring go to centre gravity to get a full alignment done.
The respray can wait, I want to drive the thing and make some noise!!!!!!
So it’s had……
Lower wiring harness replaced.
Alarm wiring re-done.
Front undertray fixed through bumper, I have a plan to add a small lip spoiler to this when the respray is done.
All new suspension arms, bushes, linkages, nuts, bolts, fittings etc.
New hard and soft brake lines.
New fuel lines.
New hydraulic lines.
Driveshafts stripped, painted and rebuilt, no issues before but was 30 year old grease.
Rear diff stripped, rebuilt and made pretty. (The diff was leak free and fine but looked tatty against the rest of the back end)
Hubs rebuilt with new bearings and abs sensors.
Rear prop tickled.
H+r lowering springs from period.
Lower rad support removed, blasted and painted.
Rear subframe blasted and painted.
Plastics underneath made pretty.
Exhaust heat shields blasted and treated.
Exhaust cladding replaced on down pipes.
New fancy tig welded rear exhaust hanger and front hanger.
A million other small jobs that turn it from a nice job to a fantastic job.
The below is due to my mistrust of a lot of overhauls. The Merc under seal is amazing, it’s virtually structural and can hide a lot of damage. Unless it’s a California/ Texas car then they all get creepy rust near the rear wheel well and in the inner arches. Also the whole back end is quite a complicated series of panels and shapes which hide sins as many w124 owners have found out. I wanted to be absolutely sure my car was structurally perfect as I didn’t know if I was going to keep this for life or sell it and do a 996 project. I’m pretty sure it’ll be a keeper though as I’m still really excited about driving it.
The entire underside stripped right back and investigated for rust and damage. Mainly this was on 4 studs which are spot welded on, spot welding promotes rust just where the contact is made.
A slight crack in the rear subframe area about 10mm long. There was also an area in the wheel well which was cut out and repaired properly and then tidied up lovely.
After that it has had about 5 coats of primer and stonechip and lanoguard.
It’s been nearly 14months in total, it’s cost double my upper limit due to scope creep and seeing how well it was turning out, I just wanted the entire car to look as good. I’m a picky git when it comes to mechanical work and each time I saw the finished article I was really happy. It’s the attention to detail I was paying for and I got it.
Thankyou Dave Flew very much
Dave!