W116.org

Hi all.  Long time browser, new 6.9 owner, and first time poster. 

I recently acquired a decent 1978 6.9 and have started making it my own.  It's a little rough, some rust in the usual spots but I'll have it for a while and with more time and money it'll get there.  If you're interested in looking at the car, I posted some shots in the Gallery section.  Look for the pics under MercedesMike.

The 6.9 is a US model and I recently replaced the bumpers with the euro-spec versions.  Many thanks to all those who previously posted all the tips.  It sped up the install immensely (although I bailed out and went to a body shop to hack out the US bumper brackets). 

With the Euro bumpers now in place, I'm now acutely aware that my car needs a front spoiler.  I've seen a few past postings from Styria and others regarding some molds being taken of an original AMG spoiler but the posts were 2 years old.  I'm REALLY interested in finding an AMG spoiler and was wondering if anyone out there knows where I might be able to source one.  I've been stalking eBay for the past few weeks but no luck there.  I've even searched the German, Austrian, UK, France, and Australian eBay sites and nothing is coming up.   Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

Great looking car, styra has moved on and found another forum . you can find the link to that forum on wikipedia. He should be able to get you what you need.

The body shop who did my bumper conversion hacked the 6.9 bumpers. I was inexperienced in the model and didnt know any better at the time. Great catch.

My 6.9 has one of these spoilers and I know there were a couple of copies left in Sydney not that long ago.

Bill

Congratulations - black on black - that is super cool. 

You can send an email to styria@optusnet.com.au and he can advise you the cost of the reproduction spoiler.

He has started up another forum at www.topklasse.net.au if you want to see current postings on the spoilers.

By the way, what wheels do you have on the car, please post a close up photo.

Thanks for the reply.  I also got the same advice from WGB to email Styria which I've now done (he should be waking up in Australia by now). 

The wheels were purchased aftermarket.  They required spacers to fit given the wheelwell and suspension clearance issues.  It took a bit of math and a very useful website to figure out how big a spacer I need (and the right length lug bolts -- as I found out if they're too long, the rear wheels will not rotate due to some hub clearance issue). 

I purchased the wheels at the following site: http://www.lakeshorewheelandtire.com/specials/mercedes.shtml

They are 17x8s (on the site they are ITN # 275).  You can get a close up picture of the wheel there. 

These wheels have a 37mm backspace which won't fit without a spacer.  I needed to get 25mm spacers to effectively decrease the backspace of the wheel to 12mm.  There are plenty of vendors on eBay offering spacers with a 5x112 bolt configuration.  The guy I bought it from is eBay member: maco1962.  Search for him on eBay.  Absolutely the best.  GREAT service.  Really high quality product.  When I first installed them, the lug bolts he provided were too long.  If you go this route and have a 37mm backspace wheel with a 25mm spacer, you will need 2in long lug bolts (approximately 50.8mm).  maco1962 responded immediately to the issue and shipped out 20 lugbolts of the right size.  Perfect.

Another really useful site out there for you guys to look at (also discovered through researching this excellent blog) is: http://www.rims-n-tires.com/rt_specs.jsp  It really helps you to visualize different wheel sizes as well as tires. 

I hope this helps. 

There is also a gentlemen on www.star-lounge.ca (from memory) that has new old stock of various AMG parts. It may be worth a look for him.

Otherwise they do appear from time to time on the various online markets.

If I were you I'd be tempted to contact Styria and ask for him to forward a call for the spoiler to all his purchasers.

A dime bets a dollar one or two of the buyers just haven't gotten around to putting them on, or chose not to once they got a price from their body shop.  The repro spoilers are perfect copies and the originals are scarce and rarely in good shape - unless you're lucky enough to find a used one.

Let me be contrary here, I don't understand the enthusiasm for the AMG front spoilers. I can understand it for AMG steering wheels and penta road wheels, both are attractive and improved designs but in my opinion the AMG spoiler looks trissy.

Maybe it's an appreciation of function over form where the beauty an object's design comes from how well the object is suited to it's purpose as opposed to how "pretty" or "nice" it looks. A classic case is the 116 door locks with exposed peg and striker, not attractive but solid and safe.

The standard steering wheel is too just big, like a leftover from a bus, was it a legislative requirement in Germany that they had to be huge? The standard bundt wheels are pretty but difficult to clean and don't appear to have any advantage over a more traditional 5 spoke design like the penta style.

Have a think about the standard black spoiler like a "proper" car would have

koan

"Trissy"............Now there's a word I haven't heard for years!!!!!!!!!  Hahaha.

One man's medicine is another man's poison.

I think the AMG spoiler sets the front of my car off perfectly - not so sure about the rest of the body kit but as i've just purchased the ex-Des-ex-13B rear "Black rubber sausage" off e-bay I'll post some pictures with and without spoiler for opinion before I drill any holes and then probably do what I want to anyway.

That will have to wait for a couple of weeks as I'm off to New Zealand on Tuesday for two weeks for my Dad's Birthday and to attend the NZ Grand Lodge Installation.

As far as the steering wheel goes I really enjoy the steering response and tactile feel of my AMG wheel but the limited view of the instruments gets a bit wearying. I've left it on for the past year but when I fit my new hyper-expensive rubber band to the instrument panel I will re-fit the larger standard wheel for a while and try it out.

Bill

I actually don't know what trissy means.   I presume it's not a synonym for attractive.

I've spent a lot of time researching W116 pictures online with the AMG spoiler.  I'm more inclined to the spoiled look.
  

Trissy means effeminate.........

I suppose it does, but I've always used it to mean overly pretty just for the sake of it and not very effective at doing what it should.

koan

I appreciate the aesthetic commentary.  Very educational.  Let me turn to a practical question.  I've owned my 6.9 for only a few weeks and have had an opportunity to drive it around town quite a bit with no problems thus far.  The Chicago area is relatively flat and frankly the only thing I really need to worry about are the potholes on our well worn streets.  Have any of you had issues with ground clearance with an AMG spoiler that should give me pause?