Mid Life Crisis & the W116 Love Affair

[Malaysian]

I acquired her almost 9 years ago, the W116 280SE from 1977, which I knew and expected of course to bring me much grief and cost a pretty penny to restore.

After 2 years of just lugging her around I began the slow and painful task of starting a total restoration (its a test of patience, a baptism of fire for those who are more hands on with their cars).

And what do I have to report after 8 years, a solid paintjob, spotty aluminium trim but spotless chrome ones. Swapped almost every part with an original, yet some others had to be fabricated from scratch. Like the rubber boot that sits behind the aircond middle vents which in the equatorial climate breaks down easily, it is simply a pain to look for a replacement and so...simply whip one up using acrylic and wood, paint it black, coat it with FDA approved food grade glue.. and heck, your new funnel hack might even send new wisps of wind to the rear seats whence it was having trouble before.

So you spend twice the cost of the car to restore it, and whilst engine and transmission have been rebuilt, the dashboard cracks all sealed and painted over, the cracking and peeling woodtrim receiving a teak (almost zebrano) wood vinyl wrap that eased the unsightly look of disdain my wife had over the car, the seats need rebuilding still and my total carpet set arrived from Italy but left uninstalled until my reconditioning of the centre console is done. I'm still in the middle of doing the centre console as it sits on my workbench, waiting for me on weekends and the occasional stealing time off workdays to tend to it as well.

The expenditure on the first W116 continues and then my uncle passes away leaving a single owner 1982  W126 280SE with 150,000 kms on the clock. Naturally my aunt was extremely happy to be rid of it to a member of the family but was not amused when i offered to take the mint Jaguar MkII in her garage arguing it was uncle's favourite car and will go to his grandson.

I hid this purchase from my wife intending to give it a makeover, gleaming new paint and then bring it home, but as Murphy would have it, on a visit to my father's house not too long ago, he asked me squarely if I had bought the car happy that this aunt had told him. Before I could explain my wife interjected with wide eyes as if to ask me loudly in front of my parents..."you bought another old mercedes?". It was too late. The car had not even been through a week in a far off workshop for an oil change and an all round general repair. The intended surprise got canned. Withered away in a fraction of a moment. On the way home, I had to hear the usual talk on personal finances, priorities, children education, vacation money, and the usual reminders I need which is why I love my wife oh so much and partly the reason why I married her.

Thats it, she said. No more old mercedes apart from the W116 280se and the W126 280se. I managed to crawl out of my self misery when I argued that since I had 3 sons, and as daughters were left with heirlooms like jewelry, sons could be bequeathed with mechanical works by Daimler Benz.

Her words still playing in my mind, whilst scouting for parts on the Internet for my W116, I saw an ad that would finally make manifest my mid life crisis and the love affair with the W116.

It was a 280S that was still road worthy and could pass the inspection. I took a flight for 3 hours, clandestinely checked into a hotel for a night and immediately went to view the vehicle. It was aged and uncared for. The cheap price tag that drew me to it immediately got me asking the owner to start the car and it was then i knew it was being sold cheap mostly cause of the dwindling exterior and the carburetor that had to be rebuilt undoubtedly. Further it would have been difficult to do in the location where the car was as there was no expertise.

Knowing more money would have to be spent to ship the car to my location and have it with my mechanic, as if driven by insatiable lust i purchased the car.

Whats worse is that the owner of the car (a fairly young chap who didnt know much about the W116) asked me why despite the problems I uncovered in front of him, still persisted to buy the car. I responded that I had a strange attraction to the W116 and that since I didnt have a carburetor model (and bang it was spot on 4 speed manual), I didnt mind acquiring it. He then told me about a yard that kept several old mercedes and I asked him to take me there thinking I could strip off and pay for some interior trim for both the W116 that i now had.

That was when love reigned supreme again, many cars were left to rot. At least 4 W116, 3 W126, 1 W124, 1 W110, and more than 7 W123. From the W116 cars i could immediately see a 450sel, and 3 280se. My heart raced if perchance i could buy the 450sel as it were, while earlier in the day acting on impulse buying the 280s. The owner of the yard refused to part with it. I was like a sulking child the whole day and there was only 1 280se which body had not rusted beyond reasonable repair and thus I negotiated promptly for it.and bought it.

At the time of writing this now, a broad beautiful smile is emanating from my wife, my first love affair, that as I type this confession framed as my introduction as a newbie to this forum, 2 other surprises await my wife which will have to be shipped across some salty seas, that will go straight to my mechanic's garage for many many more months of W116 inside out restoration, proof of my mid life crisis and the extreme love affair with the W116.

As parting words here, I would like to thank this forum immensely for so much knowledge that has been shared and for really sending me off the edge in this love affair. I can now finally appreciate the many expressions delivered in this forum.

Further I wish to apologise if this was a long and arduous introduction. I felt the need to express this here in a group of like minded lovers. LOL

The day will come that I will have to disclose the existence of 2 other W116 so please dear members of forum, pray for me....

[robertd]

Welcome Malaysian,

You are in good company, many here on this forum are similarly smitten and have had to deal with this love triangle.

resistance is futile,

Regards Robert

[daantjie]

Very well written and I think sums up all of our collective feelings for these fine cars

[Peter]

Hi and welcome, great introduction and the admiration/addiction to the W116 is a global event. It is also a pleasant way to spend your mid life crisis. Keep us all updated on your progress. Cheers

[adamb]

Hey Malaysian, many of us share the bug. It's not logical but why does everything have to be logical. I knew from the first moment I saw my first rusty beyond believe 450SEL that I will own one of these vehicles. It's now been 19 years since that sighting and 14 years since I purchased the 6.9. It has been and hopefully will remain to be a great car to own. Being 39 years old, Mohan gets lots of complements wherever he travels. Welcome to the forum!

[Malaysian]

Thank you RobertD, Peter, Daniel and AdamB for a warm welcome.

[Malaysian]

Disintegrated 39 year old rubber funnel and the new hack next to it. This is the rubber funnel that sits behind the middle vents in my 1977 280se euro.

[Jed]

Yes Malaysian great introduction!

It is indeed a passion/obsession/addiction for many of us.

I only discovered the world of the w116 a little over a year ago and have gone in head first.  I have spent countless hours over the past several months trying to bring to life again a '76 6.9 that most told me to scrap.  While I have several other projects that most would consider more worthy of my time I have for reasons not yet clear to me obsessed with this car.  It was a very sad appearing "parts car" I bought with two other running 6.9s.  It was down on all fours when I towed her home.  After completely going through the fuel system and getting the engine running, then repairing multiple hydraulic leaks (4 I think) and two brake line leaks including a complete brake failure (fortunately while cautiously testing things out), countless bushing and linkage replacements/repairs, new tires, brakes, plugs, distributor cap, rotor, fluids (almost all of them) etc etc....anyway after all that I am happy to say it just turned 100 miles on the trip odometer tonight during my maiden highway voyage.  She is most certainly alive again and in a fierce way. There is most certainly a big difference from the Euro and USA 6.9s.
Now its time to figure if she is worth some serious rust repair....but who am I kidding.  We already know the answer to that don't we??

Again, great introduction and welcome, but most of all, thank you for confirming that I am not alone in this madness!
Regards
Jed

[UTn_boy]

MAYLAYSION, I'm just curious.....instead of going through all of the effort you did to make that "hack", why didn't you just buy a new rubber boot?  They're still available for about 26 euros.  Part number 116-831-00-88.  Still, very impressive.  haha 

[Malaysian]

  hey jed..

That must have been some expenditure on all your items. Yeah only like minded ones would want to know in detail what you did. Looks like u did the full monty! Lol.

UTn_boy,

Oh golly gee...yikes...thanks for the part number although i reckoned it would be faster to make a hack and since no one is gonna look at it...except me...i thought what the heck....but seriously thanks for the heads up on price and part number. It makes me wanna rubbish the hack. (Edit: after i give it a try)

And that is what we have in the forum, purists trying to egg on other purists...i love it!!!

[Malaysian]

The second 1977 280se starting its rescue operation. A barnyard find with pristine interior. If its rusted beyond repair....well, we'll find a way around it so it won't be a parts car which was the main motivation in buying it.

[Malaysian]

My first W116 purchased 8 years ago.

[Malaysian]

The extremely low mileage W126 from 1982...

[Zaxxon]

That's a beautiful, early W126, sporting the original Bundts. I like it! Was it ever painted, or better, were the mirrors painted at some point? I could have sworn my C126's mirrors are the color of the lower cladding. Or maybe they changed that at a later point.

[UTn_boy]

No, you're correct, Zaxxon.  They're not necessarily supposed to match the lower cladding.  However, they are supposed to be a metallic greyish anthracite color.