Hi all, just wanted to introduce myself and my toys (see my signature). I work in the front office of a collision center affiliated with a MB,BMW,Porsche,Audi, Land Rover, Lexus, Infiniti and Cadillac dealer in beautiful Creve Coeur Missouri USA. If you are curious, see plazamotors.com.
Thanks for having me and I hope to learn a lot, so hopefully I can keep my fleet running without going to the poor house.
Boy, Davestlouis, that IS a fleet! Does it ever bother you that you don't yet have a car for EVERY day of the week?
Welcome to the forum. There are a great bunch of people on this forum, and we actually spend more time discussing our healthy cars than our sick ones! Hope you take part in the conversations.
Mike
Working in a collision center, do you have any insights into the crashworthiness of 116s relative to earlier and later cars? THAT would sure make an interesting thread!
Mike
oops
Thanks for the welcome...would you believe I've never seen a wrecked W116 "in the flesh"? The oldest MB we have at the moment is a 1st gen W140 600SEL that got whacked heavily in the left rear, but it's going to fix. The only older MB's I see at the shop are W113 pagoda's and early 107's, I don't sense that there are many sedans running around locally older than W126's.
davestlouis,
I was in St. Louis several years back. Very beautiful city (at least the western suburban region of the city I frequented).
I have come to realize that in Orange and Riverside Counties of California, w116s are NOT thick as fleas in these here parts. In fact, I've only seen one 450SEL since I bought mine about 8 months ago. I think I saw a 300SD some time back; other than that, nothing. I guess I'm not surprised that you haven't seen too many of them in your line of work (and I sure hope you don't see mine except for purely social occasions).
I wrote a tongue-in-cheek post titled, "How to make your U.S. 5mph bumpers more bueatiful than Euro bumpers" to underscore a near miss I had. These babies ARE built tough.
Mike
I have been playing with these older MB cars for several years and am always on the lookout for other similar cars. I see W123's all over the place, many being driven by teenagers, many in a sad state of repair. I would love to get another W114/115 but they tend to be SO rusty and are worth even less money than a W116, so repairing rust is not economically feasible, even with my employee labor rate and parts discount.
If you are ever in St. Louis, let me know, I'll take you out for a spin.
Quote from: davestlouis on 13 May 2006, 09:08 AM
If you are ever in St. Louis, let me know, I'll take you out for a spin.
No danger of me coming to the US in the near future but I'd have to ask to ride shottie in the Kia. ;D
Actually the 560sl would satisfy.
Ah, the SL...mine has 213xxx miles on it, black with beige leather heated seats that look like a dog ate the leather, with some rust sprouting here and there. I paid $1000 for it and have done nothing but drive it, because I have been fighting with the 420SEL, trying to fix a stalling problem. The 420 is healthy for the moment so I'll start tidying-up the SL next. It had an appalling power steering leak, it would pump the reservoir dry in 50 miles, and had so much air getting in that the PS fluid got frothy and milky-looking. I put a cap-full of brake fluid in the reservoir with the PS fluid and the leak went away within 3 days. Not the right way to do it, but it bought me some time. I think I'm just going to hide the leather with sheepskins and attack the rust. Some day I'll take pic's...
...and just to complicate things, we have 7 kids between 17 and 8 years of age. One is driving, the next may be soon, if he gets A's and B's on his report card. The cars are my hobby and escape. My funds for car-related things are limited, so repairs and upgrades don't always happen as quickly as I would like. I figure, as long as I can stay ahead of the curve, and fix things quicker than they fall apart, I'm doing OK.
Davestlouis,
I'm not likely to be able to take you up on your offer of a Missouri spin anytime soon either, I'm afraid; I'm no longer at the job that sent me that way. But it IS a lovely city, and that drive would be a lot of fun.
It sounds like you've got your hands seriously full, anyway. SEVEN teens?!?! One's enough to drive you nuts!
Just out of curiousity, 4 Mercedes-Benzes... Sounds like you're quite a fan. What's your "Benz story?"
Mike
To clarify, there are 3 teens, the rest are younger. They all drive me nuts, as kids do, but I wouldn't trade them for anything.
I fell into this "thing" with MB cars accidentally...a customer at the shop had a 1993 W124 sedan that they wrecked and didn't want to fix, so I bought it for $1000, put $300 into repairs, drove it for 90 days and sold it for $2500...I have bought a half-dozen or so since and tinker with them. If I can buy them right I can make a small profit when I sell them, but I mainly do it because I enjoy the engineering that goes into the older MB products. I was sitting in line at Burger King tonight studying details inside the 420SEL...really long grab handles in the backseat so a person could pull himself really far forward to heave himself out the door if need be, the amazing condition of the carpet and floor mats after 20 years and 175xxx miles, etc. I just think they are spiffy cars and while I need to have one or two in dependable running order at any given moment so I can get to work, the rest are toys.
I also collect/accumulate bolt-action rifles, and I enjoy the machine-work that goes into classic firearms, it's a very similar thing with the cars. The only problem is, all the guns look alike to my wife, so she never knows how many I have, but the cars come in different colors so she can tell the difference.
Davestlouis,
We have much in common (excepting the teenagers!).
I bought my 77 450SEL to pass along at a tidy profit - something I've done w/ about 10 cars over the years - but then I fell in love with her. Now I'm afraid to buy another Mercedes to sell, lest the same thing happen!
And I also enjoy firearms (tho I fancy autoloaders). My "collection" consists of a made-in-Belgium Browning 9mm pistol, a .300 Win Mag B.A.R., and a .30/30 Winchester lever action rifle. The BAR is rather like my 450SEL: not necessarily the most practical thing in today's world, but darn is it fun!
I got a Type 3 Curio and Relic firearms license so I can have guns shipped to my door by the "BBT"..big brown truck, a.k.a. UPS. I shoot everything from .22 bolt rifles to a number of Colt 1911 variants in .45 ACP, and all sorts of bolt rifles, many that chamber obsolete cartridges like 6.5x53R Dutch, 7.35x51 Carcano, 8X50 Austro-Hungarian, 8X51 French Lebel, etc. Half the fun is finding ammo, or handloading my own.
Quote from: michaeld on 17 May 2006, 09:06 PM
and a .30/30 Winchester lever action rifle.
I love lever action rifles! They're kind of like our 116s...they've got something nothing else does. Though I'm pretty fond of my 9mm pistol, as well. ;D
Somehow I've made it this far in life without ever having owned a lever rifle...I suppose I should buy one just to say I have one, but I have never stumbled on one that looked interesting. My main activity right now is trying to bring my 1978 280SE back to life...it was parked for 8 years, started and moved occasionally in and out of a pole barn where it was stored. The PO reports that 2 years ago it refused to start, presumed fuel delivery issue. I have been tinkering with it as time allows, and while it starts readily on starting fluid, it isn't getting gas to the combustion chambers. It has fuel at the fuel distributor and the lines to the injectors. I'm going to try some fresh gas and injector cleaner along with testing the cold start valve...hopefully the beast will start. BTW< where is the cold start valve and what does it look like?
I assume you are talking about K-jet on the 280SE? The cold start valve looks basically the same as the other injectors, but is a bit fatter and also has a 2-pin electrical pin on top. It is located on top of the inlet manifold and is fed from a metal tube coming from the side of the fuel distributor. Maybe another poster here has a picture.
I damn near got the 280SE to start on its own tonight...I'm getting there, finally. This week's other MB-related activities include:
1. new driver's window motor on the 420SEL, $135 my cost, free labor
2. repainted air cleaner housing for the 450SE, satin black, $3.79 for the paint, had the other materials around the house.
3. if I get energetic this evening, I'm going to try to polish the air cleaner lid on the 560SL.
4. bidding on 2 108-body cars on ebay, and a nasty, worn out Volvo 240 wagon that would be neat to have as a parts-hauler/wheelbarrow.