1974 Mercedes Benz 230.4 W115

[reap3rza]

Hey Guys!

Been reading some of the readers rides. And well two of the W115's got my attention! Love this place So thought I'd post mine also trying to get ideas for my newly acquired ride. a 1974 Mercedes-Benz W115 230.4 Manual.

So lets begin,

I'm from Cape Town, South Africa. Some might've heard of it before

I also have a Nissan Sil80 on coilovers... work in progress.

Well lets get into it. I got the Benz about 3 week ago after its been standing in a garage for over a decade. Kinda a barn find if you will. All stock. 56k km on the clock and yes thats the real mileage. Service records from the 1980's till new. second owner car. etc etc.

My plans are to get it running 100% then start looking into bagging the fraulein as static would rip my kidneys apart on our roads... plus already static with the Sil80!

Well here she is...










And straight after I got her I swapped the wheels







and possible new wheels...



So Small setback... As I said I got this as kind of a barn find... so with this the licence was behind, found out today its behind by R4000 ($400)

Yay!

Well that sucks but still cant complain... basically got it for free


thanks for looking

[reap3rza]

Some Moar Pics:

No cracks on dash...





And that's true km's


And some of my collection...



Laters Riekert

[reap3rza]

So... I did alot last week...

Washed the old girl. put some of the trimmings back on again. Rewired the rear lights to work right again. getting excited now haha also cleaned the front light lenses... now nice and clear.

So... pics:

Interior:



















Engine:







Exterior





























So what you guys think?

Looks a bit better now that its washed Still need to do the trunk and fit the rear bumper...

Now my Q is where does it attach? The holes where closed when it had some rust removed.

[reap3rza]

Fitted a new wheel yesterday. :cool: and found original owners manual.









Laters Riekert

[reap3rza]

So today u polished the grill surround and started painting the grill until my rattlecan decided to die on me.. so now I'm stuck till Monday. Also added a new badge to the grill. So starting to look good

Before:





Busy with Autosol Polish


Before respray



Failed after spraycan cuased problems but put tue grill back together...



Think it looks decent.


Yeag yeah ... I know. Still no LOW....

Soon... hahaha

Laters Riekert

[reap3rza]

Ok so got another can of paint and went at it... then went a but further

Pics below:

Painted grill


Fitted again...






So now I though with the black grill looking sexy as f**k I need something else on the front. So started doing this:







Painted


Semi complete




fitted...




fitted the left side too but got to dark to take a proper pic... looks good IMO

Thoughts?

Laters Riekert

[reap3rza]

Another of both lights in.





Trip out... just around the block haha.



So 1.5-2 coils needs to be cut in the front and maybe 1 in the back?

What ridehight would I get? Or can I go lower?

Laters Riekert

[reap3rza]

Ok so I photoshopped the stance I'm looking for, as this would be the lowest i can go for now without bags...



should be about 2 coils front 1 back?


anyhow another pic of the front wheels i'm getting soon... still need to source the wide rears :?



Also made a small loan so that I can pay the licence of the Benz... So next week its licence and roadworthy. Cant wait!

[reap3rza]

Sorry for the massive post had alot to put in. hahaha

please comments and criticisms welcome

[BenzBoy]

Welcome to RR! Nice W115, is it as rust-free underneath as it looks on the top? The Pentas will look cool as hell, definitely fit those!

Aug 21, 2013 19:36:12 GMT reap3rza said:

Looks a bit better now that its washed Still need to do the trunk and fit the rear bumper...

Now my Q is where does it attach? The holes where closed when it had some rust removed.

If I remember right (and it was a long while ago since I removed one) there should be holes in the rear valance and threaded bar sticking through them. The bumper fits over those and a nut on each secures it. They do tend to shear off when rusted (I recall this happening to me) so this might have happened to yours.

[reap3rza]

Aug 21, 2013 19:36:17 GMT BenzBoy said:

Welcome to RR! Nice W115, is it as rust-free underneath as it looks on the top? The Pentas will look cool as hell, definitely fit those!


If I remember right (and it was a long while ago since I removed one) there should be holes in the rear valance and threaded bar sticking through them. The bumper fits over those and a nut on each secures it. They do tend to shear off when rusted (I recall this happening to me) so this might have happened to yours.

thanks! And not quite though but at least not to hectic has been patched here and there.

mmm... Think that might be what happened as there is only one hole where the bumper should fit. thanks I'll go and have a look at your thread again maybe there's some pics there. Hopefully I can sort it soon. Looks kinda strange without the rear bumper. haha

[soretro]

Looking good how big is the main lamp in the headlights would it be possible to drop in some clear lens golf lights with drl`s .super find coming down that way next year from KZN to look for a 924 I believe cape town is the place to find one so ill be in contact

[soretro]

Looking good how big is the main lamp in the headlights would it be possible to drop in some clear lens golf lights with drl`s .super find coming down that way next year from KZN to look for a 924 I believe cape town is the place to find one so ill be in contact

[BenzBoy]

Aug 21, 2013 19:47:37 GMT reap3rza said:

Aug 21, 2013 19:36:17 GMT BenzBoy said:

Welcome to RR! Nice W115, is it as rust-free underneath as it looks on the top? The Pentas will look cool as hell, definitely fit those!


If I remember right (and it was a long while ago since I removed one) there should be holes in the rear valance and threaded bar sticking through them. The bumper fits over those and a nut on each secures it. They do tend to shear off when rusted (I recall this happening to me) so this might have happened to yours.

thanks! And not quite though but at least not to hectic has been patched here and there.

mmm... Think that might be what happened as there is only one hole where the bumper should fit. thanks I'll go and have a look at your thread again maybe there's some pics there. Hopefully I can sort it soon. Looks kinda strange without the rear bumper. haha

I remember welding on a bolt to get my bumper back on, after the thing sheared. The rear bumper seems to rust worse than the front - I suppose all the crud gets caught there!

[reap3rza]

Aug 21, 2013 20:24:20 GMT soretro said:

Looking good how big is the main lamp in the headlights would it be possible to drop in some clear lens golf lights with drl`s .super find coming down that way next year from KZN to look for a 924 I believe cape town is the place to find one so ill be in contact

Hi!

Yeah busy checking if I cant swop it out with another light. I just did a quick fix with the lights. But I'm fat broke at the moment... so cant do anything now

Yeah cape town is the place to be! You can find alot of old cars here

[reap3rza]

Aug 21, 2013 20:49:53 GMT BenzBoy said:

Aug 21, 2013 19:47:37 GMT reap3rza said:

thanks! And not quite though but at least not to hectic has been patched here and there.

mmm... Think that might be what happened as there is only one hole where the bumper should fit. thanks I'll go and have a look at your thread again maybe there's some pics there. Hopefully I can sort it soon. Looks kinda strange without the rear bumper. haha

I remember welding on a bolt to get my bumper back on, after the thing sheared. The rear bumper seems to rust worse than the front - I suppose all the crud gets caught there!

Ah ok. thanks! Will investigate it a bit over the weekend and see what I can come up with

[reap3rza]

Oh... another Q... In the last pic, the photoshopped one. You can see the nose way in the air. Is this common or is my rear suspension/springs shot?

Also what would be the ideal coil cut that i need to do to level it out as in the pic?

[reap3rza]

Oh last question for the night... Does the W123 powersteering and steering box work on the W115? As mine doesn't have powersteering and I can get a complete W123 setup for around R850 (80 pounds)

[🇿🇼Kingludba🇬🇧]

nice Merc guy, brings back memories of the 220d my cousin had in that shape.......cloud of soot followed us wherever we went..luckily in those days there was no such things as emmission testing

[BenzBoy]

Aug 21, 2013 22:09:02 GMT reap3rza said:

Oh... another Q... In the last pic, the photoshopped one. You can see the nose way in the air. Is this common or is my rear suspension/springs shot?

Also what would be the ideal coil cut that I need to do to level it out as in the pic?

The nose does look a bit high! I'm not used to looking at a standard height one but my guess would be that the front is high rather than the rear sitting low. Maybe someone put 280 or diesel springs in it at some point? There are different thickness spring pads available that sit in the top spring mount. It could be that those have been changed for thicker ones perhaps? I'd check that nothing else is making it sit high first, but if it does turn out to be the front springs, I'd cut one coil off the bottom and try that.
Be aware that regular spring compressors won't do the job on these cars - you either need a proper Mercedes spring compressor that works from inside the spring, or unbolt the inner bolts on the lower arm and remove the spring that way, with a jack stopping the spring firing off and killing you (dangerous... I've done it this way but it's not ideal)

Aug 21, 2013 22:17:47 GMT reap3rza said:

Oh last question for the night... Does the W123 powersteering and steering box work on the W115? As mine doesn't have powersteering and I can get a complete W123 setup for around R850 (80 pounds)

Not sure about that to be honest!


Your car seems to have the later (wider) grille and slatted tail lights, but the early steering wheel and front bumper. Maybe the South African cars had different spec or something!