Picked up my W123 Quick update

[grahamk]

Hi chaps



Sorry I have not posted for a while. I have been super busy clearing my garage out and general family life to get on much.



SO! I picked up the car, what can I say, its a beautiful machine. Really love it. It drives absolutely amazingly, managed the 400 miles from Buckinghamshire to Outside Glasgow with no issues whatsoever. Got a nice thumbs up from a guy in a BMW i8 that slowed down from North of 100mph then shot off into the sunset.

















Well I'll start with the good points, the car is tight as a nut to drive. no knocks clunks or bangs anywhere, there is enough supporting documentation to fill a library. A nice surprise was that it had a banging sound system with a 15 ins sub and amp in the boot! the car attracts comments everywhere it goes.





The bad



I wish I had not started Prodding, The pictures make it look immaculate, while the general paint work is incredible, there are some areas of concern. Under the rear chrome arch covers there was some corrosion, these were previously repaired badly. I have done a job of tarting them up for now but in due course I will weld in new ones.













There was an area at the rear of the offside rear arch where it meets the floorpan that was quite badly corroded. this has been cut out and a patched for now and well protected.



Before





After









The nearside front wing is toast, I have a new one sitting at home waiting for me.

(no pics)



while tending to the rear arches, I prodded about and ended up poking a hole above the sill in the inner arch. This "hole" ended up with me cutting an 8"x3" ins section of arch out and doing a terrible patch. (I ran out of gas for my mig and could not get the gassless welding right. It was terrible quite ashamed of it. I am a bit of a welding novice. I will of course be tending to these curse word repairs properly. The corrosion was hiding under an area of accumulated mud

[Peter C]

Hi Graham,

Peter here, from the Mercedes forum.

I thought your car was the same colour as mine but it's white, isn't it? I love your interior!

I'm impressed with your 15" sub, my JBL only measures 12". I love a good sound system in an old car.

Stay in touch, I look forward to reading more updates.

Peter

[dbdb]

The W123 has a very pleasing shape - I much prefer it to the W124, whose styling looks a little clumsy in comparison to my eyes anyway. It is a car which really suits white.

[grahamk]

Cheers guys.

Will definitely keep everyone posted. I am doing the front Nearside wing as soon as I get home. Depending on fit I will more than likely steal Peters great idea of splicing the two wings together.

On another note...does anyone know a chemical that will strip off that horrible white mastic stonechip stuff that seems to be hiding the rust deep within? I want to get a better picture of where I stand with those arches.

I know what you mean about the tune box Peter. It sounds absolutely incredible. It has a decent set of rear speakers but the fronts are non existent, that is also on the list. I saw you added some.

The colour code is 737 Classic White


The interior was a big selling point for me. The leather is in great condition and apart from the seat base on the drivers side its super comfy. Everything electrical works too, the sunroof and all 4 windows.

I noticed your ariel is on the other side peter, are they retro fit?


Shame you are so far away would have been great to meet up. I would definitely have stopped to say hello when I picked the car up.

[peter96]

Looks not too bad. I was going to look at one in much worse state a couple of weeks ago but decided against it. Good luck with it.

[grahamk]

Cheers bud, its generally pretty good. Just a few little bits and bobs to sort. Got a few pointers of where else to look for potential issues now as well.

[mgmrw]

Sweet, love these. Dad's had his w123 280ce coupe about 15+ years, had 2 rebuilds.

Assume you're aware of their main weakness? Rot. They rot everywhere;

Subframe, sills, rear window, arches, wings, boot floor... Floorplan. Bulkhead.

If it's got a sunroof, watch the drain plugs.


I adore them.

[grahamk]

I have had a good look around and poked around most of the areas where rot is a huge issue (pretty much everywhere)

The only bits of any concern are the rear arches which I have tarted up for now, one tiny wee patch on the rear panel under the boot lip.

Around the windows, the seals are all good and there is no sign of any water ingress there, the front nearside wing is a goner along with the valence. The boot floor has been replaced and the sills and floorpan are solid. (A bit of low level rust around the jacking tubes) where the sealant has flaked off, gave them a good check though and the metal is solid, so I will treat that as soon as possible.

Going back through the previous MOT's and receipts a fair bit of money has been spent doing welding in the usual areas.

I can say I am going to have to practice more with the welder though.

It has got a sunroof alright. I was looking for where the drains exit. The car is garaged now and wont be seeing wet or salty roads as long as I have it.

I am going to use Buzzweld products on the whole car for corrosion protection, the 2k chassis armour is incredible stuff. People have been using it on defenders with great success.