Some1 else posted a Benz so here's mine

[marlinspike]

Here's my 1985 MB 380SE. I washed and waxed it, then went to the lake for photos, and of course it started raining, and the rain around here has a lot of sediment in it, so now my car is filthy again. Stupid weatherman said no rain for like 5 days.






Richard

[marlinspike]

I should add, it's been in my family since new Jan 3rd 1986.
Richard

[kesslerbmw]

I think you should have that door ding taken out, and put some wheels on it.. Like some early 90's AMG wheels or something...
Heres my '71 250...

[marlinspike]

Yeah...that door ding...the car looks a lot better in pictures than in real life. It needs a bare metal repaint, put in new rear window (delaminating) and windhsheild (19 years of highway grit is taking its toll, when the sun shines on it just right youre totally blinded by all the refraction), have like 15 dings taken out, replate the chrome, new headlight surrounds, repaint or replace the bumpers, rebuild the seats, and refinish the wood. I'm saving up to just do everything at once, and at the same time put in a euro 560 engine and a koenig specials supercharge (450hp 500lb-ft). If I do go away from the stock wheels (which I will do when I do the full restoration), I won't be putting on some needlessly heavy AMG wheels, I'm putting lightweight 3 piece BBS wheels (18.5lb per wheel 17 inch wheels). I figure I'll need about 35 grand to do all this.
Richard

Actually, now that I think about it, it only has one other ding...just a lot of scratches.

[ArcticFlow]

need to getcha another hood ornament Nice, clean Benz, I forgot they made them so big back in the 80's and early 90's. My dad used to have one just like that, but his was the turbo diesel and was maroon red, not blue(my mom accidentally put Unleaded Gasoline in that car once, HAHAHA) Anyways, thats good that ur keeping it in the family and it looks you have taken good care of her, keep it up, she almost a classic

[marlinspike]

Yeah, I got a removeable hood star after some hoodlum stole the original, but I forgot to put it on, D'OH! It got bsically abused by my dad who thought that waxing a car once a year was fine for a car parked outdoors, and the first year I went to college I left it at home, nobody did anything for it other than drive it a few miles and then park it (ruining a lot of stuff in the engine since every day it was driven 5 miles, parked, then at the end of the day driven 5 miles and parked for a year). The paint aged about 8 years worth in that one year. It still looks good right after doing P21S paintwork cleanser and wax, but only for like 2 weeks. Larry at carcareonline says there might be hope that with enough paintwork cleanser and wax it'll come back to life. I've been working on it since I was about 12 (well, 6 if standing there handing wrenches to dad counts), and this last year I put like a grand of parts in there. It fell apart a bit about 2 years ago and I've been bringing it back piece by piece.
Richard

[Jay Arno]

Put the AMG wheels on her and drop it, oh so nice. Ha

Welcome....

[marlinspike]

Oh yeah, that's another thing I'll be doing in the big restoration. I'll be putting in a set of H&R springs (I'll lose 1.4inches...something I don't know how keen I'm on that since I quite like having 8 inches of ground clearance). Still don't get the appeal of the AMG wheels though. The way I see it lighter = better especially when it comes to rotating mass. Oh, and Jay...Nikon? Bah! Canon guy here. 10D, 70-200 2.8L, a junky wide angle since I had no money left after that, and some teleconvertors .You'd never know from my car pictures that I actually make money from sports photography (to be fair to myself I lost a lot of dynamic range by having to use ISO 800).

Oh, and I'm not really a new poster. A while back I came on, but I've since changed my e-mail account and I don't remember my old username or password.
Richard

[Mgefen]

Looks like the owner cares the color.
Looks treated nice, so the well done!

[marlinspike]

CGC, how do you like the A4? My dad wanted me to retire my Benz (not trade it in, just park it in a garage) and lease me an A4 1.8 stick shift. I declined because I know how much my college costs and he's paying, but I'm curious about how much I would have liked it.
Richard

[dolzz]

I've always liked those Mercs you should do something like this:

And get some euro one piece headlights.

[marlinspike]

The one piece isn't euro, it's post 1985 euro. The 1985 and earliers are like mine, which I think looks a lot better. Mine aren't pure euro, just a bit of a euro retrofit into a US housing. Honestly, I think it's a shame to slam a car like this. These are nice gentrified cars, not p. diddy's newest ride.
Richard

[marlinspike]

And now my car as of the 15th




Finally got something out of the insurance company though (got lowballed though since they went back door on me, and after negotiating with me called my dad and offered $3600 telling him that was the estimate...it wasn't...damn back door tactics), so after $600 out of pocket and another 2 weeks at most I'll be back. Well, I get some good out of this, that door ding will be repaired...as will just about all my paint problems (basically the whole front half of the car is getting repainted to blend everything properly, and the rest of my car is pretty good because it was in the shade...odd parking situation).

[cbouchez]

Man I'm sorry about your car.

[marlinspike]

I'm not ashamed to admit it: I cried.