Mercedes 129 titivation
Discussion
This thread is about the titivation of my Mercedes-Benz r129 SL500.
I have owned this car for 12 years now. It was built in May 1999 and is one of the final facelift cars, with the 3-valve M113 engine, the 5 speed 722.6 transmission, a fairly comprehensive standard specification but, arguably at least, the weakest build quality of the series. My car is 702 smoke silver metallic over 234 java nappa leather. It's a combination I like, although secretly I kind of wish I'd bought an obsidian black one. With the benefit of hindsight, I should have bought an early car as they look better and are truer to the Sacco-era virtues that appeal most to me. But this is the one I have got and this is the one that it killed me to pay for and this is the one that has become a part of my life over the last 200,000miles.
The current odometer reading is 245,000 miles. Over that distance, it has never failed me and always pleased me. It is amply fast enough for me and for the public highway. It is comfortable and long-legged and surprisingly practical. It is discreet and quiet and doesn't make a silly look-at-me parping noise when tootling about the town. It is easy to park. It is a great car.
It is also showing its age. I have really looked after it mechanically. It has had the shocks changed twice (at 100k and 200k); new springs; the rear axle re-built at 150k; new engine mounts; and anything it has needed by way of service, maintenance and preventative maintenance. There's far too much to list here. About two years ago I added up all the bills and they came to about £4,000 per annum including tyres. Anyway, the body is not right. It has been painted a few times before. Twice it has been driven into while parked: these things happen, at least they do to me. Then I had some blebs taken care of under warranty but they came back within a six months. That was in early-2009. The same year I had the blebs done again at a garage recommended by my mechanic. I have never been satisfied with the result and even today, taking a few photos for this thread, I noticed poor quality workmanship I hadn't seen before.
So tomorrow it goes to the Man.
Here are the worst of the problem areas.
This is the worst of the worst. The re-assembly of the numberplate lights has obviously damaged the protective paint work and there is really bad rust here. It all came up last year and got really bad over the winter. It makes me wince to look at it.
This boot trim is screwed into place from behind. Who ever reassembled it was obviously cack handed as rust is coming through the holes.
The near side rear wheel arch is pretty bad, too. I don't really know why. None of the others is like this.
There are a few little blebs also. A bit on the off side rear wing near the boot aperture and a bit on the trailing edge of the driver’s door. You can also see the big scratches I inflicted on my wedding night when I was hastily doing something—I can’t recall what—in the garage. What I noticed today was a great big paint run on the off side rear wing by the door aperture, just above the Sacco panel. How I haven’t noticed this previously is beyond me, goodness, it is awful workmanship.
It has dreadful stone chip rash across the front. I tend not to follow very close and, while it’s 100,000miles since the last time the bonnet was painted, I think this is more likely down to poor prep and poor workmanship.
And, of course, it has a full compliment bumper scuffs due to appalling parking by me or my wife at one time another, plus stone chipping to the Saccos.
I have had a lot of fun in this car. I got married in it. Well, I drove it to the Church, to the breakfast and then on the honeymoon. After courting with a road trip to the Dordogne in it. A long time ago I went to Stuttgart and back in about 40hours in it (from Northumberland: trip report here http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/sl-forum/22195... ). I drove it to the southern most tip of Europe and pottered around Andalusia for a hot week (hot in the sense of hot weather: trip report here http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/sl-forum/26323... ).
I am looking forward to making it good once again.
I have owned this car for 12 years now. It was built in May 1999 and is one of the final facelift cars, with the 3-valve M113 engine, the 5 speed 722.6 transmission, a fairly comprehensive standard specification but, arguably at least, the weakest build quality of the series. My car is 702 smoke silver metallic over 234 java nappa leather. It's a combination I like, although secretly I kind of wish I'd bought an obsidian black one. With the benefit of hindsight, I should have bought an early car as they look better and are truer to the Sacco-era virtues that appeal most to me. But this is the one I have got and this is the one that it killed me to pay for and this is the one that has become a part of my life over the last 200,000miles.
The current odometer reading is 245,000 miles. Over that distance, it has never failed me and always pleased me. It is amply fast enough for me and for the public highway. It is comfortable and long-legged and surprisingly practical. It is discreet and quiet and doesn't make a silly look-at-me parping noise when tootling about the town. It is easy to park. It is a great car.
It is also showing its age. I have really looked after it mechanically. It has had the shocks changed twice (at 100k and 200k); new springs; the rear axle re-built at 150k; new engine mounts; and anything it has needed by way of service, maintenance and preventative maintenance. There's far too much to list here. About two years ago I added up all the bills and they came to about £4,000 per annum including tyres. Anyway, the body is not right. It has been painted a few times before. Twice it has been driven into while parked: these things happen, at least they do to me. Then I had some blebs taken care of under warranty but they came back within a six months. That was in early-2009. The same year I had the blebs done again at a garage recommended by my mechanic. I have never been satisfied with the result and even today, taking a few photos for this thread, I noticed poor quality workmanship I hadn't seen before.
So tomorrow it goes to the Man.
Here are the worst of the problem areas.
This is the worst of the worst. The re-assembly of the numberplate lights has obviously damaged the protective paint work and there is really bad rust here. It all came up last year and got really bad over the winter. It makes me wince to look at it.
This boot trim is screwed into place from behind. Who ever reassembled it was obviously cack handed as rust is coming through the holes.
The near side rear wheel arch is pretty bad, too. I don't really know why. None of the others is like this.
There are a few little blebs also. A bit on the off side rear wing near the boot aperture and a bit on the trailing edge of the driver’s door. You can also see the big scratches I inflicted on my wedding night when I was hastily doing something—I can’t recall what—in the garage. What I noticed today was a great big paint run on the off side rear wing by the door aperture, just above the Sacco panel. How I haven’t noticed this previously is beyond me, goodness, it is awful workmanship.
It has dreadful stone chip rash across the front. I tend not to follow very close and, while it’s 100,000miles since the last time the bonnet was painted, I think this is more likely down to poor prep and poor workmanship.
And, of course, it has a full compliment bumper scuffs due to appalling parking by me or my wife at one time another, plus stone chipping to the Saccos.
I have had a lot of fun in this car. I got married in it. Well, I drove it to the Church, to the breakfast and then on the honeymoon. After courting with a road trip to the Dordogne in it. A long time ago I went to Stuttgart and back in about 40hours in it (from Northumberland: trip report here http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/sl-forum/22195... ). I drove it to the southern most tip of Europe and pottered around Andalusia for a hot week (hot in the sense of hot weather: trip report here http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/sl-forum/26323... ).
I am looking forward to making it good once again.
Edited by r129sl on Sunday 14th June 18:53
I was expecting the rust to be worse than it is - maybe I was expecting Jaguar-rust. Hopefully it isn't concealing anything. Are you going to have it completely resprayed after the rust has been removed?
It is disappointing when painters do a poor job. The man who painted my car did a less than perfect job of it which disappoints me every time I look at it. Other people don't seem to see/notice the problems in the paint - but I do. I would have it done again, but it is so expensive - and there's no guarantee the next guy would be any better. It is a great asset to have a good bodyman/painter locally.
My neighbour has an R129 SL500 in silver with blue leather, a panoramic roof and AMG wheels. It is a lovely thing, having only done something like 40,000 miles. He only uses it in good weather and really looks after it. It's virtually as-new - certainly as good as a well kept two year old car.
I'm looking forward to reading of your progess as it unfolds.
It is disappointing when painters do a poor job. The man who painted my car did a less than perfect job of it which disappoints me every time I look at it. Other people don't seem to see/notice the problems in the paint - but I do. I would have it done again, but it is so expensive - and there's no guarantee the next guy would be any better. It is a great asset to have a good bodyman/painter locally.
My neighbour has an R129 SL500 in silver with blue leather, a panoramic roof and AMG wheels. It is a lovely thing, having only done something like 40,000 miles. He only uses it in good weather and really looks after it. It's virtually as-new - certainly as good as a well kept two year old car.
I'm looking forward to reading of your progess as it unfolds.
I really can't see the point of supercars. I can't even see the point of today's super saloons, the likes of the M3/4 and the C63 AMG. I write as one who loves to drive fast and tries to drive well and also as one who is aware that he is starting to sound like an old fogey. But how can you use one of these supercars for driving on the public road? The performance is extraordinary, and far in excess of my abilities, the abilities of most drivers, and the capacity of the public road to take it. I drove a Ferrari 599 GTB once and it was an utterly disappointing experience because the spurts of power had to be so brief and because it felt totally out of my control. They are also too big—the supercars especially. The super saloons are crushingly vulgar: the silly, manufactured parping noise, the hyper-aggressive styling, the colour palette of white, metallic white or matt white with black wheels. Tell me, drivers of such cars, do you have total contempt for your neighbours and their wish to sleep? And what about behind the wheel? Is all that aggression a good thing on the public road? Would you walk down the street in the same mindset? They have tiny fuel tanks, rubber band tyres and rock hard suspension. They're not driving machines: they are status machines.
I can see the value of the repmobiles more, although I think it a shame that they try to ape the premium brands so much. One day I would like to own a Ford: it is such an honest marque, an everyman car. But almost all cars these days are not about engineering excellence, driving pleasure or even about travelling: they are about the projection of image and status. That's why so-called luxury cars have poxy diesel engines. The modern diesel may be good but it is nothing in refinement when compared to the modern petrol engine. But people want to project a 7 series image on a diseasel budget. £500 a month, 8,000miles a year. That last figure tells you what you need to know: these cars don't go anywhere: they are adornments for the driveway, the car park at the office, the golf club, like expensive garden gnomes. And, yes, I would have to concede that even opting out of moderns and running three old Mercs involves making a statement of sorts.
Enough navel-gazing: I'm off the cash machine and then the bodyshop.
I can see the value of the repmobiles more, although I think it a shame that they try to ape the premium brands so much. One day I would like to own a Ford: it is such an honest marque, an everyman car. But almost all cars these days are not about engineering excellence, driving pleasure or even about travelling: they are about the projection of image and status. That's why so-called luxury cars have poxy diesel engines. The modern diesel may be good but it is nothing in refinement when compared to the modern petrol engine. But people want to project a 7 series image on a diseasel budget. £500 a month, 8,000miles a year. That last figure tells you what you need to know: these cars don't go anywhere: they are adornments for the driveway, the car park at the office, the golf club, like expensive garden gnomes. And, yes, I would have to concede that even opting out of moderns and running three old Mercs involves making a statement of sorts.
Enough navel-gazing: I'm off the cash machine and then the bodyshop.
Personally I think you're being a little harsh on the owners of various models there. Yes people may like stupidly powerful and/or loud cars, but their motivation may not be as simple as status.... some like the squirt of power, some like the noise, some take them to places where they can start to use their potential... others may just like owning them for no other reason than they like the look of them or they hark back to their childhood dreams or whatever.
We all make choices and not everyone would choose the same thing thankfully, but I don't think you can pigeonhole peoples' motivation so easily... they maybe your thoughts, but that doesn't make them facts.
Just saying and not meant as an attack on you.
Good luck with your car.
We all make choices and not everyone would choose the same thing thankfully, but I don't think you can pigeonhole peoples' motivation so easily... they maybe your thoughts, but that doesn't make them facts.
Just saying and not meant as an attack on you.
Good luck with your car.
Quite a lot of expenditure was on tyres. When I was using it for 20 to 30,000miles a year, it would sometimes take 3 sets in a year. Tyres are a bit cheaper these days but it used to run me £750-ish for a set of four Michelins or Continentals. Then there is preventative maintenance. One year I had the shocks all changed; another the springs; another the rear suspension links and sub-frame bushes; and yet another year I had the front control arms replaced; then it was time for the shocks again. I had the factory phone kit retrofitted: that wasn't cheap. In its time with me, it has needed an air con condenser, an alternator, front and rear brake callipers, two off-side headlamps. It has had a pair of cats, an exhaust back box, a central heat shield, a couple of ABS sensors. Steering gear. It has had a lot of main dealer servicing: I am on my third service book and each one has about 20 stamps. Then there's stuff like mats.
If I think about the last year, from memory it has not had summer tyres, but it has had four new wheels, four winter tyres, discs and pads all round, rear brake callipers, NSF hub, an alternator (which turned out not to be needed after all), a battery, two services. There'll be other stuff, too. Looking forward, the front control arms need doing again; I'd quite like to go over the rear axle again; the diff mounts have never been done; the centre propshaft bearing is rumbling; a fuel pump package might be a sensible precaution; I'd like to have the leather upholstery freshened up...
It has 245,000miles on it: you can't do that kind of mileage without spending quite substantial chunks of money: at least, not if you want to do those miles in comfort and safety.
If I think about the last year, from memory it has not had summer tyres, but it has had four new wheels, four winter tyres, discs and pads all round, rear brake callipers, NSF hub, an alternator (which turned out not to be needed after all), a battery, two services. There'll be other stuff, too. Looking forward, the front control arms need doing again; I'd quite like to go over the rear axle again; the diff mounts have never been done; the centre propshaft bearing is rumbling; a fuel pump package might be a sensible precaution; I'd like to have the leather upholstery freshened up...
It has 245,000miles on it: you can't do that kind of mileage without spending quite substantial chunks of money: at least, not if you want to do those miles in comfort and safety.
I'll read this thread with interest, I used to have a r129 320 a 1997 model, I ran it from 2001-2003 putting on 45,000 miles, I loved it but it was very expensive to maintain and had lots of electrical/engine issues but it doesn't stop me lusting after another one.
It was green/black with mushroom leather.
Here it is on a trip to St Andrews:
It was green/black with mushroom leather.
Here it is on a trip to St Andrews:
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff