philipminion,

Repeat, WOW!!! On this site, you ask and then you receive, receive, receive, etc...

I am going to have to print all this to a Adobe Distiller PDF and print a hardcopy to sort all this information out!

Thanks, thanks, and thanks again. My interior is identical to the interior photo you sent, even all the dash details I could spot in the photo.

Insofar as the photo of the W126 you included, as far as I can tell it is possibly the same, but the wheels are not. Mine are the early AMG unpolished alloy, with spokes that are painted in the centers, with in my case, white, which happens to be the original color of my car, including the AMG add-on body parts. I'll snap some photos tomorrow and forward them to you, but I haven't washed it in months, so it will look kinda tacky.

It also is not in concours condition, but the engine is healthy and what I have learned in the Tech Help Forum, the transmission may be suffering from a piston design fault allowing the engine to race while downshifting, when I decrease speed like coming to a normal stop or turning a corner.

In my case, since I also have an intermittent problem with a fast idle (1000 rpm stopped, in gear, 1300 rpm in park or neutral) the problem forces me to remember to manually downshift before the transmission decides to.

The idle problem probably is not the idle control module, because in addition to eliminating any cold-solder connections, I have swapped it with a known good spare and the problem remained.

Again, in the Tech Help Forum someone mentioned a blown over-voltage relay fuse. While I have inspected all the obvious fuses in the fuse box, I hope that I missed one. I'll know tomorrow.

Concerning the '1000SEL' plate--it does not appear to be one produced en-masse, rather, it looks like it was cut from brass stock, the edges rounded off then chrome plated and polished. I will include a close-up photo. Those digital cameras sure are handy!

Also, I bought my AMG from an Arab in Dallas, who has relatives in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. He definitely was not an oil sheik, but a dental technician who wanted to sell it to buy dining room furniture for his new home. He may have bought it overseas, I did not ask him where he bought it, the price was right, he had a clean title and and I really wanted the car, so I got it while the getting was good. I can email him if needed.

I forgot to mention before, but the car does have an AMG data tag on the driver's side door jamb. I will get a photo of that while I am at it.

The engine seems to be identical to the 5 liter in my parts car, including the fuel system components, alternator, water pump and GM style air conditioning compressor.

Again, I appreciate your efforts and look forward to exchanging more information as it is available. Please let me know when I can return the favor.