OK so you want w123 as well here's a place in the UK

http://www.dcperformance.co.uk/uprated/h_r-lowering-springs/mercedes/w123.html

At their price in GBP it comes to about $400 - shipping shouldn't be another 200...

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

There's something to be said for NOT busting your oil pan on a rock*, and for being able to do an oil change without a jack, and for a few extra inches in the snow before the undercarriage starts dragging. Most modern cars sit too low.

*Which I managed to do on my 240D once.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.

Seems like Skippy is happy with his setup. So that's all that matters.


The H&R set up is a 2 inch cut front and rear. Very conservative.

It is not the slammed set up that is popular with urban youth. slammed = a 4 inch front cut = zero gap which they called tucked. I slammed my front and encounters some setbacks. I have a negative .5 inch wheel gap in front.

I think I want the "fudged slammed" cut. 3 inch cut with 1 inch gap that looks like no gap.

If i replace the 1 nub with 3 nub front shims, I will add some gap.

When I go from 190 70 15 tires to 205 45 16 wheels, I am not sure what that will do to the gap.

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Southern California English Bulldog Rescue: Make the whole family happier!

Taking Air. SCORE Class 63 closed course.

I have a radiator protection plate, as well as a oil pan skid plate. OEM of course.

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1981 300TD 4 speed manual
Euro bumpers, zender valance and skirts, H&R springs, billy HD's, leveled sls, real AMG Pentas 16x8 et11, vdo boost/egt gauges intergrated into ash tray, eurolights, led 3rd brake light

Radiator skid plates are uber rare. Never seen one for sale. Don't know anyone else who has one.

but then again, never heard of anyone busting up their radiator, but lots of people say they cracked a pan.

It evens the playing field between making the choice between a w-123 and a camel when driving through the sahara.

The nice thing about radiator plates is that it is MB OEM part that no one has.

__________________
Southern California English Bulldog Rescue: Make the whole family happier!

Taking Air. SCORE Class 63 closed course.

I have a brand new skid pan in the box for sale for a hundred bucks.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

is this the oil pan or the radiator pan skid plate?

When I go from 190 70 15 tires to 205 45 16 wheels, I am not sure if it will increase or decrease or do nothing to the amount of front wheel gap.

__________________
Southern California English Bulldog Rescue: Make the whole family happier!

Taking Air. SCORE Class 63 closed course.

The 16's are over 2" shorter than the 15's. This will increase your gap by about an inch.

http://www.peachparts.com/Wikka/TireCalc

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.

That might take care of some problems and give room to put the comforts on.

__________________
Southern California English Bulldog Rescue: Make the whole family happier!

Taking Air. SCORE Class 63 closed course.

I was not aware there was a radiator skid plate.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Cutting springs will increase the spring rate, as discussed at length. If by nubs or shims, you mean shims that raise a car by keeping a portion of the spring from compressing under load, that will reduce the active coils in the spring, and make it even stiffer.

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CC: NSA

All things are burning, know this and be released.

82 Benz 240 D, Kuan Yin
12 Ford Escape 4wd

You're four times

It's hard to

more likely to

concentrate on

have an accident

two things

when you're on

at the same time.

a cell phone.

www.kiva.org It's not like there's anything wrong with feeling good, is there?

I seen those. Those are clamps that keep some of the coils together and bring the car lower. Pass on those.

Shims or donuts are round hard rubber pads that the springs sit on. They come in 3 different sizes. The shortest one has a non-functional half round nub or bump on it. The next size has two bumps and the biggest three nubs.

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Southern California English Bulldog Rescue: Make the whole family happier!

Taking Air. SCORE Class 63 closed course.

Yep, I saw a picture of one once. I think it bolts on to the car and also the oil pan skid plate.

Your oil pan skid plate is priced correctly. Peace of mind. It will sell soon.

__________________
Southern California English Bulldog Rescue: Make the whole family happier!

Taking Air. SCORE Class 63 closed course.

This is good news. So I will go to a negative .5 inch gap to a positive .5 inch gap. Then add the larger 3 nub shim and get maybe an inch gap.

Depending on the off-set of the new wheels, I might not rub the front tires.

Then change out to comforts and replace the mushroomed lca bushing with a greased urethane one and hopefully get lowered and keep some of the great synchronous wallow.

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Southern California English Bulldog Rescue: Make the whole family happier!

Taking Air. SCORE Class 63 closed course.

Something to keep in mind, if anyone's thinking of designing one of their own: Skid pans have to be bolted to something sturdy enough to take a substantial portion of the car's weight. Otherwise you're just creating damage somewhere else, possibly somewhere more expensive. At the instant you hit something big with the skid plate, it's essentially supporting that end of the car, potentially with a lot of momentum behind it...

A skid pan that can't take weight is really only good against flying rocks.

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1981 Mercedes 300TD, 1994 Honda Civic Del Sol
http://mefi.us/images/fuelly/smallsig-us/67195.pnghttp://mefi.us/images/fuelly/smallsig-us/103885.png