Painting the wheels today, bright titanium polyurethane BC/CC, even bead blasted and refinished the lug bolts too...

Speakers
 

Would you happen to know if this would apply to an 81 300SD (W126)?

"I found the original speaker holes in the dash would accept a 4X6" speaker. I found a set of Cerwin Vega SS 4602P that were a drop-in fit. A pair of Cerwin Vega HED 1693 6 X 9's were easily installed into the rear shelf."

Need to upgrade mine. As far as I know, they are the originals.:eek:

Beware!!!!! The opening is a 4x6 BUT only the Alpine 4x6 will drop in....

This is what I was thinking. Its a lovely car and you KNOW it. Keeping it on the road should not cost more than owning a newer car.

Thanks...
 

I'll keep that in mind!

Walgamuth,

True words speaketh you...

Images of the wheel restoration and CD player installation. Taken this morning....

A few photos from the archives....

#1 My wife and the 300SD a few months after we met in the winter of 2004.

#2 At MBZ of Fresno in 2006

#3 300SD with mystery license plates

#4 Christmas Night 2010 - at Wolverton, California

#5 Our son and 300SD October 13, 2012

And a few of our so-cal family....

1. Mommy, daddy & baby

2. One of my wife's many different hairstyles

3. With straight hair

She is as beautiful inside as she is outside and I am blessed to have her in our lives....Robert

You have a lovely family. You look like a good husband and father.

Thanks for sharing.

As they say, "Pictures speak a thousand words", this puts the personal touch to the forum. you have a beautiful wife and boy.

Charlie

Very nice addition to this thread, Heir Doktor.
Is she glad you are keeping the old w116? She's much more "stately" than the car, Bravo to you.

Thanks, guys. You guys are great!@

1500 miles last week in 5 days of commuting...

Still getting good fuel economy?

Is it holding steady at 30-ish?

27-30 all the time....

30 (29.7) without the A/C on (Morning Commute) and 27 (26.8) on the Afternoon Commute with the A/C on...

Man, that's really good fuel economy.

Here you have almost a 40 year old car, and gets as good mileage as a comparable full size new car.

If I can work out the axle/seal problem, and get the 2.47:1 axle in the car, maybe 33-35 is within reach!!!!!

Still haven't got the rear 6X9's mounted yet. Dad did such a good job of installing a new, covered package tray back in 2005 that I almost hate to cut into it.

Haven't found any decent surface-mount 6X9 boxes yet...

Bidding is up to $3,550.00 and the reserve has not yet been met. The car is in Menifee, CA., which is close. maybe I should go and rob the seats!!!!

The seller writes: "The car has a serious presence on the highway in terms of sheer bulk."

YES! especially at 110mph and flasing to pass!!!!

P.S. The seller calls the color 'Manilla Beige,' which is incorrect. It is Acorn Yellow and the interior finish is 'Saffron' and not 'Bamboo...'

Missed this post. She has mixed feelings. She is a 'New car person' whereas I am an old car person, so she likes that we save money with a car that is paid for (same as our Supercharged 2001 Mustang GT) but she would rather have an S55...Robert

Steadily making more improvements.....

getting the 2.47:1 axle ready to swap in, changing out a lower sump gasket that 'wicks' oil residue and need to replace the big 'O' ring in the top of the steering gear....

I want to photograph my car with yours just to have a "big brother, little brother" thing going on :D

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/7...4c3fc1dc_z.jpg

How cool!!!!

I am looking for Euro bumpers and headlights!!!!

$3,605.00 and reserve still hasn't been met....

Mercedes-Benz : 300-Series 300SD in Mercedes-Benz | eBay Motors

Your car is super-duper clean.

Did I mention I have clean wheels????

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...l-refinish.jpg

The paint department just refinshed these for me recently.

Love your 15's.....Very nice!!!!

Thanks, yes you've got clean wheels! Very nice to see them like this. A lot of the w116 300SD's I see around here are in horrible shape.

I've got clean wheels, and fender wells :P

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7115/7...70f119b2_c.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8437/7...5fa2ac44_z.jpg

My car works everyday, so it isn't quite so clean. I put 5,000 miles on it last month!!!!

P.S. The 215/70R14 is a great looking & riding tire on a W116 with stock rims....

My 300D used to be my daily driver. Now, that title goes to my 190E and I can now drive my 300D on weekends only, or on Fridays (I call it classic car to work Fridays). But my 190E is also a classic :D

I think I put 5,000 miles on it this year :eek:

I put 5,275 miles on the 300SD last month!!!!!

I have never named a car before, but this one deserves a fitting name....perhaps Boris or Hercules!!!!!

I like Maximus.:D

Got a tad sandblasted on the way to work Thursday.....The adjuster is going to examine the car Monday. probably get the grille, mouldings, fog lamp lenses, headlamp surrounds, grille and bumper cap replaced, as well as the month old windshield too....

Getting everything on the front end replaced from sand damage.....

Great news.

Beige benzes are awesome, mine even is metallic beige ;)

Keep rocking guys :thumbup:

It's going to look even better than it does now....:-)

Ok, folks...

I am accepting offers on the 300SD. I would like to see what kind of interest is generated. Forum member 'Hammerwerfer' has actually ridden in the car.

Details to be posted later...

How are your Hancooks holding up? The ones on our Passat were starting to crack and fall apart after only a year and a half :eek: I'm glad to be rid of them.

-J

Hankooks have been great, much better than the Dunlops or Goodyears I had previously. No cracks whatsoever and excellent stability and tire wear.

I'm not a Hankook fan, but it was one of the few whitewalls I could still find!!!

Tremendous thread and does illustrate well what is possible in a non rust belt area. That particular model basically rusted out very easily in our climate.

I have always wondered what your car would give in fuel milage at a steady 70 mph. Speeding even on bare roads is out of the question here. Twelve miles over and above can get you into some serious difficulty and money with the current laws. Speed traps are set up regularily.

That picture of your son looking at the snowy grill is a classic photo in my humble opinion.

Thanks, Barry...

When I went to the 2.47:1 and started evaluating mileage over several tanks of fuel, I finally realized that my fuel economy (25-27 for the most part) did not change. Instead, where I used to get 25-27 at 60 mph, I can now get 25-27 @ 80 mph.

At a steady 70 mph I seem to get around 22-25 mpg...

That snowy grille was taken near Wolverton, California lat one Christmas Eve...

There is no rust in the car...anywhere, it needs the seats recovered and new door rubbers, plus there has been a lot of new sand damage to the new parts we replaced last year on the front end from daily driving in the desert, but that's a way of life here with almost daily sandstorms.

I got a couple of local guys interested in the car, but I wanted to see what kind of offers this would fetch from 'people in the know' so to speak...we haven't really talked hard numbers just yet...

What made you decide to try and sell it again?

I have the opportunity to get us into a much, much newer Benz. We are still recovering from a $1/4 million dollar 2011 foreclosure loss, so I have to weigh out how much I will have to come up with out of pocket, and secondly, my wife doesn't want us to have a used car lot at the house...:)

This car is a legend (at least in my mind)... I wish I could...

It's a good car, it's not perfect, but it's not rusty anywhere and it runs good, plus it comes with things like a brand new extra climate control amp, a new pushbutton/temp wheel unit, spare glow plugs, injectors, cruise control servo and a entire box of small, assorted parts.

We just did new front calipers, (4) new Balo rotors, new master cylinder, PBR organic pads and switched the system to non-hygroscopic DOT 5 silicon brake fluid. It has new Hankook P215/70R14 tires with less than 5,000 miles on them, a new battery, new aluminum climate control servo, new MBZ/Conti belts, freshly serviced R-12 system and of course the new 2.47:1 differential and new axles.

On the downside, the door rubber is starting to go bad and needs to be replaced, it has needed the seats redone for quite sometime, although the interior (other than the seat covers and a few dash cracks) is in fabulous original condition.

Other than that, it is a super-solid car with several trips to Arizona under it's belt. It is currently my wife's daily driver so it has be maintained in such a condition as to make it 100% reliable, which means I use only genuine MBZ stuff...

I just happened upon this thread, and I am sad to hear about the selling of your car. It is quite incredible that it has that many miles on it and is still in nice shape. The high mileage may have something to do with the lack of buyers, but around here, high mileage is like a trophy! I miss my 1980 W116 (same color in and out as yours), but I am full up on 'Benzs right now, so I don't need another one. Good luck selling it, and I hope the buyer appreciates it as much as you do....Rich

I'm sorry you have to sell. I'd love to own that car. Just a pity I can't do so right at this moment. Good luck with a sale. Hope it goes to someone else who appreciates it the way you do and others should. I wonder if it could potentially become the first two million mile Mercedes?

- Peter.

Thank you all for the kind words...

Peter, we do not 'have to sell' the car, I am just evaluating an opportunity to get into a much newer (2000+) Benz E320 from the original owner, with less than 90,000 miles and fully documented.

Greek taxi driver Gregorios Sachinidis from Thessalonica handed over his 1976 Mercedes Benz 240 D to the Mercedes-Benz Museum Collection in 2004. Mr. Sachinidis is a multi-kilometer millionaire. Having covered all of 4.6 million kilometers, making it the Mercedes-Benz with the highest recorded mileage known to date....:)