Thanks! It's been fun so far, even if it seems sometimes like the car wants to fall apart faster than I can fix everything.

Yeah, I ordered the OE OVP from MB of Naperville. Which reminds me, I've been meaning to thank you for that free shipping code you provided - I've abused the heck out of it! I think it's expiring today, actually, which is too bad. I'll have to look for another source for reasonably priced parts that aren't an arm and a leg to ship.

So, the new OVP relay arrived today.

But, of course, as luck would have it the car has been functioning just fine all week long. Anyway, I'm sure the old unit is on the fritz, and it's just a matter of time before it finally fails for good, so I went ahead and installed the new one after spraying the contacts with some dielectric grease.

Unfortunately, though, I didn't get the satisfaction of fixing a broken car. I guess I could go ahead and swap them back out and keep the new one as a spare in the car for when the inevitable finally occurs, LOL. Probably not worth the trouble, except perhaps as a means of verifying a faulty OVP relay as the culprit.

So, as long as I've had the car, there was a chip in the middle of the front valence that bothered me (pic #1). The entire front valence is heavily road-rashed as well, but this bothered me a little less, as I am planning on eventually getting the bumper covers and rocker panels re-painted.

Then, a week or two ago, I bottomed out and damaged the driver's side of the bumper (pic #2). Fortunately, the oil cooler was spared any damage, but the bumper was now at the point where it was seriously compromising the looks of the car, and there really wasn't going to be a way to fix it (pic #3).

Fortunately, I found a used front bumper in great condition for $100 from a recycler not too far away in Oregon. It's the wrong color, obviously, but it's completely intact, with just a very small, barely noticeable dent in the valence but no missing plastic. It also seems quite a bit less brittle than the original, even though it is older.

The one thing I didn't really think about is that the replacement bumper cover is a pre-1990 part, so no chrome strips. Personally, I prefer the cleaner look without the chrome, but now I have mismatched bumpers. When I finally take the car in for paint, I'll probably just delete the rear chrome strips (which are loose, anyway), assuming the body shop can fill the mounting holes.

Final pic is how the car sits now. Obviously, looks a little janky pre-paint, but I'm pretty happy with the condition of the replacement as compared to the original. Should look pretty good once the paint is sorted.

Bob, you can retrofit the stainless "boomerang" trims... just need to drill the holes in the front bumper and they should be a direct swap. Too much work to fill the holes in the rear!

If the car bottomed out up front, triple check to make sure the lower radiator support hasn't been pushed inward... VERY common problem on all 124 chassis, and it's worse on lowered cars. Parking curbs are the kiss of death on these things. The main warning sign is when the forward sound/splash panel screw holes won't line up with the captive nuts on the chassis... if you have to bend the panel to make things line up, the support is likely bent inward. It can be pressed back out as needed. In extreme cases, the lower edge of the fan blade will hit the radiator core under hard braking and take out the radiator. I know a dealer part guy who killed 2 radiators before figuring out the root cause... hopefully yours is fine though.

Why didn't I think of that? Of course that's a much better solution, and would be very easy, while also keeping the bodywork period-correct (not counting the tail lamps, of course, but I prefer the newer style). I just wish I had done it while I had the bumper off! It's easy enough to R7R, except for some of the nuts on the driver's side - the oil cooler makes it a real tight fit for hands and tools!

Something I realized (too late) when I did the rear bumper, is that the stainless "boomerang" trims are loose. The seller shipped the bumper completely disassembled, and he included a little baggie of the clips that hold the trim on - but I had no idea at the time what they were or what they were for! Thinking back, I think I (very foolishly!) threw tham away. Any idea of the p/n, or quantity needed?

Thanks for the heads up. The belly pan did seem maybe a little harder to get on last time I had it off, but not extremely so. In any case, something to definitely look at. Probably going to get to the oil change this weekend, so that will be a good opportunity to check it out.

P/N for the clips is 124-988-90-78, they are $2 each list price from MB. EPC indicates 14 needed for the front bumper trims, and 24 for the rear bumper trims. You are correct, the bumper is fairly easy to R&R, but the oil cooler does get in the way on the driver side!

Finally, finally, finally tackled the headliner. The original was sagging quite badly, partially obstructing the view out the rear window, and completely obscuring the rear reading lamp in loose material. At the same time, the B-pillar fabric was loose and peeling, and looking generally awful. The whole arrangement has been bothering me since the day I brought the car home, but I knew it was going to be a big job, so kept putting it off. A long weekend proved to be just the impetus I needed to get started, and I spent a couple of days on the job.

I would've loved to have ordered an OE replacement headliner board and B-pillars, but shopping around, it became very clear that this route would be prohibitively expensive - about $2000 in parts, before shipping! For about a tenth of that price, I picked up 3 yards of cream beige vinyl (even marked "Made in Germany") and 1/8" foam from Headliner Express. The downside? Having to prep and recover the existing headliner board.

In terms of R&R, this job is not difficult at all, and is even a little fun. If I was using a new OE-supplied board, the entire job could be done in a day, working leisurely. The tedious part is scraping all the old foam off the old board, and then dealing with the spray adhesive and smoothing out the wrinkles and everything else. Once I hit that point, I quickly ran out of steam, which is why the job dragged to a second day. Additionally, the process takes a certain level of skill and finesse, and being my first (and last!) headliner repair, it was inevitable that I make a few mistakes. One of the extra annoying things was that the vinyl and foam were separate layers, so I essentially had to do everything twice.

So, I have mixed feelings. For a reasonable cost, I have a headliner that looks much better than before, but with a couple of small mistakes. With OE-supplied parts, I could've had a factory look, but at ridiculous cost (but a lot less cursing!).

Probably the most serious mistake I made is that I think I put too much material in the fold that sits in the sunroof track, because the sunroof sort of struggled to close. I think I probably should have trimmed the excess foam and just tucked the vinyl in there - I still may do, but I'm going to see if maybe the foam compresses with the sunroof closed. Unfortunately, there is a very, very small tear in the sunroof liner material now, which is not very noticeable - I just don't want it to get bigger. And I don't want to put extra strain on the sunroof motor and break the thing. Really annoying.

Another thing is that I accidentally broke the top clip of the driver's side B-pillar, so although it looks much nicer recovered in snug-fitting vinyl, it's a little loose and not flush with the weatherstripping as it should be. I have an idea for an easy and cheap fix that should be quite effective, so I'm not too worried about it.

I also took the opportunity to replace the rear view mirror. It's branded ULO (not ÜRO), but for all intents and purposes, seems to be exactly as the original part, minus a very small star marking on the OE part. Anyway, the mirror needs to be R&R'ed to do the sunroof, and the original glass was pretty dull, and had been glued at some point, so that excess dried glue was coming out the bottom. It looked terrible! I always hated looking in the rear view mirror and being greeted by the double whammy of ugly mirror and sagging headliner - now I get a crystal clear, unimpeded view out the back glass, which is quite nice - so there's that.

The headliner job last weekend was rather draining, and I didn't think I wanted to work on the car again for a long while, but by this morning I felt rejuvenated enough to tackle some more planned projects, and I actually got a lot done today. I was originally going to do the oil change today, but my wife had to do some stuff for work, and I ended up being left alone with the two kids - which is fine, except that I couldn't take the car out to get the oil up to temperature (one of the kids was home sick), so I decided to do a few other things that I've been saving up.

I started out with the trunk. One thing that was annoying me lately was the license plate was only fastened at the top by two screws - I had a cheap eBay license plate frame that didn't have fasteners on the bottom - so every time I closed the trunk, the stupid plate and frame would rattle in a way that sounded cheap. Looking through the EPC, I also realized that the trunk lid was missing a bracket that was supposed to be in place (pic #1). So I went ahead and replaced that (pic #2). I also replaced the cheap frame with an OEM frame that has fasteners on top and bottom, as well as rubber dampers between the plate and bracket to prevent rattling. Problem solved.

I also realized that the trunk stops were badly worn (pics #3 & #4). I didn't realize until I saw a picture somewhere else that they were supposed to be covered in rubber- you can see mine were completely down to bare metal! So I replaced those, too (pic #5).

I had also had a problem with the trunk leaking. Inspection revealed a dry and rotting trunk seal, and drainage channels that were clogged up with debris. The trunk liners and carpet were generally in poor shape, and stinky (pic #6). Overall, it made opening the trunk a depressing affair - it looked and smelled like a wet dog lived back there, and the trunk closed with a tinny sound.

So I pulled the old trunk seal and cleaned out a surprising amount of dirt and debris from underneath - it was deeply satisfying! I replaced the seal, and also replaced the right and left liner panels, as well as the carpet (pic #7). Good as new! I did neglect to replace the rear panel that lines the fuel tank - I may go back and do it later, but honestly that piece had been spared much of the abuse that the other carpet panels had seen.

Finally, I addressed the fuel tank filler gasket. The original was rotting, representing a potential leak into the trunk (pic #8). So I replaced that, too (pic #9).

The trunk looks 100% better, and closes with a satisfying thud, without a hint of rattle.

Then I moved on to the front, and replaced the original US-spec headlamps with Euro-spec units, and the original amber corners with clears. I used Stealth chromed dual-filament bulbs to avoid the "fried egg" look. Unfortunately, by the time I wrapped everything up, it had gotten too dark to get a decent picture, but I'll update the thread before too long.

After finishing the headlamps yesterday, I had intended to move on to the grill, but it was getting dark and dinner was on the table, so I shelved the job until this morning. I'm glad I did, because (as usual!) there were a couple small things that made a simple grill R&R take a little longer than expected.

So, my impetus to change the grill was mainly inspired by the faded MB badge on the front. I sort of appreciated the faded patina look, but also kind of thought the car wasn't quite old enough to pull it off - maybe would have left it alone on a W123, or even an SL, I dunno. But particularly with new headlamps, I kind of thought a faded badge would look weird.

As long as I was changing out the emblem, I figured I'd change out the entire grill - the original chrome was pitting, and the thin chrome strips were bent in places. The plastic insert was badly faded and suffered a few stone chips over the years.

Of course, an OE grill is big money, much more than I could justify spending for a cosmetic upgrade when the stock grill was perfectly serviceable. The only OEM grill I could find was made by ÜRO, a brand I normally avoid, but at less than $100, I figured it was worth a try for a cosmetic piece. I also liked that the part was advertised as having a black plastic insert, versus the stock gray.

Upon first inspection, the ÜRO part seems fine. Has a nice shine, and about the same heft as the OE part. The plastic insert is not quite black, but it is a fair bit darker than the OE gray, so that's a plus in my book. Of course, being a ÜRO part, there are some glaring deficiencies - chiefly, the hole for the hood star just isn't big enough to fit the star! No biggie, a few minutes with a file and I eventually got it to fit. Another thing is that there is no cut-out in the plastic insert for the hood release, so I had to trim the panel with a utility knife. Finally, the original nut clips need to be transferred over, except for the two outboard clips, which the part comes with for some reason. I don't mind transferring over the nut clips, but of the two that were provided, one was of such poor quality that it would not catch the 8mm bolt it was meant to, so I just went ahead and threw out the provided clips and re-used the OE ones - no biggie.

Overall, I'd say I'm satisfied with the grill. It took a little bit of extra work to make it fit than an OE-replacement probably would have, but at something like 1/4 or even 1/5 the price, it's hard to complain. I think the end result looks pretty good (see below), and actually the OE grill had a bigger gap on the passenger side versus the driver's side, whereas the ÜRO grill is even on both sides. Go figure.

Lookin' good! Nice to see a rare bird getting restored so nicely...

Thanks! I couldn't have made it to this point without this board, and your vast W124 resources in particular have been hugely helpful thus far (and especially for what's in the works).

But, of course, car restoration is a long game, and I think it's going to be longer than I had anticipated before I get to something I perceive as an end point. But I guess it wouldn't be as much fun if it was easy, or over too quickly.

Looks cool! About to start a thread for my white 92D. I need a new front bumper as well.

__________________
Only diesels in this driveway.
2005 E320 CDI 243k Black/Black
2008 Chevy 3500HD Duramax 340k
2004 Chevy 2500HD Duramax 220k

Good luck! The bumpers seem to pop up from time to time on eBay, or via a Google search. I got really lucky and happened to find a really decent one for only $100, and shipping wasn't too terrible since it was only going from Oregon to Washington.

If you're near a big metro area, you might have better luck at pick-and-pull type places.

Finally got this SOB of a drain plug out! What a PITA! Luckily my Craftsman bolt-out kit really came through, but it was looking kind of dicey for a while - I almost gave up, except that I knew I didn't have a whole lot of other options...anyway, glad I stuck with it. You can see in the pic below just how rounded the drain plug had become, although to be fair, the bolt-out sockets contributed significantly to the deformity of the bolt head that you see here.

Anyway, changed out the filter and o-ring, fit a new drain plug and copper crush washer, and the engine got a new fill of a little less than 8 quarts of Mobil Delvac 1300 Super 15W-40. It's been about 4,000 miles since the initial oil change I had done...I still haven't decided on an OCI to run with the above mentioned oil, but probably in the 3-5K range. Maybe collect for an oil analysis at the next change to peg down an OCI the right way.