PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - My Euro 500SEC Project

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My Euro 500SEC Project

Hey guys,

I normally hang out on some other Mercedes forums, I don't have time for all of them. I gather a lot of useful information from this forum, so I figured I would start posting here a little more and inform you guys of my current project.

Day 1:

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As I mentioned in my other thread I had my eye on a 500SEC. I knew I wouldn't be able to stay away from W126's for long. I decided to pick up the car today. I am happy to be back!

The car is a 1984 500SEC. It is Midnight Blue over "255". Can anyone tell me what code 255 corresponds to? The car was originally sold in Braunschweig, Germany, and later was imported from Stuttgart to Florida. The car is in overall pretty good shape, but it is by no means perfect. It has covered 81K miles since new.

The car will be undergoing many phases of restoration/fixing up. I didn't have time to do anything to the car today except for give it a good wash inside and out. Tomorrow I will begin the fixing/detailing stages. In the near future the car will be completely disassembled, stripped, and professionally repainted and reassembled with all new seals/rubber/plastic. At one point in the cars life, it received a decent paint job, but with bad prep. As a result the paint is starting to flake off in a couple areas.

I got caught up with some other things this afternoon, and wasn't able to get any pictures until just now. So sorry for the dark, not so great pictures. I promise tomorrow you guys will have all the pictures you could wish for.

http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...1/LN3F7667.jpg

http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...1/LN3F7671.jpg

Hope to see you guys 'round!

I got bored so I decided to try a spot of paint, I don't think I'd be able to sleep otherwise.

Before:

http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...1/LN3F7676.jpg

After: (Don't mind the "digital tape" lol. I started to take the tape off on accident. Also, there is still dust from the polishing. This is just a quick n' dirty)

http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...1/LN3F7677.jpg

Day 2:

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I have some 17" AMG Hammers that I am going to put on the car. Sadly, my AMG 3 piece wheels don't have the right offset for W126's.

In other news, I got a lot done on the car today. I got rid of a bunch of federalization/emission work around parts. I got the driver side seat belt arm working again. I removed some old wiring and misc pieces from what I think might have been an aftermarket alarm at one point. I cleaned out the area under the battery tray and fuse box, I also repainted the battery tray. I got the whole car compounded, and partially polished, but it was too dark to finish polishing and wax it. Will have to continue that tomorrow. I will have a bunch of pictures later tonight.

I am going to make a few videos of the car since I didn't have time for a proper photoshoot.

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Hey guys,

While I wait for the video to upload, here are a few pictures from today.

Battery Box full of leaves and misc. I cleaned it out at the recommendation of some other members on the forum.

Before:
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...2/LN3F7680.jpg

After:
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...2/LN3F7681.jpg

Also stripped all the old paint off the battery tray and repainted it
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...2/LN3F7685.jpg

I somehow failed to get an after picture...lol.

Removing all non-factory wiring mess:
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...2/LN3F7686.jpg

Here is an interior shot that wasn't taken at midnight, lol.
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...2/LN3F7687.jpg

The part of the car that gets the most comments:
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...2/LN3F7691.jpg

My personal favorite:
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...2/LN3F7698.jpg

Hard at work fixing every misc. thing I can find:
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...2/LN3F7704.jpg

Day consisted mostly of compounding/polishing the car. I only got done with the polishing and wasn't able to put wax on it tonight.
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...2/LN3F7705.jpg

Looks pretty good without wax though:
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...2/LN3F7715.jpg

Video in a second...

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Here are two videos just for fun...

Sorry the 0-60 somehow turned into a 0-55, lol. I guess I messed up somewhere...

YouTube - 1984 Euro 500SEC 0-60 MPH

YouTube - 1984 Euro 500SEC Revving

Day 3 (Today 11/30)

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Today was a very rainy day, so I worked on the interior in the garage.

I replaced every single bulb in the interior, all with bulbs with a slightly higher wattage than stock. I am extremely pleased with the result. When everything it lit up nicely, it really looks good. I also "rebuilt" the two overhead lights which had become yellow & full of dirt over time. Both look like new again. I also polished the cluster plastic, as it was a bit hazy.

http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...3/LN3F7734.jpg

Tomorrow is a mini road trip to a recycled euro parts place near here. Hoping to score a new intake box from a later 560 (the dual-intake unit), as mine was hacked up to fit a air pump for emissions testing. I'm sure I'll find some more things as well.

The rest will be current! Enjoy guys!!

awesome. Keep up the good work!

I may just have to get a W126 coupe now!

Gorgeous car....Can't wait for updates!

There is a Euro 500SEC sitting in my friends salvage yard with 70,000 original miles on it. It had a mild accident damaging the front end many years ago and was never fixed.

Let me know if you need anything.

Your photography is just as stunning as the car and the amount of work you're pouring into it. Makes me want to be there as the car unfolds into another fine project and back to its former glory. :)

It looks very nice. I had a federal 500sec and really liked it. A Euro would be awesome....and a lot quicker. Good luck with it.

wow, lookin good! I'm looking out for a nice 560sec but a euro 500sec would be awesome.

can you share how you did the compound / polish? which products and how did you apply?

Thanks for the comments everyone! I will have more updated for you tonight.

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Originally Posted by optimizer (Post 2035791)

can you share how you did the compound / polish? which products and how did you apply?

I started with Menzerna Power Gloss Compound on a Green CSS pad from Lake County, which I absolutely went to town on since the car had been repainted once, and non-factory paint is usually much harder than stock paints.

A few spots of the car were wetsanded with 2000 grit or 1500grit for the scratches that were too deep to reach safely with the compound.

After that it was Menzerna Intensive Polish on a White pad, followed by Menxerna Final Polish II on a White pad using a Random Orbital buffer instead of the circular for the last two.

Well here is what I got done today:

I went to the junk yard looking for a bunch of misc. stuff. I got a new trunk light switch/holder thing as mine was missing/broken.

Picked up a new air box top, as mine was pitted. Its in the process of being polished to perfection. Found an air box from a late 560SL which had a large driver side air intake. Also picked up a new passenger side intake for my box.

As AMG did in the 80's, I began adding the driver side intake to my remaining air box to have a dual intake setup.

Here are the pictures (Thanks to my friend for letting me borrow his because I am an idiot and forgot mine!):

Two culprits:
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...4/IMG_2975.jpg

Began cutting the inlet attachment part out of the SL's airbox:
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...4/IMG_2976.jpg

...And then we got impatient:
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...4/IMG_2980.jpg

Cut out:
vhttp://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...4/IMG_2983.jpg

Flattened:
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...4/IMG_2985.jpg

Clamps are your friend:
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...4/IMG_2986.jpg

Traced:
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...4/IMG_2988.jpg

Cut and bent.
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...4/IMG_2989.jpg

Riveted on along with passenger side unit:
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...4/IMG_2990.jpg

And there you have it!:
http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...4/IMG_2991.jpg

I'll clean it up and post pictures installed later! Enjoy guys!

Doesn't the original dual snorkel setup have one big (stock) and one small (extra) snorkel instead? This might be even better than that.

Upon doing a little more looking, you might be right. I saw a few 6.0L motors with one big, and one small, and a few of the hammer cars with dual early SL type inlets (they just suck air from the engine bay rather than tubes to the grille). I'll have to look into it a bit more.

Here is a test fit of the airbox:

http://www.theshowroomshine.com/Jack...1201082223.jpg

The entire engine bay still needs to be thoroughly cleaned and polished/detailed. That is one of this weeks projects.

Later today I will clean and polish this intake and get it all installed back in the car. my K&N air filter should be here today as well.

(truckinik, If you read this, your Private Message Box is full! Clear it out so I can respond!)

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Originally Posted by optimizer (Post 2035791)

wow, lookin good! I'm looking out for a nice 560sec but a euro 500sec would be awesome........

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Originally Posted by rg2098 (Post 2035375)

I may just have to get a W126 coupe now!

It could be yours, wife would really like it out of the driveway http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-benz-cars-sale/228475-1985-500sec.html

What a beautiful SEC! I love the darker colors. Unfortunaltely, mine is white. Yours really looks like a fine specimen.

I had a thought, could you post up a stencil of the piece you made as a template so others could print it out, cut it out and do the same thing?