Medium Pimpin' - 1995 E300 diesel build

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

I'm personally going the SEM route, hopefully I'll have it done before Leavenworth.

Sounds like I'm going to be at Leavenworth with my sort-of-brother-in-law, so maybe I'll see what'cha come up with in person! Has yours got cracks in the leather, or is it just tired looking?

So, I broke down and ordered this shit:


There's a worrying amount of Russian in the ad, but the guy's got solid feedback, and, pravda, eBay/PayPal are so ridiculously prejudicial toward buyers that if they turn out to be gross, I can probably get my moneyz back. I can tell from the photos that it has a little wear, so I'm going to eventually redye both front seats to clean 'em up. Hopefully if my sort-of-brother-in-law picks up the E30 'vert he's been looking at, I can experiment with some dye on his car before doing mine

So, the blower motor in this thing has been sounding like it's got a chickadee stuck in it for weeks now, and with the summer months not far away, it was time to get in there and see if I could lube up the blower. So, a few days ago I dug into the cowl area and got at the motor:


Luckily Mercedes didn't hide the blower under the dash, but actually put it somewhere accessible. Of course, it's hidden behind about 55 layers of plastic and stuck in there with a zillion tiny Torx screws, but whatever, better than pulling the dash. You can also see my super-fly daily Lancer in the background there

Mercedes went as far to balance each of the squirrel cages with a little metal clip to prevent vibration:


I soaked the bearings in white lithium grease, reassembled, and no more squeaking! YAY!

MOAR SOON

[mike-81-240d]

That's a tempting second choice, looks like a better deal than the upholstery shop I checked out. $1470, though... woof.



That's another one I'm looking at. People seem to think that Leatherique holds up a little better, but the sheen and match of SEM is superior. Thanks for the reminder!

Yeah Gahh is the best stuff you can buy though, all the guys that restore R107s swear by it.

I'm personally going the SEM route, hopefully I'll have it done before Leavenworth.

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

Check out loves trim shop. He usually does custom interiors, but you may be able to score a deal with him. Im going to have my doorcards redone by him sometime soon, check out his instagram though http://instagram.com/lovestrim

Some pretty sick shit on that Instagram, I have to say. I would love to do diamond stitch inserts in my seats and door panels like that E46. One day... one day.

I'll give him a shout and see what he thinks, thanks!

Progress on this Benz looks awesome man, really liking the outcome

Btw on the upholstery situation i could hook you with a bud that could redo your seats for a decent price. He did my vandalized leather interior in the e36. Got a steal deal.
Let me know if you want to talk to him.

Yeah, shoot me his info, I'd love to see what he can do! Thanks!

Whoah, such a cool ride!

Thanks so much! It's finally comin' together

[Twannnd]

Whoah, such a cool ride!

[Dano]

AWW YISSSS, the last of my air ride shizzle is on its way from Vermont or wherever! This is like my 32000th order from BagRiders, I'm practically on a first-name basis with those guys.

So, the driver's seat in this thing has always been pretty f'd up. Mercedes used perforated leather in these things for reasons only understood in Stuttgart, and it just doesn't hold up over the years. In my car's case, the sheer misery of being in California for nearly two decades appears to have further sucked the life out of the driver's seat.



The tears in the leather are obvious, but the bolster is showing lots of wear too, to the point where the dye has been worn down. The leather is also just sort of gross from the years of general neglect this car went through with its approximately 300 previous owners.

I went over to Beaverton Auto Upholstery today, who have awesome reviews on Yelp, and got a quote for recovering the driver's seat and replacing the center panels in the passenger's (which are showing similar but less pronounced wear). $950. Ouch. And that leaves the remainder of the passenger's seat looking worn, if not damaged. New covers from Pelican Parts are also $950, and there's a worrying lack of images or detail on their site.

At this point, I think I'm going to find a used grey seat cover for the driver's in acceptable condition, and try to re-dye both front seats with Leatherique. I've seen some great results elsewhere, and if I can get a year or two out of it, well, hell that's a pretty good deal.

Has anyone used the Leatherique re-dye or some competitor? Thoughts before I throw down a few hundred dollars on a likely-disastrous project?

EDIT: And whoever gave my thread a 5-star rating, you're awesome.

Here's some shiny-shiny to hold you all over until I stop whining and some cool stuff starts happening:

Progress on this Benz looks awesome man, really liking the outcome

Btw on the upholstery situation i could hook you with a bud that could redo your seats for a decent price. He did my vandalized leather interior in the e36. Got a steal deal.
Let me know if you want to talk to him.

[skiierman]

I went over to Beaverton Auto Upholstery today, who have awesome reviews on Yelp, and got a quote for recovering the driver's seat and replacing the center panels in the passenger's (which are showing similar but less pronounced wear). $950. Ouch. And that leaves the remainder of the passenger's seat looking worn, if not damaged. New covers from Pelican Parts are also $950, and there's a worrying lack of images or detail on their site.

Check out loves trim shop. He usually does custom interiors, but you may be able to score a deal with him. Im going to have my doorcards redone by him sometime soon, check out his instagram though http://instagram.com/lovestrim

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

http://www.gahh.com/product_info.php...roducts_id=819

That's a tempting second choice, looks like a better deal than the upholstery shop I checked out. $1470, though... woof.

Also I've seen very good results with SEM dye.

That's another one I'm looking at. People seem to think that Leatherique holds up a little better, but the sheen and match of SEM is superior. Thanks for the reminder!

By torsion beam axle just a solid beam right, and the front for mine im not sure... Stanceworks really needs a facepalm face

It's slightly different than a beam axle, since the beam is allowed to twist somewhat (the wheels are mounted to trailing arms rather than directly to the ends of the axles), but as for the camber characteristics where air ride is concerned, they're essentially the same.

[baggedb16sentra]

That I'm afraid I could not tell you just yet. I've only had these tires on for 2300 miles so far, and only 200 with the car on air. I don't suppose they'll last particularly long, not with the weight of a diesel W124 and the camber I'm running.

For the record, here's some camber specs for you all:


_______________Drop___Front____Rear
Ride height:___3.5"___-4.5º___-5.3º

__Aired-out:___4.5"___-4.5º___-6.5º


^ That's all measured with some goofball iPhone app, so it might be off by half a degree or something.

As for your B16, I believe you've got a torsion beam axle in the rear, correct? That's a pretty vastly different system than my 5-link, and it means that rear camber will neither be an option nor an issue for you, not without doing some screwball stuff. The front's different, since it's independent up there, and you'll get some camber when lowered. That's where I might be worried for you, how fast you're going to munch front tires.

By torsion beam axle just a solid beam right, and the front for mine im not sure... Stanceworks really needs a facepalm face

[mike-81-240d]

http://www.gahh.com/product_info.php?cPath=51_3438_282_2489&products_id=819

Also I've seen very good results with SEM dye.

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

That I'm afraid I could not tell you just yet. I've only had these tires on for 2300 miles so far, and only 200 with the car on air. I don't suppose they'll last particularly long, not with the weight of a diesel W124 and the camber I'm running.

For the record, here's some camber specs for you all:


_______________Drop___Front____Rear
Ride height:___3.5"___-4.5º___-5.3º

__Aired-out:___4.5"___-4.5º___-6.5º


^ That's all measured with some goofball iPhone app, so it might be off by half a degree or something.

As for your B16, I believe you've got a torsion beam axle in the rear, correct? That's a pretty vastly different system than my 5-link, and it means that rear camber will neither be an option nor an issue for you, not without doing some screwball stuff. The front's different, since it's independent up there, and you'll get some camber when lowered. That's where I might be worried for you, how fast you're going to munch front tires.

[baggedb16sentra]

How long do your tires last, kinda wanna have my set up like yours, were im not going through tires a lot.

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

You've got SLS in the back, yes? I've seen an SLS system all of once in my life. My understanding is that when it works, it's awesome, but it usually doesn't.

Were your wagon mine, my first thought would be to see if I could hack the SLS struts to see if they could be used for height control. I have zero idea what the range on an SLS strut is, though, and it probably wouldn't work, but whatever

If my recollection of the SLS system is correct, you've got regular ol' coil springs back there, and all the height control nonsense is handled by a special shock absorber. If that's the case, I'm pretty sure you could use brackets of my design. If I remember right, though, the SLS shocks are portly little fellas, so you'd probably want to replace them with thinner, regular shocks, since the rear suspension is so claustrophobic.

[chompsticks]

those flipping window regulators..... PITA! I like those brackets though. Wondering if the rear would work on a wagon. any idea?

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

AWW YISSSS, the last of my air ride shizzle is on its way from Vermont or wherever! This is like my 32000th order from BagRiders, I'm practically on a first-name basis with those guys.

So, the driver's seat in this thing has always been pretty f'd up. Mercedes used perforated leather in these things for reasons only understood in Stuttgart, and it just doesn't hold up over the years. In my car's case, the sheer misery of being in California for nearly two decades appears to have further sucked the life out of the driver's seat.



The tears in the leather are obvious, but the bolster is showing lots of wear too, to the point where the dye has been worn down. The leather is also just sort of gross from the years of general neglect this car went through with its approximately 300 previous owners.

I went over to Beaverton Auto Upholstery today, who have awesome reviews on Yelp, and got a quote for recovering the driver's seat and replacing the center panels in the passenger's (which are showing similar but less pronounced wear). $950. Ouch. And that leaves the remainder of the passenger's seat looking worn, if not damaged. New covers from Pelican Parts are also $950, and there's a worrying lack of images or detail on their site.

At this point, I think I'm going to find a used grey seat cover for the driver's in acceptable condition, and try to re-dye both front seats with Leatherique. I've seen some great results elsewhere, and if I can get a year or two out of it, well, hell that's a pretty good deal.

Has anyone used the Leatherique re-dye or some competitor? Thoughts before I throw down a few hundred dollars on a likely-disastrous project?

EDIT: And whoever gave my thread a 5-star rating, you're awesome.

Here's some shiny-shiny to hold you all over until I stop whining and some cool stuff starts happening:

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

Loving the build so far though, looks great on the wheels!

how you are sitting is how I want to be. This is such a nice ride!!

Very nice build.

Thank you all so much!

I tried to mount the spacers to the rear, but it looks like I'm going to have to do a light pull on the fenders to clear the way I want. Waiting for a sunny day, and I'll get out there with a hammer. I'm also waiting on some goodies from BagRiders that are on intergalactic backorder, and then I'll have more updates for you all!