Just an ordinary 190E

[JonhuuW201]

The cars current condition featured on cdlc.co page.




Hello! I'm a Finnish guy and I'm into old mercs. I bought myself a 190E 2.3 5-speed manual, 1991 Sportline two years ago as I got my driver's license. I do also have a W210 OM606 avantgarde mb. I'm creating this thread just for fun, been lurking around for ages

Here's the first picture I took of the car:



The car came with two sets of 8-hole OEM wheels. The condition was quite good, not much rust and the engine ran well. Interior was and still is the sportline caro, sadly the driver's seat had taken major damage. The car has an electric sunroof, which sadly doesn't work. As you can see in the picture it isn't always so warm here, haha.

Something had hit the benz's rear left side and it needed to be repaired.





And then some fresh 199-black paint on it:



The exhaust was broken and it leaked big time. Instead of welding the exhaust I bought a new piece for it and it stopped leaking.



Then I drove the car for a while and I wanted to get some fresh things to it. I updated the ancient and worn-out sound system with some fresh Sony speakers, 4" in the front and 5,25" in the rear. Also got an Alpine subwoofer but I might just get rid of that soon. I bought a Kenwood music player with bluetooth function and updated my cassette holders to "wooden" ones.



Bought new floor mats from Germany as the old ones were broken and they were plastic. These are fabric and look (and feel) much, much better:



The car has a "sunblocker" in the rear and I think it's an OEM part:



Some random pics of the car:









Bought an avantgarde grill from Germany and replaced the clear front indicators with orange ones. Also installed led bulbs inside the indicators to work as parking lights. Replaced the license plate with a more clean one (no EU logo on it). Also got a 190E badge to the rear as it was missing.



Put some light sunscreen film (50%) on all the windows expect windshield:



Bought a set of TA TECHNIX -60/40mm lowering springs from Germany and put them on. Also bought new brakeplates and pads to rear as the old ones were worn out:

The old brakeplate


New one:




Bought a fresh set of wheels with gray centre having in mind that they would fit the gray sideskirts in the car and got some good strecthed tires on them:





Made more space for the wheels by rolling the front fenders/arches:



Wheels on (car sitting way too high):



What a shitty photo here:





Upgraded the license plate lights with LEDs. Also replaced all the interior lights with LEDs.



A nice little detail I bought:



The driver's seat is still broken:





Some pictures of the W210 merc too (it was crashed so it had to be repaired and painted):




Here it's in one piece again:




I love it!

I also have a pretty MINT set of OEM wheels:



And another pic with all the lights on:


I'm also trying to find a black leather interior, I was so close to getting one few weeks ago Also actively looking for US headlights just because they're rare here haha. Probably getting E36 BMW coilovers as rear shocks and upgrading the upper strut mounts to r129 4matic ones. Still trying to figure which shocks I should have in the rear. I really want a BBS or Nardi wheel, too. Wind deflectors to all the windows could also look cool. I will fix the front bumper (really want a cossy one...!) and paint all the plastic side skirts because the paint on them is worn out.

[Jorgen]

Perfect color combo on this.
I'm using E36 coilover shocks in front and Ta-Technix shocks rear, all springs original and cut. Ride is great imo.

[JonhuuW201]

Heyyyyyy, didn't make a single post during summer. The car has changed a bit since the last time. Here's a pic from first days of summer:


I bought a AMG front bumper from Latvia on July. It's made of glass fiber and was prepainted black. I managed to find some fog lights to put on it after some pondering. Turned out that Bosch pilot 150's fit the holes perfectly:



The bumper came completely without any kind of fittings so I had to make them myself. Planted some wood on the original frame with sikaflex-glue after some measurements:



I took the original bumper frame out of the old bumper and planted it on the AMG one with urethane. Had some problems with the urethane expanding too much. Also took the original sidemounts out of the old bumper and fiberized them on the new bumper, these are visible on the pic:



Gave the bumper a red base coat because I had no idea which paint the black base coat was:


Painted the bumper with the original Alto Grey 7700 color, just like the sideskirts are. I wonder if the "bumpstop" should've been painted black instead of grey (actually I might just paint it black soon). It also turned out that the red base coat was a mistake because it was a bit transparent with the grey paint (probably should've gave it one more coat of grey). It's not visible in the picture though.



Some pictures of the car after the amg bumper:







Also testing how artec p turbos fit my friends' v70:



Got tired of my 17" fake RS wheels and bought a set of mint 16" BBS RS wheels. They're 16x8 et22 and 16x9 et9 in size, the lips are new and they have golden circlebolts on them.







I love these wheels and they will bring the car to a whole new level. I ordered 4matic upper shock mounts from Germany, they haven't arrived yet. I've also been doing a lot of research on bags and probably ordering some stuff soon.

Ending the post with a picture of my s210 and w201

[E280Benz]

What brand and sizes where your replicas? They did look good to be honest

[JonhuuW201]

What brand and sizes where your replicas? They did look good to be honest

STR RS 17x8,5/10 ET30/20. Yeah they looked decent no doubt, but they're still fake I still have them but probably getting them sold on Monday. I think they were too big for the tiny baby-benz regardless

[WaStateKillerBee]

That bumper looks so good!

[JonhuuW201]

That bumper looks so good!

Heh thanks dude! I still can't decide if I should paint the "bumpstop" black because that's how the original one is painted What do you think?!

[ConnorHollamby_]

love it man! keep up the amazing work!

[JonhuuW201]

Benz received some goods today as the valves arrived







I'm currently waiting for all the other parts to arrive. I guess only a decent water trap is missing from what I've ordered. Oh and the 4matic upper shock mounts came aswell

[JonhuuW201]

Got some more parts today:



4 gallon air aluminium air tank with 7 ports. The compressor is same as Viair 444C (airwehrke or something). Bags are SS-5. Still missing some fittings, a good water separator and gauges. Valves will be controlled with 3x momentary rocker switches. Not sure whether I should go with hardlines on the trunk or not, it would look better that's for sure.

Also got a set of hidden tire valves from Rimfix:



I'm currently waiting for tires to ship for my RS'. Tires will be 195/40 & 205/40 Nankang.

[JonhuuW201]

Tires arrived and they're now mounted on:







Also a closer picture of the hidden valve stems, which look really clean to me:

[Jay92]

Great looking 190E! If you're in the market for a bag bracket kit be sure to check out our new version 2 kit for the W201.

http://www.commonwealthmotoring.com/...4-air-ride-kit

[JonhuuW201]

Great looking 190E! If you're in the market for a bag bracket kit be sure to check out our new version 2 kit for the W201.

http://www.commonwealthmotoring.com/...4-air-ride-kit

Thanks for the offer but I guess i'll go the cheaper way and make them myself

[JonhuuW201]

Finally have a chance to update the topic. It's going to be a huge post but I'd appreciate if you guys took some time to browse through it. I tried to bring in as many photos as I possible could. I started off the bagging project by dissembling the trunk. It turned out that the reserve tire case had taken some rust and light shined throught the bottom. Had to weld some new metal on it and protect well from rust.

First I cut the rust off:



Then I welded metal together, polished the metal and sprayed some zink on it:



Then it was time for epoxy based basecoat:



And finally some chassis protecting paint. Same process was done to the outside of the sparewheel case ofcourse:



After some basework I could start building the trunk of the car for air suspension stuff. I started off by making a frame for a "fake floor" that the tank, compressor and valves would be attached to later on. I also reinforced the frame with some aluminum to make it more durable.



As seen on the photo I'm not using "bolt-on valves". I'm using 8 2/2 way solenoid valves from china. I assembled them with a check valve between the air out and air in line to prevent the air flowing from bags back to tank if for reason or another the tank would start leaking.



Then I cut some wood panel to the trunks shape and testfitted the tank and compressor on top of it:



Finally I got them to fit and was happy with the result so the panels and the frame received a protective coating so they would not tear apart overtime:



The frame and panels would now have to wait for the project to move on and meanwhile they should get rid of the stingy smell the coating gave them. Now it was time to pull airlines and wires through the chassis and make a panel for the buttons and pressure indicators.



You can see the wiring for the valves on the top left corner, sadly the picture is bad. I ran the wires from drivers side under the upholstery using the original wirecasing to the ashtray/casette holder. Also some airlines are attached to the valves.

Here's a video of the air management system functioning:

https://youtu.be/TTYdLO6z5GM

And some pictures of the trunk wiring finished:


Relay, pressure switch, fuse and a joint box:



For the airlines I used the original hose/wirecasings on the passenger side. The front and rear airlines are of the same lenght among each other to ensure same pressure on left and right side. I used T-fittings to branch lines for pressure indicators.




There are good inlets in the front and rear for the airlines to go outside the car:




I then removed the cassette holder and dissembled it taking the cassette slots off. Then I cut an aluminum piece to fit the holder, cut some holes to it for the pressure indicators and switches and gave some matte paint for it and glued it on to the holder frame.





I had some problems with the pressure indicator fittings leaking and I actually destroyed the thread of one indicator. Had to make new thread on it. All fittings were sealed with Loctite 577. Here's a picture of the center panel wired:





I've had the drivers seat on my to-do list for years and I finally got myself to fix it. It was broken badly. It was difficult to find the caro seat repair pieces but I managed to find a shop that sells them. Repairing the front seat was a little expensive, clothes 170€ and 160€ for the upholsterers work. But who cares, atleast I have a perfect seat now

Old condition:


Progress:




I mounted the front shocks on R129 4matic upper strut mounts, which turned out to be useless after I got the E36 coilover shocks (they're so damn short)




So I needed shorter shocks to go super low and after research it was clear that I needed Saab 900 rear shocks for the rear and E36 BMW Coilovers to the front. Neither pair of the shocks were a perfect bolt-on fit. The front shocks needed a "spacer" so it wouldn't stick out of the upper strut mount so much. I made them out of some pipe and the pipecutter gave a good angle for the top to tighten on:



Old and new front shocks:



Rear shocks had too big lower mount which I cut to be smaller. Also the hole needed a "spacer", which I made out of copper pipe.





Old and new shock (damn the Saab shock is short haha):




Designing the brackets for the bags was a bit of a headache. I assigned a friend of mine to fabricate some thick plates for the bags to attach on. They were cut with a water cutter and look clean. I bought some 4" pipe from a local shop and started measuring how long the brackets should be. In order to go as low as possible I had to cut pieces off the brackets several times. A big problem was and still is the alternating angle of the front LCA. The bag doesn't have much room to move inside. Therefore the LCA brackets are cut in an angle that gives the best position for the bag on the drive height.
Many pictures of making the brackets under...

Testfitting:



I had to remove upper spring cups from the rear so I could go lower and that I could run the airlines completely from inside the car.
The attachment plate was welded on the chassis and bag would be bolted from inside the trunk. Also had to cut holes to the trunk. Sorry for the poor welding, but there's very little space down there to weld The welded plate is coated with epoxy basecoat in the picture.


Here you can see the plates, they're already welded on the pipes:



Holes for connecting the airline and bolting the bag on:



Welding and coating the brackets:






And oh yeah, don't ask me why the brackets are yellow I guess I just like the color.



I also added a metal skidplate to the car so I could drive low and not break oilpans every day, oh yea...it's yellow too




I guess it's useful too on these heights:



A rear bag full of air:


Front bags arent bolted or welded anywhere. They hold on well without any attaching



The car before assembling the interior, looks so dirty too:



Interior assembled:




Finally brought the car out, aired it out and washed it inside and out




Also attended a small motor meeting, obviously it wasn't meant for modern car culture. People in the picture admiring the decades older 190 mercedes:


Me and a friend of mine did some work on the rear fenders because the rear RS' were reluctant to dive in the wheel arch. Now it's fitting tho:





The rear not diving in here:



A very creamy windshield sticker representing modern car culture



The trunk lookslike this now, the subwoofer isn't very aesthetic. Copper lines will come one day



Also some of my caretaking tools here, just some of them. That wax is supergood by the way.



Future will bring the car a BBS steering wheel, new engine, fresh paint coat and anything else to make it cleaner. I'd also like to get lower but that would require cutting cars body to make more room for driveshafts in the rear. Something similiar for the front too. The new engine will very likely be a Volvo engine, either a T4 or a T5. Who knows

I'll also be painting the front bumpers bumpstop black because that's the way it should be.

[JonhuuW201]