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Hello Folks,
So I’m not on here a lot, but I wanted to introduce myself again and share a little project that I’ve been working on. Before I get into the new project, let me start with where I’m coming from. I used to own this (see below) Mercedes W123 300D sedan that me and a few buddies decided to make into a convertible. Long story with that one, but it involved getting totaled after a woman backed into me (which you’ll see is a reoccurring theme with me), and then deciding since it was going to the junkyard anyway, let’s cut the roof off (there was beer involved in both the woman who hit me and the consequent decision to cut the roof off). If you were at H2oi in 2015 you probably saw it. Here’s a pic for reference of my stupidity.
Anyways, after realizing that owning a car that does not have any form of attachable roof was not the most practical thing, I started a search for a car that has not 1, but 2 roofs to choose from, and ended up picking up this sexy little black number, my 1999 Mercedes R129 SL500 with factory sports package. I got lucky and found her about 20 minutes away from my house after only a day of searching. Local owner had her for the last 12+ years and for the most part, took halfway decent care of it. Soon after though, I found that I needed to dump a few thousand into it to fix her up right, which included the passenger’s airbag seat sensor, full brake job, convertible top repairs, and fix a lot of random little broke stuff that, because Mercedes, isn’t cheap.
Since there aren’t too many of these around that anyone really does anything with, so I figured I’d give it a shot. After the aforementioned maintenance repairs, I decided to lower it a little with some H&R springs and smallest spring pads Mercedes offers. Then, after much debate about wheel choices, decided on some 19” Rotiform TMB’s in the DDT finish (where oddly were very hard to get) with some fancy red center caps to see how that worked. Surprisingly it worked out halfway decent for not a lot of money.
Got some photos for your enjoyment.
When I first picked her up.
After the springs went in
And after we threw some wheels on
Took her down to H2oi last year, and lucky me, some guy in a Cadillac backed into me while waiting to turn into a parking lot. Go figure. But, this ended up working to my benefit because nothing was broken, just dented and scratched, which meant basically a whole respray of the back half of the car. Had the body shop fix a few dents and they resprayed everything from the front doors back to the rear bumper. Not the best paint job in the work, but I’m not trying to show her at a concourse anything anytime soon.
Speaking of future plans, I think we’re going to have to go a little lower and maybe some “fancier” wheels. In the next few weeks, she will be seeing the luxurious addition of a new convertible top and maybe some upgraded interior bits.
Anyway, hope you enjoy.
Also, to anyone in the Chicago area, if you hear of any good meets or shows, feel free to drop me a message and let me know. No one wants to be alone!!
So I’m not on here a lot, but I wanted to introduce myself again and share a little project that I’ve been working on. Before I get into the new project, let me start with where I’m coming from. I used to own this (see below) Mercedes W123 300D sedan that me and a few buddies decided to make into a convertible. Long story with that one, but it involved getting totaled after a woman backed into me (which you’ll see is a reoccurring theme with me), and then deciding since it was going to the junkyard anyway, let’s cut the roof off (there was beer involved in both the woman who hit me and the consequent decision to cut the roof off). If you were at H2oi in 2015 you probably saw it. Here’s a pic for reference of my stupidity.
Anyways, after realizing that owning a car that does not have any form of attachable roof was not the most practical thing, I started a search for a car that has not 1, but 2 roofs to choose from, and ended up picking up this sexy little black number, my 1999 Mercedes R129 SL500 with factory sports package. I got lucky and found her about 20 minutes away from my house after only a day of searching. Local owner had her for the last 12+ years and for the most part, took halfway decent care of it. Soon after though, I found that I needed to dump a few thousand into it to fix her up right, which included the passenger’s airbag seat sensor, full brake job, convertible top repairs, and fix a lot of random little broke stuff that, because Mercedes, isn’t cheap.
Since there aren’t too many of these around that anyone really does anything with, so I figured I’d give it a shot. After the aforementioned maintenance repairs, I decided to lower it a little with some H&R springs and smallest spring pads Mercedes offers. Then, after much debate about wheel choices, decided on some 19” Rotiform TMB’s in the DDT finish (where oddly were very hard to get) with some fancy red center caps to see how that worked. Surprisingly it worked out halfway decent for not a lot of money.
Got some photos for your enjoyment.
When I first picked her up.
After the springs went in
And after we threw some wheels on
Took her down to H2oi last year, and lucky me, some guy in a Cadillac backed into me while waiting to turn into a parking lot. Go figure. But, this ended up working to my benefit because nothing was broken, just dented and scratched, which meant basically a whole respray of the back half of the car. Had the body shop fix a few dents and they resprayed everything from the front doors back to the rear bumper. Not the best paint job in the work, but I’m not trying to show her at a concourse anything anytime soon.
Speaking of future plans, I think we’re going to have to go a little lower and maybe some “fancier” wheels. In the next few weeks, she will be seeing the luxurious addition of a new convertible top and maybe some upgraded interior bits.
Anyway, hope you enjoy.
Also, to anyone in the Chicago area, if you hear of any good meets or shows, feel free to drop me a message and let me know. No one wants to be alone!!
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