Medium Pimpin' - 1995 E300 diesel build

[Kinghorn]

Its funny, when you first picked it up and thought it was junk I thought about my brothers E30 Wagon. So he picked up an E30 wagon all the way up in Ontario, and TRIED to drive it back to California. Because the cars 20 years old, it messed with him the whole halfway he made it. It broke down in Denver, so we had to drive 18 hours to pick him up.

Point in case is never drive a car older than 10 years more than 200 miles without servicing it, otherwise, your done.

[milano_red]

Nice to see springlesprangle is catching on...

You sir seem to have good taste, with woodwork being a hobby of mine, I appreciate the trunk floor and sub enclosure!

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

Thanks again for all the kind words, everyone!

i c the vent, is it a turbo?

I wish. The OM606 in W124 trim is naturally aspirated. Acceleration is... stately. I have a pipe dream of swapping in a 97+ OM606, which is turbocharged, with about 1.5x the power, but that is pretty unlikely.

On to the updates:

Audio Build, Day 2

Today's progress was hampered by rain on-and-off, as is the usual story in June on this side of the mountains. After a bunch of running around gathering stuff, I got to work.

The first task was not actually audio related, but cosmetic. The grille on these cars is finished in grey plastic and chrome, and it just looks... dated. MB purists will decry this, as they will with anything that's not 110% stock and boring, but I pulled the grille and painted the grey honeycomb satin black.

You can kinda see what it looked like before:


...and after:


I'll probably go for the avantgarde grille at some point, but this'll do for now. Note also the super rad license plate frames - as far as I'm concerned, chrome license plate frames count for at least 3 additional degrees of camber. I tried to get the DMV to give me plates ending in GGL so I could pretend it said "gigolo," but they didn't think that was nearly as good an idea as I did.

I also went and did something about the miserable tape deck in this thing, which was seriously hampering my listening experience with its egregious lack of an iPod cable. I GOTS TO HAVE DEM PODCASTS!

Apparently you can send the tape deck to Becker to have an aux input added, but that sounds like crazy talk to me. I threw in a Kenwhizzy KIV-BT901, which is pretty rad:



FYI, if you're going to put an aftermarket head unit in one of these (at least on the '95s, which are amplified, but don't have the weird two-piece radio), be prepared to add an amp of your own: the volume with the factory amp and speakers in place is unacceptable.

I got the amp rack trimmed up and mounted in place, and I test fit the whole mess:



Sundown Audio is weird in that none of their amps have the same size case, so if you want a nice symmetrical install with just two amps, no can do. In my case, it's even worse in that the two amps I'm running are from different generations, and the cases are slightly different in design. I decided the best way to rectify the situation was to flip the 2-channel over and show off the fancy blue circuit board:



These are eventually going to be covered with trim of some sort, and I was worried about heat, which is why I designed the amp rack with strategically-placed holes:



If it still winds up being too much heat, I'll cramalam a 12v fan in there or something.

Space on the west side of the amps is tight, so I had to get some right-angle RCA connectors from Radio Shack, of all places. There's just enough room to weasel a screwdriver in there to adjust gains and such, though:



Slid into place in the trunk, with the sub just kind of resting there:



In my adventures today, I also stopped and got some little goodies for the air ride. For the trunk install:



OH YEAH, COPPER HARDLINES! (I know, it's been done, but IDGAF, it's going to be rad anyway)

That's all for today! Hoping tomorrow to have the box trimmed out and looking pretty!

[hypetoday]

really nice grab! would you please sell me your turn signals and your rear lights? can send you some euros for that.

[244Brick]

SWEET audio setup

[Stupid Kid]

OED: vintage /ˈvintij/: 2. denoting something of high quality, especially something from the past or characteristic of the best period of a person’s work. Anyway, "vintage," used like I used it above, often just means "age," without claiming "old-school" or "classic" or whatever.

Its not vintage.
I seriously doubt it is single stage either.

Nice car though needs more springlesprangle
+
im digging the audio
sundown and FI are quality, I run sundown shit myself.
Does that woofer get any sound into the cabin?
your trunk looks pretty sealed off.

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

really nice grab! would you please sell me your turn signals and your rear lights? can send you some euros for that.

Don't you have the facelift tail lights on your ride? I've considered going clear on the turn signals, and if / when I do, you've got first dibs. I'll keep you informed

SWEET audio setup

Gracias! I'm super excited about the direction it's going. It's kinda funny to spend a bunch on a sound system when I mostly listen to podcasts, but whatever

Its not vintage.
I seriously doubt it is single stage either.

Nice car though needs more springlesprangle
+
im digging the audio
sundown and FI are quality, I run sundown shit myself.
Does that woofer get any sound into the cabin?
your trunk looks pretty sealed off.

Like I said, I'm not claiming it's a vintage Mercedes. That's not what my original sentence says. Whatevs, I'm gonna quit arguing about language before I lose the rest of my readers

I'll take a pic of my buffing pad next time I spend some time on the paint - it was pretty black a few weeks ago when I worked out the scratches. Supposedly 040 Obsidian Black [correction: 040 is just called Black] was the last of the single-stage paints that Mercedes ran, but who knows.

Glad to hear you like your Sundown gear! If they sound as good as they look, I will be extremely pleased. I've always run Diamond Audio gear, but I thought I'd try something new on this build.

The trunk is all kinds of sealed, plus the fuel tank is bound to absorb a lot of sound energy. That's really the reason I went for 12" on 1200W instead of the usual small 10" that I default to - it should have enough volume to compensate for the not particularly ideal layout of the trunk. What I'm probably going to do is pull the rear speakers and leave the grilles in place as a "port" of sorts. Some people also cut out the area at the center of the rear deck underneath the first aid kit, so that's an option too.

In other news, the girl's cousin came over last night, and, well, they're Russians, so you can imagine what the aftermath of all that looks like. My productivity this morning has been rather diminished

I'm also fighting with what I'm going to do with the hardlines in the trunk. Have any of you fine folks tried the cheesy bender the Harbor Freight sells? I don't want to blow a ton of money on a bender just to use it once, you know?

[DinanDave]

This is gonna be good! Just bought a sundown woofer for my vert. they make really nice stuff. Love the
w124s. The fact its a diesel makes it even better.

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

The fact its a diesel makes it even better.

I'm glad we agree

Today's progress:

Audio Build, Day 3

As aforementioned, the repercussions of last night's idiocy were playing themselves out on me today, and I wound up not being particularly productive. I did make a little dent, though.

The trunk of a W124 is really irregular on the sides, as are most cars, I guess, and getting the sub box to fit cleanly with the weird contours of the trunk was proving challenging. After fussing with some templates and wasting the last of my MDF supply, I went digging through my scrap pile and found some aluminum sheet from some long-forgotten project. I trimmed it with shears and attached it:



You'll note also that I added another layer of MDF to the face, which will sink the sub in a little bit. I also painted the little bit of wood on the amp rack that you'll be able to see.

On the back side of the amp rack, I made the first dent on the air ride system, mounting the compressor, water separator, and manifold in the void behind the sub box:



I wandered off to get some pizza and discovered a friend:



It looks like the E320 sits about 1/2" higher in the front than mine. Supposedly Mercedes used different spring pads to compensate for different engines and options, so I'm not sure what's going on there.

After pizzaing it up, I got back to work, but the fading light further limited my fun. I got the box carpeted with the fleece I purchased the other day:



I don't know why the fabric looks so purple there - it really is a very close match in real life. BTW, I have plans for the face of the box, which is why you don't see any carpet there. It'll all make sense, I SWEAR.

At this point, I have to seriously apologize for the quality of photos, as evening had turned to night. I ran four 8-gauge wires into the box, and sealed the box with flexible silicone:



I then ran the wires along the air manifold. Even though no one will ever see it, I wanted it to look at least reasonably clean:



That's all for today! Thanks for tuning in!

[w201e34]

i like your updates, and your car. small correction, 040 is not the paint code for obsidian black. obsidian black is 197, and a much nicer black than 040, which is simply called black.

[P78]

great work on that audio setop

[loekaaz]

I'm still not convinced on the concept of having a sub in the trunk of a w124 (please prove me wrong). I mean; you still end up having a big tank and the rear seats between you and the sub...
That's the reason why I'm considering a flat sub beneath the dash on the passenger side.
M-B themselves had a sub as an option in that same spot.

Nevertheless, I'm in for updates. This gon b gud...

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

i like your updates, and your car. small correction, 040 is not the paint code for obsidian black. obsidian black is 197, and a much nicer black than 040, which is simply called black.

So right you are! I don't know how I got the name of 197 associated with 040, but I've gone and fixed it above. Thank you for the correction!

I'm still not convinced on the concept of having a sub in the trunk of a w124 (please prove me wrong). I mean; you still end up having a big tank and the rear seats between you and the sub...
That's the reason why I'm considering a plat sub beneath the dash on the passenger side.
M-B themselves had a sub as an option in that same spot.

Yeah, it isn't ideal, that's for sure. I have no doubts that a significant portion of the energy produced by the sub is going to be absorbed by the fuel tank and rear seats, so the likelihood of ear-shatterling levels of volume is pretty low. Then again, that's not really what I'm going for. If I'm unhappy with the outcome, my plan is to cut out the center of the rear deck and mount the sub facing upwards.

I've seen the passenger's floor box once or twice before (though never one that looked factory), and it's certainly got some advantages, but I'm guessing my lovely female passenger might complain about the intrusion into her legroom. I've never seen the MB one - you're saying it tucks up under the dash?

I'll see if I can scrounge up a decent mic and I'll post a video of the sound from the cabin when it's all up and running. I know that won't tell you as much as an actual listen, but it's something.

[loekaaz]

I'm sure a couple of guys on the Dutch w124-forum have them fitted. I'll search for some pics for you.

And otherwise you can consider something like this... (for tucking it away )

[loekaaz]

I hope these pics work...






I have read that it actually wasn't a factory option. This was made by some audio-brand that made this specifically for the w124. The guy who made these pictures found it in a parts car he bought.