190e build

[Respect Till Death]

yo okay so I just bought a 190E, while it's off getting a roadworthy (necessary for registration in Victoria & most parts of Australia) I'm having a look around for bits and pieces. I stumbled across a few pictures and I'm curious as to whether any of you guys have ideas on where to buy or how to do certain things.



First off the bat is this front bar. I for one have no idea what it is or where you get it but between all the shonky eBay fat 90s Ali G bodykits and AMG mock ups I have struggled to find it. Anyone know what it is? Assuming it comes as a full kit so if someone could be as kind as letting me know that would be fantastic



Secondly is the AMG-style ducktail. I know I can find one that is fine, but has anyone tried extending them?I know to do that I'll have to destroy it but finding a picture of one isn't that easy, I considered drawing it but I'm visually uncreative so it'll end up looking like a townhouse with wheels and a GT wing. Not ideal.

Presumably what I'd have to do is bolt the extension on using sheets of metal and weld them together to create it. Is that my best way around it?

Lastly,


Grille smoothening, has anyone on here done it? is it something you do with the grille off are are you fiberglassing around it?

I apologise in advance if this is in the wrong place, once the car's back in my hands I'll be adding shit to here anyway>

In other news I purchased my "personalised plates" for it today, gotta wait a fortnight for em but totally worth it

[Queef|Chief]

Love these cars, cant wait to see what you do

[Rocambolesque]

That front bumper looks like a pre-facelift (82-88) bumper that has been smoothed.

Since that grille is metal, it's probably welded to the hood.

[Respect Till Death]

Love these cars, cant wait to see what you do

thank you bro, mine is white which is a super easy canvas to work off

That front bumper looks like a pre-facelift (82-88) bumper that has been smoothed.

Since that grille is metal, it's probably welded to the hood.

Ahhh okay, those sideskirts don't look very factory either, I would assume if the front has been smoothed from a factory bar then he/she/it would have done similarly to the sides.
appreciate the help, the grille can be taken off as far as I'm aware, I'm horribly disorganised and not much help because I haven't actually got the car in my hands yet. TOMORROW IS THE DAY THOUGH!!

[Respect Till Death]

Okay! So update, I've finally got the car back and it's time I update the page. The picture earlier where I was asking about the body kit, it seems like I have the same bodykit but unshaved which makes me super happy cos' I can cross that off my "I have no fucking idea what I'm doing" list.

The grille, looks as if it comes off which means I need to buy an insert and frame around it which seems easy enough. As for the wing, well I still need to buy it so that part is on a stand still.

The car itself is quite straight, there's a few tiny blemishes but once I start fucking with the car I'll fix everything at once then respray. I'm tossing up between fitting a sunroof or not, shouldn't be too arduous as they came factory with them. Want to pump the guards and make them a little rounder.

It is as stock as stock cars come, everything is entirely untouched all the way down to the headunit and it looks as if the original plates from purchase in 1987 are still on it as the paint on them is fucked, once the transfer's been done with vicroads I can register the car under the plates I bought (see above). The car's only done 182,000km (113,000 miles) which is pretty conserved for a car that was a daily. I am the second owner which adds to it's coolness.

[lewda]

thank you bro, mine is white which is a super easy canvas to work off




Ahhh okay, those sideskirts don't look very factory either, I would assume if the front has been smoothed from a factory bar then he/she/it would have done similarly to the sides.
appreciate the help, the grille can be taken off as far as I'm aware, I'm horribly disorganised and not much help because I haven't actually got the car in my hands yet. TOMORROW IS THE DAY THOUGH!!

For sure that grill has to be welded, was the thing to do in the 190rev.net days, looks nice. Front bumper is def the pre-face lift customized, the skirts are 88-93 OEM skirts that have the jack hole points shaved. [EDIT] looking at the skirts again, they are either def the updated skirts shaved, or the stock rocker panels have all the rock guard stripped and jack points welded shut, and the OEM nose piece of the rocker has been molded into the entire rocker.

That white car with the mock up is a AMG Gen II replica kit that you can probably just pick up on ebay.

[Respect Till Death]

For sure that grill has to be welded, was the thing to do in the 190rev.net days, looks nice. Front bumper is def the pre-face lift customized, the skirts are 88-93 OEM skirts that have the jack hole points shaved. [EDIT] looking at the skirts again, they are either def the updated skirts shaved, or the stock rocker panels have all the rock guard stripped and jack points welded shut, and the OEM nose piece of the rocker has been molded into the entire rocker.

That white car with the mock up is a AMG Gen II replica kit that you can probably just pick up on ebay.

The bar seems a bit square for what I'm aiming for, I'm thinking there might be a way to cut back what's already there or recreate that one to make it, well, nicer. As far as the AMG ducktail goes yeah you can def get em from eBay

[Respect Till Death]

Love these cars, cant wait to see what you do

thanks!

[Respect Till Death]

can anyone tell me whether W124 interior fits into W201s? They seem like the same thing but I feel like it may be wider. Chasing as much black interior as I can get, the only 201s that I can find in Aus with black interior are Cosworths and I'm not rich haha

also, whether R129 front strut mounts fit into W201s like they do W124s, apparently pretty good for getting low which is what I want out of it

also drew this cos' I was bored at work and wanted to see how it might look when it's done. The tail lights I want to try and custom make to fit, but flat with a more "VIP" style LED. Also if someone can get a roof wing for a 201 and send it to me that would be fantastic because no one will send to Australia

[JDMexican]

Super interested to know if you've made any progress on this! I like what you're going for.

[Respect Till Death]

Super interested to know if you've made any progress on this! I like what you're going for.

so far, actually, it's sitting on springs from a 70s Skyline C110 which fit perfectly inside the cups, Saab 900 rear Monroe GT shocks and R129 Bilstein fronts, still waiting on the R129 strut top mounts cos' there's a LOT of rake in the front (I believe the rear has a shorter spring in it which doesn't help). The car in the rear dropped about 4.5" in total from factory which is ridiculous! Got a really cool idea from a friend of mine that stripped a set of bags from his old mini truck and we decided it's going on air soon. The idea is to basically make up a new exhaust because I want blast pipes and I can get rid of the limitations by tucking the exhaust up - if I'm going air I want to be frame scraping haha. Ideally in the boot I want to make a false floor and use floating floor boards to make a boot set up. I love brown and cream so I'm definitely utilising those in decorating.

I scrapped the idea of the overfenders as they were looking to be quite difficult to make properly. I'm aiming for a fairly American style wide guard though, cutting up the door and the guard and putting something a touch wider in it, I'd love to keep the shape of the fenders but they're extremely limited in what I can put under them.

I'm going to try and fit W124 interior into it as the dash / center is more fitted to the style I want, bought a doner car that I'll take some pics of when I start pulling shit out of it - the only other thing I've done is picked out paint, the paint on it currently is pretty bad, the paint is cracking from the primer and it looks horrible so I'm running it back to bare metal and painting it Candy White from the VWs. I'll probably take it somewhere and get a sunroof put in beforehand cos' it's coming into summer time and they're sexy as.

The custom tail lights I learnt will be quite hard, as I'll have to get someone to custom create the plastic outer on both sides, the inner shouldn't be too hard as it's just some fibre optic LED with repeaters.

Otherwise, there was quite a sizeable pause because the transmission blew the clutch packs (a manual W benz is so so hard to find in Australia) so what money I had put towards getting the build started, went towards a reconditioned post-facelift gear box so I had a car to drive.

pre-low literally hours before my transmission blew up




post-low, showing the ugly side of the car haha




this meet was cool cos' the officials randomly placed me 2 cars away from @USDMEM1 in his bagged E30 estate

[Respect Till Death]

few extra pics and info to keep the blood pumping:

Since now I've been rectifying my shorter shock debacle. I'm on the hunt for the shortest possible shock for the front as the rear shock is quite low once the Saab shocks go in, or better yet 2WD Ford Ranger shocks.
Since i last updated I've bought UAS bags, a Hoosier 5gal tank, twin Viair 444cc compressors and was given a whole heap of braided line that I'll make work until i get hardline and Accuair E-Level. It won't be installed until i can do everything in one hit basically. I picked up a set of W211 E500 17s which I've stripped the tires off to fit something smaller and stretched on. I picked up a W124 and the seats fit almost effortlessly so I'm on the hunt for a 124 with black leather. I haven't had the time to attempt the dash but ideally I want the dash installed as well as they're much nicer looking.

[Respect Till Death]

the last recorded picture of this car in it's factory state, was a massive time coming as I had to move houses and general life garbage


the rear end in it's stripped state, decided I would shave a good majority of the moulds off the car to make it seem like a facelift benz - trying to accentuate some of the sharp lines on the body. Rear end shave below


using fiberglass filler from the back with tape over the front of the hole, allowing it to dry then using the same formula at the front, then body filler where I need it










after the boot I started attacking the panels behind the rear wheels, which involved stripping the mould off, and again fiberglassing from the inside, drying then fiberglassing from the outside then body filler where I have to. the driver's side of the car seemed as if it had been in an accident previously as it was jam packed with old body filler. Still in the midst of fixing that panel but the holes for the mould were filled, the passenger's side I filled with no real issues. Following these 2 panels I started to (using the same method) fill in the aerial, seems unnecessary as I despise radio and looks mighty ugly haha














finally for the time being, I picked up a cheap set of W211 E500 wheels, pretty scuffed and messed up but had a mate of mine rub them back, repair them and spray them. will have them fitted to the car soon as a trial and I'll update this part too. note how ugly that little panel is on the driver's side!




next up will be the doors, and probably the guards. I feel like I'll have to repalce my driver's side guard as wheels have chewed it up quite badly. Not pictured is a mostly stripped interior which is off to get trimmed.

[JDMexican]

Woot!

I love the clean and smooth look that you're going for. I want the same for my Benz. One I get my bags and wheels ordered, installed and dialed I'm going to start going for some of the unique bits that really make a car stand out on its own.

[Respect Till Death]

Woot!

I love the clean and smooth look that you're going for. I want the same for my Benz. One I get my bags and wheels ordered, installed and dialed I'm going to start going for some of the unique bits that really make a car stand out on its own.

awesome bro! I'd love to find some Benz genuine unique bits but being from Australia it's either too hard to find or far too expensive from conversion rate to AUD... seems just as easy to make my own than to try and find all that kinda stuff haha