Slowest W124 Build In The Very Short History of W124 Builds

[FearNLoathing]

Wussup everybody. I've got a 1993 Mercedes-Benz 300e that I plan on turning in to something like a VIP Japanese slammed 4 door sedan but as of right now it's pretty much bone stock besides suspension and audio.

So I picked up my land yacht for 2k at a local shop. No AC (evaporator), idler pulley or tensioner pulley squeeks. Currently has 220k miles. I bought it at 218k. Got a brand new headgasket and most of the head components replaced at 218k. Transmission is ganna go out soon (hell its already made it 220k miles I'd say that's a win), shifts decent but not good and reverse band is going out but I can still use reverse if I give it no gas

Here she is the day I brought her home.





After driving the car one time, one thing came to my mind. AUX CORD. So that was my first installment. Ordered a Boss headunit for $35 and a wiring kit for my subs. Now I've installed a lot of speakers, headunits, subwoofers in a variety of cars, but never a Mercedes. Probably the most complicated install I've ever done due to the odd routing of wires through the cars interior and the fact that you have to run all new wires to the speakers. I ended up taking out my rear dash speakers to porrt bass into the cab and couldn't for the life of me run new wires through the doors so all that's there is two 10s and 4 inch Polk Audio dash speakers.















If it looks like a lot of work, yes, yes it was, but what good is a car without a good audio system?

One thing I noticed quickly about this car is no cupholders... good thing someone screwed one on the my door and its pretty badass.



Random driving shot, you can see the mileage and the fact that my oil pressure/oil level unit do not work due to the wiring being melted somewhere and it's shorted out



In this shot I had installed my Bilstein B8s (which you obviously can't see but it went from riding like a boat to being very firm like I like em.



Soon after I ordered some Vogtland springs. I put the rear springs on and then the car sat even, plus I couldn't get the front springs off without dropping the LCA so I rode around with the rears on for a week, week and a half. Here was after detailing the exterior for Import Day and the rear wheels have slight negative camber now.



Now for the drastic change... Finally got around to putting the front springs on and then this happened.





Now imma street sweeper lol. I actually like this heigth, maybe bring it up 1 or two inches so I quit scraping everything, but they don't make springs that go this low. BTW- If anyone has experience with getting a merc lower than just the 1.6 lemme know.

What I believe has happened here is I got the 4 cylinder springs for the front but 6 cylinder for the back. Trying to talk to my seller to get this fixed

And that's where she's at now. I'm`on the hunt for some wheels but wheel fitment is so specific on these everything is so pricey. I've looked in to bagging it but it's 2 grand for just the bags and a controller so maybe way later on down the line. Ganna do a lot of minor cosmetic things too. One thing that's already been done is a hardwired in a 4 port usb hub and mounted it on top of the center console. I'll get some pics of that later.

Till next time

[Federicobanzuela]

ditch the rear spring pads, you'll be much happier

[FearNLoathing]

ditch the rear spring pads, you'll be much happier

I've thought about it but wasn't sure about any issues with the metal on metal.

[FearNLoathing]

So I had to do something out of necessity and preventative measure.

DIY fender spacers. Cost me a total of $16 for everything compared to $40 for legit AMG ones that would have to be imported from Germany and I got enough to do 2 cars.



Universal sway bar bushings and that's the bolt size for the bottom fender bolt on my 300e, maybe differ between different models.

Before:



After:



No spacer:



Spacer:



So you get the idea. I also used this as a spacer for the bumper for more security clearance and to match the newly spaced fender.





The trick to getting the bumper out is pull on it then tighten that sh*t down before it slides back. The turn signal didn't exactly want to go back in as easy as it comes out so it took a bit of finessing to get it back in but it's in.

Probably ganna get on hacking up some springs to fix the front suspension tomorrow and look into getting the rear down some more.

[Jorgen]

Just cut the springs a little bit, you could also look into SL (R129) shock mounts for the front, they should lower slightly as well. Most non-YSR setups that are static eventually cut the lowering springs or go for the R129 shock mounts. W124, W201 drive perfectly well even with cut springs but a non-OEM shock (E36 coilover shock or Bilstein's).

[FearNLoathing]

Just cut the springs a little bit, you could also look into SL (R129) shock mounts for the front, they should lower slightly as well. Most non-YSR setups that are static eventually cut the lowering springs or go for the R129 shock mounts. W124, W201 drive perfectly well even with cut springs but a non-OEM shock (E36 coilover shock or Bilstein's).

Yeah I cut the stock springs and put them back in, but I've probably only got about 2-3 inches of shock travel with the Bilstein B8s. Are R129 mounts a direct fit? Even with the e36 shock? Read a lot of heated debates about e36 shocks and the upper mounts, still haven't made any sense of it...

[Federicobanzuela]

I've thought about it but wasn't sure about any issues with the metal on metal.

I've done it on both my E420 and 500e and never once had any issues with metal on metal contact.

[FearNLoathing]

I've done it on both my E420 and 500e and never once had any issues with metal on metal contact.

I'll give it a try and see what happens. Back sits just a tad higher than the front so that may be enough to get it even.

[Federicobanzuela]

H&Rs, no pads rear.

[loekaaz]

I call your thread title bullshit. No one has ever been slower than me

[FearNLoathing]

I call your thread title bullshit. No one has ever been slower than me

Second slowest? but what I really want to do to this car is bag it but that's ganna be 2 grand for just parts. We shall see who never finishes

[JDMexican]

I think I'm in a close running for slowest mercedes build. Haha I've installed one thing in 9 months. All my other parts (bags included) are just sitting around.

[FearNLoathing]

So here she is with the makeshift front suspension and cut Vogtlands. S/o my buddy Omar for catching this at the Clean Culture meet



Much needs to be sorted with the suspension, but I have spacers for the front coming in and R129 mounts cause mine are dry rotted and probably 23 years old.

On the other hand, someone's whos good with suspension could you chime in. I've having a bit of rubbing issues, inner wheel arches rubbed like hell but they've worn down but there's other places, when the wheels are at full lock the outer side of the tire is rubbing the front of the wheel well (there's only very few mms of clearance all over). On the passenger side (cause of sagging suspension which was fixed in 94) the tire is maybe 2mm away from the fender when the wheel is turned any way at all. As far as fitting wheels this is all new to me, I hope the spacers will fix some of the rubbing but eventually I plan on getting 17s and I'm trying to fathom how I'm ganna fit them and not beat the shit out of my fenders. Any advice on that would be helpful.

Next on the list is e36 shocks for the front and Ranger shocks for the rear due to the lack of suspension travel in the front and the rear shocks are maxed out.

Till next time

[Jorgen]

My inner arches looked like this last year

Raised the car slightly this year because 17x9 ET1 front is pretty aggressive and had tons of issues to make it work. I think I put 30mm of spacers to front fenders, also cut them slightly inside and did everything. It still rubs and I don't really care anymore. Last year I had massive rubbing to inner fenders when on full lock, this year not that much. I'd advise you to start playing with spring pads, you could go slightly higher, but it'll eliminate a lot of rub.

[loekaaz]

Smaller tyres (195-60-15?) may do the trick as well if all else fails...

This was my parts-coup.
No spring pads. Stock shocks. Stock rear springs with 1,5 coils cut. Fronts were unknown brand 40mm lowering springs half half a coil cut.
Wheel specs were 16x7,5 and tyres were 205-50-16's. So quite a bit smaller than the 195-65-15's. It only rubbed while dring on and of ramps diagonally...


(yes I know it does not look like a wrecker on the pics. That's because it was freshly repainted 2 years before. But wiring was a mess, rear arches rotten, and the front subframe was bent at some stage...)