Valvy: '85 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16

I've been looking around for one of these.  A year or so ago a fellow PCA member was selling his locally, I shoulda bought it

In reply to docwyte :

These are starting to go the way of the E30 M3, even complete basket cases are selling for more now than I bought this for.

I bit off a bit more than I could ultimately chew with the paint/body on this car; thought I'd be in a position to do all that, but I'm not.

I wish I would spent a little more on a more cosmetically sorted car; certainly could have afforded it, but my inner idiot told me that mechanicals were all I really needed, and that I could take care of the rest myself.

In reply to Azryael :

Yeah, I can spin wrenches but have no desire to do body or paint work.I'd much rather buy a car with little to no cosmetic needs.

I'd probably feel less averse to the idea if I was actually in a position to do it. Some of my neighbors are snakes, so they often meddle in my business, giving me E36 M3 for even painting something outside, or the fact that I do my own yard work and don't hire landscappers like the rest of these privileged, uppity berkeleys.

Really need to get out of the suburbs... or somewhere where I can make some neighbor car friends. I'm incredibly envious of those on here who have a local support network to tackle stuff like paint/body or some super fabrication project.

I should be able to finish up the exhaust today, which will allow me to test out the fresh clutch, as well as how the car behaves with the vacuum leaks addressed.

Hard to believe I was dealing in and parting $500 - $1200 ones all the time fifteen years ago. I sold some really nice ones and scrapped some that would legitimately be restorable now.

Yeah, it's kinda nuts how things have changed. The one I found at the yard that I pulled the exhaust parts from actually had a super straight body, all the panels were there, and the shell looked in great condition. No rust to speak of either. Biggest issue was the horrible spray job on it, but the rest of it looked fine.

Never thought I'd see one in the yard here, given that mine is already only one of three known 16Vs in the area.

Still debating on pulling that Zender kit off that 124, though I'm sure someone grabbed it all already. A 124 wagon would look sick with that kit.

I'm looking for a 124 front bumper cover for my coupe

Tow hook cover? Or the entire deal?

I'll keep an eye out.

Entire, mine is broken and I bought another and dropped it when taking it out of my bed! Love to have a bbs or zender

In reply to Azryael :

I'm in the suburbs but my neighbors don't care what I do in my garage.  I've painted parts in my front yard and most everyone in the neighborhood does their own lawn mowing etc.

That said, I'd love to move to a place where there's enough room for me to have a detached shop...

I'll keep an eye out. Usually plenty of 124s.

Yeah, where I'm at, people have more money than sense, and despite being on nearly an acre, I can't do anything "detached" from the house. Any houses that have detached sections are "connected" to the main structure via a covered walkway, which honestly looks berkeleying stupid.

There's one where the "covered walkway" spans roughly 20 yards... Incredibly ugly.

My exhaust work has been pushed off due to flooring a closet. Oh well, it's nearly done, then I'll be able to get back to the car.

In reply to chandler :

The last two 16-valves I bought were $2000 and $1500. Those days are over, unfortunately.

In reply to LanEvo :

I unfortunately wasn't in a position to buy them that cheap! I was still living overseas, and had my 2.6, which I honestly should have just done the DOT nonsense to bring it back. Would have been worth it for how long that car was in the family.

In reply to Azryael :

I know a local paint guy. Just lmk

In reply to yupididit :

I'll shoot you a text on that one.

Welding is finished. Hit the surrounding areas with some high heat paint.

I'll get it all bolted back up this afternoon and hopefully a test drive will occur.

My exhaust clamps are too small, and I honestly feel like they never seal the sections correctly, so I've opted to weld up every joint.

What I've noticed is that this extra welding is actually allowing me to improve, and I'm seeing a measurable increase in my weld quality. Incidentally, I ran out of .030", and have nothing but .035" left, and the switch to .035" has further improved my welds on this particular tubing.

I'm taking a quick break before I look over all the older seams to see if I need to touch up here or there. I'm happy, I'm making progress.

Well, everything was on track up until I pulled the downpipe to weld the final joint. Brand new 8.8 bolt snapped. Clearly crossthreaded, although it went in just fine with no binding.

I've broken an extractor and several bits already.

I am so close to a test drive, and this happens. I've already attempted to pull the manifold, but there isn't enough clearance to pull the damn thing out short of lifting the motor on one side which would mean dropping the trans mount and such so it can pivot. My welder is bound to my bench, so I'd have to move it to the floor to get close enough to weld something to it.

It's a day of ups and downs, lol.

Loosened the passenger side motor mount, and I was able to get it out after pulling the top studs. Good time to inspect for any cracks.

bummer!  a lot of work for a little problem.    At least you'll get to enjoy that great feeling of getting that piece out.  It's like when you finally get the tweezers on that embedded splinter, or squeeze that zit just right and everything pops free

I welded in a nut after using what was left of my death wheel disc to cut into it as much as I could. Bedding studs again was not fun.

On the bright side, exhaust is in, no leaks, car is super quiet (which is what I wanted, the raspiness has been old since 2016), and I've finally been able to test on the fresh clutch! It's a world of difference even from when I bought it 8 years ago. Clutch was for sure already on its way out.

Idle is nice and stable, so all the work replacing all the intake and fuel air gaskets and hoses seems to have paid off as well. I'm berkeleying excited to be back behind the wheel of my favorite car!!

I feel before I move on to any other major vehicle projects, I should tackle the paint and body on this one.

I'd say 65% or more is actually in OKAY shape, spots of clearcoat fading, and a few sections where in someone's previous wet sanding attempts they went straight down to primer.

I'd say it primarily needs the clearcoat fixed, only the hood has primer showing, and a small corner of the front fender could be touched up. I'm thinking about painting the black impact strips to match the rest of the body.

Very little paint is needed, so I'm wondering if I could just get a basic paint scratch kit, and see what can be done. I'm by no means a paint and body guy, but I'd really like to get there to be able to do it. I can't do full-on painting here at the house (garage is way too full to make it a booth), so I'm looking at tackling the worst of it in bits and pieces. I've prepped things for paint before, so that's not new to me; shooting paint on a car is. Perhaps it's not so different than painting furniture or metalwork with my spray gun, but it's just intimidating to me because it's a car.

Not sure what to do about various dents and dings either. I'd rather see them pulled then resort to filler, but I'm open to suggestion. I'm about to give it a good wash, and then I'll take some detailed photos of all ailments.

The paint and the dents are the ONLY things left on this car that keep it from being 100% for me.

So this was just a wash and a towel dry, no time spent polishing, no wax.

Starting with the front, here's the hood:

You can see the fading in the impact strip as well. Here's are two more shots, which highlights the issues with the fenders (it looks the same on the other side, would be redundant to show a photo):

The roof and sunroof are both in surprisingly great shape:

The sides just above the doors are probably the next worse, you can see some of the damage on the driver's side in the photo above, but here's the passenger side:

On both sides, the c-pillars also look flat compared to the rest of the lower body, there's definitely evidence of a respray in the past:

You can see where someone went to down with sanding all over the place:

There are similar sections of these sanding attempts all over the fenders, and the driver's side door. Really gouged.

The trunk is in pretty good shape, save for a small gouge. You can see where there was some paint run on the spoiler:

Only one big defect on the spoiler itself. Looks like someone was using this as a table to bolt something down...:

You can see the rear bumper needs some love all around:

Now for an upclose of those dents on the side, looks like the result of things sloshing around in the trunk smacking into the sides during aggressive turns, despite that there's a decently thick plastic liner to reduce this:

Dent below the fuel filler door (featuring door dent), not sure how this happened, but there's the same dent on the other side too:

There are some smaller dents on each of the doors, you might be able to see them if you look close enough. The driver's side door has the worst of it, with was looks like a dent at the front of the door handle, as well as something dropped along the top. My original solution was to source another smoke silver door, but smoke silver cars don't seem to show up at the yard, even non-16V cars:

So, that's where I'm at.

I've considered a color change, with one option being 735 Astral Silver, which is a factory color they used on these cars after '87 when the 2.5-16 was released and sold around the rest of the planet. But I've also considered a more wacky color, like that teal that you see on the latest Wranglers (don't know the details off hand for that). Not concerned about "resale value" or collectability, I just want it looking nice and appealing for me.

So, with wheels and all, I found a direct clone of what my car would look like in Astral:

You can see that it's more silver and on the cooler side of the color spectrum, versus the smoke silver of mine which is more gold and much warmer in overall tone.

I think I'll play around with Photochop to see what some other colors might look like.

Went on an extended drive today to attend a business related meeting. Car was gliding down the road, and the inside was so much quieter than how it had been for the last few years.

The thing about this car is that it moves so effortlessly, that before you know it, you're up at 100mph... oops.

I'd paint it whatever color you want.  I'd love to paint my 996 Turbo in the Gulf livery...