| On the 17th of September, 1965, my E-Type rolled out of the factory in Coventry, and was dispatched on the 5th of October to Fayetteville North Carolina. The first owner, was Spencer Augustus Folsom, Jr. It shows how far car technology had come in the preceding 50 years, in that when this car was manufactured, a 50 year old car was a horseless carriage, yet now this car despite being 50 years old can still function well as a car on todays roads. In 50 years on the road, this car has been driven cross country, stolen and recovered, slain […] The indicator lenses on my DS were all cracked, and the backing was in poor condition. I purchased a replacement set online, which look a whole lot better. I went to do the swap over today, but for whatever reason, the new indicators cannot simply plug into the factory wiring harness, they have spade terminals when the car uses bullets. Its not that big a deal to make an adaptor, but really you should not have to with a replacement part. No time today, so there will need to be a part 2. […] Today was the annual Mercedes Club concours and while it threatened to rain all day, the weather held off and a nice variety of cars showed up, including a gaggle of 190SLs, four 600s including a 4 door pullman and a decent number of cars from the ACT. With all those 600s, I expected to see a dictator with a chest full of self-awarded medals and his secret police rounding up dissidents, but he must have kept it low key. Highlights for me were seeing the 600 pullman and the 190SL display. Interestingly, 3/4 600s were USA models in […] I don’t normally post about routine things such as oil changes, but in this case, there is an aspect to the oil change that is not obvious and is worth mentioning. In general, the DS oil change is well covered on the Internet, as are the warnings to ensure the filter housing is properly aligned when inserted back into the sump. The DS is an odd design, instead of a remote cartridge, the filter sits at the bottom of the oil pump and is accessible by removing a plate, and then a housing from the sump. It is that housing […] This year I took the 250SE down to the 2015 ACT German Car show, which I last attended in 2013. It was a lovely day to drive a convertible down to Canberra and as usual the 250SE performed very well. At freeway speeds the engine turns at 4,000 RPM, which is unusual for a modern car, but fits into the nature of the engine. The show was worth the visit with a large Mercedes-Benz section, BMWs, Borgwards, NSUs, Goggomobile and VWs. I didnt’ get time to go through the VW section, but was able to see some of the other […] After restoring the 250SE to the correct wheel trims, the next step is to fit the correct headlights. The car is currently fitted with the stacked headlights. These are often known as Americana headlights. They are actually different to the USA style as they use halogens not sealed beams. This style was a common extra on the V8 W111’s and later a popular after-market fitment on other W111, W112, W108 and W109’s. While these are more popular than the original, I prefer the original style. The question of which is the best W111 headlight is not easily resolved! I had […] After becoming cynical from the normal spin and lobby group driven policy from Governments, I was very happy to see two very commonsense announcements from NSW Government minister Duncan Gay today. A trial for improvements to the NSW Conditional Registration scheme (Club Rego) A study to investigate higher speed limits on sections of the Hume and Pacific Highways The trial for improvements to NSW Conditional Registration will last for two years and allow for 60 days of personal use provided that a log book is kept. This brings the NSW system in line with the Victorian system which is excellent. […] In this world of monster 4 wheel drives with inattentive drivers at the wheel, a horn is an important feature of a small, low sports car. However, the horns on my E-Type had not been working. I had previously checked the actual horn units on a 12v battery and got a very feeble croak out of them, so since they looked rather rusty, replaced them. However, the car was still not able to honk appropriately. I had been able to hear the relay click when I pushed the horn button, so I was pretty confident that the button was working, […] My 250SE has been ‘wearing’ 280 style hubcaps since I got it, but I had always wanted to convert it back to the correct style. As it happened, a box containing the original headlights and the original hubcaps for this car was found by a previous owner and re-united with the car. The outer beauty rings were missing, but I had a set of those already I purchased when a Mercedes dismantling company was closing down. Both the original hubcaps and the beauty rings were very dirty, but a few hours of cleaning and polishing with autosol got them to […] Classic Mercedes have always had attractive chrome and painted wheel trims. Most people are very familiar with the ubiquitous one piece Mercedes hub caps that were available on nearly all models from the late 60s to the mid 80s. W111s (and associated models such as the W110, W112, W113, W108, W109) had a few different styles that are now rarely seen. Style 1: 13″ wheels (1959-1965) Cars covered: W111 – all 220s except 220b. W112 – all 300s. These cars were delivered with 13″ wheels, although most cars have been upgraded to 14″ during their lives as it is […] | |
