Hello Everybody!
I am finally ready to post. I have been lurking here for the better part of a year. Last winter (2016) I started to lust after a 560SL. I had made the decision to finally sell my Citroen 2CV after 10 years of owning it. I thought it was time for something slightly more complicated...... I had also owned a 71 Pagoda 30 years ago and still kinda miss it, but as you all know, they are "slightly" more money now. So a 107 would have to be found. And a 560 at that. After selling the 2cv to a guy in Santa Fe, New Mexico I started looking for real, last fall. R107's are fairly common in Toronto and Montreal, but in Ottawa (in between the two) not so much. So I ended up going in both directions looking at about a dozen cars in both cities, all of which were supposed to be in "top-notch" condition, well, they were not. "Are there any cracks in the dash?", "No, the dash is perfect ", so when you get there after a few hours drive, there is a crack on the dash. "You told me there was no crack on the dash", "Oh that, that's been there for years, I don't even notice it anymore." Same goes of course for "no rust, great tires, perfect soft-top, great leather, everything works, etc, etc, as we all know if we ever bought a car second hand, or more likely third or fourth or fifth hand.
But he who waits will find! I finally found a 1986 560SL blue-black with palomino leather being sold by a man downsizing to a condo. 82,500 km (51000 miles) Near Perfect. He bought it in 2001 with, get this, 74,500 km, so 8000 km or 5000 miles in 15 years! I asked him what he had used the car for, and he said, "well, sometimes we went to Tim Horton's" (Canadian donut chain for all you non-Canadians) and then I bought the new T-bird convertible 7 or 8 years ago and my wife thought it was more comfortable" So, I asked what work he had done to the car in 15 years and he said, "nothing, nothing at all", a deal was struck and I drove the car home and parked it. (Mid November)
Then came the long dark winter months when much planning was done.
So when May came around I was ready.
The shelves were stocked! Water-pump, timing-chain, guides, sprockets, oiler-tubes, front lower ball-joints, new tires, a new rear muffler, shift-bushings, distributor-cap, rotor, done, done and done. The chain and guides were original, two of the guides, badly worn, and discoloured. This is where I had a little misshap, I dropped the center-plate of the chain-lock down the abyss, never to be seen again. So I'm picturing it on the bottom of the oilpan doing nothing, not moving ever. Luckily I had bought an extra chain-lock just in case. There are also new bilsteins, motor mounts and sub-frame mounts still on the shelf, but I think I'll leave them for next years tinkering. I replaced the ugly blingy cd-player with a Mercedes branded Becker player from an early 2000 European Mercedes on eBay, new speakers and a plexiglass wind-blocker from Germany. I had the dash out and replaced all the tiny light-bulbs and in the center consol as well. And, I almost forgot, new hood-pad, and I did the front licence-plate holder delete and replaced with a rear rubber strip. Puuh!
The soft-top is original and is a 7 out of 10, perfect front euro headlights and I also got the original rims with tires.
What's left to do, for now, is to find a parcel shelf as it came with a kinder seat without seat belts which is not OK with the safety inspection people in Canada, so as I don't have grand kids yet, (With a wind blocker they would have to be newborn) I simply took out the seat for the inspection, but I'd rather just have the tray. A guy in Montreal has one.
Also on the list is to have the A/C checked out and to see if I can get the central locks to actually, you know, lock.
For those of you whose advise I did not follow, THANK YOU for the reading material.
To all of you whose advise I did follow, a big, big THANK YOU!! Couldn't have done half of it without you.
CANSWEDE
Sorry about the sideways views, haven't figured out how to turn the pics.:frown
I am finally ready to post. I have been lurking here for the better part of a year. Last winter (2016) I started to lust after a 560SL. I had made the decision to finally sell my Citroen 2CV after 10 years of owning it. I thought it was time for something slightly more complicated...... I had also owned a 71 Pagoda 30 years ago and still kinda miss it, but as you all know, they are "slightly" more money now. So a 107 would have to be found. And a 560 at that. After selling the 2cv to a guy in Santa Fe, New Mexico I started looking for real, last fall. R107's are fairly common in Toronto and Montreal, but in Ottawa (in between the two) not so much. So I ended up going in both directions looking at about a dozen cars in both cities, all of which were supposed to be in "top-notch" condition, well, they were not. "Are there any cracks in the dash?", "No, the dash is perfect ", so when you get there after a few hours drive, there is a crack on the dash. "You told me there was no crack on the dash", "Oh that, that's been there for years, I don't even notice it anymore." Same goes of course for "no rust, great tires, perfect soft-top, great leather, everything works, etc, etc, as we all know if we ever bought a car second hand, or more likely third or fourth or fifth hand.
But he who waits will find! I finally found a 1986 560SL blue-black with palomino leather being sold by a man downsizing to a condo. 82,500 km (51000 miles) Near Perfect. He bought it in 2001 with, get this, 74,500 km, so 8000 km or 5000 miles in 15 years! I asked him what he had used the car for, and he said, "well, sometimes we went to Tim Horton's" (Canadian donut chain for all you non-Canadians) and then I bought the new T-bird convertible 7 or 8 years ago and my wife thought it was more comfortable" So, I asked what work he had done to the car in 15 years and he said, "nothing, nothing at all", a deal was struck and I drove the car home and parked it. (Mid November)
Then came the long dark winter months when much planning was done.
So when May came around I was ready.
The shelves were stocked! Water-pump, timing-chain, guides, sprockets, oiler-tubes, front lower ball-joints, new tires, a new rear muffler, shift-bushings, distributor-cap, rotor, done, done and done. The chain and guides were original, two of the guides, badly worn, and discoloured. This is where I had a little misshap, I dropped the center-plate of the chain-lock down the abyss, never to be seen again. So I'm picturing it on the bottom of the oilpan doing nothing, not moving ever. Luckily I had bought an extra chain-lock just in case. There are also new bilsteins, motor mounts and sub-frame mounts still on the shelf, but I think I'll leave them for next years tinkering. I replaced the ugly blingy cd-player with a Mercedes branded Becker player from an early 2000 European Mercedes on eBay, new speakers and a plexiglass wind-blocker from Germany. I had the dash out and replaced all the tiny light-bulbs and in the center consol as well. And, I almost forgot, new hood-pad, and I did the front licence-plate holder delete and replaced with a rear rubber strip. Puuh!
The soft-top is original and is a 7 out of 10, perfect front euro headlights and I also got the original rims with tires.
What's left to do, for now, is to find a parcel shelf as it came with a kinder seat without seat belts which is not OK with the safety inspection people in Canada, so as I don't have grand kids yet, (With a wind blocker they would have to be newborn) I simply took out the seat for the inspection, but I'd rather just have the tray. A guy in Montreal has one.
Also on the list is to have the A/C checked out and to see if I can get the central locks to actually, you know, lock.
For those of you whose advise I did not follow, THANK YOU for the reading material.
To all of you whose advise I did follow, a big, big THANK YOU!! Couldn't have done half of it without you.
CANSWEDE
Sorry about the sideways views, haven't figured out how to turn the pics.:frown