TweetLabour of Love - my rebuilt W126 in Thailand (pics)
This project started in April with the purchase of a run down W126. Cars are expensive here in Thailand due to massive import duties (a new S500 will set you back around $425,000), so the older cars still hold the price. Still loads of old W123's trundling around. The plus side is that labour is very cheap. I will try to give some approximate costs of the works involved in USD, as the main contingent of this site seems to be USA.
I had a '91 500SEL in the UK around 5 years ago, and always missed it, so when I saw this one leaning in the corner, I bought it immediately.
It was an awful "manganese brown" 280 SE with a Nissan RD28 diesel engine. The car was registered here in 1990, but according to the VIN was sold new in the UK in 1982.
My plan was to pull out the old engine, slot in a nice big Toyota 6 (readily available, cheap and plentiful spares, bulletproof), a new colour, sort out the interior, convert it to run on LPG, and sort out the suspension (tired and clunky).
Once the wiring was sorted out, the suspension was completely overhauled front to back, all new boots and joints. Also cut a little bit off the springs, as before it was sitting too high.
After giving a lot of thought to the colour, in the end I went for Travertine beige metallic, a later MB gold.
Once the paint was sorted, retrimmed the seats with PVC (hard wearing and cheap), and a nice new steering wheel, and some clear corners.
Then the LPG tank in the boot.
A few minor niggles later (aircon dripping sunroof stuck), she's on the road and looking good !
Its so nice to get back into one of these lovely cars. It is a real pleasure to drive, a magnificent feat of engineering. This car is 24 years old and drives like new, also costs less than $1 a gallon to fuel.
Other bits and bobs (aircon, timing belt, CD player, remote locking, clear corners etc) $500
Even with all this money spent, I am still well on the right side.
This will be my daily driver for the forseeable future, and I do in excess of 30,000 miles a year. It will be interesting to see how she holds up to the challenge.
where did you buy those clear corners? they look amazing!
crazy man, you got your whole paint job for $800 USD?
i screwed up my front left, and rear right bumpers, and it cost me over $1,100 just for those two spots!
Yes, the paintwork is very cheap here by western standards, and excellent quality. I think the clear corners work well with the later colour. They are available everywhere in Bangkok, around $100 for all.
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