1983 Mercedes W123 pimpness

Nice.

Orange lights FTW

That's really nice, great colour. I'd like a W123 coupe, maybe I'll own one one day!

At last!!! ..... Mate i can tell you now that the motolite wheel you've got is wrong, it looks awful, it's dangerous, it will damage your heath, people will point at you in the street (even in Brighton) and mock you and your crappy wheel...... best thing to do is send it up here to Emmerdale and be done with it i'm happy to take it for the team

Glad to see you found a nice one in the end Keep the orange, hubcap it and roll the hell out of it, win win and win!

I hope France treats you well and i'll no doubt see you when you get back!

ps. if you want a straight swap for them awful chrome cornered bumpers, i've some stunning rubber cornered ones on me 200 for ya

so, time for an update:

I went round to Hardcore's barn in the Sussex countryside after fabricating a special device to utterpiffle's description in a 'w123 lowering' thread. Managed to get power to said barn in the peeing rain by using 5 extension leads waterproofed with carrier bags and duct tape, first engineering achievement of the day.

Car up, wheels off and after much sweating and hard work we got the driver's side front compressed and HC (was) volunteered to cut 2 coils out. 2nd engineering achievement of the day!

Got it back down and realised it was a touch high so should have gone for 3... d'oh!

We re-assessed our method and locked 2 nuts together to allow use of a power drill thing, we decided that if the passenger side was easier we would take 3 coils off, then return to the driver's side.

It was, so HC kindly removed 3 coils. 3rd achievement of the day!!

However, on pinging the redundant coils off, the compressed spring decided to slip, bending my M16 heavy duty threaded rod into a banana shape and luckily not removing any body parts when it did so. Might have caused some brown stains though...

so, 2 coils off drivers side, 3 off passenger side and a f*cked compressor... FAIL. Got it back down eventually (loads of swearing, heaving, levering and cutting) and it sat level. No joke.

I drove it home and it still sat level, drove nice and straight, didn't pull under braking - nothing. Very suspicious.

The springs did seem different when compressing, and obviously are quite different!

I've acquired new bits of thick steel to attempt the rear end this weekend hopefully.

I don't have any pics on here, but HC took a couple so might oblige??

Previously I'd also got round to fitting a pool ball gear knob, re-varnished moto-lita wheel and acquired some new rimmage. Purchasing bolts today to fit them up so stay tuned for more updates!

Ha, please do! Mine are on my phone and therefore poop.

ok, so further updates:

- bought some taper seat bolts from VW Heritage (recommended by a colleague - rather good) as they shut at 5.30 this eve - good boys.
- went about fitting wheels:





(apologies for ar$e high stance, literally just came off the jack... and i haven't cut the rears yet!!)
- started her up to go for a "settling in" drive when it just died...

Massive boo!

Will now occasionally start for a second or two, but won't idle. Any ideas before Mr. RAC pays me a visit in his shiny orange van?

When doing the pass side spring, we had to temporarily relocate a vacuum solenoid or some such and remove the airbox, but everything seems to be in order around there (connected, well sealed etc)
Equally, everything appears to be in order on the driver's side, it seems nothing has been moved or damaged. It was having problems idling on my way home last weekend, which have got worse...

while you have a think, here's a before pic of the driver's view:



And an after pic:



and a general interior pic:



yes, my upholstery is hideous.

cheers!

Used to have one the same colour, really miss that car. Mine was on cut springs, only thing you have to watch is the sump as it's the first thing to hit the deck and they crack



Clear indicators all the way, specially with this colour

Guess you'll be wanting the bonnet catch of the one I'm breaking in the Parts for Sale forum then Tone? :-)

Buy a new hose and stop being tight? :-)