MrOtter
West Midlands
"Your car is your story, so don't let someone else write the book." - Moog
Posts: 281
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Another old Mercedes joins the fleet, again won on ebay kind of unexpectedly for what I think was a pretty low price. That being said, the convertible roof doesn't work, the central locking has a few issues, the cruise control doesn't work, the indicators only work with the headlights on and they cause the dash to have a spasm every time they're used, plus lots of other niggly things... With that in mind, this is, aesthetically, about the cleanest car I've ever owned - imported from Japan in 2009, it's only done about 76,000 miles (122,500km) and there's pretty much no rust at all. Pretty cool interior too, I've only ever seen these with leather seats. Enough talk, here's some photos. IMG_1466 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr IMG_1467 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr IMG_1465 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr IMG_1464 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr IMG_1463 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr IMG_1461 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr IMG_1462 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr Here's the only notable bit of corrosion, on the rear corner of the hard top. IMG_1468 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr The drivers side front wing has a nasty scrape and a bunch of little stone chips, so I'll get this wing resprayed. IMG_1469 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr I'm not much a fan of these clear side repeaters, so I think some amber ones will be going on. IMG_1470 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr Here's a peek inside. IMG_1471 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr IMG_1472 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr I didn't get very good photos there... but basically the seats look brand new, literally no wear or marks on them at all. Now I'm doing maths all the time to work out what speed I'm doing in MPH. IMG_1473 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr Despite the cloth seats, it's well optioned with heated seats, cruise control, automatic climate control (even the AC blows cold!), and a seemingly rare "snow" button that I think turns the traction control off at low speeds so you can pull away in icy conditions. The traction control (or ASR system) light is illuminated all the time on the dash though so that's probably broken too. The original head unit is retro cool, but unfortunately the tape player doesn't work (seems like something is jammed maybe, it won't accept a tape at all) and because it's from the land of the rising sun, the radio frequencies are different, so I can just about get BBC R2 and that's it. Finger's crossed I can find an equally cool and retro UK spec Mercedes head unit to fit, or maybe I could get this one repaired or modified? IMG_1474 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr One reason I'd like to keep it is because I found this in the rear storage area (this car wasn't optioned with the little back seats you often see in these cars). I didn't think a 12 CD changer would've even been a thing in 1991, but I guess this wasn't a cheap car when new! No idea if it works, haven't tried it yet. IMG_1475 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr This storage door on the dash is permanently open. IMG_1476 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr The handbrake release handle has been snapped off. IMG_1477 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr The electric seat controls in the door are all loose, as are the surround panels. It's the same on both sides for some reason... IMG_1478 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr IMG_1479 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr But look how clean it all is! The insulation is falling off but in good condition, so I'll reglue that back on if I can. IMG_1480 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr So there we go, lots of things to fix, but still a great car as is. It's very nice to drive, the 5.0 V8 is smooth and powerful and it's very refined. The gearbox seems to not like staying in 4th gear though, it'll hold 3rd even at 70 unless I jump off the accelerator sharply and then go back on with light pressure. After you accelerate and it shifts in to 3rd, it stays in 3rd unless throttle goes back to zero. Strange, but hopefully a gearbox service will help with this. Very much looking forward to this ownership experience!
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Last Edit: May 10, 2018 17:03:46 GMT by MrOtter
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Another of my itches being scratched by someone else! Always wanted an R129 in 5ltr flavour. You've deffo got a project on your hands fixing that lot but spares are plentyful albeit the R129 breakers are rather greedy. You see these in reasonable fettle circa 6k up to 10k for a good one so I am sure you must've gotten a bargain? Are you just going to swap the dials for a 2nd hand MPH set?
Oh, bookmarked.
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96 E320 W210 Wafter - on 18" split Mono's - Sold :-( 10 Kia Ceed Sportwagon - Our new daily 03 Import Forester STi - Sold 98 W140 CL500 AMG - Brutal weekend bruiser! Sold :-( 99 E240 S210 Barge - Now sold 02 Accord 2.0SE - wife's old daily - gone in PX 88 P100 2.9efi Custom - Sold
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MrOtter
West Midlands
"Your car is your story, so don't let someone else write the book." - Moog
Posts: 281
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Another of my itches being scratched by someone else! Always wanted an R129 in 5ltr flavour. You've deffo got a project on your hands fixing that lot but spares are plentyful albeit the R129 breakers are rather greedy. You see these in reasonable fettle circa 6k up to 10k for a good one so I am sure you must've gotten a bargain? Are you just going to swap the dials for a 2nd hand MPH set? Oh, bookmarked. Good thing is that all of issues can be sorted as-and-when, so I can still drive the car around and enjoy it whilst I fix it up. No rush to fix the roof mechanism either until the weather gets warmer, so that can wait until next year. Yeah I've noticed R129 spares prices seem a bit steep, but I guess the cars are getting more valuable now. This thing cost me £3700, so fingers crossed I won't lose any money even after pouring in the £2-3k it probably needs to get it perfect. I might swap the dials yeah, I need to pull them out to change a bulb and to see if anything is amiss with the wiring (in relation to the indicator problem), so I might as well convert it to UK spec whilst I'm there. Fingers crossed it's just plug and play.
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I found that when I had my W140, the breakers prices started at £100 no matter what I wanted lol. Those powerfold mirrors are damned expensive - I paid £140 for one 2nd hand IIRC! The handbrake lever will probably be the same as a W210 so at least you can get one for a couple of quid?
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96 E320 W210 Wafter - on 18" split Mono's - Sold :-( 10 Kia Ceed Sportwagon - Our new daily 03 Import Forester STi - Sold 98 W140 CL500 AMG - Brutal weekend bruiser! Sold :-( 99 E240 S210 Barge - Now sold 02 Accord 2.0SE - wife's old daily - gone in PX 88 P100 2.9efi Custom - Sold
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Phil H
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,448
Club RR Member Number: 133
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1991 Mercedes 500SLPhil H
@philhoward
Club Retro Rides Member 133
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I suspect many of the issues are connected - certainly cruise, traction control and autobox behaviour which points to it being unhappy with a common signal (be it a lack of speed signal somehow, or thinking the brakes are being applied). Normally a "snow" button starts the box off in 2nd gear to reduce torque (hence wheelspin) but this is MB and they like to do things differently.
From what I've read on oddball Merc faults, check every fuse and every connector (ones into the fusebox itself) as they cause the strangest behaviour.
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Great buy at that money. Non leather makes a nice difference too. I suspect cloth was deliberately ordered by the original owner but not as a cost saving measure.
The first thing I'd change is the OVP (over voltage protection) relay or open it up and check for dry solder joints. I think it's located close to the engine ECU and it should have two fuses in the top with a red cover.
Looking forward to updates.
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Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
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This is a great looking machine...
I think that cloth trim is utterly superb!
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***GARAGE CURRENTLY EMPTY***
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Love this, always fancied a R129 since sitting in a new one back in 96.
Agree that the original buyer of this car must have really wanted cloth seats, I didn't even know you could get them!
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Last Edit: Nov 2, 2017 17:49:11 GMT by joem83
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,864
Club RR Member Number: 58
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1991 Mercedes 500SLadam73bgt
@adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member 58
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Nice buy! I was just looking through your W124 thread the other day and thinking how I like the way you go about sorting the little issues around the car, and now you've gone and got another Merc with a load of little issues! Bookmarked, looking forward to seeing how this one turns out Edit: Pleeease find a way to get that head unit and 12 disc changer working, its so cool!
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Last Edit: Nov 2, 2017 17:44:44 GMT by adam73bgt
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Fossilfish
Part of things
Thank fossils for fuel!
Posts: 653
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I had a car book back in the day and remember seeing one with same interior as yours.
I absolutely love the seats please keep them.
Checkered or tartan in any German car looks great.
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Thank fossils for fuel!
1996 Jeep XJ Sport 2.5 Manual 1975 Scimitar 3.0 V6
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Very cool. I'm looking forward to seeing you fix all the little niggles
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MrOtter
West Midlands
"Your car is your story, so don't let someone else write the book." - Moog
Posts: 281
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Nov 16, 2017 11:51:52 GMT
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Thanks for the comments everyone, seems to be a lot of love for the seats! Don't worry they'll definitely be staying, I love them too! I found that when I had my W140, the breakers prices started at £100 no matter what I wanted lol. Those powerfold mirrors are damned expensive - I paid £140 for one 2nd hand IIRC! The handbrake lever will probably be the same as a W210 so at least you can get one for a couple of quid? Yeah the more I look for R129 spares, the more shocked I am at the prices of things haha. Plenty of bits I could do with, but I'm not paying hundreds just to get a few trim pieces. The handbrake lever was unique to the R129 from my research, but that's sorted now, see below... I suspect many of the issues are connected - certainly cruise, traction control and autobox behaviour which points to it being unhappy with a common signal (be it a lack of speed signal somehow, or thinking the brakes are being applied). Normally a "snow" button starts the box off in 2nd gear to reduce torque (hence wheelspin) but this is MB and they like to do things differently. From what I've read on oddball Merc faults, check every fuse and every connector (ones into the fusebox itself) as they cause the strangest behaviour. That was my initial thought, but I have a feeling it might just be coincidence. The traction system light actually hasn't come on again since I drove it home, so that's intermittent or it's fixed itself. Cruise is still out, but I have a feeling a linkage may be missing under the bonnet... more investigation to do. Autobox behaviour sounds like it might be cables out of adjustment from my research, but I haven't looked in to it yet. Fuses are my first port of call, see below... Great buy at that money. Non leather makes a nice difference too. I suspect cloth was deliberately ordered by the original owner but not as a cost saving measure. The first thing I'd change is the OVP (over voltage protection) relay or open it up and check for dry solder joints. I think it's located close to the engine ECU and it should have two fuses in the top with a red cover. Looking forward to updates. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll take a look at the OVP soon. Nice buy! I was just looking through your W124 thread the other day and thinking how I like the way you go about sorting the little issues around the car, and now you've gone and got another Merc with a load of little issues! Bookmarked, looking forward to seeing how this one turns out Edit: Pleeease find a way to get that head unit and 12 disc changer working, its so cool! Much to my surprise I found that the CD changer is actually fully functional! It even has 11 of the slots occupied with a previous owners CDs! There's a bit of everything - Madonna, Amy Winehouse, The Eagles, Songs of the year 2000, classic orchestral stuff... I actually quite like half of them, so that's a win as far as I'm concerned --- Okie dokie then, I could've started anywhere with fixing niggles, but the first thing I did was look at the centre dash "spectactle storage box", that had the lid stuck open. I took the unit out and found the plastic lever mechanism was broken in several places. It's not a simple piece of plastic engineering, so it would've been very difficult to fix it. This is one of the very few bits that seemed reasonably priced from the R129 breakers, so for £57 I had a replacement unit. IMG_1492 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr There's a big arm that's snapped off on the side of the old one. It was snapped on the other side too. The new unit is very stiff to operate, it doesn't spring open like it should, but at least it closes now. IMG_1493 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr It was only held in with two screws, but it was a tight fit in the hole. IMG_1494 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr IMG_1495 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr Yay, fixed! Or is it... IMG_1496 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr That fit didn't seem right to me. I took it out and put it back again, same result. In a bid of desperation I gave the corner a whack and everything clicked down in to place - yay! The whole button/lock unit moved down, so I must've nudged it upwards when pulling the original unit out. IMG_1497 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr Whilst we're in here, here's some more things that need fixing. Centre storage cubby thing - rear roller door is missing. Replacement storage box? Almost £300. No thanks! IMG_1498 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr The door pockets and the centre console under the armrest are meant to lock and unlock with the central locking. They're permanently locked, which is nice... The central locking system is all vacuum operated on this age Mercedes (same as my W124) which I didn't know until I bought them. The boot and filler flap lock as they should, but the doors don't, although the doors lock fine from the inside and activate the rest of the central locking system... anyway that's for future investigation. IMG_1499 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr The little lids for the sun visor mirrors are both snapped off. Replacement good visors are anything from £100-£300 each... IMG_1500 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr This is the remains of the roof module around the rear view mirror. Both interior lights from this unit are missing, and as you can see, the unit is in many pieces. A good replacement one of these? Sit down for this one... £600. SIX HUNDRED. I think I might try gluing this back together first! IMG_1501 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr On the subject of spares prices, you may recall I needed a handbrake handle. The R129 breaker wanted £78 for one, and that was the only one on ebay. That's a lot of money for some plastic and metal. With my recent purchase of wiper blades for the W124, direct from Mercedes, I thought I'd ask about the handbrake handle. Worth a shot right, but OEMs don't usually make much at all for their older cars... so I was quite surprised when the answer to my question was "Yes I can get you one in 2-3 days for £41.xx". Needless to say I didn't skip on that! IMG_1502 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr Here's the brand new one next to the remains of the old one. IMG_1504 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr Not too bad to fit, just had to drop the underdash panel a bit and disconnect/reconnect the cable. IMG_1505 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr Lovely. IMG_1506 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr The parts guy at the dealership said you'd be surprised just how much you can get for the older cars, so I'm going to put together a list of all the bits I need and see if they still make them. Right, moving on to the electrical issues, I'd read that the old aluminium fuses in these cars cause all sorts of troubles with odd electrical gremlins. It's recommended to replace them all with new brass/copper fuses. Here's an old fuse, showing exactly why they should be swapped out... that's some nasty corrosion. IMG_1488 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr This one's from the boot. Whilst I was there, I took photos of all the bits missing from the boot. Fuse cover, roof handle covers, boot carpet, and battery cover panel. How on earth does all this stuff go missing on such a nice tidy car?! IMG_1489 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr IMG_1490 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr IMG_1491 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr Anyway, back to the fuses. I found it very difficult to actually find these fabled copper/brass fuses that I needed. Everything on sale is still aluminium, which isn't what I wanted. I found the only place I could get them was from an ebay seller in Australia. So I bought a pack and about a week later they turned up - not bad coming from the other side of the world! IMG_1508 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr Much nicer. IMG_1509 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr I swapped them over in the main fuse box in the engine bay too. Annoyingly I actually ran out of the white 8A fuses, so there's still a few old aluminium ones in there. I ordered some more of the nice fuses from Australia and they're on their way now. They seem good quality, and they're the only option, so I might as well finish off the entire fuse box. Dang, second photo didn't come out well, but here's a before and after. That reminds me, I found that some of the old fuses were actually the wrong rating, so it's a good job I was fitting new ones! IMG_1510 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr IMG_1511 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr Swapping the fuses out seems to have sorted the indicators resetting the entire dash clocks and has also stopped the radio from resetting when the high beams go on. I haven't really driven it since swapping the fuses, so we'll see how it goes.
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Last Edit: May 10, 2018 17:05:40 GMT by MrOtter
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Nov 16, 2017 12:02:14 GMT
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You might find some spares from a scrap W210 will work? Things like the sliding cover door were on some models IIRC. Nice work so far. Still I hanker after one of these.
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96 E320 W210 Wafter - on 18" split Mono's - Sold :-( 10 Kia Ceed Sportwagon - Our new daily 03 Import Forester STi - Sold 98 W140 CL500 AMG - Brutal weekend bruiser! Sold :-( 99 E240 S210 Barge - Now sold 02 Accord 2.0SE - wife's old daily - gone in PX 88 P100 2.9efi Custom - Sold
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Nov 16, 2017 12:05:07 GMT
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Also, those sunvisors look identical to my W210 ones? IF so, you can but a complete running/driving MOT'd car for as little as £250 - Then you could swap out the visors, use the courtesy lights in your glued together housing etc etc. Just a thought?
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96 E320 W210 Wafter - on 18" split Mono's - Sold :-( 10 Kia Ceed Sportwagon - Our new daily 03 Import Forester STi - Sold 98 W140 CL500 AMG - Brutal weekend bruiser! Sold :-( 99 E240 S210 Barge - Now sold 02 Accord 2.0SE - wife's old daily - gone in PX 88 P100 2.9efi Custom - Sold
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Nov 16, 2017 14:15:52 GMT
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Fantastic car OP. Perhaps all the interior things were taken out before it came over from Japan? Just a thought. Keep up the excellent work. What a car.
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Nov 16, 2017 15:06:20 GMT
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That is lovely. Looks fantastic in Silver with the orange indicators.
The R129 SL is quite a small car, it is dwarfed when parked next to my 840ci. Because of this, it is a fun little car, with over 300 bhp on tap - that front end just lifts when your floor it!
Just got my 500 SL back on the road last week. These early models were built from granite.
Good luck with the project - you definitely won't be losing money on that.
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Love for old BMWs, Mercedes, Jaguars and Swedish Slabs!
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rr69h
Part of things
Posts: 313
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Nov 17, 2017 10:39:12 GMT
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What a lovely thing and I personally love what you're doing with it. You do have the sweetest engine of them all, too. The early 500s are a little more brisk than later cars. Yes, most pats are still available new from the dealership. I find that a few of these parts are cheaper new than on the used market so visiting the main dealer is always worth considering. When it comes to parts I find that many parts beginning with the "129"-Number aren't cheap. Mercedes used some R129 suspension parts on the faster W124-variants and this stuff is much more expensive than on the more "common" W124s. After taking parts out it's worth checking the parts number to see if it's a R129-only part or something shared with other Mercedes models. Oh and I'd recommend using German websites for sourcing parts. I find that most used stuff is much more expensive in the UK. If you need help translating stuff, I'd gladly give you a hand. Just pm me and I'll reply with such lovely sounding German words like "Überspannungsschutzrelais", "Mittelkonsolenschlossabdeckung" or even "Türverkleidungsablagefachentriegelungsmechanismus"! Greetings from Germany.
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Last Edit: Nov 17, 2017 10:48:54 GMT by rr69h
"Racing drivers never carry cash"
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Nov 17, 2017 14:00:26 GMT
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As rr69h said Germany should be your first port of call for parts, the difference in pricing (sometimes) can be very considerable - I know first hand having had many BM's & Merc's over the years - God bless the net! Worth bearing in mind too that there's a lot of suspension parts that are shared with the W201,W124,W202,W210 etc. Possibly most of your brake system too. Looking forward to updates. Rock on!
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Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,191
Club RR Member Number: 170
Member is Online
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1991 Mercedes 500SLChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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It's good to see you are having fun with the new beast! It certainly looks like it has a bit of potential!
Reading through the thread I was going to make a few suggestions like the fuses but it seems I've found out that there are better fuses out there ; my headlights are currently giving me issues!
Likewise, I found the same issue as you did with dealerships and breakers. People automatically assume for either silly or willy waving reasons that you should never visit the main dealer. In half of the cases it's simply not the case. The breakers seem to use this to their advantage quite unscrupulously. Yup, I've seen a similar thing in the BMW & Porsche circles. £20 for a used tow hook or £10 for a new item from the dealer? The only complaint I have about my Merc dealers are that they aren't very discount friendly!
Anyway, keep up the good work. It looks like you'll get there.
But two old Mercs? That is just greedy!
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