Tony's 450SE Project

[Tony66_au]

I've started this to centralise my ramblings as well as the goings on with my latest acquisition a 1977 450SE, Topaz Brown.

She was an eBay purchase and good value at $1600 although she was not as good as the photos I was still happy to public transport nearly 600 km to pay for her and then drive her home from Western Victoria to Eastern Victoria.

She drove well enough on LPG and was economical enough with the added bonus of being reasonably well looked after so everything worked including the AirCon.

I am still in the process of prepping her for roadworthy and I believe that a bit more cosmetic work, repair of the left rear electric window and reinstalling the LPG system will bring her to roadworthy status.

She has minor accident damage in the form of a scrape down the passenger side but she has been patched up before and this now shows in the patchy paintwork and varying shades of Topaz brown.

Ive crawled over her looking for the dreaded tinworm and so far so good with a small repair above the tail lights needing to be redone properly but all sills and the rear lower 1/4 seem fine and filler free.

Photos and a more thorough description to come in the morning!

Tony

 

[Michel]

Well done on the purchase Tony,

However, I thought there was only ONE version of the dreaded Brown (Milan)

Can't wait to see the pictures!

 

[Oversize]

Hi Tony,

Great idea about starting a thread for your project; I might do the same when I start making regular progress! It's a little like having your own webpage; which is great for those of us that have no idea how (or no time) to create one.

 

[Tony66_au]

Well done on the purchase Tony,

However, I thought there was only ONE version of the dreaded Brown (Milan)

Can't wait to see the pictures!

To be honest Michel, so did I until I found 116.orgs colour charts http://www.w116.org/library/colors

And then I found a plethora of Browns and shades of brown including Topaz Brown, Dark Bronze Metallic, Golden Brown, Walnut Brown etc lol

Who'd have thought there would be so many shades of a fairly ordinary colour eh?

 

[Tony66_au]

Just taken some photos of the car and the documents that came with it for those who are interested.

Will post them shortly when I've sorted them out and while I have 30 mins to sit lol

 

[Tony66_au]

Ok, Ive posted pics of this old girl on B4B and OB but these are new and in more of an investigative light showing all the dings and dents in her 33 year old body.

I've also taken some rough shots of the doco that came with her some of which obviously doesn't belong to this car and if anyone wants more complete pictures or details let me know.

 

[Tony66_au]

Engine bay

 

[Tony66_au]

Body

 

[Tony66_au]

More

 

[Tony66_au]

Interior pics

 

[Tony66_au]

And the final interior pic set

 

[Tony66_au]

And now the Photos from the advert.............

I believe there was no deliberate deception involved, just a cheap Digi cam.


But first a quick off topic pic of my first Mercedes.

Apologies for the crap pic but it was taken with a kodak disk film camera many years ago and the Negs are tiny




Now on to the advert pics, Note the rear interior colour difference.

 

[Styria]

Hi Tony, thank you for those pics - nice part of the country you live in. Just so nice, luscious and green. I could hack it - it reminds me of the seven acres I used to own and where the kids grew up. I see in another thread that you're having some idling problems, but theold girl obviously managed to get you back home from where you bought her.

Your 450SE reminds me a little of BigBenz's car (he has just recently joined) and, like him, you have a bit of work ahead of you - haven't you ? I am not sure where you could start as it is all a matter of money to some degree, and of course quite a bit of elbow grease. Then, you also have to decide to what purpose you wish to use the car for - every day driver, weekends only driver etc. etc. Obviously it would appear that you are more than handy, so it will be interesting to get your updates as to where and when you are going 'to get stuck into the old girl'. Godd luck with it - if there is anything I can help with, let me know as I have hundreds and dozens of interior switch gear, dash parts etc. etc. Regards Styria

 

[Tony66_au]

I like it here, I came here because of my kids actually!

The purpose of the 450 will be as my Daily, My 230 wagon will be Jenna's car.

I do a lot of miles on country roads and I collect farm stock, grain etc so the 450 is ideal and as such I will be spending money on the engine and driveline first in order to make her as reliable as possible.

Im lucky in so far as everything works except the left rear window and apart from the idle issue she drives very very nicely.

There are some cosmetic issues but from 20 feet away she looks great and the MB tex interior is in good condition.

Aircon works well both hot and cold although im a bit unsure of the settings re the arrows assuming that the up arrow is demist and the down arrow is floor and rear direction.

The temp dial is also a mystery and I assume it only applies to the Aircon??

And the fan dial is stiff and imprecise in its operation although the fan works fine, 3 speeds.

She is missing the clear cover from the temp controls and the red/blue paper disintegrated.

In time id love to add some more timber to the interior as the center console is all black and id like to lighten up the interior colour wise from the orangey brown it is now and leather is on my mind as well.

Id love a 450SEL 6.9 and im keeping it in mind but I absolutely HAVE to do justice to the SE and use her as she was intended so a 6.9 is on the back burner.

Im also not a huge fan of LPG on injected cars and im told that the M117 returns roughly 4.5 Km per Litre of fuel although id love to hear from others on this and if the figure turns out to be closer to 6k per lt I will scrap and remove the LPG.

Yesterday I replace the plugs, leads, Dizzy cap and rotor on my 230TE and they were absolutely shot to hell with the dizzy cap sporting huge trac marks and the rotor edge being the only tenuous contact with the posts on the inside of the dizzy cap and yet the still returned 8.5 to 9 k per litre, I can only put it down to engineering but im gob smacked at how bad the gear was and yet how well she ran even though she must have been limping.

Benzes are strange creatures and quite foreign mechanically to me so im struggling but im sure as familiarity grows I will be more capable so for now im sticking to stuff I know.

More later.

Tony

 

[BIGBENZ]

Hey tony,
Looks like we are in the same boat here...
My 450SE exterior is fairly straight,tho with a few little rust bubbles coming thru,but for now its the interior,i have already got a whole cream one but will be doing much needed repairs before installment.
This will take some time and $$$$ but its passion that drives us blokes (and ladies) to keep these beautiful machines out there!!!
Anyway cheers to you and please let me know how things progress.

regards..

BIGBENZ

 

[SEL_69L]

Thanks for all those pictures. They may well come in handy for future reference on this or related threads

 

[Styria]

Just taken some photos of the car and the documents that came with it for those who are interested.

Will post them shortly when I've sorted them out and while I have 30 mins to sit lol

Hi Tony, isn't it a pity, and definitely disappointing, to 'inherit' service books when they are in the condition that some of yours are in. Maybe one could say that some are better than none, but it would still bug me to the extent that I would endeavour to find better ones. Regards, Styria

 

[Tony66_au]

Very true, The 6.9 owners manual has been wet and as a whole most of the books are awful so im due a trip to Motor book shop in Camberwell to see if I can source some cleaner versions for my 450SE but as money is very tight right now it waits until the car is driving nicely.

The only way to open the manual without wrecking it is I believe to soak it in water until it opens and then disassemble the book, dry the pages, iron them gently with a dry iron and then re staple the book.
I've done it before with Jag stuff from the 60's with mixed results but I have nothing to lose but an already wrecked book I guess.

 

[Tony66_au]

Its been a while since I've posted in here and im slowly gaining more know how and tips on diagnosing the issues with my 450.

I don't know if I mentioned it but when the fuel system is working again im scrapping the LPG as I don't believe it will be a major fuel saving in any case and considering the increased cost of maintaining an LPG system with far more frequent plug changes and the associated electrical HT components along with the higher risk of unreliability I believe it will in the short term cost me more.

I base this on previous LPG conversions to older cars including my Fairmont.

On another note I found a few more pics I took when i first got the 450!







And the barn/Shed which is currently being cleaned out to become my workshop.

Job number one of course is to provide a nice all weather access driveway!

 

[Styria]

Hi Tony, life can be a constant challenge, can't it ? At least there is always the "next goal" and something to look forward to, and the satisfaction in the end at a particular task you have completed. Well, that's how it works with me anyway. Regards Styria