W124 - A new project, restoration of a W124 E280

Executive Summary:

I bought a 1995 Mercedes W124 E280 Masterpiece. Plans of restoration are dissected in phases and this phase focuses on interior refurbishment. Also detailed is the plan for the audio setup and components that I have gathered to date. It also turned out that the person I got the car from was a conman.

Details:

Wanting to own a W124 has always been a dream, a dream of over 15 years to be precise. In the initial years of wanting to own one, I wasn’t financially capable to buy one of these.

About 9 years ago, back in the year 2011, while I was in the midst of changing my then car, which was a locally made the year 2005 Perodua Kelisa 1.0 GXi, I was out looking for one in a decent condition but I did not find one that suited my liking. As I badly needed a car, I went ahead and got another locally made car, the 2012 Perodua Myvi 1.3.

Fast forward to 2020, the desire to own a W124 was reignited, and out I went on a hunt. In the process, I found a mint condition example, however, I was a tad bit too late and it was sold. After looking at several cars, I settled with an E280 made in the year 1995. It was in fair running condition and I paid RM 7,000 for it.

The thing about looking for a used car is it all depends on luck and patience. Sometimes, you get a great one, and sometimes, you just don’t.

The car that I bought did not have the Masterpiece interior in it when I purchased it, the guy that I bought it from decided to "pay tribute to the first model W124 and had a number of things replaced to bad condition replacements" as his way to pay his "hommage". The interior was swapped from the leather to the fabric interior, front and rear bumpers were swapped to the earlier model thus making this car something that sits in between of two eras, a really confused car.

This is the first time I am working on a project on this car and the learning curve has been steep. To begin with, I had to make cold calls to a number of leads to have more information and contacts for this car. This is still a work in progress.

It was a runner when I got it, had a new coat of paint, rear power windows were not working, glasses were in fair condition, some of the switches are not working too well such as the rear headrest release button. The instrument cluster lights were not working as well.

Being a 2.8 in Malaysia, the road tax can get a little expensive, for this car, the road tax will cost a little over RM 1,600 annually. I would like to think of it as a small price to pay to drive a comfortable car, which was almost RM 200,000 when it rolled out of the dealership brand new.

So what is the plan for this car you may ask? Sure, I will be breaking it down into a few phases:

1. Have the interior done as I have committed to the work and paid for it - Status: The person who sold me the car in Kampung Melayu Subang, K*****T Auto failed to deliver.
2. Bring it home and drive it often. Pay attention to how it drives and have the mechanical side checked: Status: A bunch of work was done with most of the wear and tear replaced
• Have the cooling system checked
• Have the engine checked
• Have the electrical and wiring checked
3. Have the audio configured to an SQ setup. I have collected some components for the audio which includes:
•  A used Alpine head unit, CDA9887 
• A 4 channel Lighting Audio amplifier, L-4600 (**I have sold this to a friend to build his newly acquired Toyota Estima**)
• A used 12-inch subwoofer from Illusion Audio, Luccent L12 The sub will be a spare wheel active sub to save space and stealth looking setup
• Next in this segment is to source for the front component, and decide to have a 2-way component
4. Restore the exterior back to the Masterpiece trim, inclusive of bumpers, boot, and bonnet: Status - Swap completed and painting to commence soon
5. Wheels to the Masterpiece specification or an AMG version, I have not made my mind on it yet. Status: I have a set of 16-inch replacement that has the AMG look

This may take some time before I get the car to a stage when I would like it to be, for a person who is normally not too patient, I hope that I will see this through and grow as a human being.

I do not have too many pictures of the exact starting baseline and have started taking more pictures here.

Update:

This turned out to be a bloody rough start because the guy that I got the car from was a conman. As luck would have it, I only got to know the kind of person he was only after the transaction was done. The car was stripped of a number of parts which included the whole interior, wood panels, door cards, seats, bonnet, rear boot, bumper, and also the front indicators.

I am just glad that the work did not take place as planned earlier or it would have been a timebomb as I share my journey with this car in the subsequent episodes.

Challenging, but the journey begins!