Simon's Mega Update Thread

[RhyminSimon27]

Hello everyone, it's been quite some time since I've been on the forums, so I figured I'd post an update on everything I've been up to. I tried to keep it short, but brace yourselves. Forums and taking pictures while I work aren't familiar territory, so sorry in advance for the lack of quality pictures and any formatting errors.

For those of you who don't really know me (and haven't read my intro), I own too many cars. My first car was an '06 Acura RSX base model, automatic.



Sold that a little over a year ago and I don't really miss it.

I also own a '92 Miata (~82k), '03 s2000 (~66k), and I'm leasing a '16 IS350 F-Sport as my mostly daily driver.







The Lexus is obviously completely unmodified, as is the s2000 (besides the previous owner's choice of shift knob). Two summers ago I gave the Miata new suede handbrake and shift boot covers (not perfect but oh well, it was $10 for both of them including shipping from England), a brass shift bushing & shifter rebuild, ss brake lines, slotted rotors, ebc greenstuff pads, clear turn signals (old ones were corroded beyond repair) and the new enkei wheels and dunlop direzza tires you see in the picture above. Oh and I had to replace a seized brake caliper too.





I have no plans to autocross or track these at this point. I don't really have the time to dedicate being competitive enough to really enjoy those endeavors. Plus I'm still just learning how to improve my driving in day to day situations on the road. I might turbo the Miata or do some crazy engine swap in the future, but I've been saying that for 5 years now so... we'll see when/if that actually happens. Most of my modifications these days are based on improving the driving experience as a whole.

So I had started a new job last summer, and I was driving to the office on the Friday of my first week there. I had just left, I was a minute out from my house, sitting at a red light when this happened.









This 19 year old in the CRV flew through the red light from the opposite direction, slammed into the Jetta that was crossing, and then his CRV bounced off and hit me head on. My airbags were the only ones to not go off. I was generally alright, besides a nice bump on my head, moderate concussion, and whiplash. Jetta driver had a gash on his hand but nothing too serious. CRV kid of course didn't have a scratch on him. I can't prove what I think happened, but I'll say that light was red for a damn long time before he went through it. This apparently wasn't the first accident he caused. Insurance didn't total the Lexus because it was too new, so I drove a variety of cars to work for the next 2 months while the Lexus was being repaired.

Anyway, on to the fun part of this update.

A couple weeks later, while sitting at my desk at my fatally terrible job, I was browsing Bring a Trailer every single day. I don't know why, and I didn't have any intention of actually buying anything. I was just bored I guess. But then, something interesting popped up. It was one of the first cars to strike me as impressive and different as I watched it drive by in Atlantic City when I was a kid. And it sat, and sat, and sat, for 6 days, just stagnant at $1600. It was in Lancaster, PA, not that far from me in northern NJ. That was the day I registered as a bidder. The auction ended at 6pm, so as soon as the clock hit 5 I was out of the door and headed home. I sat in my room at my laptop, and people started bidding with 20 minutes left. I started throwing bids in, with my mental limit set at $4000. It went back and forth for awhile, climbing all the way up to $4000. I gave it a last ditch effort, bid $4200 and walked away from the computer. I sat on the floor on the other side of the room with my head in my hands, waiting to hear the "ding" of someone throwing another bid in, signaling my defeat. But that sound never came. I walked back to my laptop and I had won. I was shocked and scared, part of me already thinking I made a huge mistake. But the next day, I drove the s2000 to Princeton and took a train to Lancaster. I walked one block to the dealership and there it was, greeting me like it was our first date.







Yep, I bought a 1987 560 SEC with ~125k on the clock, and the odometer wasn't working so it's anyone's guess as to how accurate that is.

So what all was wrong with it when I bought it? Odometer, speedometer, fuel gauge, air conditioning, clock, radio, front speakers, seatbelt extenders, all non-functional. Exhaust leak, interior in somewhat rough shape with a ripped passenger seat and partially sagging headliner by the sunroof, some dashboard cracking and the like. Very slow window operation on the 3/4 windows that worked. The rear passenger window didn't work and liked to fall down. Dent on the driver's door in a spot that's gonna require the door coming off to fix. Less than perfect paint with some scratches and blemishes. Some rust around the top of the trunk opening and bottom of the drivers door, but nothing too terrible. There is a bit of a leak in the trunk so it smells like the bayou. Some random wiring not attached to anything but the battery. ABS and other dash lights like to intermittently come on when they feel like it. The heated seats work!

After dealing with the wire transfer and some paperwork, the owner of the dealership drove me to a nearby(ish) notary to finalize everything. And I got to ride in this as he went full send.



Yep, that alone was like a dream. A 1972 (I think) v12 e-type converted to fuel injection. Unbridled doesn't even begin to describe the sound this thing made. Turns out the dealership owner races classic cars, and boy does he have quite the collection.



I could go on and on about everything he had there, but back to the Benz. I left the dealer, and went to the nearest Sheetz for gas, jerky, and red bull. I put one of my favorite albums in the cd player (yeah, I came prepared) and hit the road for the 150 mile drive home, silently praying that I made it.





Yes, that temperature is accurate (90 F). It was 94 when I left and didn't get much cooler the whole day. Good thing the windows liked to stay down, because the whole no AC thing was brutal. The fuel gauge bounced all over the place, I had a dying Iphone simultaneously running a speedometer app and google maps as my only guide home. It was slightly discomforting, but I had Smash Mouth blaring out of the two functioning speakers, the dense, humid, hot Pennsylvania air flowing through the cabin, and the snide feeling that my coworkers were all miserable in the office while I was driving one of my dream cars home.

About 20 minutes or so into the drive, the temporary tag that was poorly taped to the back window fell down so I got off at the next exit to try and remedy that. I must have had some luck on my side that day, because right off the exit was a Michaels. Grabbed some duct tape and took some time to fix the tag and just admire the thing.



A little while later, we were home without incident.



First thing I did was give it a good wash and got that Rand Paul sticker off the back. Then I just drove it here and there for a while, until winter came. It was far too cold and I was far too busy to attempt to work on it. But now that's changed! My first order of business was to fix the odometer. I took the gauge cluster out and found that one of the plastic gears was disintegrating. I ordered an overpriced replacement set and got that back together. I haven't been able to drive the thing to see if that fixed the problem, because the next day I walked into the garage to find it had a mysterious flat, and I only own a low profile jack that somehow doesn't lift this pig high enough for me to get jackstands under it. Gonna try again soon on some ground more level than my deceivingly steep driveway, and buy a new jack if need be.

Next up was attending to the windows, so I spent the last couple days ripping apart the interior and removing the motors/regulators. There was a lot of 30 year old grease-turned-sludge on the regulators, so I cleaned and regreased them all. I'm hoping that'll mostly fix the problems, and I think I just have a bad switch for the one window that doesn't work. I also found out today that the 8 month old battery in it was somehow no good, so I got a new one and I'll be putting it in tomorrow and seeing if I actually fixed anything. Here's some more pictures.





Don't worry, I already removed that wiring.







Before/after comparison of one regulator and another:





I've never attempted anything even remotely as intensive as this, but it's been a great learning experience, and this is just the beginning of the restoration I have planned for this car. I'm planning to drive it to Nashville at the end of March for a friend's bachelor party, so right now my goal is to make it as pleasant a drive as possible for those 13 hours.



As I sit here typing this, my 23rd birthday has come to an end. A lot of people texted me their well wishes today, and asked if I was doing anything fun for it. I told them "I'm sitting in my garage alone working on one of my cars", and they all responded with some version of "What? Why?? You could do that any day, why not go do something fun?" I responded with "I am."

[JPolen01]

For the jack - just get some pieces of wood to throw underneath it and jack the jack up...see what I did there?

[Senor_Taylor]

SIMONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

You're a more well adjusted, sane version of me with all of the cars! The Miata's wheels are growing on me, so don't ever let me hate on them!

The Merc looks better and better the more I look at it and I'm really surprised you ended up keeping it.

[CaptainHenreh]

Bravo, sir. That's a big project to undertake, and it looks like you're going to have a sublime PTC car when you're finished.

[.RJ]

old german luxo-sled?

now this I can fap to.

I bet it smells like... well, old german car. i just want to sniff it.

[Jake]

Love it! I lived with this one for a couple of years and put maybe 250 miles on it. They're very solid cars with a lot of presence, nice and comfy. As long as you never expect it to be a legitimate "sports car" and drive it like the two-door S-class it is, you'll have a blast.

[ScottyB]

this is awesome. old mercs have a sense of authority you just don't get from a lot of cars, even the newer mercs. they play the part perfectly in black, too. great to see you're tackling a crazy project, in the end i bet it'll be so much more rewarding to drive than the lexus.

wish i had known you were going to lancaster, i lived there for 6 years and would have given you a couple recommendations for places to go for food. if you want to fast-track your way to a delicious heart attack there are fewer places that make food better.

[GTBrandon]

Can’t say I love those yata wheels but damn if I’m not impressed you stuck with the Mercedes and now I think you’re too far down the rabbit hole to look back, and I’m proud of that!

[HAULN-SS]

I can't be the only one that had that same alpine deck, right?

[Senor_Taylor]

Had a very similar one in the Miata I just had. Old school after market head units are neat. None of them had dials for the volume for some reason?

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[Jake]

I can't be the only one that had that same alpine deck, right?

My E34 came with the same one installed!