Blue slk. Transmogrification complete.

[scdan4]

[95 quid Peugeot]

The person in the pic is showing uncanny resemblance to Mrs 95's level of collection interest. 

[scdan4]

Just back and it drives ok, apparently. It’s the blue slk on the right.

Both front wings need replacement, bonnet needs a respray, service history patchy. I was just about to make excuses and leave when the disinterested looking wife says

”I really like it. It’s got heated seats, it’s here and so are we, You can sort most stuff out can’t you.?” 

At which point the seller says “it’s called myrtle “

so we brought it home. Obs.

mot till May, £800. Leaves some tidying up cash in the pot for the bodyshop. Decent mot history (r390lht).

so far so good, I think.

[lesapandre]

These are very cheap for what they are surely? Best time to buy...during the winter. Good luck with it - keep us updated? 

[xtriple]

Prices for the 170 are on the up it seems. Maybe everyone is aware now that the later ones rot out there subframes (£1500 FML   ). I don't  think you did bad there at all, are wings cheap/bolt on?

[yes oui si]

I really fancy a 230k. Something about them... I'd even tolerate an auto. 

[Timewaster]

I had to double check, my old boss has a blue 98 SLK 230 kompresor which I thought was called Myrtle. 

Then I remembered that myrtle was her 190.  The SLK is called Mavis and she wouldn't sell it for £8000 nevermind £800.

 

[scdan4]

43 minutes ago, xtriple said:

are wings cheap/bolt on?

Funny you should mention that.... theres a pair on eBay collection only in Tamworth. Can anyone help with that? Collect and forward for a few beer tokens ideally... They look to be bolt on, but dunno. 

There are cheaper cars about but it had to be a localish blue auto 230. Beggars, choosers and all that. We have a bodyshop neighbour so hopefully we’ll get it looking gurt spangly at sub retail rates. 

Wife took some better, but still not great pics 

[NigeT]

Nice purchase, think you've got a great deal there, so much car for so little £, values only going up from here. Wings are bolt-on but the front bracket they bolt onto is often rusted to shittery well before wing replacement time arrives (was the case on 3 of the 4 SLK's I've owned). Only takes a couple of minutes to remove the arch liner for a quick check.

[lesapandre]

1 hour ago, scdan4 said:

Funny you should mention that.... theres a pair on eBay collection only in Tamworth. Can anyone help with that? Collect and forward for a few beer tokens ideally... They look to be bolt on, but dunno. 

There are cheaper cars about but it had to be a localish blue auto 230. Beggars, choosers and all that. We have a bodyshop neighbour so hopefully we’ll get it looking gurt spangly at sub retail rates. 

Wife took some better, but still not great pics 

Nice colour - IMHO they look better in a darker colour. Black and single colour interior is a + too. First owner may have specified this with some care which is good.

[Floatylight]

5 hours ago, scdan4 said:

.. theres a pair on eBay collection only in Tamworth. Can anyone help with that? Collect and forward for a few beer tokens ideally... 

@Tamworthbaymay be your man, failing that put something on the shitely thread, where have they got to get to?

[Tamworthbay]

9 hours ago, Floatylight said:

@Tamworthbaymay be your man, failing that put something on the shitely thread, where have they got to get to?

Depending when they need to be collected I certainly could. Presently under a two Covid isolation which ends a week on Thursday. If they can wait until then. Or would they drop them off perhaps? I can’t be any help with the forwarding but sure the Autoshite massive could help.

[scdan4]

Had a fiddle done some light tittivating 

Bonnet strut doesn't 

Air filter is new 

Spark plugs possibly original and took a bit of gentle badgering to free 

Aux belts pretty tired 

Lots of stickers were removed 

And leaves dug out of all crevices and drains 

Door glass refused to line up and seal sensibly. Google said that it's a tadts of stop plates that are glued on to the window glass falling off. 

I'm not the first one here. Lots of broken door card fixings, no membrane and sika flex everywhere. Brackets found in the bottom of the door 

Cleaned the sikaflex off everything , wet and dryed the glass, wiped with thinners and then epoxyed the stops back on. 

When that had set I fiddled with the adjustment for ages, and ta da 

Still thinking its OK for the money. 😁 

 

Built in cassette storage. Very last millennium. Bottom pic window before, out of place because of iPad mainly. 

[scdan4]

11 hours ago, Tamworthbay said:

Depending when they need to be collected I certainly could. Presently under a two Covid isolation which ends a week on Thursday. If they can wait until then. Or would they drop them off perhaps? I can’t be any help with the forwarding but sure the Autoshite massive could help.

This place, etc. 

I think I've solved it as have found a sensible breaker, but a sincere thanks for the offer. 😁 

[scdan4]

More furtling has occurred. 

New sparkplugs to replace the old, all of which were reluctant to wind out the head. They've been in a while. 

Idles smoother with the new ones. Scuttle area, despite having had a hard prodding with a hoover needed more moss and leaf litter removal 

Started sorting out the tatty wings. Took off the better, drivers side one as it needs repair and derusting and as @NigeTsaid above, the front mount bracket was a sorry state 

As you probably won't be surprised to hear it fell off when I wobbled it. 

It's far from a tail of woe though as everything else seems fine, even the stuff buried under wet mud. Pleased with that. And happily I'm now able to weld, so game on. 

Cardboard template 

Looks sensible 

But then the light went and I was hungry and cold, so downed tools and buggered off home. 😁 

 

[seacow]

Love this - I had one this colour as a stop gap and ran it for nearly 3 years!  They are great fun!

If you need bits look for Chrysler crossfire parts - I had a wiper mechanism and bonnet catch and they are much cheaper - but same parts - even have the merc badge on them!

I have some wheels centres in black and I think a fuel filter I never used - if they are of any use you are welcome to them for postage cost

And top down heater on in all weather - just stop for no fucker if its raining  

[seacow]

Also on those drains and the one in the fuel filler its worth blasting them with an air gun - amazing the shite that comes out

[scdan4]

Ah yes please, that would be great.😁 I will pm my address.

Drains are all running freely now having had half a sycamore tree removed from them. 

Chrysler crossfire top tip. 👍

[NigeT]

Nice work, lovely to see it getting some love. How's the inner wings looking? Always worth having a poke. Pic attached of an SLK in the wilds of Perthshire which I recently attacked with a screwdriver. Is the supercharger is kicking in as it should (often doesn't on less-loved examples)?

 

[scdan4]

On 11/28/2020 at 9:18 PM, NigeT said:

. Is the supercharger is kicking in as it should (often doesn't on less-loved examples)?

 

The wife’s been driving around in this quite happily. How is it? I ask “Fine, I really like it “ she says. I drove it to the unit today and it can’t get out its own way, absolutely no go below 3k revs and unnecessarily jerky gearbox action. So no, I don’t think it is. Internet says K40 relay box and or charger clutch. It drives okish so will carry on until January..

Wings, now one blue one black have been rust scraped and treated with hydrate 80. Inner wings pretty good. Paint shop had unexpected work in and worker out so spray delayed to January. Car looks hanging!

Wheel refurb has been arranged. Straight swap for ice cream (we make it) was suggested until we pointed out just how much ice cream he was talking about 😂at which point a more sensible half n half was agreed.

So it looks hanging and drives sloooooow, but she’s well happy with it already, so that’s nice. 

[NigeT]

16 hours ago, scdan4 said:

The wife’s been driving around in this quite happily. How is it? I ask “Fine, I really like it “ she says. I drove it to the unit today and it can’t get out its own way, absolutely no go below 3k revs and unnecessarily jerky gearbox action. So no, I don’t think it is. Internet says K40 relay box and or charger clutch. It drives okish so will carry on until January..

Wings, now one blue one black have been rust scraped and treated with hydrate 80. Inner wings pretty good. Paint shop had unexpected work in and worker out so spray delayed to January. Car looks hanging!

Wheel refurb has been arranged. Straight swap for ice cream (we make it) was suggested until we pointed out just how much ice cream he was talking about 😂at which point a more sensible half n half was agreed.

So it looks hanging and drives sloooooow, but she’s well happy with it already, so that’s nice. 

Have you checked the vacuum line from the supercharger area? If you look down and to the right of the air box you'll see it. It can fray where it connects at both ends and just a small leak will cause similar symptoms - lack of power, rough gearchanges and spluttering under load. In my experience K40 has caused sporadic cutting out and no-start issues but not affected the supercharger - also fyi the K40 can still be toast even if the soldered connections look okay so I would recommend a new one over re-soldering an old one. 

[scdan4]

What a ballache. 

Getting this to run properly has been a mission. Happily, most of it was tracked down and sorted out by supertom, I'd have set fire to it a while ago. 😁. You'd find one problem, fix it all hopeful and then the next would present itself. Gah. 

Breaks /shorts in the wiring loom. These are not fun to track down. Tom says every wire has had a power probe on it. I believe him. Every earth point cleaned and greased. These shorts fucked some sensors on a common circuit somehow, once the shorts were resolved all the downstream stuff was dicky. 

Too old to talk to a snap on solus device, so we had to beg and borrow one from the local long time served auto electrician. Having to borrow kit from someone who is part time and doesn't naturally lend out their irreplaceable fragile kit is less than ideal and adds quite a bit of time but in this case was a life saver! 

Body control module duff. Replaced. 

Boot lock mechanism screwed. Replaced. Due to my ineptitude this involved a holesaw and the boot lid. A Disappointing Day. 

Hazard light switch replaced 

Air flow meter was screwed. 

Spark plugs, coils and a lambda sensor replaced 

All filters replaced 

Battery replaced 

Pair of new tyres. 

Wheels refurbed

Lots of bits resprayed. 

Cleaned by a child 

And it's finally ready to take a picture of. 

And to be fair it's now looking smart just as the sun comes out, which is nice. And the wife really loves it, which is nice... 

... But I suspect that we'd have been better off buying a better one this time. I'm also sure that I've learned that lesson before. I clearly forgot. Oh well. I'm pretty sure I'll do it again later as well.