- 5,054
- Panama City, FL
I've been on this forum since 2004, and just discovered this Member's Rides board. What an idiot! I have posted aboout these cars in the "Latest purchase" thread, but I'm putting them here so I have a place to report progress, which may eventually actually happen.
Currently I have a 2003 Mercedes AMG S55, not quite a "project car," but nowhere near 100%, either. My second unit is a 1999 Miata. I've just realized that for the first time in my life (I'm in my early 60s) I have no domestic-branded vehicle, I am 100% import! I've always had an American car (although the Crown Vic I inherited from Dad back in 2010 was technically a made-in-Canada import, it's still "American," ) From a '75 Plymouth Fury (ugh!) through a Fiero, a couple Chevys, a boatload of Oldsmobiles for some reason, and a quartet of Fords. Nothing American now, though.
I got the Mercedes from a local lot, who'd gotten it at auction. No history with it, but a clean Carfax. Nonetheless, it has been whacked on the nose as it has bumper damage, one new headlight assembly, and is missing a couple of the Parktronic sensors. It's a Canadian car, I'm the fourth owner, but the previous owner was south Florida. He was an idiot.
The car had oversize and overwide wheels on it, and the tires were narrower than the wheels so they had that splayed sidewall... There were fender run marks and grooves on the sidewalls. It also sagged the ABC hydraulic suspension after being driven for 15 minutes or so; longer than my test drive, so of course it never happened until after I signed... Found a set of OEM wheels from a CA ebayer for cheap. They aren't the correct wheels for the car, they are from a 2002, but they are the correct size and are genuine AMG-logo wheels with a Merc part#. And they're chrome! Tires for them came from Taiwan, OEM size, speed, and weight rating, and while they don't offer the traction from something like a Pirelli, I get about 3 for 1 on the price of the Pirellis.
This S55 has EVERYTHING that Mercedes ever put in an S-class of the day except the car phone, which I don't care about. What I do care about is no Bluetooth, which wasn't really around in the day, and can't be economically added to this car. Aftermarket head units are available for the W220 cars, but for the ones with the later MOST fiber-optic audio links; mine has the zero-aftermarket-support DB2 fiber links, so an audio upgrade would be an entire system. So I plug my phone's headset jack into the AUX socket in the glove box. Other nice stuff: zillion-way power seats, including the headrests and memory. Even the back seats have power adjustments! The memory setting includes outside and inside mirrors. The tilt wheel is power-operated, and moves up out of the way when you remove the key. The passenger headrest retracts if the seat is unoccupied, so it doesn't block the driver's view that direction. The trunk is remote locked, and power closes. The doors have soft-close, so they pull themselves shut if they are closed but not fully latched. If you open a door at night, the dome lights for that row only light up; open the back door, the rear dome lights illuminate, open a front door, the front lights come one. If you have the panel dimmed at night, then turn on a reading lamp or dome light, the panel goes to full bright, then dims back down when you turn the light off. Silly little touches like that just make you go, "WOW!" There's even a powered rear window shade, pops up or retracts with a button on the dash.
Then of course, there's the engine... 5.5-liter mit Kompressor! Rated when new at 490 HP, this one felt a bit less than that, but the car was still plenty quick. Price was 5 grand, and I had way more than that from the insurance for the previous car that Hurricane Michael destroyed, so I bought it. Either the stupidest or the most brilliant car purchase I ever made.
After acquisition, with the stupid wheels on it. It really wasn't even safe to drive at that time; you can see the cord on the rear sidewall!
Compared to... The car has a better stance here, thanks to a small bit of sorting out with the ABC suspension, more on that later.
Some other shots, interior and engine bay
Currently I have a 2003 Mercedes AMG S55, not quite a "project car," but nowhere near 100%, either. My second unit is a 1999 Miata. I've just realized that for the first time in my life (I'm in my early 60s) I have no domestic-branded vehicle, I am 100% import! I've always had an American car (although the Crown Vic I inherited from Dad back in 2010 was technically a made-in-Canada import, it's still "American," ) From a '75 Plymouth Fury (ugh!) through a Fiero, a couple Chevys, a boatload of Oldsmobiles for some reason, and a quartet of Fords. Nothing American now, though.
I got the Mercedes from a local lot, who'd gotten it at auction. No history with it, but a clean Carfax. Nonetheless, it has been whacked on the nose as it has bumper damage, one new headlight assembly, and is missing a couple of the Parktronic sensors. It's a Canadian car, I'm the fourth owner, but the previous owner was south Florida. He was an idiot.
The car had oversize and overwide wheels on it, and the tires were narrower than the wheels so they had that splayed sidewall... There were fender run marks and grooves on the sidewalls. It also sagged the ABC hydraulic suspension after being driven for 15 minutes or so; longer than my test drive, so of course it never happened until after I signed... Found a set of OEM wheels from a CA ebayer for cheap. They aren't the correct wheels for the car, they are from a 2002, but they are the correct size and are genuine AMG-logo wheels with a Merc part#. And they're chrome! Tires for them came from Taiwan, OEM size, speed, and weight rating, and while they don't offer the traction from something like a Pirelli, I get about 3 for 1 on the price of the Pirellis.
This S55 has EVERYTHING that Mercedes ever put in an S-class of the day except the car phone, which I don't care about. What I do care about is no Bluetooth, which wasn't really around in the day, and can't be economically added to this car. Aftermarket head units are available for the W220 cars, but for the ones with the later MOST fiber-optic audio links; mine has the zero-aftermarket-support DB2 fiber links, so an audio upgrade would be an entire system. So I plug my phone's headset jack into the AUX socket in the glove box. Other nice stuff: zillion-way power seats, including the headrests and memory. Even the back seats have power adjustments! The memory setting includes outside and inside mirrors. The tilt wheel is power-operated, and moves up out of the way when you remove the key. The passenger headrest retracts if the seat is unoccupied, so it doesn't block the driver's view that direction. The trunk is remote locked, and power closes. The doors have soft-close, so they pull themselves shut if they are closed but not fully latched. If you open a door at night, the dome lights for that row only light up; open the back door, the rear dome lights illuminate, open a front door, the front lights come one. If you have the panel dimmed at night, then turn on a reading lamp or dome light, the panel goes to full bright, then dims back down when you turn the light off. Silly little touches like that just make you go, "WOW!" There's even a powered rear window shade, pops up or retracts with a button on the dash.
Then of course, there's the engine... 5.5-liter mit Kompressor! Rated when new at 490 HP, this one felt a bit less than that, but the car was still plenty quick. Price was 5 grand, and I had way more than that from the insurance for the previous car that Hurricane Michael destroyed, so I bought it. Either the stupidest or the most brilliant car purchase I ever made.
After acquisition, with the stupid wheels on it. It really wasn't even safe to drive at that time; you can see the cord on the rear sidewall!
Compared to... The car has a better stance here, thanks to a small bit of sorting out with the ABC suspension, more on that later.
Some other shots, interior and engine bay