Classic Jalopy

[classicjalopy]

Australian Motorlife Museum - NMHD 2026

Today is National Motoring Heritage Day (NMHD) for 2026.  It is held each year on the 3rd Sunday in May.  The idea behind it is for all the national car clubs to organize an event on the same day so the public see historic vehicles out and about.  This presumably promote the motoring hobby and showcases the depth of interest in it. In prior years I've often attended the big car show in Berry.  That was always quite a good event, but the location means it seems to be cancelled due to weather as much as is actually held.  The last time I was able to attend was 2023. This year I attended the event at the event at the Australian Motorlife Museum.   The Illawarra section of the Jaguar club were also there so I could have gone with them too.   I've been to the museum a few times before and it is always well worth the visit.   The last time was also in 2023. As well as the trip to the museum, the event also included a scenic drive to the Museum.  The meeting point was at Partridge VC rest area.   I took my 1987 Mercedes 560SEL.  I chose the 560SEL for two reasons.  Firstly, the forecast was for rain and the W126 is very stable in the wet.   Secondly, I had recently had the intake manifold gaskets replaced and this would be my first decent drive in the car since that job was done. This all sounded good on paper, but there was a small problem.  The club hadn't actually picked a route or nominated anyone to lead the drive from the rest area to the museum.  After waiting about 30 minutes, we realized nobody was coming. We set our GPSs to the museum and just headed there.   At least it wasn't raining at the time. While I have been to the museum 3-4 times, I had never been on event day before.   Going on an event day meant they had a number of the cars running and driving around.   There was a replica of the Benz Patent Motorwagon from 1986, a car from 1901 and another that I think was from the nineteen teens.   We actually passed the latter on the way to the museum on the motorway.   It was getting along rather nicely. One thing I learned was that most of the cars from the 19th century didn't have brakes.  I had assumed they would also have rudimentary rear wheel only brakes.  But apparently they didn't.   I wouldn't want to ride a pushbike without brakes, let alone a car - no matter how slow. The museum even had a steam car on display from 1901 with no brakes that was used until about 25 years ago.   Apparently driven to a church service each week.   I can't fathom driving on the public roads in 2001 with no brakes at all, even if the church was close by to the owners residence As well as the cars that were driving around, they had a nice display of club pre-war cars just outside the entrance. For example a bevvy of Austin 7's parked outside.  Going to the museum on a day like this was worth it and an extra benefit from the normal way of attending the museum. Inside the collection was good as always - focusing mostly on pre-war cars.   The collection does change from time to time, so while many cars were the same as from my last visit, there were a few changes.

My two favourite cars were the Minerva and the Black and Red Auburn.   The Auburn actually has an interior made from pigskin and during the restoration the owner had the pigskin tanned.  Apparently this wasn't that easy to have done. Cars from this era were painted with a brush. I found out that the way to get a good finish is to heat the paint as it means the brush stroke are not all that visible when it cools.  I had just assumed it was done with lots of wet sanding. For this event, I took my 11 year old daughter who enjoyed seeing some of the really old cars, as well as seeing some of the memorabilia they had on display.   This included automotive stuff as well as other things like typewriters and sewing machines. it was a good day overall, the car went well and we enjoyed visiting the museum.

[classicjalopy]

M117 Intake manifold gaskets

After a long drive, my 560SEL would leave a puddle of coolant under the car.   The puddle wasn't from the front, it was from the rear of the engine.   The most obvious thing here was heater hoses, but I let the car get nice and hot put the heater on and there was no leakage.

The next step was to run a coolant pressure test, so I bought a cheap kit from Temu and ran it.  It was pretty easy to get coolant to leak, from that same location.   Looking from under the car, it looked it was running down the side of the engine block.   I wasn't sure the exact location - perhaps a core plug or something like that? I took the car into my mechanic for him to look further and he came back that the leak was from the intake manifold.  The coolant would leak out in the valley of the V8 and then pool in there, and then slowly run down the side of the engine block. I didn't want to drive the car much like that.  Overheating an alloy engine is a good way of destroying it.  While the leak wasn't huge, it could get worse.   So late last year, I parked the car up and started to order the parts.

While the leak was coming from the main gaskets between the intake manifold and the heads, there are a lot of other parts that should be replaced at the same time. Consulting the EPC, I came up with the following list: - 117 141 2480 - Left Side Intake Gasket - Genuine NLA, Victor Reinz - 117 141 2580 - Right Side Intake Gasket - as above - 117 140 0265 x8 - Rubber sealing rings, Genuine - 126 430 2029 - Rubber vacuum line - I couldn't find this in the end - 116 090 0882 - Idle Air hose - Genuine - 116 997 1286 x4 - Plug for air distribution hose, MTC - 102 094 0212 - Cap for air hose - Genuine - 117 990 1278 - Air line - 116 094 2582 x2 - Air distribution hose - Genuine - 000 000 001448 x2 - Bolt - 000 912 008066 x3 - Bolt - 000 912 008063 x10 - Bolt - 000 912 008060 x4 - Bolt - couldn't locate this one - 117 094 0982 - Hose - 116 140 0618 - Air flow boot, genuine Not that is is my list, I would not take this as the definitive guide. My mechanic suggested that it was better to get new bolts, if I could. I was able to get most of them.  I wasn't sure if he would need the air flow boot, but I got one because they are still available new.  It seemed like a good thing to have on hand even if he didn't need it. It was a while before we could get the car scheduled, so I hardly drove it while I waited to the job, just the odd short trip to keep things going. I bought the car from the original owner, and he didn't think the heads had ever been off.  This seemed to be the case looking at how the intake manifold came off.  Not bad after almost 350,000km.   In my case, the reason we did the job was coolant, but this job is commonly also done due to vacuum leaks due to the rubber sealing rings.

There were no real issues with the job, and it was clear where the coolant had been leaking from the old gaskets.

The car is now back and driving very well again. Its possible there were minor vacuum leaks from the old parts, although I wasn't aware of any.

[classicjalopy]

Daimler gauge repair

My Daimler Double-Six, along with all Series 1 XJ's and derivatives has four gauges in the centre of the dashboard above the rocker switches.   These are: - Voltage - Oil Pressure - Water Temperature - Fuel They had all stopped working and I wanted to get them to work again, especially the water temperature one.   I quickly ruled out a blown fuse, as many other things in the car that share a fuse with these gauges were working. My next suspicion was that the voltage stabilizer had stopped working.  Most of these smiths gauges run off 10 volts instead of 12, and voltage stabilizer converts from 12 to 10.  I'm not exactly sure the reason for this, but If I had to guess its because they require the voltage to be consistent and normally voltage levels in a car range from 12-14 volts.  I ordered one. I also purchased the Jaguar XJ wiring diagram book and on examining the diagrams, it quickly became apparent that it probably wasn't the voltage stabilizer.   The voltage gauge needs the raw voltage in order to work, and it was also dead. Illumination was working when the headlights were switched on, so it also seemed unlikely a problem with a bad ground.   This made me suspect a problem with the power feed into this gauge pod. Looking at what is going on is quite easy on a series 1.  The panel with the gauges is hinged and folds down to reveal the fuse boxes.   This was a design used on the Mark 2, The E-Types, S-Type, Series 1 XJ and probably the Mark X. Instead of using wires for each gauge like in a series 1 E-Type, there is a flexible printed circuit board behind all four gauges and the clock.  This was quite an advanced design in 1968.  I doubt the people who designed it were thinking about it being in service 50 years later.   The gauges are not especially complex and simple wires would be easier! My next theory was that there was an issue with this circuit board.   That proved to be the case.  Inspecting it carefully, the track that takes the main power feed had burned up and so therefore power was not getting to the gauge set.   The photo below shows the burned track in the mirror.

The fuse that controls the gauges plus many other things is a 35A fuse, so the tracks on this board are more sensitive than the fuse is.  I suspect I caused the problem as I had been using a multimeter to see where the aftermarket radio was wired into the fuse box the day before. At the time, I probably touched something and cause a small short, and since the fuse is so large, burned on the tracks in the circuit board. I thought quite a bit about options.  I don't have the skill level to repair the circuit board.   However, I realized I could inject 12v to the line that came from the circuit board to the voltage stabilizer.  This would be completely reversable if I ever got another board, and quite simple.  They way the plug to the board worked, I could push a spade connector into the back of the plug where the main power feed was, and piggyback it to the line to the stabilizer.  This would both power the 12v circuit before the stabilizer and bypass the burned track.

This fix seems to have worked quite well, and my gauges are back to how they were before.   That is, Temperature and Oil Pressure seemingly working well.  Voltage working but reading a bit low, and petrol reading very low. I'm not too worried about the voltage gauge, but I would like to get the petrol gauge to work properly.

[classicjalopy]

First long drive in the Daimler

Back at the Easter weekend, I did my first long drive in the Daimler.   Up until recently I had been mostly using the car for shorter drives, until I got it sorted out.   After the recent service, a lot of the issues I was concerned about were now sorted out.   I wanted to see how the car performed on a much longer day trip. I drove up to the blue mountains via Bells Line of Road and then took the road from Oberon to Goulburn before heading back home on the motorway. Overall the car did really well, and I found it to be very comfortable on a much longer drive.   The drive was a good mix of suburban streets, back roads and motorways.  This drive took me over 1,000km with the car, which is probably the most its has driven in less than a year since going from Melbourne to Adelaide back in 2005 as a new purchase by a previous owner. The driving experience really is very good.  The power is effortless and I think the 3.31 rear end ratio really suits the nature of the car.   I've never driven one of the later HE V12s, but they had much taller ratios for fuel consumption.   The ride quality is excellent and it handles both back roads and the motorway equally well.   It started to rain, so I took it very easy around corners. When driving the car, its easy to forget it's well over 50 years old.  Comfort and ride are superior to a newer car.  Handling isn't, but that's not what this sort of car is about.  There are only a few areas that showcase the age of the car.   The first is wind noise.  The drag coefficient of the series 1 XJ isn't all that good and there is a lot of wind noise a freeway speeds.  This doesn't bother me a great deal, but its quite noticeable against an 80s car, and especially something modern.   I am curious if a series 3 is much different. The next is the windscreen wipers, which are a bit average.  Glass coverage is a bit mediocre, and there are only two speeds.   The final one is the presence of quarterlight windows.  Since the A/C isn't working, I see this as a big positive.  On a rainy day, I was able to have the quarterlight open, and get plenty of airflow with minimal water ingress.  Its a shame they died out. The drive also identified a few things I need to sort out on the car over time: - There is a really annoying rattle from behind the dash somewhere.  I fixed one of the a/c vents being lose, so its something else. - I lost my gauges (volt meter, fuel, temperature, oil pressure). - My Tachometer sometimes stops working - I can't get my newly installed rear view mirrors to aim correctly. - The 2000's era CD player is terrible and seems to work only through one speaker. - There is no way to charge a phone on a longer trip.  I used a power bank. - At the last fuel stop close to home, The car ejected some coolant after sitting for about 3-5 minutes. - My wiper blades won't wipe all that well, and while the fast speed works well, the slower speed is a bit hit and miss.  Sometimes I have to got fast speed first before going to slow.   They also don't park perfectly. - The kickdown doesn't seem to work. - I had a slightly soft brake pedal down a long steep section. The above seems like a long list, but only a couple of them are urgent.  I filled up three times to be safe, and the consumption wasn't too bad.   The first tank was probably a bit off from having the fuel tank replaced.  I got 16l/100km out of the second and 14.5l/100km out of the third.  Not bad given the reputation of these cars for thirst. Ultimately I want to keep any of my cars in the condition that I could get in them and drive to Melbourne and back with no issue.  I am getting much closer to that with the Daimler, but still have work to do.

[classicjalopy]

Auto Brunch St Ives May 2026

Today was the monthly St Ives Auto Brunch cars and coffee event.  It was a lovely warm Sydney Autumn day and it was probably one of the biggest turnouts I've seen.   After all the bad weather we were back on the main Oval and I think it was 80% full this time.  Last time we were off to the side. I arrived at about 7:50AM and the lines to get in were already quite long.  Quite a few people got sick of them and parked in the spectator parking which I think is a shame to save $5.  Probably next time I'll try to get there a bit earlier. I took my 1977 Mercedes 450SLC.  I have been driving it this week and my son and I gave it a quick wash the day before.  A friend of mine had his almost identical car there on the day which was unplanned. The best part of going to St Ives is seeing what interesting and unusual cars will be on display.  Today it was all about Saabs.   I don't know if it was a event by the Saab Club or just a group of Saab enthusiasts but there were a few really nice cars.   For my mind, the best car of the whole show was the 1979 Saab 99 Turbo. The car had been restored and it showed, even down to all the decals in the engine bay.   The car must have been such a revelation in the last 70s.  I think the original 99 design is more interesting than the later 900, down to some of the subtle curves in the bodywork and the design of the interior.  The wheels and turbo badges are also a nice touch.   The 900 is still a cool car, but it's a bit more homogenized. There were some other nice Saabs there including a black 900 turbo and a pale blue 900.   I prefer the Saabs from then the company was independent, but the later cars still have some interesting touches. As well as the Saabs, there were some other cars that caught my eye including a Milan Brown 450SEL 6.9 with a cream velour interior.  Milan brown is one of those colours that has incredible depth when the paint is nice, but looks terrible when its a bit faded.  This car has great paint and it goes so well with the velour.  As well as the 6.9 there was a nice Derby Bentley, a very nice blue BMW E24 with a manual transmission.   The Volvo Bertone coupe was striking too.   These are not pretty cars, but so interesting and unusual that I was happy to see it. In addition to the cars, its always good to run into a few friends along the way and its a great Sunday morning.

[classicjalopy]

Daimler differential leaks, front brakes and fuel tank

My Daimler was off the road for some years before I acquired it.  While cars that haven't seen a lot of use can have advantages in terms of wear and tear on the interior and body, lack of use is often worse than regular light use for mechanical components. One of the things that became apparent in starting to use the car regularly, was that the differential had a fairly major leak.  This is obviously bad for the longevity of the limited slip diff, but on the XJ series cars, the rear brakes are inboard so major leaks can impact the rear brakes. The independent rear suspension used on the XJ and Daimler derivatives is the same independent rear suspension unit introduced on the E-Type in 1961.  It was still far ahead of everyone else when the X was introduced in 1968, and continued to be throughout the 70s and early 80s.  It was only when the competition introduced multi-link rear suspension systems in the mid 80s was it surpassed.  The original version was used until the end of XJ Series 3 production, and evolutions of the system were used until the mid 2000s. The reason the independent rear suspension for the XJ is related to the differential is the design of system has the entire rear suspension, differential and brakes in a removable rear subframe.   Therefore to fix my differential leak, the rear suspension had to come out of the car.

On my car the exhaust system wasn't in great condition and had to be cut before the rear suspension could come down. This will need to be replaced later. The good news is that the underside of the car is in good condition. With the rear suspension removed, the differential could then be serviced. A clunk in the rear suspension was traced to be due to bent trailing arm mount brackets.

While the car was in having the differential leak fixed, a few other things needed sorting out, including: - Leak from transmission pan gasket - A couple of small coolant leaks from coolant hoses - The fan clutch was not engaging properly when the engine was hot In addition to those things, when changing a fuel sender on the left hand tank, it was clear that the cleaning the tank a few months ago hadn't worked very well.  The tank was still very dirty.  New fuel tanks are still available, so I was able to purchase one and have it sent directly to the workshop to be fitted.   I had feedback it looked like it was very good quality and had some kind of internal ceramic coating. The front brakes were leaking and so the calipers removed to be rebuilt.  In doing so, it was clear that it was necessary as the pistons were in pretty rough shape.

I also had some new external rear view mirrors fitted, including one on the passengers side.  This wasn't optioned when the car was new, but I park very close to a wall in my storage area and I don't want to damage the side of the car. It as a lot of work on the car, but none of these things are all that unusual for a car that was laid up for a while.

[classicjalopy]

MBCNSW April 2026 Night Drive - Old Northern Road

Last night was our first night drive since January, the February and March night drives both being rained out.   After a bit of rain the night before, it turned out to be a lovely evening. This was also the first drive we using a new navigation app the club has purchased called 'Tourboss'.   I was quite keen to try it as at night. I can really only see two cars behind me, so its not always clear if the group is still together or not.   The tourboss app shows me the locations of all the cars on the drive.

We had a pretty good turn out, probably a combination of the good weather and not having had one for a couple of months.  I took my 1978 450SE.   As well as my car was a C123 280CE, R107 280SL, C107 450SLC, C126 380SEC, W124 300E x2 & E320 and S124 300TE. We had originally planned to meet on the eastern side of Galston Gorge and include that in the route.  The Gorge had been closed earlier in the year for roadworks. There was a lot of conflicting data about if it was open at night or not.   Since it wasn't that clear, I decided not to include it.   I left a bit early to get to the drive, and found it was in fact open.

Our new starting location was outside Galston shops. From there we headed out to Cattai Ridge Road, before taking Wisemans Ferry Road up to the Old Northern Road and then the Old Northern Road back down to Dural Maccas.   This is a route we've done a few times before and I always really enjoy it.   There is generally not a lot of traffic at night and there is a nice mix of tight corners and faster sections. Overall I thought the tourboss app worked reasonably well.   I used it to Navigate to the start point.  That experience was so-so as the route it took wasn't the one I would have chosen. More importantly it lacks speed camera location information, and Sydney is bristling with them.   So in future I would probably use Waze to get to the location. The experience for the users on our drive was pretty decent.  I set the route up in the admin portal which includes all the waypoints.  Tourboss the generates a six digit code.   That code was in our event booking system, along with details of how to get the app.   Everyone turned up with the app installed and with the code entered, so they were ready to go.

When the event is started, it then shows the location of all the other cars.  It also pre-downloads the maps, which is quite good if going through areas with poor mobile coverage.   As the 'tour leader' I had a few different views I could use. One as a normal navigation system and then one where it was more about showing me the location of the other cars.   Without reading glasses, I couldn't see the actual names of the people, but that probably wasn't important as I could see the spread of the icons.   For example, for a while two cars fell behind for a bit and then later caught up. Something I was able to see in real time. One of the best things was that you don't need to hit 'continue' when you get to a waypoint like with google.  For a pre-planned route it was pretty seamless.  On the downside, the lack of speed camera, roadworks and hazard warnings that waze gives you is a negative, as is the lack of dark mode at night.   We also had one member who has a phone with a square screen and the app couldn't handle that. There was also one situation where it went a bit haywire.  All of a sudden it thought a roundabout that was 7km away was actually 250 meters in front.  Then it got confused and started slowly increasing the distance to where it was.   I knew that section of road pretty well, so it was obviously nonsense, but it would have been confusing if I hadn't.  It wasn't just me that experienced that, and it happened on a bit of the drive where the route crossed over itself, which may have been the cause. Overall my verdict is that the app is pretty useful for running a group driving event. In an ideal situation I would probably want two phones running, one for this and one for waze.   It will be a useful addition to our night drives. The drive itself was great and all the cars performed well.

[classicjalopy]

Auto Brunch St Ives April 2026

Today was the monthly Auto Brunch event at St Ives.  It had rained heavily in the 24 hours prior to the event, so while it was not cancelled it was moved back to the old area.   The old area is much smaller, but given it was the easter long weekend, and the weather was poor, there was plenty of room.   A bit of a contrast from last time I went in January. I'm glad they didn't cancel, as it was still a really good event.  St Ives is always about variety and this month's smaller showing delivered. I took my 1990 300TE along to the event.  It was the first time I have taken the 300TE to St Ives.  There was one other W124 (a coupe) and a couple of W123 coupes.   I was quite impressed with the citrus green car, which was for sale. As well as that they were a few nice Lotus, a couple of 80s Ferraris, a Citroen XM and DS and a couple of 80's Honda Hatchbacks.  You never see those anymore.   Even with a smaller show, it was still very much worth the visit.   As would be expected due to the weather, there were more modern cars than usual.  There were still some really nice classics though. Cars and Coffee events are probably going to be impacted least due to high fuel prices.  Most people attend a cars and coffee event near where they live, so distances are much shorter.  This is certainly the case for me.

[classicjalopy]

w124 crash repair - sunroof repair

In order to paint the roof of my 1990 300TE, the sunroof panel needed to be removed.  However, on removal of the sunroof panel, the lifting arms disintegrated.  This is a common problem on the W124 and second generation W126 cars.  The lifting arms are the mechanism that is used to enable the tilt function on the sunroof. While the tilt function is nice, the plastic parts in the mechanism are a real weak spot.

Given the earlier roofs are far more reliable, I'm not sure the tilting feature is really worth the effort.   The broken arms got all jammed up in the mechanism, and since the roof lining was already out for the roof racks, it was easier to drop the whole sunroof cassette.

Unlike on the W126, the genuine lifting arms were still available for the W124.  However, to get both sides would cost over USD$600, before GST and delivery.  While I prefer to use genuine parts where I can, I couldn't justify it.  There are quite a few aftermarket options, of varying quality.  The ones from China were much cheaper, but I've not heard good things about them.  In the end I went with an AIN kit, that looks like it came from Turkey.  It cost about USD$200 including delivery and GST. When it arrived it looked quite good quality and was made from metal.  Comparing it against the old one it seemed to fit quite well.   This didn't solve the complete problem.  Even with the new lifting arms, the sunroof was still binding. In the end, the issue turned out to be a broken rivet in the rails.  This was causing one of the rails to sit a few mm higher than it should.  Its probably why the original lifting arms broke.

The final part was the bracket that holds the sunroof cable to the sunroof had broken.  This is part 126 782 01 40 and is still available new.  It was USD$16 before shipping and GST.   I was also missing a rubber insert for the bumper on the left side - part number 124 885 05 23 which was also $16.  I was lucky to be missing that side, as the right hand side seems to be NLA, although aftermarket parts seem to be available, but more expensive. Those were the last parts required and from there it was re-assembly.  The repairer made sure to use lots of sealant for the rear windows so water couldn't get in under the new seals. I've now collected the car and it looks great, better than ever.

[classicjalopy]

Wheels 2026 ACT

Today I attended the Wheels car show in Canberra.  Wheels is the largest multi-marque car show held in the ACT.  I've been a couple of times before, in 2022 and 2024.  The ACT club normally try and make a theme of the event, as there are prizes for the best display.  They have won it on a few occasions too. In 2022 they had a car representing every year from 1950 to 2022.  In 2024 they did generations of the S-Class. They also did an AMG display one year, but I wasn't able to make it.  This year the theme was 50 years of the W123.  Given the theme, I took my 1981 240D.   This is the second trip my 240D has made to Canberra this year, as I also attended the 50 years of the W123 event in January. I've always enjoyed this event, there are normally a good variety of cars.  The last few times i've been it was held at Queanbeyan showground.  However, from what I hear, Queanbeyan council are not as friendly to car clubs as they once were, so its was moved to Canberra.   The new location is Thoroughbred Park, which is a horseracing track in Lyneham. I had refuelled my 240D at $1.879 on the days the pointless war in the middle east started.  My goal was to get there and back on one tank and have fuel to spare since diesel is almost at $3 per litre.   I left Saturday afternoon and ending up driving through quite a big hail storm near Marulan.  There was so much hail on the grass beside the highway it looked like it had been snowing.   The W123 is made of thick steel, so I didn't encounter any damage. The Wheels event was held in the customer parking area and some parks nearby, not on the actual track.  Lyneham is a central location, and easier than Queanbeyan showground, but there is far less room.   In previous events the ACT club has been able to spread out and make a really good display.   This year the space allocated was quite small and the cars were all jammed in.

Nevertheless the club attempted to show off the W123s by having a 'fan out' display in the middle of the allocated area.  It worked reasonably well, but would have ben better with more space.  There were quite a few cars that had to park outside the main area.  The issue seemed more allocation than lack of space in general, as there was a big paddock behind the military vehicles that was mostly empty. As with the W123 event, I was parked next to the 300D in 476 Goldbraun.  Such a great colour and a car that has been in the owners family since 1981.   There was a good selection of nine W123s including a coupe, a wagon, and all the popular models (280E, 230E, 300D etc). In addition to the W123s the ACT club also had a nice selection of other cars, starting with a pair of nice roundies, a lovely red finnie, a beautiful W111 3.5 coupe, a W109 a couple of W116s, W126s W124s etc.  It was a pretty good selection of all the major models of Mercedes-Benz. As for the other marques, space seemed to be a bit of a challenge for the too.  The BMW display only had a couple of classics.  The new ones are all nostrils and a bit hard on the eye.  Getting past those, there were some really nice and interesting cars on display.  This included a huge American convertible with a folding metal roof.  the rear of the car was very long to allow it to be stowed away.  There were interesting curiosities like a Stanley steamer, a couple of Bristols and a pair of landcrab utes.   The Jaguar section was quite good.  There was a lovely Series 1 XJ6 with a manual transmission and a red interior.  While white isn't my favorite colour, a red interior and a manual transmission makes it very tempting.  The red XJC was also very nice. They didn't just have regular cars, there were also military vehicles and micro cars.   The Microcars were quite good. The ACT club had a catered lunch which was a nice touch.  The food at these sort of events is normally pretty bad and overpriced.  Sandwiches and fruit from the club was a far better option. The drive back was pretty uneventful.  I arrived back late afternoon after covering 610km with abut a quarter of a tank left.  I'm still undecided if I should refuel the 240D now, or park it for a few weeks to see what happens.  Most of my other cars are full and I don't really fancy $3 diesel.

[classicjalopy]

W124 crash repair - rust repair and repaint

Before my 300TE could be repainted, the rust uncovered in the rear window apertures had to be repaired.  The rust was cut out and the area welded - we didn't use any specific repair panels in my case.

Once all the rust was repaired, the next step was obviously paint. Since the whole car was not being resprayed, just the rear quarters and roof the colour had to be blended in. The goal wasn't to get my car perfect, but to fix any rust and get it looking really good without the expense of a full respray. While most of the work is in the preparation, it's when the colour goes on that the car is really transformed. Seeing how much better it was looking when I visited made a big difference.

The car looks really sleek without the roof racks and rubbing strips on the roof.  However, I do plan to put it back to the stock look.

The bumper was painted separately and will go on later.  One of the things that attracted me to this car at the time of purchase was the colour - 888 Beryll.  Its a great colour and looks so much better without the badly faded roof.   By 1990 it was getting rarer for a Mercedes-Benz to be sold in an interesting colour. I was also impressed with the red XJC parked under the hoist next to my 300TE.  I'm a big fan of the XJC, and red is a great colour for one.

[classicjalopy]

W124 crash repair - disassembly and rear window rust

With all the parts procured, my 300TE went into the body shop.    The repair started out as routine, removal of the old bumper and disassembly.   However, things quickly went sideways with the removal of the rear windows.

While I was aware of the rust traps in the S124 rear window design, I wasn't prepared for how bad the rust would be would be without any real external evidence.  I'm really glad I did this repair now, as while it was bad, it was still very much repairable.

Both sides were pretty bad with one slightly worse.   The challenge is that if any water gets under the seal, there is nowhere for it to go.   It sits and rusts away the metal under the seal.  The low point seems to be at the front of the aperture, although there was some rusting at the rear.

Fixing the rust was going to be more effort than I had planned, but at l was getting it repaired all at once.  It would have been quite a shame to fix one side only. Preparing the roof for paint was more effort than I had hoped.  The strips on the roof are just attached with adhesive.  But the actual roof racks require the headlining to come down.  Seeing the strips off the roof showed how badly the paint had faded from original, the main reason why I was having the roof repainted.

[classicjalopy]

W124 crash repair - parts required

Back last year, my 300TE was in a minor accident.   The rear bumper took nearly all the impact, other than some scratches to the paint on one side.   Before I could get the car repaired, I had to source some parts for my repairer. The most obvious part was the rear bumper.  Mine was cracked in a few places.  My repairer said worst case it could probably be repaired, but we would get a much better result with a good second hand bumper.  The wagon bumper is different to the sedan.  They are now no longer available new and not easy to find second hand. After a few calls, I found a friend in Melbourne had one.  It was in good shape, but missing the impact strip.  This wasn't a big deal for me, as the insert (called the rail, rear bumper in the EPC) is still available new from Mercedes-Benz (124 885 07 21) and cost USD$200.   The cover from my existing bumper was good enough to repaired. I also needed a few more parts.  The right hand side rear quarter needed to be repainted.  Therefore, I needed the seal for the rear fixed window to the cargo area.  This was still available new (124 670 20 39) and cost USD$160.  This is a very complicated seal which also holds a metal strip in place.  The aftermarket seals don't have the best reputation so I was very happy to be able to get it new.

Since I needed to have the rear quarter repainted as part of the repair, I also opted to pay my repairer extra to paint the roof and the left quarter.  I therefore also purchased the left window seal (124 670 19 39) out of my own pocket.  Interestingly it was no longer available new, but I managed to get a new one from one of those Benz parts sellers from Latvia.   Due to this, It cost about USD$250. I would encourage anyone who has a 124 wagon who has never removed the rear windows to get a set of those genuine seals while they are still available.  The biggest design flaw in the 124 wagon is the rust traps behind the seals of these windows. In addition, there was a small crack on one of my taillights.  The wagon tail lights are also no longer available,  but I managed to find a second hand unit for the right hand side.   My left hand unit wasn't that great, so I also purchased on myself for the left so they would match.   The new old stock seal was more expensive than the actual light!

[classicjalopy]

MB Clubs National Rally Bathurst 2026 - Day Trip

Every two years one of the state based Mercedes-Benz clubs organizes the National Rally.  I attended the 2022 event in South Australia.   2026 is being jointly held by the NSW and ACT clubs and the location was Bathurst. I think the club made a good choice to hold the rally outside Sydney.  Sydney is no place for a car event   Terrible traffic, expensive parking etc.   A regional centre is a much better choice. I didn't do the whole rally but when the club announced they would offer day passes, I decided to go up for the Saturday.   The events on that day were much more in line with my interests than some of the other days.   The programme was to a convoy lap around Mt Panorama, led by former racing driver Colin Bond.   Then a show and shine at pit lane, followed by a tour of the Bathurst racing museum. I decided it would be a perfect day to take my 250SE Cabriolet and two of my kids wanted to join me.   We left early, departing home at twenty to six, as the start of the guided lap was 9:30. Complicating things were the surge in petrol prices due to yet another pointless middle east war, plus the structural failure of the convict built Victoria Pass, the main road over the blue mountains from Sydney.   I would have normally taken bells line of road anyway, as I detest the great western highway.  However the media were predicting it to be a parking lot.   Turns out it was totally overblown and the traffic was even less than normal.   We used the extra 20 minutes for a pitstop at McDonalds Lithgow. Coming out of Lithgow, all of sudden i heard something, like there was something on the road that had hit the underside of the car.   I figured perhaps a stone or something like that.  Nothing else seemed to be amiss.  However, going around the next corner i realized I no longer had power steering.  Water temperature and the charge light were both fine, so it looked like I had lost my power steering belt. Since there wasn't much I could do by the side of the road, I proceeded to Bathurst.  The car was perfectly drivable, but with increased steering effort.   Lower speed and tighter turns were obviously a lot more effort. We arrived at the Rally at 9:35AM, perfect timing as the convoy was just assembling for the lap of the track.  We joined up the rear behind a 420SE.   It was quite a cool sight driving behind over 100 Mercedes-Benz around the track.  We ended up doing four laps as it took quite a while for the cars earlier in the convoy to get into pit lane and parked.   The extra laps certainly gave my arms a good workout.

I was surprised how many of the cars were moderns, I had assumed more classics would attend.   I'm not sure if it was due to the fuel prices, or that is what people planned all along.  Certainly I am sure that some people dropped out altogether and I'm sure more would have come up from Sydney from the day too.  Having said that, while the prices are very high, they are not substantially higher than they were six months ago.  I filled the 250SE up at 2.539 per liter, and looking at my fuel log, it was only 10c less than this at the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

As well as all the moderns, there were some nice classics on display from interstate.  My favorite was a Horizon Blue 280SE W116 from Queensland.  Apparently it had been in long term family ownership and it's a real credit to the family for keeping it in such nice original condition.     Not too many older cars, although a couple of roundies had come in from interstate which was awesome.

There were some new MBs on display.  Chief among them was a massive Maybach SUV.   I don't see the appeal at all.  To my eyes, it was tacky and overdone and more of a conveyance for footballers and rappers to be seen in than anything else.  I would have the blue 280SE any day of the week. It was also good to catch up with a few interstate members that I know at this event.

Lunch was at a food truck near the event which was overpriced and had a massive wait. The quality wasn't worth the wait either. I would have thought the day pass should have included lunch, as it wasn't cheap. After lunch we went to the museum which is quite good.  I covered this more extensively for Youngtimer Sacco day 2024.  The tour back then was more comprehensive, at the Rally it was more of an introduction to the museum.   There are some very interesting cars there and its well worth a visit.

We left at roughly 3:30PM.   As with our arrival, the traffic from Lithgow to Darling Causeway was less than normal, so we made good time, finding more traffic through Dural and Pennant Hills than the area with road closures.  Taking the W111 through these roads sans power steering certainly gave my arms a good workout.   We arrived home at around 7PM after covering 472km for the day.

[classicjalopy]

2025 Fleet Update

With 2025 completed a few months ago now, it is time for an update on the fleet.  As with both 2023 and 2024, I drove my fleet of classics around 18,000km over the year.  Unlike last year, I needed to be towed twice this year, although one of them was my own fault for running out of fuel and my wife's modern cars also needed to be towed twice with around half the total kilometers. Highlights and Lowlights The big highlight of the year from an automotive point of view was my trip to Longreach in my 560SEL.   I also did a great trip to Brisbane in my 240D at the start of the year, then trip from Victoria in my 450SE later on.   After a few false starts it was great to drive the 450SE up the Hume.   It was pretty cool to visit the MBCA New Jersey June Jamboree too. It was also a highlight to finally get my 1973 Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas.  From the lowlights point of view, the biggest one was a P-plater hitting my 300TE.  I also managed to put a scratch on my DS when trying to test the oil pressure which was really annoying.   I also found out I'll need to have the intake manifold gaskets done on my 560SEL in the new year. Fleet Changes I sold the 1987 420SEL parts car during the year.  while there were a few more things I could have taken from it, it was getting down to diminishing returns and I needed the space.  I also replaced my wife's 2007 E350 Wagon with a 2012 E350 wagon, this time an S212 instead of an S211. Added this year was my 1978 Mercedes 450SE that replaced my 1979 Mercedes 280SE, and my 1973 Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas. Of the cars I've sold in prior years, I know the whereabouts of my 1981 280CE, 1986 300SE and 1979 280SE and all three are still on the road and loved by their owners. Fleet Stats The average age of my cars is 48.3, having owned each car for an average of 8.4 years.   I did around 18,000km across all of them this year,  which included 8,600km over 20 car club events, half of them being the monthly night drives.   The oldest car is still my 1965 Jaguar E-Type, built in September of 1965, just edging out the 250SE which was built a month later, and the newest is still my 1990 Mercedes 300TE.   While most people buy cars that are newish, the average age I buy a car is 36. Both the E-Type and the 250SE passed 60 years old this year.  I also passed 100,000km across all five W126 cars I've owned. 1987 Mercedes-Benz 560SEL For a car that did 5,600km this year, I actually didn't drive it as often as it might seem.  Its had two separate coolant leaks that have kept it off the road for large parts of the year.   In the first half of the year, that turned out to be a leaking radiator.   And in the second part of the year, it seems that coolant is getting out through the intake manifold. However, when it counted, I could rely on the car and it took me on an amazing trio to Longreach and back without incident.   I also took the car on a drive up to Newcastle and back as a proving run, going to view the Rolls Royce concours event. As of this year I passed 20,000km since I bought the car during one of the COVID lockdowns about five years ago.   It has proven to be smooth, comfortable and powerful.

- KM Driven: 5,600km - KM on Odometer: 347,000km - Spend Level: Moderate - Availability: Moderate - Highlight: The drive to Longreach - Lowlight: Finding out I had to do the intake manifold. - Ownership:  6 yrs / 20,500km - Fuel Consumption:  14.5l/100km (2025) 16.4l/100km (all time) - Work this year: Preparing the car for the Longreach trip. - Plan for 2026:  Fix the coolant leak related to the intake manifold.  Pass 350,000km. 1981 Mercedes-Benz 240D I used my 240D a lot this year.   There really is something special and endearing about the W123 diesel.  While they make great city cars, they are quite capable of doing road trips and I went on a roadtrip to look at the Daimler I now own.   There was something for driving the most frugal car I own to go and inspect what would become the thirstiest.

- KM Driven: 3,500km - KM on Odometer: 192,000km - Spend Level: High - Availability: Excellent - Highlight: Very good - Lowlight: Having to regas the AC after new compressor, drier, condenser etc. - Ownership:  2 yrs / 4,500km - Fuel Consumption:  10.0l/100km (2025) 10.1l/100km (all time) - Work this year:  Bluetooth box for the Becker, Instrument cluster grounding, Auxiliary fan, grille insert and Mercedes star, AC upgrade, glow plug relay. - Plan for 2026:  50 Years of the W123 events. 1990 Mercedes-Benz 300TE I mostly used the 300TE for family outings and personal errands this year.  Its a car I often use when taking my kids to various events and its very reliable and versatile.  Its great to have a classic wagon in the fleet. This year I used the car for general family stuff, plus a night drive.   I finally got the wiring harness in the tailgate done, but unfortunately was in a small collision.  

- KM Driven: 2,000km - KM on Odometer: 386,000km - Spend Level: Low - Availability: Good - Highlight: Having the wiring harness fixed - Lowlight: Being hit by a P-Plater - Ownership:  3 yrs / 11,000km - Fuel Consumption:  14.3l/100km (2025) 12.5l/100km (all time) - Work this year: Wiring harness. - Plan for 2026:  Finalize collision repairs. 1978 Mercedes-Benz 450SE The 450SE replaced my 280SE and I couldn't be happier with it.   In my mind, the 450SE is the one to have.  In my view, the short wheelbase cars are better to drive.  The 450 is powerful and without some of the extra hassle of the 6.9. The W116 is an underrated classic.  It has a sportier and more 'raw' feel than the W126, but is still modern and comfortable to drive.  It can be thirsty around town, but is quite good on the open road. My car is exactly the sort of classic I like.  Its in very nice condition, fairly original but not so perfect that I can't use it.

- KM Driven: 1,600km - KM on Odometer: 117,000km - Spend Level: Negligible - Availability: Excellent - Highlight: Driving up from Victoria - Lowlight: None. - Fuel Consumption:  14.0l/100km - Work this year: Fitting a Bluetooth box behind the becker. - Plan for 2026:  Get the AC fixed and drive the car. 1987 Mercedes-Benz 560SEC I had quite the scare with my 560SEC this year.  The work to repair the crank pully on the car showed that the nose of the crankshaft was damaged.  Worst case would have required a second hand crankshaft and an engine tear down.  Luckily it could be repaired by drilling into the crankshaft and inserting a pin. I also had the front suspension rebuilt.   The highlight was probably using the car for the Youngtimer Sacco event.  I also drive the car a lot generally, as while it may not be cosmetically as nice as some of my other cars, its great to drive.

- KM Driven: 1,600km - KM on Odometer: 177,000mi (285,000km) - Spend Level: Very High. - Availability: Very good. - Highlight: Youngtimer Sacco Day - Lowlight: Finding out damage to the crankshaft - Ownership:  6 yrs / 20,500km - Fuel Consumption:  17.0l/100km (2025) 15.8l/100km (all time) - Work this year: Crank Pully repair, front suspension. - Plan for 2026:  Nothing specific. 1977 Mercedes-Benz 450SLC It was a uneventful year for the 450SLC.  Last year there was a lot of mechanical work and a big road trip.   This year I mostly used the car for personal drives.   I fitted some 3D printed rear speaker trims which are the same design as the factory trims, but a bit larger.  I also experimented with brighter bulbs in the headlights and removed the old window tint. After owning the car so long I still enjoy driving it.   There is a minor vibration that comes and goes on acceleration.  I would like to try and trace that in 2026.  I'm wondering if the exhaust is touching so I sprayed some black paint where it might touch the body under acceleration and will look to see if any of it has rubbed off.

- KM Driven: 1,300km - KM on Odometer: 319,000km - Spend Level: Negligible - Availability: Excellent - Ownership:  23 yrs / 57,700km - Fuel Consumption:  20.1l/100km (2025) 18.9l/100km (all time) - Work this year: Speaker Trims, Headlight Bulbs, Tint Removal, Oil Change. - Plan for 2026:  Trying to trace a minor vibration. 1965 Mercedes-Benz 250SE Cabriolet This year I mostly used the 250SE for club events.   I did six this year including the MBCNSW Cars and Coffee, The eastern Creek car show, Two night drives, The Sydney German Car Show and the MBCNSW Chrome bumper day. I didn't have any major issues with the car.  At one point I had a lot of vibration from the power steering, but that turned out to be a loose belt.  I also had an issue where the A/C would work very well for about 30 minutes then become warm.  My mechanic thinks it could be a TX valve, but since its an aftermarket system, we need to work out what TX valve to buy.

- KM Driven: 1,100km - Spend Level: Moderate - Availability: Excellent - Highlight: Multiple club events - Lowlight: None - Ownership:  14 yrs / 16,000km - Fuel Consumption:  17.6l/100km (2025) 15.5l/100km (all time) - Work this year: Major Service - Plan for 2026:  Fix AC issue. 1965 Jaguar E-Type Series 1 OTS This year I took the E-Type on one of the night drives, plus displayed it at the All British Car show.   It was quite rainy in Sydney this year so I found myself not driving it as much as I wanted.  Every time I got the car down from the hoist and ready, it would then start a few weeks of rain.

- KM Driven: 600km - Spend Level: Negligible - Availability: Very good. - Highlight: All British Day and Night Drive - Lowlight: Brake fluid leak. - Ownership:  15 yrs, 14,000km - Fuel Consumption:  16.6l/100km (2025) 15.1l/100km (all time) - Work this year: Nothing. - Plan for 2026:  Get a minor leak from the brakes fixed. 1970 Citroen DS21 BVH It was a year that I really didn't drive the DS very often, which is a shame as I very much enjoy driving it.   In the first part of the year, it had quite a bad LHM leak, and I was reluctant to drive it like that.   With work travel and family commitments, it took me time to get that fixed, as I assumed it was a suspension boot and it turned out to be a seal for one of the rear spheres, which I could have done in minutes. In the second half of the year, I was worried about low oil pressure, due to the light coming on.   It turns it the oil pressure is fine, and the instrument cluster is faulty.

- KM Driven: 350km - Spend Level: Negligible - Availability: Poor - Highlight: Finding out the engine is very healthy and is not suffering from an oil pressure problem. - Lowlight: Not using the car much this year because I was worried about oil pressure. - Ownership:  13 yrs, 12,000km - Fuel Consumption:  15.5l/100km (2025) 13.3l/100km (all time) - Work this year: Oil pressure investigation and a suspension seal replacement. - Plan for 2026:  Drive the car more now I know it has good oil pressure. 1973 Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas The highlight of the year for the Double-Six was getting it registered again for the first time since 2005.  While it was driven sporadically on a trade plate, its been basically unregistered since 2005 and has only done about 6,000 miles since the year 2000.

As the car was only registered and on the road late in the year, there were few opportunities to drive it.  In addition, I wanted to stay close to home during any initial drives to get used to the car. - KM Driven: 200km - KM on Odometer: 67,900mi - Spend Level: Very High - Availability: Poor - Highlight: Getting the car registered, on the road and driving it. - Lowlight: There was a bit more to do to get it on the road than I would have liked, but it was all good maintenance that would have needed to be done in due course. - Work this year: Getting the car registered and on the road and doing a few small improvements. - Plan for 2026: The big thing is to drive the car more and get to know it.  There is a leak from the diff that I need to get sorted out, and I would like to get the air-conditioning working.  There will undoubtedly be some teething problems as I start to use the car more.

[classicjalopy]

Daimler tachometer and V12 badge

In my first drives of the Daimler, one of the things on my list to fix was the tachometer.   When I first got the car, I had it converted to modern electronic ignition.  The Jaguar V12 always had electronic ignition, however it originally used a system called OPUS.   On my car, the ignition system had been messed with and the OPUS box wasn't working. Instead of using OPUS, I had the car converted to a Pertronix LU-1122A.  Instead of a separate ignition box in the vee of the V12, the Pertronix unit is completely inside the distributor.  In period, the OPUS boxes used to overheat given their location, and were moved in later cars. The Pertronix system has my car running very well, but the downside is that the Tachometer was no longer working.   Unlike on the six cylinder cars, the V12s were always electronic ignition, so the distributor is already the right type.  From my research, all I needed was to put a resistor between 9,000-10,000ohm between the negative terminal of the coil and the tachometer. To work out how it was wired, I purchased a book that contained the wiring diagrams for the car.  That helped me understand the purpose of the wires that went to the plug for the OPUS unit.  I was able to identify which wire went to the Tachometer.   Once Identified, I purchased a 9,500ohm resistor and made a line to go from the OPUS plug to the negative terminal on the coil.

I'm terrible at soldering, I so I used some connectors that need a heat gun to join the various wires, then put some heat shrink on top.   Installation was quite simple, but unfortunately it didn't seem to work.

However, it turns out I had done it correctly, and when I had the car in the workshop, I had them check.  It turns out that the wiring behind the tach was not connected properly, and once connected it all worked.   Its been pretty reliable since, but occasionally it has stopped.  I don't know why yet.   Generally it works pretty well.   I don't know if its 100% accurate, but then I doubt the tachometer ever was.

In addition, the other quick fix I did was to purchase the proper V12 badge for the centre console and use some trim adhesive to install it.  A small thing, but it looks great in the interior.

[classicjalopy]

The Louwman Museum - 2026

Back in 2013, I visited the Louwman Museum.  I've always regarded it as the best automotive museum I have ever visited.   A few weeks ago I was in Belgium for work.   I had a Saturday free, so decided to visit again and see if the collection had changed. Since I was in Brussels, It was just under two hours on the train to get to the museum in The Hague.  The train system in Europe really is very good and I was able to purchase tickets the night before for about EUR45 each way.   I left about 9:30AM and was at the museum around 11:30AM. I had about three and a half hours at the museum, and in retrospect I should have taken an earlier train. Three and a half hours wasn't nearly enough.  I had a work dinner to attend in the evening, so I had to take a train that would return me by then. Unlike many museums, the Louwman Museum is mostly focused on their own collection rather than having temporary exhibits like Autoworld Brussels.  In the 13 years since my last visit, the core collection was still there, but there were quite a lot of good additions too.   It was well worth a return visit. There was so much to see that I pretty much drained the battery of my phone taking photos and had to be quite careful towards the end to quickly snap photos.    There isn't a specific focus to the museum, but rather it tells the story of the history of motoring from the early days of the horseless carriage right through to where cars became more mainstream. It also highlights that things that many people think are new, are not nearly as new as they might think.    The first hybrid cars didn't come in the late 1990s, there is an example of a production hybrid car from 1917.   The petrol engine didn't' really become ubiquitous until the advent of the electric starter.  All electric and steam cars were quite common during the 1910s. In most museums, while they have special cars, a lot of the collection is cars you can see at a local cars and coffee.  There is very little at the Louwman Museum that you would see at a cars and coffee.   Probably 80% of the collection is rare and special.  The items that are not are important to tell the story. The museum is well organized.  Nearly all the cars have good descriptions that describe far more than basic technical specifications.  I photographed most of them as they are needed to understand most of the collection. Some of my favorites were: - The variety of design of cars before 1930 before the basic configuration that we know was settled. - The different powertrains used used before most cars standardized on four, six or eight cylinder petrol engines. - The contrast between the cars for the 1% vs the cars for the masses. - The Propeller driven car. - The collection of Spykers, the biggest in the world. - The collection of Benz (pre merger) cars. - The room full of cars like Bugatti, Ferrari, Maserati etc. - The Duesenberg SJ. - The concept cars or cars that were part of history. - The Brooke Swan car. There really is something for everyone.   It is still the best car museum I have been to.   I would return again if I am ever in the area.