The Gold 6.9

[Lukas]

Okeydokey - it arrived yesterday. Initial pics:

Rust at base of windscreen (look hard - lotsa bubbles):


Rust above sill:


Boot rust:


Interior:


Odo - really is 139,000km:


Interior - even the bits that aren't usually brown are brown (eg ceiling):


Rear - it has a towbar! (for pulling a 450SEL racer perhaps?):


Front - hard to see, but there's a little black spoiler there:


Wipers scraping over the top of the windscreen for some reason:


Engine bay:


It has a kill switch too:


Plates:


High water mark in the boot:


Mega-rust on the towbar mounting plate in the boot:


Worst rust is that shown, and there are a few scrapes on the paint too, but other than that the paint is in good nick - still has a fairly deep gloss.

Interior is fairly good save driver's seat wear - I think I'll be getting that leatherique stuff that everyone is talking about onto it. It's amazing though how everything is brown - even the ceiling, and the door cards are the same brown as the other trim bits. The dash bits are browner. Styria was right though - when I heard tan I thought of Mercules' interior, which was actually bamboo orange - the actual tan is much more palatable (to me).

Suspension goes up and down, and seems to generally run well. Nearly all the leccy bits work too.

It has what must be an original Becker Mexico - I love how it's a manual tune radio (little red needle that points down over a strip of frequencies), but if you push the button a little motor moves the needle and it auto-tunes! That is impressive.

Is Australian complianced, and serial # is 1004 more than the blue 6.9. Compliance date is Nov 78, so it will be historic by the time I get back!

Canberrans: feel free to come around and check them out - last chance before Christmas.....

Lukas

 

[BenzBoy]

I hope it turns out well and I wish you all the best with it. My understanding is that quite an amount of work has been done mechanically to keep it going well - but maybe not too much to the body.
Regards,
BenzBoy

 

[TJ 450]

That looks like a nice car aside from the rust. Low km too! It looks like time to rip that trim out of the boot and get to the rust ASAP. How are the floor pans and the firewall looking so far?

Tim

 

[GreaseMonkey]

Looks not too bad, any other car, and you may think rust is a no-no, but considering it is a 6.9 and the rest of it is good, it is definitely worth doing a good job. By the way, I have excatly the same scrape marks from the wipers on the top trim piece, I assumed someone had used the wrong length wiper blades at some time.
Anyway, good luck with it!
Chris M.

 

[Michel]

Congratulations.
That looks like good value for money....

 

[SELfor50]

Maaaaate, looks not to shabby at all. A little rust, but totally treatable!

I'll give you a buzz tomorrow dude and come take a peak if that's sweet?!

Cam.

 

[SELfor50]

1 more question, compliance = euro??

 

[oscar]

Well this looks like an interesting project.

It would be good if the rust was only surface stuff but that boot area looks troubling as though you could push a screwdriver through and I'm guessing with the high water mark behind the rear wheel wells you might find a crunch noise if you push from underneath. I hope I'm wrong but once reapaired it'll be good as gold....literally.

One thing I've noticed about the windscreen rust, W116's or RHD ones at least seem to only suffer rust in that area on the left hand side. I could be wrong but somethin else I've noticed among my adhoc collection is that if there's rust around the windscreen, there's been rust under the carpets in the front, particularly the left hand side.

I'm sure there's plenty of digging round to do to evaluate what needs to be done. I have a decent windscreen chrome surround I'll drop off next time I'm in the 'berra if you need it. Hopefully that'll be when povo hits the hillclimb track for the first time. Good luck with it Lukas, love the colours.

 

[-bb-]

I gotta see this in the metal. Lukas: Hows about Thursday afternoon?

Cam: I can pick you up if you need transport.

 

[Des]

nice looking car, I like the colour

looks like a bit of work to do but nothing major hopefully!

 

[TJ 450]

My 6.9 has extensive rust (50c piece size hole and more) local to the area just above the blower inlet (to the far left under the grill where the wipers are). This is an area you cannot see unless you remove that grill etc.
The rust seems to affect the partition panel just before the hole for the blower. Then it spreads into the adjacent panels.

This is something to look out for, because if the car gets wet it will leak either into the blower and then onto the passenger side floor.

I wonder how one goes about fixing this properly?

Tim

 

[Lukas]

Hi all,

It does seem good value - rustier than the blue 6.9, but interior is similarly good and the kms are much lower, and it cost about 33% less!

Boot well rust: that is normally what I would be doing this weekend, but am heading off o/s for 3 months instead, so it will all have to wait. If there is time, I might have a quick look and pour some rust converter in, but I'm not sure about simply adding that stuff and leaving it (it says to wipe down 30 mins after with wet and then dry cloths.....). As for crunching noises, am used to them.

Footwells: there was a little damp in one, but otherwise they looked OK in the quick check I did on Monday night. Will keep that in mind about the blower.

Firewall: didn;t see anything, but it was getting dark and there was a large engine in the way

Compliance: Aussie sorry, no oil cooler either.

Visits: Thursday is good - PM or email me with when you want to come by.

Lukas

 

[Michel]

My 6.9 has extensive rust (50c piece size hole and more) local to the area just above the blower inlet (to the far left under the grill where the wipers are). This is an area you cannot see unless you remove that grill etc.
The rust seems to affect the partition panel just before the hole for the blower. Then it spreads into the adjacent panels.

This is something to look out for, because if the car gets wet it will leak either into the blower and then onto the passenger side floor.

I wonder how one goes about fixing this properly?
Tim

With great difficulties....
You need to move lotsa stuff out of the way...

 

[Styria]

Pity about the sudden demise of this thread. Lukas hasn't been on the side for some time - I wonder whatever happened to this car. Sitting somewhere, unloved, like we have seen so many other 6.9s ? regards Styria

 

[Oversize]

That boot rust looks pretty nasty! And I've never been a fan of tan (or Mission brown).

I know of another 6.9 that's been effectively abandoned and left on the street after the purchase of a much newer Benz. I'm hoping someone buys it very soon (not mine and not me BTW). And yet another that may be up for sale soon (not mine either)!

 

[Michel]

That boot rust looks pretty nasty! And I've never been a fan of tan (or Mission brown).

I know of another 6.9 that's been effectively abandoned and left on the street after the purchase of a much newer Benz. I'm hoping someone buys it very soon (not mine and not me BTW). And yet another that may be up for sale soon (not mine either)!

Tell us more.... please

 

[Oversize]

Unfortunately I have to protect the innocent, so I'll have to decline to add further. But suffice to say it's time for some new blood in the ranks (lets hope they use the forums and give us updates)!

 

[Michel]

it's time for some new blood in the ranks (lets hope they use the forums and give us updates)!

Hear Hear