AMG Penta Restoration, Part II: The Result

Two weeks ago, I took the Pentas out for paint. They were spraypainted 735 Astralsilver, with a shiny clearcoat. Reasoning for the color is:

• The best way to accomplish 199 with polished lips is first polishing the lips, then having the rims oven-baked with hard lacquer and then only painting the centers with color.
• I had already set a date for paint and did not want to cancel that.
• There are no oven painters nearby.
• I don't know anyone offhand who would polish the lips and doing it myself would require constructing a rig from scratch, which would most likely not happen before winter.
• There is a problem with painting rims only partly; most paint shops I've asked don't want to do it, and doing it myself would probably not be robust enough for winter use.
• 735 Astralsilver is the default color for Mercedes-Benz silver color wheels.

There were no problems and the wheels look very nice:

I got some used full metal valves for them from a friend. Before mounting them, I had to do a bit of a restoration job on the valves. I had a couple weeks to do that, since the clearcoat on the wheels will need to harden for 1-2 weeks before taking the wheels to a tyre shop.

Here's how the valves looked when I got them. On them was a rock-hard coat of what I suppose was brake dust. It felt like paint. It was all over the valves and even on the caps. I tried white spirit, WD40 and Brake Cleaner and it would just not wipe off.

The valve has a rubber O-ring on the inside. I gave it a silicone bath in order to freshen it up. This should minimize the risk of air leaks, after all the valves are used.

I lucked out and got a set of MINT metal valve caps for free at a local Euromaster tire shop. They look brand new and more importantly, they are basically the same shape as the old brake dust covered ones were. If I were to go buy these at an accessory retailer, they would be "tuning parts" which means colors like copper, electric blue and pink, low material quality, excessive length and thickness, and high price. These ones, OTOH, look small and classy.

I tried scraping the black crud off with my bare nails and that worked. So giving the parts a toxic bath and then scrubbing did the trick. I cleaned up the fat part, and left the actual valve part with grooves be, since that will be hidden by the other bit.

I was pretty ecstatic with how the Pentas turned out:

Tires are GoodYear UltraGrip Ice+ 205/55 16" which I had bought previously for the BBS RS wheels.

There was a problem while mounting the tires. It turns out while restoring wheels you should always leave the hub unpainted. This is so obvious now, but I just didn't think of it. Neither did the sodablast guy, or the painter. So of course on two wheels' hubs there were uneven clearcoats with some bubbles as a bonus. This threw the balancing off and I had to scrape the bubbles off with a razor. Even so, two of the wheels were a bit more involved to balance. Oh well, you live and learn.

The wheels are straight, so they could be made perfect by grinding the clearcoat and paint off the hubs, but I think I'm going to live with the extra wheel weights, at least until the next set of tires. Driving home, the wheels had zero vibration.

Speaking of wheel weights, you might recall previously the wheels had knock-on weights on the outside rim. Since the wheels now look nice and shiny, I had the tire guy put glue weights on the inside. They are less visible to the outside, but more involved to get just right, and the glue can let go. I figured since I drive little over the winter, and slowly at that, I should be ok with glued weights.

The tires feel so good. It's hard to describe in a reasonable amount of text what a transformation the change from summers to frictions makes. Initially, I can put my finger on:

• The steering suddenly got very light and comfortable. It even feels more responsive. On a fast road (80 kph) even the tiniest correction on the wheel translated into a change of direction. It felt like changing tires took about 50 % or 75 % of slack off my steering gear. And boy, I can't emphasize too much how light the steering is now. You can literally steer the car with one finger whereas with the summers the steering feels somewhat heavy, definitely heavier than W124's I've driven.
• The frictions are much, much quieter. This is obvious but then there are some aspects to it that aren't immediately so. The frictions are quieter because the compound is softer. Thus the whole feel of the car, inside, is transformed. I notice way fewer rattles and sudden noises in the interior while driving on the frictions. Even driving over speed bumps or a rough asphalt spot, the car makes a soft thud, not... an edgy thud... it's really hard to describe but I definitely noticed this.

Ashtray Wood Repair

There was only one part of the car that fell victim to the Ahvenisto road trip. That was the ash tray. More specifically, the burlwood on it dropped off.

Unlike most pieces of trim on the car, this piece of wood is held in place with glue (or double sided tape actually). After 24 years, it let go.

The polished trim on the ashtray forms a lip, under which the lip on the burl locks in.

First, I needed to get rid of the old tape. It had turned into a vaguely sticky goop which was mostly easy to just scoop off. After that, a good scrub with paper and white spirit.

All wood parts on these were marked at the factory... When I polished the center console wood, it had a "1988" marking on it.

Applied new double sided tape and carefully slid the lid into its "groove".

Voila!

Ahvenisto Track Day 2012

Yesterday, the M-B Club had a track day at the Ahvenisto race circuit. Turnout was pretty good even though it was cloudy and had just been raining when we arrived. Fortunately the weather turned to some warm sunshine as the day progressed.

Got to take the car for as many laps as I liked for free. I did 10-ish laps. For the hell of it I had a buddy time a couple of my laps, so my best time at Ahvenisto is currently 2:09.9. I was partly stuck behind cars for both laps, though.

Unsurprisingly, the car feels very heavy when going through corners, and like I've said before, the engine is pretty weak unless you rev it like crazy. Furthermore, even without really pushing the car, it feels like the rear likes to step out a bit. It's very logical and easy to control, however, and minimal, unless you really push the car. It will also cook its brakes in like 3 laps, so I basically got 1 or 2 quick laps in before having to come in and cool the brakes.

By sheer coincidence, Lastsoul of FinalGear ran into me while I was standing around the pits. Apparently, he had been in the morning event, where there were, among other marques, loads of Miatas. He told me his camera batteries were running low, so I gave him my camera for the day.

The second guy from the right is me. Pic credit: Lastsoul

Pic credit: Lastsoul

Pic credit: Lastsoul

Pic credit: Ville Suutari

I got to ride a couple laps in the brand new C Coupe 6.3 AMG. Its engine was plenty powerful and torquey, the soundtrack was great, but otherwise the car left me quite cold, as most new cars do. Also present but not allowed on the track was the ML class with the same engine. I was also taken for laps in a 600 SE W140 and a W220 3.2.

The 600 was surprisingly stiff around corners. Relatively. Way stiffer than the 126. It had just the default suspension, no hydropneumatic configurable magic. To ride in, it felt like a very large and very well preserved W124, as far as body stiffness.

It was elegant and relaxed, and in no way uncomfortable around the track. And this is only the chassis. Don't get me started on the interior which was mint on this car. The wood trim looked like it had a 2cm lacquer coat, and the color of it was just perfect. The leather was black and extremely well preserved. No squeaks, rattles or clunks came from any of the interior or chassis. Any wind noise or roar from the other cars was behind dual layer glass, we were caccooned in what felt like a really well furnished bank vault. 

The day ended on a high note, as a had the chance to visit a club buddy's garage in Lahti, where many finished, near-finished and completely unfinished projects lurked. I got to ogle at and/or sit in at least a Citroen DS, a 1957 Thunderbird, a couple of 30s cars (Cadillac and Chrysler), a 1923 Studebaker Convertible, a mint RR Silver Shadow and also an old Rover of some sort. For a DDer he has a rust-free US-import M-B R107.