New shots for Mercedes Enthusiast

Mercedes Enthusiast will be running a follow up article on the car later this year.
Photographer/Writer and all round good bloke Dan Trent came out to take these great shots of the car yesterday.

Service History

I have all MOT, service and maintenance paperwork going back to when the previous owner bought the car in 1985. It's seriously comprehensive and shows how the car has been maintained over the years. It's important to know that all the common SEC issues on this car have been dealt with as they have arisen. For example I have just (Jan 2010) put a new exhaust on the car as the silencers were finally rusting through after 25 years of good service. The thermostat housing has also just been cleaned, it's also had a new thermostat and radiator in the past so the running temperature is good. Worn timing chains can be an issue so it had a new one a couple of years ago. It's had a new steering damper, four new tyres and had the wheels properly balanced, it goes wonderfully on the motorway. It has also had the notorious rear screen area sorted (see below). It was last serviced in April 2009 and has an MOT til Jan 2011.

Hightone Restoration work 2009

All SEC's suffer from corrosion around the rear screen.
The trick is catching it early before it spreads. On seeing a small rust spot under the seal the car went off to Hightone Restorations last summer to get sorted. Whilst there I also had other minor rust problems sorted on the rear wheel arch and on the bottoms of both doors. By the way the chrome is also in great nick, not unusual on these pre-facelift models as it was of a better quality than later ones.

Concours Win - Brooklands Festival 2007

Took the car to the massive MB Club event at MB World Brooklands in 2007.
Entered the Street Class Concours and was rather chuffed to win.

Mercedes Enthusiast Article 2002

When previous owner John Cornish first thought of selling the car in 2002 Mercedes Enthusiast thought it looked so good in the small ad they contacted him to do a feature on it.
The article was printed but John decided he couldn't part with it, he changed his mind about selling and had to let a lot of callers down. Luckily for me as I then bought the car through an agent in 2006.

Kulbir Thandi shot

Whilst working with acclaimed car photographer Kulbir Thandi on a commercial shoot I couldn't resist popping the SEC in front of the camera for a few minutes. Very good of Kulbir to indulge me, not often you get chance to have your own car shot 'properly'. Unless you have about 15k handy of course.