Some new pics of the '89 500SL

[cawimmer430]

Visited my old folks on Monday and stayed there until Wednesday. Took out dad's '89 500SL for a spin. Still runs great after all these years and the high mileage. Everything works - except that goofy 1980s car phone and that's only because you can't get the [sim] card for it (and I believe the cell infrastructure for it ceased to exist).

Some horrible snapshots taken with my Samsung Galaxy TAB A6 tablet...

[CALL_911]

R129 is easily one of my favorite MB designs ever. Beautiful car.

[CALL_911]

Have you guys owned this thing since it was new?

[cawimmer430]

R129 is easily one of my favorite MB designs ever. Beautiful car.

Definitely one of the best SL models ever.

Have you guys owned this thing since it was new?

My dad is the second owner. The first owner had good connections to Mercedes because his business bought hundreds of Mercedes trucks every few years. When the R129 came out, the first owner placed and order and because of his connections easily got the car within months - the waiting list for an R129 at the time was over a year long. He hardly drove it though and only owned it for I think less than five years. My dad bought it from him and we've been cruising with it ever since.

It's really a great car and despite their complexity they're not really that "high maintenance" as people make them out to be. We've just replaced wear and tear parts and the fluids. What does need attention is the roof mechanism - it needs some adjusting and oiling every 50,000 km or so (depending on how often it is used) if you want it to work smoothly. 

On the V12 models the air suspension is really high maintenance - the parts wear out quickly and you need to be on the ball about checking them and replacing them before they wear out. Thankfully the first owner didn't order the air suspension.

[12,000 RPM]

Looks great. Surprised you are into those aggressive wheels, very 80s aftermarket.

[giant_mtb]

Looks like it's been well taken care of cosmetically.

[cawimmer430]

Looks great. Surprised you are into those aggressive wheels, very 80s aftermarket.

Do they look familiar? 




My dad got those wheels for a very cheap price. Someone had ordered them for their Mercedes', but cancelled the order at the last minute. The dealership wanted to get rid of them and sold them for a cheap price. My dad went for it. Back in the day I hated those wheels - but now I am glad my dad got them because they do give the car some edginess. 




The original rims on this SL were these...

[cawimmer430]

Looks like it's been well taken care of cosmetically.

Just nano-waxing and no winter driving. The car has a seasonal plate and can drive from May 1st to October 31st.

Other than that we've never done any cosmetic work on the car, except for the cloth roof, which recently was completely overhauled and replaced. After all these years of usage the cloth roof gets worn and torn and the plastic window at the rear becomes scratched and brittle.

[giant_mtb]

Nice. Keeping it waxed and no winter driving definitely help!

[cawimmer430]

Nice. Keeping it waxed and no winter driving definitely help!

Definitely!