While the site was down, I have been very busy.

New 18x8 and 18x9 Mercedes OEM style wheels from Ebay $399 Total shipped.

Used but almost brand new Michelin PS2's 225x18x40 and 265x40x18 $200 Craig's List Dallas.

Mounting and balancing $40.

10mm hub centric spacers $60 Ebay.

Chrome lug nuts $35.

Lowering the car $55 (for Napa spring compressor).

Rocker panel stripes $5.75 (silver stripes cut at a sign shop).

This was really doing everything on the cheap and I did all the work except mounting and balancing the tires. I did mount the wheel/tires in the car myself. For lowering springs I used the stock springs and cut exactly one coil off each spring. the ride is almost exactly the same as stock. the stance is perfect with no rubbing at all. My digital camera is being serviced so I will either borrow a camera or use the camera on my cell phone to post pictures. With careful (time consuming) shopping you can do quite a bit for not a ton of money.

In the coming weeks I will add an exhaust, low dust brake pads, and window tint. After that all attention will go to adding some serious HP.

 

Sounds nice, but pictures would help!!!

 

Here are some pictures. Sorry about the quality. Had to use the camera in my cell phone. Let me know what you think?

 

Looks really good, I'm going to want a discount on the original front wheels. You got a real sweet deal on the tires.

 

I'm wondering what you're going to do for your exhaust mods. Please advise because I'm currently doing a study myself and it looks like Magnaflow Cat Back at around $400 is the best I've seen.

Dave Woolrage

 

I come from a street rod / show car background. There is a guy I know that does amazing custom work for most of the street rod guys here in the Dallas area. I will probably go with Corsa tips as they are the best looking tips you will find and leave the rest to the shop to figure out. I was also interested in finding a muffler with a vacuum operated by-pass. See my post from yesterday in the exhaust section. I have never been a huge fan of Magnaflow and prefer more of a European classic sports car sound. When I decide on something I will post something. If it comes down to price I could end up with the Magnaflow. I saw the posts about a shipped price around $425. If you want something that sound good and is very inexpensive You could just replace the rear muffler with a One in two out Flow Master and reuse the stock stainless tips. An even cheaper way would to use two glass packs with the stock tips. Either way would sound pretty good and keep the stock look.

 

Could you please tell me more about the lowering of the car you did. I really want to lower mine. Thanks.

 

Love the wheels!

 

Nice !

Pat

 

I did the whole lowering job yesterday and this included two trips to various parts store looking for spring compressors. I ended up using a NAPA spring compressor that is fairly small and attached to both sides of the spring. It is still a real &*&(%^*! for really good instruction on how to do the front, go to Benzworld.org forums and do a search in the R170 (SLK) forum for spring removal by a guy named Bazzle. If I did this over again I would use the spring compressor in his pictures. He give excellent step by step directions.

I used my Dewalt grinder with a 4.5 inch cutting blade to cut EXACTLY one coil of the BOTTOM of each spring. I let the side of the blade run against the end of the spring to use as a guide to cut exactly one coil off.

The rear are easier, Just jack up one side and remove the wheel. Remove two small screws that hold the plastic piece to the lower control arm. Put a jack under the lower control arm abut where the spring cup is and raise up a bit to take pressure off the lower shock mount and sway bar link. You will see three bolts and nuts at the end of the lower control arm. they are for the upright, shock and sway bar. Remove all three and then slowly lower the jack. The rear spring will just about fall out. If not push the lower control down a little further until the spring comes out. After you have cut one coil off reinsert the spring with the upper cup and make sure it is positioned right and then jack up the lower control arm until you have lined up some of the removed bolts. If you use the jack to align the bolt holes it will be very easy to put all the bolts back in. The rears can be done this way in less than 30 minutes per side. Allow a couple of hours for each front side. If you get the right spring compressor for the front it would be just as easy as the rear. There are probably other ways to do this but this is what I did and it worked.

 

Thanks, A friend of mine thought the wheels made it look like an SRT6. I still have to decide about the center caps. I have a set of plain smooth caps that I could put Andrews emblems into or I can get any center cap that fits a stock Mercedes wheel such as AMG, Brabus, Loriser etc. What should be in the center?

 

VERY NICE WHEELS. I do have a question for you though. Just out of curiosity, why do you want to get AMG, Brabus, or Lorinser center caps when the wheels weren't originally branded by them? If I had to choose, I think I will go with Brabus or Startech caps if you can get a hold of them, being that they are associated with Chrysler. Just my 2 cents.

 

Loving the wheels and the stance...

 

I didn't say I wanted to, only that all those caps are available and would fit. Just trying to see what you guys thought. I couple of friends think the mercedes caps look good and another thought I should try to find something with Chyrsler on it. I don't think that will happen since I already de-badged and re-badged the car with Andrews emblems.

 

Thanks for the clarification. If that's the case, I stick with my original suggestion for either Brabus or Startech. Happy hunting!

 

LantanaTX -
Your car looks great!

 

Diddo - very clean and sano!

Clean rims and nice stance!

 

I'm thinking about lowering just the rear. I had the trunk packed one time and the car set level and had a nice stance. Cutting the rear springs sounds like just the ticket.

 

I just spotted an AMG sedan this morning, it looked like a C-class and it had those exact wheels on it, I wish I could of got a peek at the 6.3 liter motor, wow weee! Talk about a monster street car. It kinda puts the M3 BMW to shame. Lol.

http://www.mercedes-amg.com/

 

Nicely done... looks wonderful!

Cheers!