One morning earlier this week, Instagram brought a white 140 estate or wagon to my phone App. I checked it out and decided to forward it to Christian (mb-w140.de). When I was doing so, I found that he had already forwarded the post to me a few hours before.
We came to an agreement at the first moment to rule out the possibility that it could be AMG-related, even though it was indeed described as an AMG in the earliest post by user “bigboybenzes”. I then took a brief look at the details of the car and realized its complexity. It looked more like a recent conversion to me, so I decided to wait for the answer to be revealed in a few days rather than blindly research it. Sure enough, its true identity gradually emerged. It’s a project finished by a company called Falcon Design Germany, and they posted some beautiful photos on Instagram.
So there is no longer any doubt as to who built it, and the misleading information on this seems to be being corrected one by one. The car is being sold by DK engineering, who certainly know the importance of clarifying the correct information. Falcon are also actively claiming this car as one of 3 examples they have recently built. The final misleading information about the car in my opinion is that it is described by the seemingly honest Falcon as a 1996 S 600 estate conversion, the year is obviously disputed. Therefore, this investigation is not about the conversion of this car, but what model year it could be. This is an objective investigation, and we try not to make subjective comments on the conversion itself.
The first impression of this car is that it has parts that contradict each other in the timeline. On the exterior, it has a facelift grille, headlights, and taillights. It also has a pre-facelift AMG body kit and rearview mirrors. In addition to the pre-facelift AMG body kits, the original lower trim of this car is also pre-facelift, which corresponds to the design of the front and rear bumpers. These lower trims are not part of the AMG body kits, so it may come from this car itself —— a pre-facelift car. Anyway, these attachment parts can be replaced at will, thus they cannot be used to identify the model year. Only a comparison table is attached at the end of the investigation to show which details of this car are exclusive to 1996.
If it is more or less reasonable to equip the facelift car with a pre-facelift AMG body kit – which happened on the AMG Japan imported vehicles, the updated parts make “1996” look modest. The clear fender turn signals and the taillights without orange lenses are the hallmarks of the MY1997, which are newer than 1996.
In the days when it was first described as an AMG, the engine was a priority. There is no trace of AMG here, but it is a 120.980 before MY1996, and there are no 12 ignition coils above the intake manifold, but ignition harness from the two distributors at the front. If this engine is original, this car must not be 1996.
photo: bigboybenzes
Interior, except the newly trimed green elements, details on the door panels and dashboard of this car clearly indicate that they are from a pre-facelift car. For example, the balck plastic vent on the side of the dashboard and the storage compartments in the door panels, if these are original, then this car must have been pre-facelift. It looks like the dashboard has been reupholstered so that the instrument cluster and glove box lock block cannot be properly installed.
The shift gate comes from the 4-speed 722.362 gearbox, which is discarded in MY1996. The original rear roller blind switch is now replaced by the rear wiper switch, anyway the hole was already there. Since A181016 the roller blind switch has been moved to the lower right corner of the wood panel. Additional options in the photo include heated seats, which leads to an interesting detail, the seat heating buttons were installed in opposite direction.
The AMG instrument cluster with the gear odometer is probably the only AMG-related interior part, and also the most misleading one. The gear odometer was replaced by a digital odometer around MY1994. Of course, this is a very conversion part, it must not have once belonged to this car, and therefore should not be used as a reference to the model year.
photo: bigboybenzes
The seat pattern is not the Exclusive that standard on the facelift V12, if this is the original seat then this car can only be pre-facelift. The seatbelt buckle is a telltale sign that it is not an old style before MY1994, but between MY1994 and MY1996. Key information such as this can help narrow down the model year range of this car. The extra options in this photo include multi-contour support seat.
photo: bigboybenzes
In a photo from the rear, a part corresponding to MY1996 appears for the first time. The extra postion contains red and green indicator lights below the interior mirror are where the infrared anti-theft receiver is located, which is available for MY1996. Some of the late MY1995 and early MY1997 cars also had such mirror, but the transmitter was no longer inside. The extra options in this photo include heated rear seats, rear A/C and glass sunroof. The shade of glass sunroof is also a pre-facelift design, with 4 rather than 2 blades.
These are the photos collected so far, summarizing the following chart with MY1996 exclusive parts.
Most conflicts are critical to the MY1996 designation, and appropriately narrow the car’s actual period range to between A153290-A181015. Based on all the information available, we have also prepared a list of potential SA codes:
247 ELECTRIC SEAT ADJUSTMENT (FRONT PASSENGER SEAT) - ADDITIONALLY ADJUSTABLE FROM THE REAR
303 FRONT FOLDING ARMREST WITH TRAY
406 SINGLE SEAT WITH ORTHOPAEDIC FRONT SEAT BACKREST, LEFT AND RIGHT
414 ELECTRIC TILTING/SLIDING ROOF IN GLASS VERSION
540 ROLLER BLIND, ELECTRIC, FOR REAR WINDOW
582 AIR CONDITIONER IN THE REAR - MODEL W/V140
872 ELECTRIC SEAT HEATER FOR REAR SEAT BENCH, LEFT AND RIGHT
873 SEAT HEATER FOR LEFT AND RIGHT FRONT SEATS
880 CLOSING SYSTEM WITH INFRARED REMOTE CONTROL
261A BLACK LEATHER
Combined with the serial number range, if it is the original white, that is, 149 Polar White corresponding to this range, then its serial number may belong to the following 3 vehicles. These are all German domestic orders, and could be considered as MY1994 rather than MY1996.
A157569 A169936 A171168
It’s simple to determine the year of this car, it looks like it has the original VIN plate on the radiator frame. Unfortunately there are no photos of sufficient resolution to figure it out, otherwise this investigation wouldn’t be necessary. Regarding the wrong year and some conflicting elements of this car, Falcon Design Germnay seems to be a Land Rover restoration specialist, Mercedes is not their traditional territory, so it makes sense if they mixed up some information. In fact, at the moment they have only posted photos of the car on Instagram, and there is no more information on the website, we look forward to getting more information soon.
All investigations are based on limited information, please email me if you have doubts about the veracity of this article. If you want to quote the content of this article, please contact me in advance, please do not use my text for any commercial purposes.