Reviving an overlooked ultra-low-mileage car—a task that was initially expected to take just one month—ultimately consumed six months of work. As a result, I had to delay more important projects, which felt like quite a sacrifice. Now, at last, I can quickly reflect on the rewards of all this labor.
The decision to make the preservation of this low-mileage 1995 S 320 a priority for 2025 was made shortly after we picked it up. I hate queue jumping, everything about it, including the reasons. But our reason is pretty simple, the health of this car was still on a certain slippery slope. If it was just put into storage, perhaps just a few more months there would be noticeable further deterioration, the loss would be great. And the current task, correction of Big Apple, is not a short job, that will probably be completed in the next year. So let’s prevent the mildew and rust from continuing to grow in time, why not?
The preservation of this car and all the work that went into it is really a giveaway rather than the purpose or reason for our work. During the preliminary cleanup I found a lot of valuable knowledge that only comes a factory new car, from the specs of each clamp, to the finish of the fasteners, to the way the wiring harnesses are routed… This car is the perfect template for us to refine our past and future projects. That’s why I decided to keep it. I would say it’s not a gem of 140 collection, as there should be still a few hundred 140s with less than 10,000 km in the world. As a mediocre spec S 320, it’s not going to be a coveted example, or even a head turner. But for me it provides as much information as the others… so let’s preserve this teaching aid.
It’s hard to say that this is easy. Once people looked at the odometer after the preservation, they won’t believe that this is the result of some dedicated work. Do low-mileage cars require more work than high-mileage cars? Oh yes, not only probably more, it’s definitely harder. I’m not one to look up to auto detailing, but I admire the courage to polish the original paint on a few million dollar car. In the past I’ve always done a pretty thorough job, bringing all the eyesores back to factory new standards. In those cases I wasn’t worried about messing up anything original because the original was already pretty much ruined in previous ownership. Now, not only do some things need to be fixed, but as much as possible must be saved. I don’t want to forever regret losing a unnecessary piece of original paint.
The goal is simple: make the car match its mileage. The car’s life should have ended before 2014, when it last passed its annually technical inspection. However, it may have been exposed to the elements long before due to lack of use, and this period may have date back the early 2000s, because the latest document with a date found in the car is from 2003. During these 10 to 22 years, it was placed in an indoor parking lot with a concrete floor in a subtropical climate. The concrete floor constantly breathes moisture, and the strong alkaline water vapor covers and soaks every corner of it. This alkaline environment corrodes the aluminum of the hematite trim, the copper under the chrome trim, and the zinc on the galvanized iron surface. And of course there is mold, which has slick through the S-Class’s good airtightness and limited climbed onto the leather and plastics. Fortunately, this is not a Jaguar. After years of parking, it was moved several times by forklift to clear the parking lot, including lifting the rear end and pushing up the side, causing some body damage.
For cars with 9,966 km, I think it’s morally justifiable to recover it to the state of the mileage, even if the car is 100 years old. This requires that it is almost factory new on the outside and inside, and only tolerates limited aging underneath. Thanks to platforms like BAT, we have photos of some examples to refer to. The best one is this A212277 that Dean Laumbach once auctioned. The two cars are the same model, from the same period and have similar mileage. But that car lacks chassis photos, so we have to turn to some other years and models to decide what kind of aging we can tolerate. This recently sold 2001 SL 600 was retained by the Mercedes dealer until 2020 to be sold as new, and now has only 1,100 miles. Of course, there is also the counterpart that Dean recently sold with only 187 miles, and that is also a somewhat harsh rolemodel…
In this project, if budget is not an issue, then the most critical hassle to overcome is actually the parts rather than the restoration techniques. The amount of work required is not large, and there is almost nothing we have never tried, but in order to make everything close to factory new, we must rely on massive NOS parts with correct specs. Finding the proper parts is of course an important ability, even more important than the work itself, without the right parts everything else will be meaningless. Although I am a scavenger and have collected many NOS that I think are meaningful in the past deacde, it is still not enough. I even regretted some of the ones I let go, which are just right for this car. In fact, even if the budget is unlimited, many parts are no longer available from Mercedes aftersales, so parts will be the main factor that constrains this project.
I wrote the work plan during the Spring Festival holiday. Even at a relaxed pace, it’s a minimum of 2 months of work. If everything goes well, it won’t hurt our subsequent plans, because I hope the Big Apple will be finished before the fall. So, let’s relax. In order to start protection as soon as possible and avoid parts extending the project indefinitely, we divided the work into several blocks. We prioritized working on blocks with fully ready parts, and only did things that did not require rework and waiting. In just one month, many blocks were bound to be unfinished, and these parts would be completed after the Big Apple. We had to have clear time and physical boundaries between different cars, because my brain was not very good. Cutting in line was bad for me, and I was likely to confuse the two cars I was working on at the same time and cause some mistakes. We would come back to work when the other blocks were ready.
Working highlights
Reviving this S 320, with just 9966 km on the odometer, was even more challenging than projects we’ve worked on in the past. The “window” of expectations had narrowed to a degree so small it could hardly be smaller. This “window” refers to the mileage: the restored car must appear as though it’s either fresh from the factory or has covered no more than 9966 km, to remain realistic. In the past, many of our projects had over 200,000 km on the clock, and since most of the components were already aged, it was almost instinctive to restore everything. But here, every decision was more delicate—aiming to preserve as much of the original as possible.
Of course, the standard is subjective and entirely dependent on my eye and judgment. If I believe a part has clearly aged beyond the 9966 km threshold, it will be restored. If I feel a part shows acceptable wear, it will be kept as-is. Ideally, we aim to restore it to a state that looks exactly as it did at 9966 km, but achieving that requires a great deal of skill and time. The entire project was incredibly tricky—once you start altering the original elements, there’s no turning back. So, every decision had to be made with extreme care, down to the smallest bolt and nut.
Since much of the work mirrored previous projects, I’ll offer an overview of the parts that weren’t as pristine, highlighting the distinctive challenges of this particular task.
Group 01-22 Engine
We haven’t done much work on the engine, what would it need at this mileage? Well, there certainly are, and there are some that I skipped. First I want to talk about leaks, this covers group 01-05. This 31-year-old, but not much-used engine already has leaks, mainly in the gasket of the valve cover. There is no visible cracking or oil dripping, but there is light oil staining on both sides of the cylinder head, and there is also some leakage in the front timing cover because there is also oil stains in the belt area. Considering that disassembling these areas to replace the gasket will destroy many factory installation traces of engine, I just cleaned the oil stains.
The work in the transcript is mainly cosmetic in nature. First on the group 07 Injection system, one of the nuts holding the intake duct was miraculously missing. Because, the screw stem holding it had disappeared from the valve cover. Restoring the screw stem was not a problem, but you can’t be too aggressive with the nut. I could have found another one and galvanized both to a shiny finish, but it shouldn’t be that shiny. So when dealing with fasteners we were very careful not to let them clash with the rest of the car. If they were too shiny, I would sand them down to make them look closer to factory texture.
The main goal of beautification is the proper treatment of parts made of different materials. Look at this copper fuel pressure check knob on the fuel rail. It can be seen the first time the engine compartment is opened. You can’t miss it. At the beginning, it is as dirty as other parts, but other parts can be cleaned, but copper cannot. Moreover, the red installation mark on this knob must be maintained. So it is necessary to combine washing off the copper oxide layer and polishing to make it look energetic and original.
At group 09 Air Filter, we have re-galvanized holders and nuts. The parts facing up always bear the brunt of the damage, they are never spared by the environment. After a while, even if they are not rusted, their color will become lighter. That is, the color of the hexavalent chromium will gradually disappear with the coating. Usually, it is helpful to use the color of the back as a reference for re-galvanizing. Even yellow galvanizing is available in a variety of shades: gold, orange, gold with a green tint, light yellow, which is determined by the length of time they have been passivated in the hexavalent chromium.
In the group 14 Intake Manifold, I updated the 2 yellow galvanized screws on the top of the resonance valve, which had rusted. The upward-facing hexagon socket screws are very likely to accumulate water and start to rust from the inside. There are 4 such screws in total, 2 are hidden by rubber covers, and 2 are exposed outside, which will definitely not escape the eyes of the elegant competition judges. Additional updates also include the 4 clampings that hold the 2 rubber hoses, which are also yellow galvanized. The focus of this area is how to maintain the factory installation orientation, so you can only replace them one by one, take them down, adjust the angle according to the adjacent clamping, and then start the next one. This poses a little difficulty for galvanizing, because they need to be installed one by one, so all parts cannot be processed at once. Here I used spare parts for one-time processing.
In group 15 Electrical Equipment, the spark plugs were already treated in advance, and the remaining task was still beautification. The six hexagon socket screws that hold the screening plate were a little troublesome, they accumulated water and rusted. A little difficult is that they are Dacromet instead of galvanized, but at this moment I don’t have the technology to reproduce Dacromet. If the coating is too thick, they will peel off when tightened, after all, this is a hexagon socket. So I used regular white galvanizing, and then polished the outside and the inside of the hole to a matte finish. It looks pretty good.
The bracket and nuts holding the throttle wiring harness and knock sensor are a little gotcha. The bracket is light yellow galvanised and it is not fading. Meanwhile the 4 nuts are orange. So two different colours are needed to pass the test. This is as deep as you can get without removing the engine, with these removed you can do a deeper clean, but no deeper. I must say working on the 104.994 is a pain, as it is an evolution of the LH-Jetronic and many of the working spaces are quite tight. It was more painful than working on both the M119 and M120.
Group 20 Engine Cooling is the most important part, it is the closest to the observer after opening the engine compartment, and the color is the most complex and eye-catching. This part consists of the thermostat and water pump made of die-cast aluminum, and 3 sensors made of copper. The thermostat cover is located at the top, and it has accumulated a lot of oxidation stains. The water pump is a complex object with a decent condition and also has red factory installation marks on the side.
For the entire engine bay, we have to clean it to the bone without removing the engine. In the process, some details will disappoint. You will find that there are always worse parts in the corners than on the surface. One would think that such an engine would be mint, but the reality is that oxygen and water can reach all places you can’t reach. Rust, oxidation, even if they are so inconspicuous, can’t be improved without removing the engine. Here I tend to reach some kind of reconciliation. After all, this is not a new car, and it never will be.
Groups 26-27 Transmission
There was nothing mechanically worth repairing in the transmission itself. The real challenge lay in the oil pan: repairing a few screws and a bracket while minimizing leaks. This was accomplished using the methodology from the engine section. A particularly innovative aspect of this chapter, however, lies within the car itself: the restoration of the gear shifter.
The wooden gear shifter on early cars (SA code 284) wasn’t made entirely of wood; the core was plastic, with a thick veneer of wood covering the exterior. Due to the shape and thickness of the veneer, it would gradually crack as it absorbed moisture and “breathed.” The typical symptom is a crack down the middle of the side of the shifter. I’ve never encountered a surviving shifter, let alone one as neglected as this example. The updated gear shifter after 867 (June 1994) solved this issue.
Since the leather was still quite fresh, only the wood veneer had cracked. After checking our inventory, I decided to replace only the wooden portion. We had a few NOS pieces, but either the wood veneer was also cracked or the leather color didn’t match. So, these needed to be disassembled and reassembled, with the wood from a blue leather shifter being used here. Skilled shops can rewrap complex-shaped wood veneers (unfortunately, we cannot), but disassembling the shifter was no small task. It was somewhat like a one-time installation, and I would not recommend attempting it lightly.
Groups 32-46 Chassis
I once had a naive thought: if I could get my hands on a low-mileage car, the chassis would require little more than a decent wash. On the other hand, there is the opposing view that a car that’s been sitting neglected needs every rubber bushing replaced. That perspective seemed more like the ramblings of a jealous onlooker. So, which is correct?
When I first saw the underside of her on the trailer, I wasn’t entirely sure. But as we worked on the fuel system, we got a clearer picture of what lay beneath. First and foremost, everything was incredibly dirty. Even with such low mileage and the car having been stored indoors, this was far from the pristine low-mileage cars seen on BAT. During the downtime in the fuel system work, I started cleaning the chassis, including the body and all the connecting components. Unfortunately, once the dirt was cleared, irreversible surface rust quickly became evident, with bright orange rust marks standing out clearly.
The rust was mainly concentrated on the steel parts: the front and rear axle carriers, the front and rear subframes, the steering linkage, the steering box, half shafts, drive shafts. The situation soon became tricky—addressing the rust properly would require removing at least some nuts, but if we removed the front and rear axles, it would turn this project into a restoration rather than a preservation effort… I hoped to preserve as much of the original factory installation as possible, rather than making it obvious that this was a restored car.
All work on the chassis was carried out under the principle of not removing components unless absolutely necessary. The main component that needed to be removed was the rear wheel carrier, due to significant rust. The restoration techniques were applied in line with the project’s objectives: various grinding methods, different tools, specialized painting techniques, and the appropriate choice of paint. In short, all color schemes strictly followed the original car. For example, some nuts were coated with black paint, while others were yellow zinc-plated. The color markings on the springs were also preserved and restored, greatly enhancing the authenticity of the car.
After inspection, I confirmed that all the bushings in this car are original. Now, an intriguing question arises: how many rubber parts in such a car need replacement? First, the weakest point of the W140’s rear axle is the bushing on the wheel carrier that secures the control arm bolts. This is a component that nearly every W140 needs to replace. As for the Furi, the bushings themselves are fine, but the outer dust boots were just gone, so we replaced them.
The hydraulic bushing on the front lower control arm are also original, which can be determined by the precise installation angle. I was initially quite pleased, but things soon took a turn. A few days earlier, I noticed black fluid on the floor, corresponding to the inner side of the front subframe. Was there a leak in the steering box? But the steering rack was dry. To my surprise, the fluid was actually coming from the lower control arm bushing. This issue had been well-hidden, but after we moved the car, the bushing shifted just enough to begin leaking. We replaced them with a pair of NOS bushings.
It’s worth mentioning that this is my first time working on a car with ASD, which is a piece of automotive history. After the facelift, all six-cylinder cars were equipped with ASD, but it was replaced by the ETS system just three months later. So, this was a very brief moment in time, one that wasn’t documented in WIS or EPC. A notable EPC oversight is that they failed to record the specific hydraulic line bracket used on ASD cars. On regular cars, the bracket secures two lines, but on ASD cars, it secures three, making it wider. EPC didn’t document this, so I spent a little time tracking down the part number, which is A2014760740.
Group 40 Wheels
The four alloy wheels have endured varying degrees of corrosion, none of them are in a presentable state anymore. After the tires deflated, the wheels have been in direct contact with the ground for a long time, and water accumulation quickly took its toll. The facelifted 8-Loch is shinier and lighter, and we specially agreed with our contractor on a specific gloss finish so that the restored wheels would appear period-correct. Once these wheels are properly restored, they will immediately become the highlight of the car.
The dates on these tires offer a clue—they were produced between 2010 and 2012, with barely any usage. This must have been the last time the owner attempted to use them. The front tires are Hankook, and the rear ones are Michelin, both in incorrect specifications. The original tires for the Furi were Dunlop SP SPORT D8 M2, which was the top tire paired with the 8-Loch at the time. To replicate the manufacturer’s original setup, I installed Dunlop VEURO VE302. All necessary small accessories have also been routinely restored.
Group 47 Fuel systems
Only a little fuel indicated that the bottom of the tank was clogged. I’m eager to save this tank, not only because of its original date tag, but also it was one of the very little surface rust tank among those new era unpainted tanks. Since July 1993, the tanks no longer have the black rust-proof coating and they rust very easily.
Unfortunately, we manage to retain as much of the factory installation as possible, but the fuel tank is no longer within this range. Not only the sludge, but also very rusty. I got some sodium hydroxide to dissolve the sludge. Then when the tank was filled, the solution came out of several holes. See, this is where the pungent smell in the car comes from. The tank is actually leaking, and the smell of turned gasoline fills the car, mixed with the musty smell and becomes disgusting. I have to declare the life of this tank over, with only 9966 km. Based on the fuel consumption of the S 320, if the original owner filled it up every time, it would have only been refueled 15 times. This could be the shortest life 140 fuel tank in the world.
Surprised to see both fuel pumps were replaced once, they have the parts dealer tag. Why would a car with this mileage need two new fuel pumps? Maybe it had pumps that had seized up from not being used. There are so many weired details. Since the fuel pump had to be disassembled for testing and there is some rust around it, I decided to rebuild the entire fuel pump assembly. The first pump is connected directly to the fuel tank, so what will happen to it? Well, it vibrates but doesn’t turn when powered on, the gunk and rust inside stuck it. Eventually we have to disassemble it and remove the rust of rotor. The second pump was lucky, it was fine. The first pump took all the pain for it.
Group 49 Exhaust System
The exhaust system is like the restroom of a restaurant: it’s the most easily overlooked and hardest to scrutinize, yet it’s never the focal point, even at Pebble Beach. But just as people often reveal the truth by lying in inconsequential places, the exhaust system is the weak link in the short plank theory: the water level in a wooden bucket is determined by its shortest plank. For me, no matter how pristine the car’s paint is, a graceful exhaust system is crucial for a truly high-level restoration.
Honestly, in previous high-mileage projects, exhaust systems were often beyond saving. At the very least, it was impossible to clean all the carbon build-up inside, and hoping for an undamaged exterior was a long shot. The exhaust system is simply made of steel and iron, both of which are prone to severe internal corrosion. However, with a mileage like that of the Furi, I was given an opportunity to restore the exhaust system. Aside from a few minor exterior scuffs, it was merely covered with a layer of surface rust.
The goal was to restore the exhaust system to its factory sheen—of course, without any paint. The core of the work was hand-polishing, and I used every rotary tool, from the smallest to the largest, along with handwork for the tricky corners and crevices. The rust was actually far worse than it appeared in the photos, but it was salvageable. What was most rewarding was when I reached inside the exhaust pipe’s connection—aside from a thin layer of carbon that could be wiped away, there was no internal corrosion at all.
The aluminum heat shields above the exhaust followed the same principle of work. The focus here was to control the gloss of these surfaces to match factory standards, and to achieve an even finish. This required extensive polishing with materials of varying grits. In total, the exhaust system and heat shields took five full workdays, and the result is satisfying. To prevent future rust, the exhaust system was coated with a heat-resistant wax before installation.
Groups 54 Electrical systems
Apart from the replaced upper and lower engine wiring harnesses, the electronic system is basically intact. As for the black paint on the instrument housing “molding,” it’s a matter of luck. The inside of the W140 instrument housing was coated with a black paint to reduce glare, but over time, some paint may develop white spots or bumps. From a distance, it can look as though the paint has “molded.”
Some 300,000-mile cars have worn, scratched instrument lenses but still feature intact black paint. However, low-mileage examples like the Furi can also suffer this issue, and it can be quite severe. My explanation is that the paint on the instrument cluster is water-based. When water vapor enters and becomes trapped inside the cluster, the water starts to mix with the paint. The minerals in the water then leave white spots on the black paint.
One solution is to use ultrasound combined with a mild solvent to gently remove a thin layer of the paint. I’ve tried this before, and it’s a bit like cooking—one must be careful with the timing. Another option is to rub the paint with a damp cloth, which usually works but can result in recurrence. For the Furi, I think she deserves a set of NOS instrument clusters from our stock. However, I only used the housing, trying to retain as many original elements as possible.
Groups 60 Bodyshell
The most unfortunate incidents in Furi’s history are those caused by several instances of passive movement. Specifically, these aren’t signs of aging, but rather fresh scars, the result of human-induced damage. Such damage is usually permanent, and in some cases, it can result in a total loss of a W140.
From the visible scars, it’s clear that Furi has undergone at least three forklift relocations. The first occurred when she was pulled out of a parking space in an underground garage because the key was unavailable. The forks lifted the rear axle, leaving a slight dent on the cross member of the rear subframe, which, while unfortunate, wasn’t critical. The second instance involved a forklift lifting her from the side to place her onto a tow truck. The belly of the W140 is quite soft and cannot support its own weight. As a result, just a slight lift was enough for the fork to leave an indentation.
The third or fourth instance occurred during entry and exit from a scrapyard, with damage similar to the second one. Since being placed on our tow truck, she has not been lifted by a forklift again, even though she was initially considered for donation. Still, the damage was considerable, with multiple visible dents in the undercarriage, mostly in “predictable” areas. The range of forklift movement usually falls under the internal cross beams of the vehicle, which is a double-layered structure. Even from the inside, repair is challenging due to limited access—unless, of course, part of the cross beam is removed.
To make the best of it, I actually cleared the floor and, without removing the wiring harness, raised them to provide some space. This was the only way to repair the undercarriage. Still, some asphalt insulation had to be sacrificed, as tapping out the dents would damage it. However, I carefully cut the material into regular shapes and filled the indentations with visually identical materials. I must admit, we only managed to repair about 80% of the affected area, as many of the dents were located within the internal layers. I assure you, no one will ever notice that the car’s interior has been disassembled so thoroughly, as every part was meticulously reinstalled.
As for the parts requiring PDR, those were handled by our shop’s veterans, not me. To ensure a perfect repair, we removed the door, which wouldn’t compromise its originality since the car was assembled with the door separated. Regarding concerns about altered gaps, there’s really no need, as the hinges themselves aren’t flexible. However, just in case, I marked a few positions to ensure the door would be in its original position when reinstalled.
That said, the fact remains that this car has completely original gaps: the W140 isn’t perfect, and you’ll find the gaps aren’t uniform. It’s not just within reasonable tolerances; they’re noticeably uneven in some areas. In the past, we would have attributed this to years of use and improper adjustments, but at least this example gives us some excuse. Sometimes these problems are simply unsolvable through adjustments because the door skins have dimensional errors that are even quite noticeable. This effectively refutes the myths surrounding the W140’s craftsmanship.
Groups 68-73 Interior
The multiple issues inside were uncovered one by one. The car’s incredibly complete interior piqued my curiosity about its mileage from the moment I received it, so I didn’t rush to dismantle it as a donor vehicle. However, this doesn’t mean there was nothing to do inside. On the contrary, unifying the condition of the worn parts with the well-preserved ones required a great deal of focus.
First, there was the aging of the wood veneer, much like what happened with the gear shifter. Because the car had been stored indoors, the veneer showed no fading or cracking, but the complete absence of sunlight allowed some hidden elements to creep in. It was clear that the car had been stored in a damp environment—some of the veneer had absorbed moisture and curled, particularly on the passenger-side door. The solution was simple: order an NOS part for a direct replacement. I checked several available patterns to ensure the new piece wouldn’t differ too much from the rest of the car. The original part was, of course, preserved as part of the car’s history.
The gaps were inevitable. For example, the replacement part was from 1997, while the wood panel production techniques had evolved over time. The most noticeable difference was in the rear bracket. As one of the earliest facelift cars, its bracket and wood panel showed clear signs of handcrafting. The new armrest made the wood panel slightly smaller, but these early parts had been converted using pre-facelift components, resulting in a portion of the edge being cut away. Correspondingly, the bracket also bore evident hand-cut marks, which could be seen as a last-minute change made by the supplier. Sadly, due to the expansion of the wood veneer, this interesting detail had to be left out of the car.
Needless to say, the plastic bracket on the center console wood panel had naturally degraded, partly due to the moisture-induced warping of the wood. A new bracket was installed, but since the wood veneer on the panel was in good condition and matched, that part was left untouched. As a result, the panel still didn’t sit perfectly flush, leaving a step on the center tunnel cover.
Group 69 Covering and lining
Groups 72,73 Doors
When the Furi arrived, there were no keys. Earlier, I managed to start it by installing the ignition lock and infrared control module from another car, but the lock issue remained unresolved. For that, I ordered a complete set of NOS locks and keys, which also provided us with a chrome ring for the trunk lock. The infrared remote has not been installed yet, because, as a show car, I prioritized giving the available remotes to vehicles with higher usage needs.
For an average W140 today, the Furi’s exterior door handles are impeccable. The plastic is only slightly oxidized, the infrared receiver shows no visible aging, and the chrome plates can be polished to remove oxidation. Still, I couldn’t imagine a better place for our NOS door handles, so I installed a brand new set to give the car a truly premium touch.
The interior chrome door handles, however, weren’t as lucky. These have developed copper corrosion, which has penetrated the chrome layer. This issue can occasionally appear on a W140 in normal use. I found four NOS handles, though one was the wrong color (not the 8F33 we needed), so I combined the original plastic housing from the car with the new chrome handles to create a complete set.
There are also small details, such as a cracked plastic speaker cover on the driver’s door. A few pairs of high heels found in the trunk may have been the culprit. However, for a car like this, old parts are never an option. Since beige plastic is highly sensitive to UV rays, the Furi, with its fair skin, is a survivor. The color mismatch of old plastic parts is evident.
Group 82 Electrical systems
I didn’t remove the headlights but instead removed the lenses and cleaned the interior. This way, the headlights could remain in their factory-installed position, serving as a reference for other projects. The condition of the lenses is absolutely in line with the mileage—no signs of impact damage, though there is quite a bit of dust inside the headlights. It seems that even without driving, dust finds its way in. The taillights are worth noting, as the scrapyard damage to the trunk lock also affected the otherwise pristine light strip. These light strips, produced in the 90s, even if NOS, tend to be a deeper color compared to those produced in the 21st century.
The Furi’s taillights have seen minimal use, so the fading is negligible. But, if we’re being particular, they are indeed slightly darker than NOS. I selected the closest match from inventory, and the result is that, at least from the photos, there’s no obvious color difference. I would say the similarity is over 90%. Unfortunately, the previously well-preserved light strip was damaged, highlighting just how crucial the environment is for these cars.
Groupe 83 Heating and ventilation
A common issue with the AC panel is display leakage, which seems to occur more often in high-heat environments. This screen cannot be easily disassembled, and considering the overall condition of the panel, it would be a shame to replace the small digital screen. However, I haven’t found a better place to install our NOS panel from inventory. Parts should be reunited with the cars they belong to, rather than staying in boxes. For the Furi, all the replaced parts have been kept for preservation.
As an example of interior storage, the anodized aluminum trims, which are called hematite in color, should have been flawless—fading is definitely not an issue. However, in a humid environment like an underground parking garage, aluminum is the most vulnerable. So here, you can see the kind of severe corrosion that you wouldn’t even find on high-mileage cars. Some of the corrosion clearly came from water droplets that had fallen from the roof. Dripping water gradually wore through some of the aluminum, even before it had a chance to discolor.
I’ve gone to great lengths to gather some NOS and new trims, hoping they would match the parts already on the car. Almost no difference—just almost. There’s still a slight discrepancy. In cases like this, new parts are really the only solution; you can’t restore a 70% trim to 90%. Fortunately, the trims on the car are literally in perfect condition, with no fading.
Group 86 Windshield cleaning system
Perhaps the most important lesson I learned from Furi concerns the windshield washer reservoir. On cars built before May 1994, the reservoir featured a sighting glass—a transparent cylinder visible from the top of the engine bay that allowed you to check the fluid level directly. Because the instrument cluster already included a washer-fluid warning indicator, this extra component was deemed unnecessary and subsequently deleted. Corresponding changes followed: the radiator side cover with the mounting bracket for the cylinder, and the lower section with its dedicated channel, were revised as well. Since Furi is an April 1994 car, it still carries this component, which comes as no surprise.
What truly surprised me was that Furi is equipped with the newer, smaller washer reservoir—a design that remained in use until the end of W140 production (as mentioned in the earlier note about the sighting glass). In the past, I had assumed this version appeared only from May 1994 onward, since the reduced capacity rendered the five graduations of the sighting glass meaningless. But this transitional version, used only between March and May 1994, does indeed exist. It is undoubtedly an extremely rare component. The lower outlet tube on Furi was almost broken, but I managed to rescue and preserve it.
Group 91-92 Seats
To get straight to the point: the leather upholstery is a time bomb—one set for the kind-hearted people who eventually decide to save this car. To begin with, patches of blue mold had already developed in multiple areas of the interior, including parts of the leather. While cleaning the leather, I realized it was not as “fresh” as one might hope. The seats showed clear signs of hardening; they were nowhere near as supple as those in my other 52k-mile car. And of course, there was the stinging odor.
In earlier work we had already located one source of the smell: degraded fuel was evaporating through a rust-perforated section on top of the fuel tank and seeping into the cabin through the gaps behind the rear seat. Inside the car, the gasoline vapors seemed to have acted as a kind of solvent, affecting the leather to some extent. This resulted in small, faint patches resembling mild discoloration—barely noticeable unless one looked for them. Even so, we replaced the back panels of both front seats, as those were the most severely affected and impossible to clean.
During the repair of the underbody, all interior components were removed, and the cabin underwent several rounds of ozone treatment to eliminate odors. Yet a faint scent—somewhere between “new-car smell” and “something spoiled”—still lingered. Part of this residual odor came from the bitumen on the body shell, which also appears to have reacted slightly with the fuel vapors.
Group 98 Paint
The paint presented us with an entirely new challenge. In theory, the paint quality is also tied to the era the car is from, and the original paint from April 1994 is relatively fragile. In practice, the car maintained a remarkably pristine finish during its first 30 years of ownership, with 100% original paint free of chips and scratches. However, some areas of the paint started to peel on their own, and this was the first thing I noticed when the car arrived by tow.
The peeled areas range from minor rusting to simply detaching from the metal without hesitation. To preserve the original paint as much as possible, we had to touch it up, with two key requirements: first, ensuring color consistency, and second, controlling the overall thickness of the paint. Furi hasn’t undergone any polishing, and the vertical surfaces have a paint thickness of around 100 μm, while the horizontal surfaces are around 120 μm. I found it difficult to fill panels with a thickness of 10-20 μm (yes, the E-coat is still on) to 100 μm without significantly increasing the surrounding thickness, so we had to ensure it stayed below this figure.
Finally, the touch-up areas have a thickness of 60-100 μm, with the necessary overspray areas increasing by only 15-20 μm. Importantly, the results are excellent, with the boundaries being completely invisible to the naked eye. After a light polish—light is key here, as it was necessary to preserve the factory orange peel—this was done by the old-timers in my shop. The entire body underwent a polish, and out of caution, some minor deep scratches caused by transportation were not touched up or sanded.
Furi’s metal surfaces still retain over 98% of its original paint, with more of the repaint concentrated on the lower sections. The factory matte paint quality is also good but is easily susceptible to corrosion. For instance, both the front and rear bumpers, as upward-facing surfaces, have been severely oxidized due to long-term exposure to dust and moisture. Interestingly, the plastic supports on both bumpers have cracked on their own. It’s strange, isn’t it? No sunlight exposure, full indoor storage, yet they’ve become as brittle as pancakes. Due to the lack of support for the rear bumper over time, the outer shell has deformed. Therefore, the solution is to replace the front bumper supports and the entire rear bumper assembly.
The rear bumper is theoretically original, as there are no signs or reasons for repainting. Before I wiped the fragile label off with my hand, it had “7700 (Alto Grey)” written on it. However, a scar reveals it was once green. This doesn’t appear to be a recycled bumper, but rather one that was repainted at the factory.
Even more interesting is the front bumper. By sanding the cross-section layers, it appears to have been sprayed a total of five times. Since the black supports and rivets show no overspray, it’s clear that the supports were installed only after the final layer of paint was completed, which suggests a re-spray by the supplier. We have many speculations about this, such as Mercedes’ well-known practice of reusing bumpers, or that the manufacturer frequently changed the paint stock.
All in all, thanks to Furi’s involvement, our progress on other projects was delayed by six months. However, in the long run, all future projects will benefit from this experience. Each new project shows a noticeable improvement over the previous one. This year Furi became the 13th car in my fleet. A year ago, I began controlling the number, but there’s always souls like Furi that seeks salvation. I’m a bit superstitious, and I believe that doing something good for cars might just bring more interesting projects my way.
