TechnicalCorner
Daniel Cuthbert’s 450SEL 6.9 as he found it.
Welcome to the club son!
by Daniel Cuthbert
I
have a secret to admit to all Gazette
readers – I’ve managed to purchase a
ticket to a rather cool club and managed
to do so without telling the wife. No it’s not
some strange swingers’ club that involves
driving and parking, but the chance to belong
to the rarest and most powerful MercedesBenz club that exists – the M100 club.
It is a story full of Zimbabweans (or as
they prefer to be known Rhodesians), trips
into darkest Northampton, international
smuggling cartels and deceit. This is my
story of finding a car that was on my list of
‘things to own and drive before I’m put in a
home’ – and how I’m living the dream.
First things first, the car in question is
a 1978 W116 450SEL 6.9. I won’t go into
the history of this model but it has always
been regarded as the weirder brother of the
famous 600 and 6.3. His value, compared
to his brothers, has always traditionally
been low, but thankfully everyone is now
seeing how sexy these autobahn missiles
are. Currently, according to the ‘How many
left?’ website, there are only 56 6.9s known
to the DVLA in the UK.
The adventure started at last spring’s
meeting at the De Havilland Museum
where Doug Burton (a brother from another
African mother) and I were nattering on
about my lust for our fearless leader Ian
Keers’ amazing 6.9. I mentioned to my
‘boet’, in our native Southern Hemisphere
language, ‘yassus, one day I’d love to own
one’ and that it was on my top five list of
cars to own. He then mentioned 13 words
In the open for the first time in 20 years.
52 • JULY 2015 • www.mercedes-benz-club.co.uk
that changed my life: “You know, I know
where there is one that might be for sale.”
What followed was me laughing inside
as I knew they were expensive, pretty rare
and, well, expensive. I thought nothing more
of it until that Monday I got a call from Doug
asking if I was keen to see it and if I could
get up north (past Watford is north for me
– dragon territory). My diary was shuffled
and I was heading up. We met ‘Albert’, my
new hero, and went to one of his barns that
hadn’t really seen light in a long time. Once
the weeds were removed from the rusty
gate, and having persuaded it to open, a barn
full of three-pointed-ladies greeted us.
There she was, carefully stored since the
1990s on stands and just waiting for the right
time to be put back together. All the time I
was thinking how amazing she was, but the
financial reality of me being able to afford
this car was slim. Now it’s important to set
the scene here. We moved back to the UK as
my wife was homesick and didn’t like living
on the beach in South Africa any more and
she wanted to buy a house... in London...
during the worst housing crisis ever. This
played heavily on my mind and here I was
thinking ‘how the hell am I going to buy
another car and find somewhere to park it?’
Albert, being the true gentleman he is,
agreed to sell her to me for a price that made
me feel weak at the knees, and Doug said
he’d start working with me on getting her
100 per cent.
I drove back to London with the biggest
smile on my face. I’m part of the M100 club.
Oh crap, how the hell am I going to tell ‘her
indoors’?
That Friday, with me googling
everything I could about these beautiful cars,
TechnicalCorner
Ready for the journey to London.
we went about our usual routine of driving
around looking at grossly over-priced
houses with me constantly thinking ‘hmmm,
no garage, no parking’ until we found this
1930s semi that not only had a monster
garden but a huge garage and parking at the
front and on the street outside. No sooner
had I seen the back garden than we put
an offer in and had it accepted. Whilst the
house stuff was in progress, it was time to
get ‘her’ moved from Albert’s lair and into
Doug’s workshop. Ian Keers kindly loaned
me the emergency suspension blocks for this
project – a massive thanks to Ian for this,
it made the move possible – and we started
about getting air in the rubber, off the stands
and the blocks put in place. Once this was
done and the recovery truck had arrived, it
was time to let her experience the outdoors
after 20-plus years.
This was the first time Doug and I could
have a good look at her and, overall, she’s
not bad at all. Usual rust places around the
wheel arches, bottom of doors and then
some moron in her lifetime decided to block
up the boot drain plug, which has caused
rust around the bottom of the rear lights and
also underneath the spare wheel. Nothing
too serious or worrying at this stage.
Doug and I drew up six stages of this
project in order to get her 100 per cent.
This is broken down into:
1. Brakes (complete overhaul)
2. Hydraulics
3. Suspension and running gear
4. Fuel system
5. Engine
What happened next is why I enjoy
spending time with Doug. On my next visit
I was given a folder full of hand-drawn and
coloured guides on the above process. It’s
rare to find someone who understands these
older cars so well and is able to paint and
draw how they will be fixed.
A big part of this restoration would be
finding the spares required. We didn’t want
to put fresh fuel in and go for a start. That
would be madness and also most likely end
up poorly. I travel a lot for work so using
the internet and locals in various countries
I set about sourcing numerous parts. The
South African club helped a lot, as I have a
good friend in Jo’burg who is a bit of a nut
for W116s and has a very rare factory-spec
AMG 6.9. Cue going through immigration
with more bits than one should.
That’s it for this first installment, my
aim is to document what it’s like to restore a
M100 without having a monster budget, but
at the same time doing it right.
Oh and her indoors still doesn’t know
yet. It’s our little secret!
Doug Burton’s illustrated master plan for the restoration.
www.mercedes-benz-club.co.uk • JULY 2015 • 53