My modification thread (Includes AirScarf install)

[Adamantium]

Thought I would start this so I could collate everything into one place.

To fill anyone in who might be interested.

I bought a black manual 350 with black leather. It lacks air scarf and heated seats, but came with 17" amg wheels, parktronic and folding mirrors.

The first thing I bought was an adapter kit to allow me to fit an NGT2.5 comand system. I also bought microphones from the car prep kit to allow me to use bluetooth handsfree.

I also bought a smarttop. All the above will be fitted within the week, but since this thread will age, timing is probably irrelevant.

Prior to buying the car, I bought from a guy in Latvia a set of 16 spoke 18" amg wheels with tyres (my favourite rims) and a complete SLK 55 AMG bodykit, rather than the AMG style bodykit. I also bought Xenon Headlights but now realise with them being LHD, they are no good to me.

The bodykit arrived this morning, well most of it, it is missing the side skirts which are due to be sent separately.

It needs drilling for the parking sensors. I had to order 10 brackets which stick the sensors to the bumper, but I'm hoping it will end up looking factory.

The bumper is from a US AMG so I'll be having the side indicators in the front bumper filled. I also have plans for a quad oval exhaust to compliment the huge cut outs in the bumper which are meant to receive the original amg tail pipes.

The first actual mod I carried out was the buy heated airscarf seats from ebay. These are red and replace the black interior seats. The main issue here was that my existing black seats are both electric memory seats. I didn't want to downgrade to having a manual passenger seat and so I hybridised the new red seat with heating and airscarf, and fitted the cushions and internal gubbins to the electrically operated base of my existing seats.

I'd show you pictures of this but it's pointless, the interior looks like a stock red leather interiored car, with air scarf.

I am waiting for the replacement switchgear to arrive. I had ordered it from mercedes, but have since found one on ebay for a fraction of the price. I am now trying to get my dealer to take it back.

Once this lot of electronics is in, the car is going off to Dansslk to have the module and wiring for the air scarf and heated seats fitted.

I also bought digital climate control, which by fluke appears to be compatible with my car. That will go in at the same time as the ngt2.5.

So I should have a car that is visually identical to an SLK 55 AMG barring the bonnet grilles. I forgot to mention that I aslo have 55 AMG rear lights and brake light to go on.

I'll take photos of the visual transformation, which I'm hoping will take a little longer.

[-1-]

Very impressive. I appreciate your expetise and willingness to attempt and complete the impossible for us mere mortals. Your post are very informative and well documented. Not to sleight anyone, but you, Dan, and John are truly valuable information assets to this forum. THANKS!

[Adamantium]

Originally Posted by -1-

Very impressive. I appreciate your expetise and willingness to attempt and complete the impossible for us mere mortals. Your post are very informative and well documented. Not to sleight anyone, but you, Dan, and John are truly valuable information assets to this forum. THANKS!

That's very kind of you to say, though I am but a newbie.

Dan is a career man, and John's knowledge is encyclopedic. If you want to know how to tune an subaru or a mitsubishi evo, or if you need a patent attorney, then I am your man, but in relation to the slk, I am just getting my hands dirty following the instructions that Dan and John have been kind enough to supply me with.

[Normski]

Originally Posted by Adamantium

That's very kind of you to say, though I am but a newbie.

Dan is a career man, and John's knowledge is encyclopedic. If you want to know how to tune an subaru or a mitsubishi evo, or if you need a patent attorney, then I am your man, but in relation to the slk, I am just getting my hands dirty following the instructions that Dan and John have been kind enough to supply me with.

very humble of you Adam, but you make me feel like a retard in respect of confidence with cars and their workings.

But if you want a house, or bigger.....much bigger built, then I feel confident.

[Adamantium]

Originally Posted by Normski

very humble of you Adam, but you make me feel like a retard in respect of confidence with cars and their workings.

But if you want a house, or bigger.....much bigger built, then I feel confident.

Thanks Norm, sadly I live in London. size of houses isn't the issue, the problem is a lack of land.

[dmjonez]

To jump in here, Adam, I don't think anyone (with the exception of cyberdrakon) has done quite so much to their car. After you're done, I think it will truly be YOUR car. I'm not sure the previous owner will even recognize it. Thanks very much for sharing your progress. Your work will probably come in very handy to someone in the future.

dj

[Normski]

Originally Posted by Adamantium

Thanks Norm, sadly I live in London. size of houses isn't the issue, the problem is a lack of land.

Then you should move away from the smoke to somewhere with trees and grass, and friendly people

[Eduardo]

It was a hot humid day I was showered and ready to go out and I decided to put on the aerowings real quick. I had gotten them from Al Dorado off eBay, $37 shipped. Not a bad deal if you ask me. The parts are solid metal and chromed, with the plastic foot that is really hard to match to the 6 different fins. I got it on them and went down to the garage. Allen wrench in hand, torx 20 in hand. I open the hood and take off the plastic piece on the drivers side. I gather the smallest and per instructions count 9 holes place it and try to screw it. It's hard. I'm crouched under the hood trying to find the hole in the dark, with a tiny allen wrench in my hand. I finally fit the small fin and prepare for the second. As I trying to fit it the allen wrench falls from my hands and into the engine, nowhere to be seen again. Then I realize maybe I should take off the vents. I get another allen from my set and take off the vents which is stupidly easy and "why didn't i think of that first" territory. After that it's a breeze, just count the holes and screw them in. The instructions said they had glue on them, they didn't. I tried to get them in symmetrically as humanly possible. Now I'm sweaty and have to shower again. Some crows got into the potato chips, damn crows.

[UK-C200]

Originally Posted by Eduardo

It was a hot humid day I was showered and ready to go out and I decided to put on the aerowings real quick. I had gotten them from Al Dorado off eBay, $37 shipped. Not a bad deal if you ask me. The parts are solid metal and chromed, with the plastic foot that is really hard to match to the 6 different fins. I got it on them and went down to the garage. Allen wrench in hand, torx 20 in hand. I open the hood and take off the plastic piece on the drivers side. I gather the smallest and per instructions count 9 holes place it and try to screw it. It's hard. I'm crouched under the hood trying to find the hole in the dark, with a tiny allen wrench in my hand. I finally fit the small fin and prepare for the second. As I trying to fit it the allen wrench falls from my hands and into the engine, nowhere to be seen again. Then I realize maybe I should take off the vents. I get another allen from my set and take off the vents which is stupidly easy and "why didn't i think of that first" territory. After that it's a breeze, just count the holes and screw them in. The instructions said they had glue on them, they didn't. I tried to get them in symmetrically as humanly possible. Now I'm sweaty and have to shower again. Some crows got into the potato chips, damn crows.

PICTURES - we want pictures!

[Eduardo]

Originally Posted by UK-C200

PICTURES - we want pictures!

I don't own a camera. LOL. It does look good. A little lower than the AMGs a more bullet quality to them. I'll try to get a camera and take pictures.

BTW I just realized I posted this on the wrong thread. I didn't bother to read the OP, mine is My Modification Goals. Sorry for the slight hijack. I'll post this over there... :P

BTW Kudos for trying such an extensive mod.

[dmjonez]

Originally Posted by Eduardo

As I trying to fit it the allen wrench falls from my hands and into the engine, nowhere to be seen again. Then I realize maybe I should take off the vents. I get another allen from my set and take off the vents which is stupidly easy and "why didn't i think of that first" territory. After that it's a breeze, just count the holes and screw them in.

You ever find the first wrench? Not still in there, is it?

[Adamantium]

well smart top went in today in about 10 mins and works well as I expected.

Can't say the same for my new ntg 2.5. It would be fine by it happens to be coded for harman kardon which I don't have meaning I get no sound.

This is all but irreversible apparently.

John is looking into a potential to change it, but I am not sure how it's going to happen.

I have asked the seller in Lithuania to take it swap it for a different one, and I'm sure he'll oblige as he has been very reliable so far. The downside to this is that I'm unlikely to end up with another one with a changer.

The only other option is to try to get hold of a harman kardon module and then get frank to send me the correct loom adapter to suit.

Annoying thing is it's installed now and I'm not sure I can be bothered to uninstall it if I am forced to work out a way of making it work.

So I have no sound right now and am feeling a little deflated.

[Eduardo]

Originally Posted by dmjonez

You ever find the first wrench? Not still in there, is it?

Never found it. My guess it's sitting somewhere inside. It's tiny tiny allen wrench. Couldn't see where it fell, I drove all of yesterday and today and nothing happened.

[Adamantium]

Some progress to report.

Using development software UK C200 is planning to alter the headunit set up so that it doesn't require an external HK amp. At the same time we'll be setting the instrument cluster to navi and comand to allow navigation commands to be displayed, and to enable telephone calls to be started and finshed from the steering wheel.

Should anyone else in the UK want this kind of coding done, I also have another contact who was recommended to me by the guy who sold me the head unit.

The annoying thing for me is that the seller took no responsibility for the situation, so now all I can do is swallow the cost of getting it sorted. It's ok if UK C200 does it, but otherwise is an unexpected expense that I am not happy about. In short, am not sure I'd recommend buying a unit from lithuania again. It's always a risk. Hopefully if it all works out, there won't be an issue, but there's no guarantee.

On to other things.

I have spoken with Dan re the airscarf loom. I am now learning that there is no advantage to starting with a car with heated seats, the loom needs to totally come out back to the fuse box and be replaced anyway. Dan tells me this is because the heated seats share a single fise whereas the airscarves have a fuse per seat separate from the heated seat loom. It means that aside from installing the heat pads themselves, there is no difference in the job size.

By buying second hands seats with airscarf, they had the heating pads in them anyway, so now, having spent small money, I am in the same boat.

I now have two dash control modules. I bought a brand new one and am hoping that mercedes will give me a refund. if not, I am sure there is someone on this board who could make use of the dash module when they do a similar conversion. I am now really glad I bought the control module from Latvia at the same time as the bodykit and wheels having found out it's around £220.

So far, I am in for

seats £350
dash module £50
control module £40

and also, it looks as though I've managed to get me a high end custom loom made up for £100.

That brings total parts to £540, and a whole days labour from dan.

It looks as though I should see the whole conversion done for well under £1000.

Fingers crossed I get that money back on the brand new dash module.


My own dash module should arrive tomorrow, so, since the head unit doesn't have to come out, the dash appearance will be complete changed by then with the new switch unit and the digital climate control module.

Just for the record, here's what it looked like pre headunit:




I have noticed that my driver's seat feels a bit worn, not so much the leather but the chassis. So, I have decided when I have some spare time, to hybridise that too, mostly because the motors in the seat I have seem to be terribly loud and because I get the odd clunk which feels like something slipping on a thread, such as the worm gears used to move the seat halves relative to one another and the runners.

You'd be surprised what a nasty job it is to move the foam and airscarf hardware across but now, having done it before, it is certainly doable.

When my custom loom arrives, I'll take some decent pictures of it to keep you all informed.

In the meantime, I am hoping to fit the wheels soon enough, and the car will be going away to have the AMG bodykit fitted.

[Adamantium]

well after this arrived in the post today.



I find myself quite concerned as it seems to have a lot of connections on the back, whereas I was just expecting it to have a single can bus multiplug. This has four sockets, two of which are the same, Can in and Can out I guess, one unpopulated (can't imagine what that is for) and one other.

I wonder if beforehand it had no need for a can connection, but now it does?

Either way, I'll find out at lunch when I pop downstairs to install it.

Should go well with the the new digital climate unit........



and the ntg2.5.

[Adamantium]

all in!

easy as pie to rip it all out as shown below:



and back in again!


for comparison:


and I needn't have worried about the wiring as I was assured, it all worked fine. Obviously the air scarf and heating doesn't light up yet, but the rest all works as it should.

Especially the digital climate which is a lot nicer to use than stock.

I was lucky it was compatible with the car that I bought as I originally bought it for my sister's car which is a year newer and with which it wouldn't have worked.

[Woolly]

Lookin good - where did you get the digital climate control from, or was it just from your local dealer?

[Adamantium]

I saw it advertised on US ebay.

I tried to buy it but they said no and wouldn't ship internationally, so I had uk-c200 buy it on my behalf and bring it back with him when he came back over.

[snoozer]

The new units look great and have been on my list of things to do for awhile. Would like to ask if the digital climate unit & nav. needed a different wiring harness or if they use the same inputs as the standard climate unit and radio.

[Adamantium]

Climate plugs in exactly the same. No difference at all.

There are two versions though, so you have to make sure you get one that is compatible with what you have now.

The way to know is that the AC button of the new and old unit has to say the same thing. In my case, It was "AC off".

My sister's AC button just says "AC" so this "AC off" unit wouldn't have worked in her car.

As for the comand head unit. It requires a loom adapter that can be bought if you know where to go. The head unit itself is not available in the states or the UK from a dealership. It will only be supplied if there is a warranty repair required on an existing unit.

Mine came from Europe from a written off car. If you can find the same in the states you are in luck.

Currently UK-C200 is working on a way of hacking the hard disk and burning the US map onto a replacement disk, or even the stock disk. If that can be done, you could buy a European NTG 2.5 Head unit and copy the US map across.