Newsletter No.131
MB Spares would like to wish all or customers and friends a Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year. May all of your presents have a three pointed star on them!
In this month's newsletter we have reports and pictures from the Sausages and Spanners night and the AGOA 30th Anniversary Treffen. Also some information on how to fix cloudy headlamps.
Christmas opening hours.
What happened to 2012, it seems like a blur since the last Christmas holidays? Here are our Christmas opening hours. We will be open for three days across the Christmas holiday period with limited staff. Any orders will have to be placed by 12noon to be dispatched the same day.
December 24th Closed
December 25th Closed
December 26th Closed
December 27th 8:00 - 5:00
December 28th 8:00 - 5:00
December 29th Closed
December 30th Closed
December 31st 8:00 - 2:00
January 1st Closed
From January 2nd onwards we will be open our normal trading hours of 8:00am to 5:00pm Monday to Friday.
Spanners and Sausages night.
Well wasn't this a great event! With just on 60 people attending for the Sausages part of the night and 40 odd staying for the spanners section, (which actually had nothing to do with spanners this time) we were worried at one stage that we were going to run out of food. (and beer) See the picture in the r/h margin and more pictures here. Thanks to all of those who attended and to those who sent us e-mails congratulating us on the night over the next few days. I guess we had better start thinking of how we can do something better next year?
How to fix cloudy headlamps.
Most Mercedes-Benz headlamp lenses from 1996 onwards are plastic or, to be more accurate, acrylic. Great idea as they no longer crack when a rock flies up and hits them. The down side however, is that on cars that spend most of their time outside the headlamp lenses go cloudy.
The reason for this is that being acrylic them will get brittle when exposed to the UV rays from the sun, so they have a UV protective coating on them to stop this. Kind of like us putting sunscreen on when outdoors. It is the breakdown of this UV coating that makes them look cloudy and lose their efficiency for lighting your way after dark.
To repair this correctly there are two solutions. New headlamps as on most of them you can't buy the lense as a separate part. Or you have to remove the UV coating and reapply it. As you can imagine one solution is far more cost effective. MB Spares sells a kit with all the gear you need to carry out the low cost solution. You can find more details on this process here.
Cars for sale.
Once again not a lot of cars to list as most of what has arrived has also sold including the Sprinter cab chassis with the box on the back. Here are the cars that we currently have listed for sale:
W211 E320 Elegance wagon, excellent family car.
W126 420SEL, great service history and condition.
There are a few cars that we are expecting including a very neat low mileage A160 and another Sprinter Cab chassis. If you are looking for something that we don't have listed it is always worth your while to contact us as we may be able to refer you to someone who has your dream car listed.
We also have wound up with a BMW 325i Cabriolet (see picture R/H margin) which is a very neat car. It is currently listed on, our associate, Alex Holland's website.
Lucas electrics.
Back in Newsletter number 69 I shared an explanation about how English cars equipped with Lucas electrical components work. It was of course a very "tongue in cheek" article. Here are a few more interesting facts about Lucas electricals…
- The Lucas motto: "Get home before dark."
- Lucas is the patent holder for the short circuit.
- Lucas - Inventor of the first intermittent wiper.
- Lucas - Inventor of the self-dimming headlamp.
- The three-position Lucas switch--DIM, FLICKER and OFF. The other three switch settings--SMOKE, SMOLDER and IGNITE.
- The Original Anti-Theft Device - Lucas Electrics.
- If Lucas made guns, wars would not start
- Back in the '70s, Lucas decided to diversify its product line and began manufacturing vacuum cleaners. It was the only product they offered which did not suck.
Q: Why do the British drink warm beer? A: Because Lucas makes their refrigerators.
AGOA 30thanniversary Treffen.
At the end of November we attended the 30thAnniversary celebrations for the release of the G wagon here in Australia. This was a two day event held in and around Mansfield Victoria. We attended in our 230GE and with the 560GE that we have built for a customer in WA.
Day one started with a display in the Mansfield Botanical Gardens. Apart from the AGOA members vehicles we were treated to a display from the ADF with two of their new G wagons. The Australian Defence Force have ordered 2146 new G wagons including a 6x6 version that is unique to Australia. Mercedes-Benz Australia brought along their very impressive 6x6 Fire truck G wagon which is currently being used as a demonstrator to promote the G wagon to the various State Emergency services.
At 11:00am we headed of to Mt Terrible in the Victorian High country, this is where Mercedes-Benz held the release 30 years ago so it was only fitting to go back to where it all began. After lunch we took the short way down (read very steep) and crossed the Jamison river and took the long way back to Mansfield avoiding as much "black top" as possible.
Saturday evening was the celebration dinner which was funded by Mercedes-Benz Australia and Baker Motors who are the Mercedes-Benz dealer in Albury. It was a great evening with some great raffle prizes. We even managed to win a steering damper!!
Sunday morning was another display this time in the center of Mansfield and with the SL Register of the Victorian Mercedes-Benz club who turned up in great numbers.
You can find the pictures from the weekend here on our Facebook site (you don't have to be a member to view them.
MB Spares Calendar.
Don't forget to ask for a 2013 MB Spares desk calendar with your next order. It was produced in conjunction with the Mercedes-Benz Club of the ACT. January - June features our 1954 300b and Murray's 1953 220. July to December features a stunning 320CE Cabriolet belonging to one of our customers. If you don't have any parts needs at the moment but would still like a calendar sent out please let us know and we will drop one in the post to you.
So that's it for the last 2012 Newsletter, please drive safely and enjoy your Christmas break, we look forward to servicing your needs in 2013.
John & Sandra Green.
