Hi!

I thought it was about time I posted a picture of my beloved 340DL.

I bought it from my dad for a cool £1 after he got a new VW - not a bad deal, I reckon! It's only got 79,000 miles on it, too!

It's a very special car to me: I sat in the back as a small child, in the front as a bigger one, learned to drive in it, and now it's mine!

Cheers!

Nice, clean car! It'll last forever

Tom

Thanks!

Fingers crossed that the prop holds out....! I'm going the other way from the modders - I want to get it back to stock, as close to mint condition as I can.

And yes, that means no more tape player. Or FM radio....

In '86 they still fitted radios without FM or tape players? I'd have thought you'd have had at least something like this from stock:



Tom

It does look nice I'd get some bumper and trim restorer to get the plastics back to a blacker colour though. It's great stuff, I thought my bumpers were black till I put it on and saw the difference.

Who needs FM radio anyway

Just spotted this:


as fitted to a 340 GL in 1984, note the position of the (single) loudspeaker ...

Are you quite sure you want to go down that route 5150 ?

Tom

MJ
Excellent idea - I hadn't thought of that! The back bumper is looking a little grey at the moment. There are a couple of tiny dings here and there, too, and a bit of a dent in the door - but I don't think it's worth shelling out to get them fixed just yet.

Tom
That's almost the one! I think I'll keep both speakers, though.... maybe I can retrofit an auxilliary minijack socket for an iPod. I don't listen to the radio much, anyway. I'm getting bored of listening to The Killers on rotation!

That's aright

Personally I use Black Diamond 'Vinyl Gel Bumper & Trim Conditioner' http://www.bdsw.co.uk/products.asp?recnumber=466

I've bought it before at car shows and the like where they sometimes have a stand, but it seems you can buy on line as well

Hot air works better than those chemicals, but I managed to make only a mess when I did try, but hot air it is what professionals do use when black colour is needed to last.

That grey was something that came to surface and when you heat up there is some sort of reaction so bumpers are again good looking, odd, but seems to be working, only one needs some practise with that.

Hmm, interesting. I think it'd be better to practice that on a scrapper first though! I'll stick to rubbing in some gel. I don't want to sound like a salesman, but it only takes 15 mins or so to rub it into both bumpers and buff it off. You can do other bits like spoilers, door rubbing strips, grill, door handles, window trims etc if you have more time.

I did find it faded a little after a couple days, and the first time I used the stuff I gave it another coat a week or so later. That was about two years ago, and since then I've given it two more goes. Once last summer, and once this summer.

You can see the difference, but it's not as obvious as when I used it first, it hasn't faded much in the last year. I use it as part of a yearly full car wash and wax.

Anyway, enough advertising, I don't have any business interest in the company, I just like their product

I really want to have a driving related point here, but must... resist... had a couple already today

Sod it...

Have those loverly black bumpers seen any sunlight in the last 2 years MJ

You will struggle to get the bumpers looking black, as they are made from grey plastic!! Lol
only special models had all black bumpers.
Adam

Really? I just thought the top/bottom parts were made from a different plastic that faded more than the middle part?

Our bumpers seem to be the same colour all over, and it's not a special model, just a standard 1.7. (although at 1989 it's a later model).

And Chris, its seen more than I'd like it to

Not perfectly black, bit gray in those new cars too.