Pradeep Lingam - Commemorative Drive

The late Pradeep Lingam… Many of those involved in the classic car scene in Malaysia would have met or at least heard of this name. He was an upcoming classic car restorer in Malaysia and even though being a young person as he was, he had garnered the respect of many classic car players including the old as well as the young.

I came to know him several years back as we both happened to be from the same housing area in Klang, Selangor. And when I got into the car scene myself, he was the one who was given the task to restore my car at that time which was a Mercedes-Benz W126 300SE (pic above). I’ve had write-ups on the car in previous posts which include 'My first 'sort of' classic car', 'Restoration - Mercedes-Benz W126 300SE (part 1)' and 'Restoration - Mercedes-Benz W126 300SE (part 2)'. He was also known for his wiring skills which made him very famous among classic car players all around Malaysia.

It’s been 3 years since he passed on now and I had the opportunity to speak to him on the phone just a few hours before that fateful accident which took his life. The pictures below were taken on Sunday to commemorate the late Pradeep. It was a good turnout which had more than 60 cars in attendance followed by breakfast. Those in attendance included people who knew him as well as former customers. It was a good time to catch up as well as to remember a person who had the skill and the passion for classics.

Of course, the cars in the pics above are just some of the cars. As mentioned earlier, there were more than 60 cars in attendance.

Restoration - Mercedes-Benz W126 300SE (part 2)

This is part 2 of my Mercedes-Benz W126 300SE restoration. Carrying on from part 1, the Mercedes-Benz was actually stripped off its entire interior in order to re-do it. The seats including the door panels were re-upholstered and whatever needed to be replaced, were replaced and it got a new set of wood panels for the whole dashboard including the centre consoles and the doors.

The car took about 3 months to finish as the work was not too extensive in the sense that the body was in very good condition. It was fully restored to its original specification including all mechanicals and electrical. Once it was all done, I enjoyed using it as my weekend car as well as my after-work car.

It would have been better if I still had all the older pictures taken during the restoration with me but unfortunately I don’t. A few months later a good offer came for the car and I sold it and started searching once again for my ultimate dream machine, the Jaguar XJ6 Series 3.

Restoration - Mercedes-Benz W126 300SE (part 1)

This is part 1 of my Mercedes-Benz W126 300SE restoration. In my earlier post titled ‘My first ‘sort of’ classic car’, I wrote about the Mercedes-Benz W126 and how I had actually purchased one some years back. Here I will give a brief step-by-step explanation on the restoration process. As mentioned in the earlier post, I do not have any pictures left due to a hard disk crash but I’ll try to explain so hopefully it could still be understood.

When I bought the car, it was immediately brought from the dealership to a friend of mine (who unfortunately has since passed on) for the restoration and naturally I was planning to do a thorough restoration on the car. The car was basically stripped off the interior and exterior parts and was sent to the paint shop. And there the process of paint removal started and obviously the car looked very unattractive once the paint and body panels were off. But to me and my painter’s amazement, the car’s body was so straight, had never been involved in an accident and the best part was that it didn’t have even a spot of rust on it which of course left the painter all smiles.

It was then painted using Glasurit paint in Brabus Black. It was a very deep black and the gloss on it was amazing and I coupled the lower plastic panels with a medium grey.

End of part 1

Private Treaty Sales 2014 #1

A few days back, my good friend Jon texted me about the Private Treaty Sales happening at the Bangsar Shopping Centre and of course we decided to go and have a look. We had read an article stating that 2 of the cars had been sold, one being a Mercedes-Benz W126 560SEC and the other a Mercedes-Benz W123 280CE.

There were a few cars for sale there namely the Jaguar E-type as well as a rare Mercedes-Benz W121 190SL roadster (pic above). They were also other cars such as a rare Datsun 240Z and the Porsche 356A Coupe but the Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz naturally caught my eye. And not surprising some of the cars were actually sold or booked as some of the prices were actually not too bad at all. Aston Martin Kuala Lumpur was also present with two of their cars, the Vantage and the Vanquish and some of you may remember the Vanquish aka The Vanish in the James Bond movie ‘Die Another Day’.

Below are some of the other shots taken by Jon.

My first ‘sort of’ classic car

My first ‘sort of’ classic car was a Mercedes Benz W126 300SE. I call it a ‘sort of’ classic simply because it wasn’t really a ‘classic’ classic but an old Mercedes. I basically had 2 dream cars when I was young. One was the Jaguar XJ6 Series 3 and the other of course was the Mercedes Benz W126 300SE.

It was more than 5 years back since I started looking for one. I just loved the car for it's elegant looks and styling. The search when on and on and finally I found her. It was a day when my good friend Jon and I actually went hunting for a particular 300SE at a dealer in Old Klang Road. As we were driving to our destined dealer, we passed another dealer that had a similar model with a nice number ‘300’ on it, similar to its model (Just for the record, I’m not a numerology person but I love to see nice cars with nice numbers on them). And so we saw the car we were supposed to go and see and I was thoroughly disappointed with the car as the car looked stunning in the pictures but wasn’t so in real.

Then we decided to drive to the other dealer we had seen on the way and I got instantly attracted to it by just looking at the body. Though she needed a paint work but the body was one of the best I’ve ever seen. This was actually a 100% accident free car I kid you not and the best part was it was actually a one owner car since it was brought in to Malaysia in 1992 (it was a ’89 UK spec recon model). And that is how it started. I will give a detailed description later on the restoration process but unfortunately I don’t have the pictures before the restoration as my previous hard disk had crashed, but the picture above was the end result. Till later…