Your car has been well cared for. It may need new door seals - the
rubber strips around the doors. Not cheap - about $100 per door plus
labor but will eventually be necessary.

As to water spots: the bumpers can be polished with MILD polish. I use
Glasswax (for its mild abrasive) to remove water spots from the bright work.

On 2004-12-08 21:42:34 -0800, "T.G. Lambach"
<tlambach (AT) NoHamOrSpamcomcast (DOT) net> said:
Actually I prefer steel wool for this job. Not those crappy SOS pads
either, the big tough kind of steel wool. usually the brand I see
these days is "chore boy".

After you rub that on the chrome it's best to use some kind of coating
to protect it also, if it's going to be exposed to the elements...

marty

Martin Joseph wrote:
I'd try something _milder_ first, steel wool
is more on the _rough_ side.
Maybe try http://www.duw.de/Picture_Pool/408571.jpg first?


Juergen

"Juergen ." <jaguare (AT) bigfoot (DOT) com> wrote

Thanks for the replies. I found this (MAAS). Does anyone here know
anything about it? If it does what their ad says, then other similar
products
will soon be out of business. Here's the link:
http://www.maasinc.com/index.html

Helen

On 2004-12-09 14:25:46 -0800, "Juergen ." <jaguare (AT) bigfoot (DOT) com> said:

I admit it seems that way, but it absolutely doesn't scratch chrome,
it polishes it like nobody's business. My friend Andy who is a
fanatical car detailer/cleaner taught me this trick and it's a great
one!

Try it in a wrecking yard first, or on some crappy beater parked on
your street if you don't believe me, although why you are polishing
chrome on someone else's beater might be hard to explain...

I don't know about chromed plastic though... Don't have a clue about
that crap.

Marty

Martin Joseph wrote:
Yes - THAT would be REALLY hard...

Weel, since some years I have Italian copy
bumpers on my W123 (yes, that is NO joke,
it is copies from Italy being _much_ cheaper
than the originals!) and these have a much
weaker chrome than the original ones, they
are easily to scratch (compared to the originals).


Juergen

Okay my thoughts as a 6 year owner...

My 240D has well over 1.5 MILLION miles, it's on it's 3'rd motor and 2nd
tranny. My fuel economy is VERY good compared to most (althoug I rarely
drive more than 60 mph), at 40+. I have taken care to make sure it does get
checked out regularly. I cannot imagine ANY car giving the quality and
longetivity that this one has.

My current woes though.. I need new rear cv bbots (anyone with a good split
boots reference please step up), and I have a REALLY leaky rear engine seal.
Both of these will necesitate a lot of money in repairs, but I think it's
worth it.

Can't get a car like this nowadays. especially with the "throwaway
mentality" that is present in current autos........