[Stance Lab] by ricecooker713

13 minute(s) of a 27 minute read

[Stance Lab] - C350

Compliments of ricecooker713 @ http://mbworld.org

12/2/12

Hello everyone, I will like to introduce to you a project I have been planning.

I recently purchased a 2012 C350 coupe with the intentions of it being a project. In collaboration with StanceLab and Mercedes Benz of San Francisco, we will be building the C350 for the coming up 2012 SEMA. There are big plans for this vehicle. To name is few parts, Airrex is providing their whole air suspension kit to lower this to the ground while sitting on Forgestars wrapped with Toyo Tires. I just placed an order with Vividracing and will be receiving a Meisterschaft GT exhaust pretty soon.

I have been in the automotive business for a good amount of time. I feel that Mercedes in the past has never developed a vehicle where the public can mod easily. BMWs has great appeal and can be customized simply/tastefully. This has been true until the W212 and W204 coupe came out. I personally hope that others will see this build and realize how great of a vehicle this coupe is and consider it when choosing between brands.

Please follow this thread to keep updated with all the mods.

When I first bought the car:

First mod, reverse camera. Thanks to this forum and realizing how ridiculous it is to have the stock location offset to the side, I opted for the middle approach. 

Tearing the interior apart to hid all the wiring proper:

Location of the controller:

Hidden away now, can't even see it:

Before the camera, you can clearly see where there is two circle markings:

Here is the picture quality at night:

A proper photo shoot. Thanks to my good buddy, Richard Tong.

Proper shot of the camera location:

2/29/12

The Meisterschaft exhaust will definitely look good surrounded by this - just received a big fin diffuser from JL-motoring, excellent product.

Here it is next to the stock trim on a C250:

Also just in is a 380mm/345mm 6pot/4pot Brembo kit. Unbelievable how light these rotors are compared to the size.

3/29/12

Sorry for such a long gap between updates but I have been working/waiting on some parts. Main concern now is fitting the massive 345mm mono block Brembo setup in the rear. I will go more in-depth on this later. The rear diffuser but it is pretty straight forward, not much to it.

There are two rivets, one on each side by the stock exhaust tips, these have to drilled out. After that, it is only the matter of pulling on the stock diffuser and it will snap off.

Air-Rex Digital Air suspension arrived. Installed Meisterschaft exhaust, Installed CF big fin diffuser, Fitted Brembo kit, Interior trim sent out to be CF.

Front rotor (stock compared to Brembo):

Now the problem is in the rear, the front bolts up fine. My kit is off a W212 E550. From what I can tell, W204 share same brakes as a C207 or W212 E350. Now W212 E550 uses larger rear parking shoes (different from W204), so that is where things get interesting. Front on all vehicles will fit, rear calipers will fit, just not the rotors in the rear. After some research I found that I can swap the rear spindles and convert this to a W212 setup, but I went a different route. I am very good friends with a shop around here that specializes in building custom BBK setup and I opted to make a custom top hat through them instead.

Here are some pictures of the air suspension with custom camber plates in the front:

Cool thing about this kit is that all the necessary plumbing, wiring and connections all are made and tested to be working in one complete unit. You just running power and ground, connect the air lines to each strut, install all struts/bags and you are ready to go. Wireless remote controller, no need to rip apart your interior to run one wire.

Here are some pictures of all the interior trim:

And a small video of the Meisterschaft exhaust:

6/20/12

Small update, I have been very busy with the coupe and have very little time to update this thread.

My top hats for my rear rotors finally came in and it is a prefect fit. This is the only way of running W212 345mm rotor on a W/C204. Brembo does not offer a Monoblock rear caliper for a W/C204 either, so this also will have to be done.

Old:

New:

Comparison:

With the rear kit installed, I can now measure for the proper wheel/caliper clearance and wheel offsets.

Check out the clearance (test fitting the custom barreled LM's off the StanceLab W212):

I am test fitting a lot of different wheel combinations to get the proper offsets. I will post these spec when I get all my measurements done.

6/21/12

Please excuse the height, it's stock.

HRE 540R

Front 19X8.5 +35 - 235/35/19

Rear 19X9.5 +38 - 265/30/19

Stock S63

Front 20X8.5 +43

Rear 20x9.5 +43

Some pictures of a coupe:

6/25/12

It can go lower about 2 more inches.

6/30/12

Got around to trying on the S63 wheels with the suspension:

Here's the CF interior, I didn't CF the all the trim. I think it looks better like this:

7/8/12

One awesome thing about the Airrex wireless air management is the remote. It is charged through a USB cable and comes with an A/C to USB adapter, but luckily for us, we have an USB port in our center console. Nice compartment to safety hide and charge the remote.

Lowered:

Normal driving height without rubbing:

7/21/12

I must admit, bags are the way to go. I use to only stick with spring/strut and coil overs. But to get the look and performance that I am looking for, bags are the way to go. With the proper setup and management, air suspension is pretty reliable and fun.

Blending the JDM scene:

10/6/12

Brakes, interior, trunk are all done.

Not many more pictures are available until after SEMA.

Waiting right now for the exterior to be wrapped and it will be loaded on a trailer to SEMA

Sorry guys, no pictures of the car on HREs slammed.

Trunk setup

Airrex offers this option - a complete ready to install kit (you can also purchase everything individually)

Instead of going full custom we decided to use Airrex ready to install kit and put a little StanceLab into it. The kit is very versatile and can be used in many different configurations.

Gold powder coated seat brackets and harness bar:

Side shot with the brakes on: