The Colour of Money......Part 2

[Zman86]

The "lower it" sticker lives on stuck to my tool box at work



Taking a set of steelies to the powdercoaters tommorow, and going to look at a '79 300SD on Saturday as a possible drivetrain donor for a turbo diesel swap....

[Dreamstate]

I see you're using the spare tire well the same as I always did. Engine fluids and tire shine

[Zman86]

I see you're using the spare tire well the same as I always did. Engine fluids and tire shine

Haha, I'm going to actually put a spare in it, the spare from the parts car. Steelies are currently at Brightside coatings be re-finished. Until then, the spare tire well is quite the perfect storage space. Wish I could keep it lol. And I passed 2000 miles since I took delivery on my home tonight Randy, only problem so far was the airline blowout a few weeks ago, besides that, its been perfect.

I decided to mess around with the Becker a bit today. To me, as cool as it is, its just not worth the $$$ to get it operational again (I've been told they dont sound too great either). So, without modifying anything that could not easily be reversed, I wired it so it will illuminate when given a 12v power source. The only thing inside that is lit up at night is the gauge cluster, feels pretty empty without somethign on the center console lit up, so this should do the job nicely. Had to go pick up a new bulb for it at the local electronics supply store, had the rest at home...











In other news, I'm currently talking with a guy about purchasing a '79 300SD drivetrain from him. Still undecided on whether I want to swap for a turbodiesel yet, but in exchange for doing some maintenence work for him on his DD '79 300SD, he will give me a great deal on the drivetrain. Probably going to get it just to have the option in the future. Looking at another one that appears to have a mint interior. Though I can't swap the door panels, the seats should bolt in with no modifications and look the exact same as the '76 seats...

[arethirdytwo]

I would really recommend the turbo diesel. A friend has the non turbo and from what I have read this car suffers from the same problem. It's brutally slow. I can clip along at 80 plus in mine no problem.

[Dreamstate]

I thought about that air line blow out. Thinking back at when the car would sit in the hot sun with a full tank, it could get to about 180psi just by sun warming the trunk. That, and warming the air line up probably caused the rupture.
Perhaps getting a 170psi pop valve would be worth it. You could stick it out the bottom of the trunk and it could double as an automatic water drain.

[Zman86]

Sounds like a good idea, I'll probably set something up like that when I re-do the air management system.

[DGNeo]

If you're still looking into getting the stereo working, try giving it a good DeOxit

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=207005

Car still looks awesome as ever!

[insert clever name]

wow im impressed with the new owner..90% of the time a car goes downhill when going to a new owner

[Zman86]

wow im impressed with the new owner..90% of the time a car goes downhill when going to a new owner

Thanks man! I'm trying...

In other news, I bought a '79 300D just for the seats that are in it. Passenger/rears are mint, drivers seat has a couple small tears/could use a new seat pad, but they are in pretty damn good shape for the age. Lots of other useable bits too. Bought the whole car for $500, allready have the tires sold for $200, then whatever I can get out of the car for parts/scrap (body not worth saving). Should come out ahead, which is always good. I've been fighting with it in the guys driveway for a couple days though, it does not want to start. The glowplug relay quit working sometime after he stored it last year. I got the glowplug system working again, but no matter how much juice I put on the battery, I cant get it to crank fast enough to start. Going again Sunday to put it up on stands and clean all the starter terminals, and hopefully I can get it running so I dont have to tow it, as a tow would eat into any profit I make on it...

[Zman86]

Picked up my new set of steelies from Brightside coatings on Saturday. Pretty happy with the result and will be returning when I need more stuff coated, however, I effed up and didnt look at the wheels close enough when I bought them. See if you can spot the difference. Good news is they will still work on the car, I'll just have slightly different wheels front/back






Also cleaned up the whitewalls on the new tires to get them ready for install sometime this week. I scrubbed them with Spray-9 and a stiff brush, what I have always used to clean whitewalls with great results, but I got nowhere with that. Decided to try wet sanding, and it worked great!

[Twilliams83]

is it that two of them have a slightly raised area around the hole where the lugs go in? sorry i dont know the technical term for that haha

[Zman86]

You got it

I'd been thinking about installing a hardwood floor in the trunk since I got the car. My neighbours wife's father caught wind of the idea, and dontated me a couple boxes of hardwood flooring! My neighbour and I were bored today, so we decided to start the install. Made a template out of some old vinyl flooring, took a trip to Home Depot, transferred in onto plywood, cut, install, trim. A few hours work so far, and its coming together nicely. Would have preferred the boards be a little narrower, but when its free, I cant complain. Next on the list, air management....










Laid some wood in just to see how it looked...

[Zman86]

Got the bulk of the hardwood floor done today. Just have to do the back piece now and figure out what to do for trim. Wooden quarter-round looks great, but cant do any curves with it....











Also got the new tires mounted on the powdercoated steels this weekend...

[250celowrider]

not sold on the hard wood boot. You should direct stick cream (non backed) auto carpet to the wheel arches and tail gate. stretch it out over all the curves.. and then contact it down

QUOTE=Zman86;72938445]Got the bulk of the hardwood floor done today. Just have to do the back piece now and figure out what to do for trim. Wooden quarter-round looks great, but cant do any curves with it....














Also got the new tires mounted on the powdercoated steels this weekend...



[/QUOTE]

[Zman86]

On my way to a stag-n-doe last night, I took a road I do not use often and hit a bump. A couple hours after arriving at the stag, i went out to the car to get a piece of gum and found a large trail of oil coming from underneath. Bye bye oil pan. It didnt rip a hole, but it was steadily dripping, so I filled it back up and drove it home. I had planned to take the car to Vagkraft in the morning, so I swapped pans off the parts car. Got it done at 4am and all was well, until the next moring, not even 15km from home, I caught a ridge in the road left by trucks compressing the pavement. Bye bye pan #2. This one was not as bad though, and I still made it to the show and home again....

Have one pan left...

[insert clever name]

haha nice...are you just driving super low or does the setup not go high?

[UghRice]

tasty

[Zman86]

haha nice...are you just driving super low or does the setup not go high?

Was driving around higher than I normally do, just caught a bad spot in the road both times (both times was a ridge left by heavy truck traffic). Put another pan on it and have been driving around extra high since the pan now sits below the subframe, will have to modify pan/install the skidplate I have when I have time...

[EuroWolfsburg]

Subscribed, by the way you should make some kind of protector under the pan and motor... Prevent it from happening again and going through the trouble.

[Zman86]

Car came with one, I just never installed it. Should be going on sometime this week, I'm tired of driving around at old man height...

[Zman86]

Colour matched a set of hubcaps. Complete pain in the ass to mask and cut, but I think the end result was worth it...

Stripping the old ones...





Mind the overspray, this was just a tester, will end up on the spare wheel in the trunk...






The finished product...

[DoctorDoctor]

The color-matching looks awesome

[Monkeykungfu]

Baller

[Zman86]

So, its been a while since I posted an update. I was in a "motorcycle" accident a month ago, and I didnt get to work on the cars much while I was recovering from a skull fracture and plenty of road rash. This last week I've been feeling better, so I've started working on the car again. Winter is just around the corner, so I've taken the Benz off the road and started on the list of repairs I had going.

First thing was to replace the rear axles. The old ones were in terrible shape, I'm actually suprised they lasted as long as they did. Everything I read said this job was terrible, but it ended up not being that bad at all. Required dropping the rear suspension and exhaust, and removing the diff cover. Inside of the diff was clean and free of metal. Replaced the axle seals and axle retainer clips while I was in there. Currently waiting on Mercedes Source for my new diff mount, hanger bearing and flex discs, but I've not had much luck dealing with them so far (they will only take credit card numbers over the phone, but I've been trying for four days to get ahold of them through both email and phone calls with no response). Also having a hell of a time finding new shocks, as both were blown and leaking. Seems no one around here has the ability/desire to look up shocks by the manufacturers part number. Have a couple more parts stores to try tommorow, after that I'll be ordering them off the net...










No leaks, just old undercoat...



Tool I made at work to pull the new axles in...



New axles in...



Next step was to try and fix the rather large fuel leak coming from the top of the injector pump. Delivery valves 4 and 5 were leaking, so I replaced the copper sealing rings. Good news is that the delivery valves are no longer leaking, bad news is there is still alot of fuel leaking from around the base of #4-5, where the two bolts go into the body of the pump. I'm having a hard time finding info on fixing this problem...





During the summer, I thought about getting the A/C functioning again. Someone had fitted a newer style compressor in, hooked up the lines and stopped there. Inspection found the compressor seized, and that the system had never been switched from R12, so I decided to get rid of it, since I very rarely use air conditioning. Removed the compressor and very large bracket assembly holding it, the main lines and the condensor. Also pulled the radiator. I had a persistent coolant leak that would only occur when the car was cold, and it turned out being a corroded tube, so the radiator is going out this week to be re-built. I was also getting tiny flecks of metal in my coolant, so I pulled the water pump to inspect it. I dont see anything that could be causing metal to end up in the cooling system, but there is a small amount of play in the shaft, so I'm probably going to replace it...




More updates as they happen. Good to be working on it again. I had wanted to tear the car down completely this winter and re-build it from the ground up, but I dont think thats going to happen until I have my own place and somewhere to keep the car permanently (the neighbours allow me to use their garage because they are awesome, and I fix their stuff for them). Looking forward to doing some lengthy road-trips next season after the improvements over the winter...

[250celowrider]

Zman - I've been wondering what hole you fell into.....as you dropped off the posting. Good to hear all is well. Trust me, stick to 4 wheels, I've had the 2 wheel drama in the past as well.

Running all my lines this week, and all my brackets are finished now. It's just a matter of bolting it all in. Let's see you can roll lower.

[Zman86]

I had just been driving the car before the accident, so no real work was getting done, so nothing to update. Didn't get on any long roadtrips this summer, so no photos to post either. Now I can work on it, I should be posting updates more often.

As for things on two wheels, I still love em, I just have much more respect for what they can do to you. Caught a speed wobble at 80km/h on a lawnmower engined bike I built during the summer, hence the "motorcycle". Embarrassing and stupid....

[euro.lo]

wow! I didn't realize all this quality work was being put into this car. Great work! Looking forward to seeing where you take this car

[Zman86]

^ Thanks man. Its going to take a while to get it to the point I want it, but one day it should get there.


Currently awaiting parts from both Mercedes and Mercedessource.com. Starting to get impatient as I ordered the stuff online two weeks ago. Stuff from the Benz dealer should be here tommorow, had to get some hoses from Germany. Installed new front shocks yesterday and scrubbed/washed the engine bay while I have it apart. Removing 35 years of dirt was not pleasant, cant wait to do the entire underside Pictures later....

[Zman86]

Received a bunch of stuff I was waiting for from Mercedes yesterday, so the car is now back together and driving. Unfortunatly, I have still not received my driveline parts from Mercedes Source...

The run-down of whats been done so far

New shocks all around
clean/re-seal waterpump and thermostat housing
new thermostat
re-cored radiator, upgrade frow two row to three row
new axles
new axle seals all new hose clamps in engine bay
new power steering lines
new waterpump housing to thermostat housing hose
new crankcase vent hose
cooling system flush
power stering system flush
A/C delete, still have to remove condensor and wiring, then plug holes in firewall
replaced injector pump delivery valve seals
scrubbed the engine bay with a stiff bristle brush and degreaser, then power washed
new diff oil
removed front sway-bar since it was not hooked up/cant be used
Awaitng arrival of new differential mount/hanger bearing kit/driveshaft flex-discs


I can not believe the difference in how the car drives now with new shocks and axles. No more vibration while driving lowered/aired out, and much less bounciness over dips and bumps. Also like how the engine bay looks without all the A/C crap in the way, and I;m considering re-locating the battery to the trunk since the bay looks much better without it there...

Rad Before


Rad after- Thanks to the guys at Hamilton Radiator for doing a great job


New front shocks, no pictures of the rears. The rears were hard to find because none of the parts stores would look up shocks by the shock part number, only by vehicle application. After going to three different stores, Napa was able to look them up


Goodies from Mercedes


Re-assembly


Test-drive to the car wash


Engine bay before...



Engine bay after...


Next things on the list are replace the driveline components when they arrive, replace the engine mounts/engine shocks (Left side engine mount has disintigrated due to leaking fuel), fix leaky injector pump, have new oil pan modified to allow installation of skidplate. Also, the transmission has started shifting very poorly, I may have to take it out and have it re-built

[Dreamstate]

I had the transmission inspected and flushed when I bought it and everything was in good order. After they sealed it up I noticed it started leaking a little transmission fluid. Make sure it's topped up, it really takes it's time shifting when it's cold and a little low.

[Zman86]

I had the transmission inspected and flushed when I bought it and everything was in good order. After they sealed it up I noticed it started leaking a little transmission fluid. Make sure it's topped up, it really takes it's time shifting when it's cold and a little low.

The tranny looks like it needs a couple gaskets and a tail-shaft seal, I'm probably going to leave replacing those until next season. It does feel like low fluid, but its full. Have to put it on the ramps tonight and take a look to see if any of the linkages have come loose, my old Fords would shift the same when the throttle valve linkage fell off.

And I have a couple questions for you Randy, what size tires were you running on your RS's, and how much of a bastard was the drivers side engine mount to replace? It looks unpleasant to say the least...

[Dreamstate]

The tires were 205/45/16 all around. As for the motor mount, I let a shop take care of that one.. it's only a half hour job when you have a lift.

[Zman86]

Thanks Randy.

The stuff from Mercedessource.com arrived today. Despite taking three weeks to get here, I'm still happy. The packaging was fantastic, and they even sent me tools, instructions, a pair of nitrile gloves and candy because I ordered close to Halloween.

New parts- 2 new driveshaft flexdiscs with hardware, driveshaft slipjoint boot, transmission shifter linkage bushings, hanger bearing housing and new bearing, new differential mount.

Dont know when I'm going to get to work on it again. Trying to store it in my Dads garage, but the 12 motorcycles in there are taking up most of the space, not to mention all the other stuff. I may have to pay to store it elsewhere, which means no working on it over the winter unfortunatly...

[Zman86]

Found this W108 in my internet travels tonight. The idea of blacking out all the chrome had come to mind a few times since I got the car and I at one point talked to a powdercoater about it, but after seeing this, I personally think it looks pretty damn amazing...

Opinions?

[euro.lo]

Looks bomb. I wouldn't black out the grille and everything though.