Pagoda rebuild nightmare video UK TV pgm.

[Paul99]

Sorry if you have seen this before but its an interesting video of a UK TV programme which restores cars for owners who are too ill to finish.  It shows the potential nightmare around a Pagoda restoration.   I did meet the main guy on the video at a show and he said it took nearly the whole budget set aside for a few cars to finish the job.

Hope its of interest.

PS: skip the adverts!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3OvOe2VYkY

[Cees Klumper]

Definitely fun and interesting to watch. Not sure what was more impressive: the monumental task of the restoration, or the utter lack of professionalism of the nut who 'restored' it before, never seen such ham-fisted welding before. Mercedes and other replacement panel suppliers made a killing off this car. 1,400 man-hours, I believe it!

[dirkbalter]

Definitely entertaining to watch. I guess it came out good but would question the approach of restoring a car in that condition on a lift instead of a proper table with braces....
 

[Shvegel]

Normally,  I would say it was an American car but the right hand drive pretty much eliminates that.  We don't have TUV orin most stes any inspections at all which leads to so many very horrible repair jobs.  There are literally only 2 or 3 shops I would recommend in the entire country. My own car suffered at the hands of someone with a brazing torch and an air chisel.  More time was spent undoing their work and the damage they caused to the under structure than doing rust repair. 

For anyone who choses to get mired in a project like that do yourself a favor and start at the back of the car.  The way the body is put together there is very little room for adjustment in the back and if you start from the front and get a touch too far forward or back with your front fenders (wings) and inner fenders and you will have hell to pay at the back.  My car was originally done so poorly that the decklid (Boot) overhung the rear fenders by almost 3/8" (9mm).

[Paul99]

I go to a number of auctions here in the uk (the video was a UK car and a UK show) and I see lots now which are "partly restored - just needs finishing!"

One 230SL recently sold for £100k and looked great, but all the chrome was in a box - just had to be fitted.   When they tried to fit the front grill and star etc, the front wings were an inch too close together so nothing fitted.  Whole car had to be rebuilt. £100k wasted.   Buyer beware I believe is the expression! 

Lots of similar cars up for auction now here as I think they found restoration too difficult without the right gigs etc, all arount 50% finished.     Could be that a lot of UK cars are far easier to restore as you can buy a brand new body shell for a lots of the UK fords and Minis etc, but of course not for a pagoda.

[zak]

Boy, that was brutal to watch.

jz 

[mauro12]

I’ve seen many times the entire episode and my question is : how is possible that a pagoda ends up in such as horrific way ? It’s lack of maintenance or wrong storage or driving in salty roads ?
The most important thing is to prevent that nightmare .
They only kept 50% of the original car , the rest was scrap .

[john.mancini]

Anyone who is considering buying a W113, especially first time buyers, should watch this video. These cars, that now command big money, can be a nightmare if the integrity of the body is compromised. It is so difficult to make these cars look right once they've been ravished by rust or extensive accident damage. Great video though. I had not seen it before.

[Raymond]

Some are just too far gone.  The only thing that made it a Pagoda was the VIN plate.  The money and effort could have restored a dozen more worthy ones.

[mauro12]

My question is still the same . How is possible to have a car  in this conditions ?
What should you do and shouldn’t ?

[john.mancini]

Over the years I've seen quite a few, in un-restorable condition, that were for sale. What do you do?  DON"T buy the damn thing!

[Cees Klumper]

To Mauro's question as to how a car gets to be in this kind of condition, I would just say it's a combination of:

• poor rust prevention
• a life in an environment where there's lots of humidity and salt, eg on the roads in wintertime
• no or minimal safety inspections by authorities (totally absent in California for example)
• a careless owner, who repairs poorly and too late

[JamesL]

Cees,
To your third point, impossible if the car was on the road. Until the past few years, all vehicles had to have an annual inspection. Now cars over 40 years old don't. I think the logic is that if the car has lived that long "chances are" it's well looked after and the owner will get it looked over anyway. I reckon most of the UK members on here do

To your 4th point....careless or with other financial commitments (but a dream car in the garage)

[Cees Klumper]

Sure James, although (and I don't know where this car came from) it is possible it spent many years in another country without those strict safety inspections and was only imported more recently. I had a similar observation in another thread, about how people always assume that 'a California car' has no rust issues. Firstly, a car can be in New Jersey for 40 years and then be titled in California which makes it 'a California car' to many people who don't bother to look a bit deeper, AND cars in California can rust severely, if they are exposed to salt air like my 1971 Volkswagen was for many years when it lived in Seal Beach. Some bad rust it had.