Any Northern drivers enjoying the weather?

[bsimaz]

I live in Michigan and so far we have had one snow storm.  That melted fairly quickly and for the last few weeks it's been around 40 degrees (give or take) and little rain.  This has given me the opportunity to drive my car quite a bit in the so called 'winter months'.   Is anyone else enjoying the company of there cars this late in the year?  And from the weather reports, at least the first few weeks of January.

Bill Simaz
'66 230sl
Back on the Road

[ja17]

Hello Bill,

Good! Driving the cars helps preserve them. Just starting them up and running them occasional is not nearly as good. Systems like the brakes, exhaust, suspension transmission, steering and differential benefit from the exercise. During a drive the engine reaches full operating temperature, burning off contamination in the motor oil. The injection pump is allowed to cycle through all its temperature and rpm ranges during a drive. Square tires are allowed to round themselves.

Garages kill!  A occassional long drive on a dry crisp winter day will keep the Pagoda healthy during winter hibernation.

Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio

[mdsalemi]

Hi Bill,

I live in Novi, and the car winters in storage in Mecosta County (Canadian Lakes) in central Michigan; it has been there for a couple of months now.  I'm headed up there for New Years.

Provided the pavement is dry the cover is coming off and we'll go for a nice Italian tune up.

Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red w/Black Leather
Restored

[mbzse]

quote:Originally posted by Joe A  ja17

Driving the cars helps preserve them.../.. A occassional long drive on a dry crisp winter day will keep the Pagoda healthy during winter hibernation

Well, the limit to winter driving of our hobby gems is the road salt, spread out to counter ice on the road. Just one drive in such stuff and the metal underneath, and the bodywork, is permanently affected.  :?
  The corrosive salt is present even in the dust on the dry winter tarmac. In northern Sweden, no salt is spread out, and that's a different story - no problem to run a preserved M-B up there on winter roads. I certainly agree to the merits of running a car on a regular basis, just sitting is not good for a vehicle.

.
/Hans in Sweden

[mdsalemi]

Hi Hans,

Of course the salt is present in the dust...but after a few rains (which we have had) most has gone away, pending another application of salt which requires another snow which we have NOT had.

And hence my quest for "dry pavement"; the salt needs moisture in order to do its dirty deeds.  Some dry salt on the underside of my car won't do much damage as it will indeed get all washed off come spring time.  I think more damage is done by inactivity then by dry salt.

Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red w/Black Leather
Restored

[tuultyme]

Took my car out the middle of December on a Sunny dry day; When I got home changed the oil.  Needed some rolls for Christmas dinner last Saturday so what better reason to again take out the Pagoda. North of Chicago.

Bruce; 268Blaugrun(green) 1970 280SL; IL

[Cees Klumper]

Last Saturday I took my Pagoda on a 80 mile trip. It was raining rather badly, temperature must have been around 10 degrees Celcius / low 50-ies in Fahrenheit. Two weeks before that I did a 150 mile trip in unseasonably warm weather.

Then this morning I took the Volvo C70 convertible to the do-it-yourself store (boy was it busy) to pick up some shelving. Temperature was a cool 2 degrees Celcius so around 36 Fahrenheit. When I wanted to load the shelving into the car it would not clear the roof and I had to take it down! I drove topless about 10 miles including on the highway, windows rolled up and the heater on full blast.

Cees ("Case") Klumper in Amsterdam
'69 white 280 SL automatic

[n/a]

One advantage to living in the toillette of North America that is New Orleans, is year round topless driving.  Sunny and 60ish today, my hardtop is now and shall continue to collect massive amounts of dust.

[Mike Hughes]

My lovely wife just had to make an emergency run to COSTCO a couple of days after Christmas.  It was a nice clear evening so I woke up the Pagoda and off we went.  Made a joyful noise unto the Lord trying to get there before they closed.  Got there with just minutes to spare and "she who must be obeyed" procured all of her emergency supplies.  The best part was the small circle of shopers standing around the Pagoda as we exited the store, stored an entire shopping cart full of purchases in the spacious trunk, and wailed off into the night.

- Mike Hughes  -ô¿ô-
  1966 230SL Auto P/S
  Havanna Brown (408)
  Light Beige (181)
  Cream M-B Tex (121)

[Bearcat]

gave mine a blast the other day.....did over the ton on a long stretch....merc really got it right with that straight six

280 SL 1970

[Benz Dr.]

I drove three interesting cars yesterday:
1) 1969 280SL, hardtop on the car. After exstensive engine building its back on the the road again. Still more test driving needed.
2) 1960 220SE Cab. Had it running last summer but a drive shaft problem kept it off the road for quite a while until I found a replacement. I located one badly needed fuel injector and now it runs great. Top was up on this car.
3) 1962 190SL  Not a bad car but horribly out of tune. Running so rich it would foul out a set of plugs before it got to operating temps. This car has replacement carbs which require little fuel pressure so I got a regulator and set it to about 2 lbs PSI. After changing the spark plugs and fixing the sticking advance weights in the distributor it now runs much better. I also installed the hotter red coil with a ballast resistor.
We usually check valve lash on new cars and this one had almost no play on the intake valves. While I was checking this I noticed that the cam timing was out over 10 degrees. I have a new timing chain and cam gear which should pull it back to zero. I also have to replace the thermostat as it's only running about 140F. ALL of these things will contribute to rich running. Should be a pretty decent car once it's done.

I don't have the option of waiting for nice weather to test drive cars. If it's a nice day, out they go.


Dan Caron's
 SL Barn
benzbarn@ebtech.net
 slbarn.mbz.org
  1 877 661 6061

[Patrick]

We live in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada which is approxiamtely 60 miles west of Toronto. The Mrs. wanted to look at some lights for the hallway yesterday  :evil: , so I took advantage of the weather and fired up our 250sl and off we went. Ended up enjoying a 3 hour drive   and never did stop to look for lights. Glad we did, it's snowing today.

Patrick
'68 250sl

[rob walker]

Back to the UK at the end of January for a few days so mine will come out out dehumidified winter hibernation, gee, I hope the weathers reasonable and no salt on the roads, otherwise it will have to be a Eurobox hire car!!

Rob Walker
1968 280SL papyrus white/green leather
Spain and Turkey

[Zach]

Last weekend we hit 70 (degrees not mph) outside of Boston.  Would have gone topless (the car, not me) but I had already put the hard top on in early December and there was no one around to help remove it. (I could really use one of those ceiling-winch devices.)

Anyway, the windows went down and we tooled around on a few twisties with the revs up to hear the music (the engine, not the radio).

Had fun.  It's great to honk the horn when people give the thumbs-up; it just sounds so vintage.  Try to get it out at least bi-weekly.


Z
66 230SL Euro 4spd