I need a hug..and the car needs work

[JamesL]

Friday morning update... things slowed a bit in as much as half the axle is off to change the rubbers etc but the metalwork on the nearside (left) rear arch is now all 2mm metal rather than a mix of metal, filler, rust and air. I am getting shiny black trailing arms etc though! (I am so easily pleased - a bit of shine and I am happy!)

Here's the arch before the re-seal. To my untrained eye, it looks like a pretty decent job!!!

I am still of the view that the other side will be "worse" and so will brace myself for the visit on the trip home this afternoon....

[JamesL]

Oh, and he's found more (I am blaming Michael Salemi for this - he said it'd be worse than first thought and he was right!! )

This time it's passenger footwell/floor but cannot quite work out of it's forwards or rearwards of the front of the seat. Clearly been patched before but clearly using tin foil rather than 2mm steel!

The brass/braising is under the sill

[JamesL]

Rear arch now all finished - 3 down, 1 to go but before we get there, we had a look at the rust in the floor - right under the seat crossmember. So with the seat out and some of the floor lining up, we can see (go on, guess what we can see...)

rust (and the hole that's been cut). So the liner will come off, the metal scraped/cleaned and then rustproofed

[jaymanek]

Your initial list of mechanicals was not that bad... Its probably what you can expect of a clean Pagoda.

Bodywork on the other hand is always an area where once you start.....

Any mercedes that I have started rust remedy on has ended up being a full restoration.. especially my W123 and now a W124 300TE AMG I just purchased.
So a 40 year old Mercedes has little chance...

The issue you have is that you are paying a garage to do it and this lot will not be cheap at an hourly labour rate.
I am lucky that I have a garage and access to good bodsyshops/welders..

However now that you have started you have to finish!

This forum would be the best place to advertise... Many would just cover the rust back up and sell the car...

p.s. u sure you are using 2mm steel? Sounds awfully thick!

[stickandrudderman]

Well, to be precise, 1.8mm for the box sections and 1.5mm for panels.
This car is a classis example of how, over the years, most 113s have endured a significant period where they were not worth very much money and consequently only cheap repairs were entertained by their owners. Now that the cars are achieving a somewhat higher status  it's becoming commonly necessary to undo all of the poor work that's been done in the past and try to restore or even improve the cars original strength and appearance.
The problem I constanly face, and it's refreshing to deal with someone like Tosh who has his eyes and ears open, is that owners have just paid £30,000 for a car that is basically a bunch of old baked bean tins welded/glued/fibreglassed together into something that resembles the shape of the original panel, some paint tossed over it and some unscrupulous car dealer says "voila!" here's a really nice example of a very well kept and maintained Pagoda!
This is exactly why I repair cars for a living and not sell them. I like to sleep at night!

[JamesL]

Oi! I paid that 8 years ago!

I'll swing by in the morning to check your tan!

[JamesL]

update:

The offside (right) rear arch is now cleaned up and work is well underway. It's perhaps not as bad as suspected but the whole front section of the lower part of the arch (backing on to the sill) has been cut out and is being replaced (Pic 1)

The top of the arch around the seam is not as bad as I first feared (pic 2). What's the indent for? Is it for the boot hinges or the softtop well?

The final point - to follow up on Stick's comment yesterday: the inside of the drivers side sill is dry. Some surface rust but dry. As in no wax protection whatsoever. All other box sections he's seen have been done but that has clearly never been touched/rust-proofed (pic 3) and I have dodged a bullet as there's a little surface rust but nothing serious along the whole drivers side box section/sill

[JamesL]

Spoke too soon

need some work doing on that sill where it meets the floorpan around the seat area

whoop de doo!

Friday Update - There was a strip - about 2" wide and 12" long cut out from the bottom of the sill just infront of the jacking point. An MOT (inspection) failure had it been found as that would count as "structural". It was found while cleaning it up and it had a good half dozen rust holes along the "crease".

Cut, welded, and sealed inside and out. Another job done.

Bodywork is about there: the last arch was finished yeterday and was being selaed this morning. I kind of wish it was body coloured but am of the view that unless I do a David Brough that's not going to happen on my watch

Axle needs a bit of work and then we can get on to the oily bits....

[JamesL]

Another day, more dollars

Kingpins have been done. They'd been assembled incorrectly last time they were apart: the two washers were the wrong way round so that the grooved washer was not locked in place by the small locking pin. Result, crushed pin and increased wear on the kingpin itself

Rear brake discs replaced and all pads changed. I have the Carbotech pads (see Jim Villiers PUB driveability video). It seems the pads  are riveted on to their back plate and this is illegal here (I guess fear of the rivets snapping and pads flying off their plates). Bosch are back on...

While in there, the wheel bearings have been stripped and regreased. Next job is the engine mounts, crankshaft seal leak and gearbox leak. Then do the back axle rubbers, fuel tank and exhaust Drop the car to do the floor rust under the seats and off she goes to get dusted and some new paint in places

[J. Huber]

Tosh, impressive progress. I am truly amazed by how quickly the rust issues were addressed. I am sure the costs are not so heartening but your down time sure appears to be minor. I am faced with some similar corrosion issues but always assumed (and saw borne out) that such work would take several months not weeks. Have you tallied the labor hours for the body work thus far?

[JamesL]

I'm guessing someone is doing that tally but the car went on the ramp on the 22nd and is still on it. Most of the work so far appears to be one chap (Janis) as I am guessing Colin has other customers! (A burgundy 230 and G Wagen amongst others in there today). Every time I go in, Janis is there, under my car so he is close to three full weeks, which I assume is close on 120 hours*. I told Colin I was in no great hurry but he's running a busy shop so hasn't the room to have it sit in a corner gathering dust (it's on a ramp instead and has not been on it's own wheels for those three weeks)

Janis is Latvian and tells me that when he had his own garage he had to fabricate whole body panels as they couldn't get the parts. Of course, I have no idea what these looked like but he does seem a bit of a whizz with the sheet metal.

(*I do wish I'd not done that calculation!)

[JamesL]

Update

Car in body shop and been prepped for a front end and rear quarter respray

Colin called me this morning to tell me that the car was not resprayed in the correct colour when it was restored 15+ years ago and matching the random colour that's on the car is, shall we say, going to be very tough.

So my choice is either a 2 tone car or.... yep, you guessed it.

(and will still have a 2 tone car when the hard top goes on, inside front wings etc... .)

[JamesL]

OK, here's what's been done!

Rusty bits (see above)
Engine and gearbox mounts
Rubbers to rear suspension
rear discs and pads
Overhaul front stub axles/kingpins
Stainless exhaust fitted
New fuel tank & sender/filler gaskets
Crankshaft oil seal
Strip, "re-mirror" and rebuild headlamps
Cold start mech (see the vid) & thermo time switch
New seals to power steering box
NS door glass & guides
Wheel alignment

a service
MOT

and a full (exterior) respray

I shall pick the car up next week but I popped by a couple of days ago and it looked fantastic. I am REALLY looking forward to driving it. And yes, it was a little over the original estimate (in bodywork and ending up with a full respray) but having seen the work going on - and knowing how thoroughly the car has been gone over, I cannot complain about the bill: I'd rather not be paying it but as the bank manager said "if we have the car, this is the price we have to pay". For once, SWMBO is right!

[Neil Thompson]

Sounds like you're on the home straight James!, can I ask what renovation went into the headlamps and was it a specialist repair as I've got some scabby ones too!

Neil

[JamesL]

The reflectors were in a bad way on the headlamps and one fog/one indicator. Colin said he could refurb them as new are NLA so they've been refurbed. Not that I have seen them (or the results) but I THINK they were re-coated....

[Neil Thompson]

Be interesting to see the results... thanks

Neil

[JamesL]

I'm sure if you ping Colin a note he'll tell you what's been done - my bill just shows strip/rebuild but I know there was some reflector work in there too. (also had new seals to keep the damp (and a big spider!) out)

[stickandrudderman]

In the end Tosh I didn't have to do any re-plating. Once the headlights were stripped they, for the most part, just needed cleaning and the adjusters freeing up. there was one badly corroded fog lamp reflector so I fitted a NOS one. This wasn't exactly the same as the 113 one as the "umbrella" was different so I had to de-rivet it and rivet on one of the correct type and make some wiring changes to make it fit. Only one headlamp needed new seals, the other was re-used.
I do have a trick however for using vacuum deposition to re-plate the reflectors were it necessary but it's very expensive.

[jaymanek]

Any updates guys?