How long has your car been in pieces?

[Shvegel]

Hi,
Four and a half years ago a friend drove my car 700 miles from my home to his shop to do some moderate rust repairs. Well, moderate turned into massive and instead of working around the driveline and interior the decision was made to strip the car to the shell. Flash forward nearly 5 years and the shell of the car is about 2/3 finished with no fenders, quarter panels, rear panels, inner fenders on it and it has had maybe a days work done in the past 18 months. We have agreed that I am going to pick the car up this Summer and he is going to at least finish locating the rocker panel and inner structure on the remaining side so the car is stable for transport and I will do the rest.

The problem is I can't wait. I am sitting here at work in St Thomas looking forward to finally getting the project going again and I have to wait a few more months before I can get dirty again. I have been finding and buying the last few bits I need. I have the chrome out being done, I have my new Euro lights in boxes and I am ready to go. It just sucks having to wait.

I am just wondering what is the record for a car being apart on this forum?

[cth350]

heh, heh, heh, no.

It took 250 hours of work spread over a year for Gustfason's to rebiuld mine and paint it.  It's been sitting 3 years in the garage since.  All that was 3 years after I purchased the car from Richard Hattaway. No clue how many years he had it in pieces while he worked on the rockers. 

-CTH

[69280sl]

I may have you all beat,. but it is not a pagoda.  I have had a Jagauar Mark 10 "project" for 38 years (it is pictured in my avatar). After about a years ownership I started dismantling it. Then, I figured out that a full restoration would cost more than i could recover, but I still can't bring myself to part it out or scrap it, so it takes up scarce garage space while my daily drivers rust away in the weather.

Gus

[Rolland]

it was April last year my project started.  We figured we would have it finished and be able to drive it sometime during the summer and fall, we just didn't specify which summer......

No complaints here though.  I knew we had a few rust issues to deal with, the passengers side rear wheel well area and some surface rust in the trunk.  As one can expect, it's usually worse than you would hope for.  The trunk was a bit of surprise as we had a few small areas behind each wheel well that had some small spots rusted through.  In the area where the trunk seal installs, we had two small pin holes as did the soft top compartment.  The body work is all done except a few areas that need a little reworking, yesterday the trunk and all it's pieces were sprayed 

All in all, it could be back in my garage towards May or June, just in time for the best driving weather here in Oregon.

Rolland

[Shvegel]

Gus,
That's got to be a record for just about any car except maybe the zero mile 300SL Gullwing the guy bought new in pieces. For me it was never about recouping the money(thank god) since I am way over that line but after hours of work bringing the mechanicals back I had fallen in love with this car and not just any 113.
Emotions are not cheap things to have and it's double trouble to have two mistresses.

[mkbull]

My car had been lying around as a project for 18 years (two previous owners had it approx 9 years each)all this time it was off the road and they did nothing but strip it down. It had spent a long time outside under a tarpaulin and was totally riddled with rust. After buying it I spent the first 3 months searching for another car as I quickly convinced myself this one was too far gone. Somewhere along the line I changed my mind and got started restoring her. 4 years on and she is now with the trimmers and may get finished this year. That will be 22 years under restoration......

Shvegal .. I forgot to mention - when you are fitting the auto engine to the manual gearbox, as well as changing the flywheel which you have, you also need the small roller bearing that fits into the output end of the crankshaft. You can get it from Mercedes for a few dollars.

[JamesL]

Achim to thread, Achim to thread

[Shvegel]

Mark,
I already have the bearing and the custom bushing sitting in my toolbox from when I started to engineer the kit myself.  Of course that was back when I thought I only had a couple of months to get it together...surprise.  22 years and you never got to drive the car? You are making me feel better.  At least I drove mine from snow to snow for 5 years before I started this.

[Leester]

I try to not think about how long things are taking.  My project is about 10 months old, which isn't all that long. The car is likely to have been apart for some time before I acquired it, and most likely off road for a longer time since the original engine was replaced by one that was seized. About two weeks ago I discovered that the windshield windshield transmission is frozen up. I already knew that the heater core had an issue, so, I actually have more parts now than when I began.

But hey, if you have to wait for anything, seems to me like St. Thomas is probably a pretty fine place to wait. If I lived there, its possible I wouldn't finish anything!!

[J. Huber]

I took my overflow coolant tank out for repair a week and a half ago and its killing me. Now the weather has not been good either but I nonetheless feel so stranded knowing it is in-op. How do you guys stand it?

[dseretakis]

This is why I'm so hesitant to start the much needed rust repairs on my car.

[Ben]

My 1964 230SL was my almost daily driver for 5 years or more before I decided to strip it down for a "whatever it needs" body rebuild. I stripped it, labelled it all up, boxed the parts, stored them and shipped the shell of to a friend for bodywork.

Then I moved house.

Then he moved premises.

Then I spent quite a while finding the car, there was nothing malicious on my friends part, just time went by.

Anyway, he got too busy, it got left, then he did some cutting, it got left. Then it got left outdoors, then I blew a gasket and recovered the car and sent it to another shop, where it stood, it got cut some more, and got left.

Then I moved house.

Then he move premises.

Then I moved house.

Then I got busy at work.................then I got busy with other folks cars.

Then.....................

.............well thats where we are now, and I finally have enough room to give the car the time it needs and do the work myself.

Only now I dont have the time.................

................or the money !

How did I live without it.................it was hard.................then I bought a W111 Coupe.

I've driven IT for the past 5 years and now IT needs some stripdown attention.

Life goes on !!   

[IXLR8]

I'm going on 22 years.

With a friend, bought the car on a mechanics lein, and bought a lot of parts. Car was running (famous last words) fine.

My friend bought out my share.

Then it sat for about 15 years.

Then, he did some major rust repair with K&K panels.

Then it sat for about two years.

I bought it back from my friend.

I've had it for just more than 3 years.

More rust repair and paint last year.

Replaced all the rubber suspension bits, front and rear.

Cleaned and replaced fuel tank. Repaired and replaced fuel pump (today)

On the list--new brake and clutch cylinders, new front rotors, all new leather upholstery, replace all the glass, etc., etc, etc.

I'm expecting to get the car running in about 1 1/2 to 2 years.

Except for the paint, I'm doing all the work myself. 

After working on air-cooled VWs, this car is a delight and a real learning expertience.

Thanks to all Pagoda Group members for much help and advice.


Joe

[hands_aus]

Hey Ben,

Nice to see you are still lurking about.
w111 coupe? mmmmmm, nice cars.
What do you have?

did you see the section below for W11X chassis cars ?

cheers

[Shvegel]

Good News!
A good friens was traveling from Northern Minnesota where my car is to New York with an empty pickup truck. It is now full of everything from my car except the driveline so at least I can start cataloging and ordering parts etc.