Restoration Difficulty Level

[andyburns]

Hi Alfred,

I know where you are coming from with the full membership thing and totally support it.  

However I have been unemployed for over a year now and am desperately trying to reduce my outgoings to an absolute minimum.  

I understand how restoring/owning a pagoda and pleading poverty can be viewed as quite contradictory.  I  brought the car in better times and had already started taking it apart before I lost my job.

Up until a couple of weeks ago I had pretty much spent only my own time on the thing, swapping computer advice for paint supplies and the like.  I even went as far as totally preparing the car for paint and did 90 percent of the paint job myself to try and keep the costs right down.

If you go back through my post you will find several references to this.

As soon as I have a job the first thing I intend to do is pay up my subs.  In the mean time I am trying to pay my way in here with as much advice to other members as I can and also provide a bit of entertainment with tales of my restoration.

If I am viewed as a sponge I will high tail it out of here as quickly as I can.  Let me know your thoughts on this.

Cheers

Andy

[66andBlue]

Hi Andy,
stick around here as long as you want - it was intended to be a gentle rubbing and not a gun at your head - and we do enjoy entertainment too.  
Good luck with the restoration and the job search!

[rutger kohler]

Hi Andy, full marks for tenacity on the search for the steering arm.

[andyburns]

Back into it today after a few days break.  Finally managed to get my steering column broken right down and sent the shaft off down to the engineers to be shortened.  Will post more pics of that process as it happens.

Huge morning back in the bead blaster sorting out the steering column shrouds, the remaining steering arms and all the pulleys off the front of the engine including the new power steering ones.  Pepped them up and went through the ritual of degrease and 2k epoxy primer.  Almost do this in my sleep it has become so familiar.

Also started work on my window wiper motor.   I am not certain how it was painted at the factory.  If anyone can help with this I would be appreciative.  I am just going to paint the body satin and the mounting plate zinc.  I could pull it all apart and get it zinc plated but think I will mask and paint instead. 

[andyburns]

Spent all day with thinners, paint stripper and detergent cleaning the wiring loom.   Was a bit of a mess with several layers of over spray in various shades.  Going over it with a fine tooth comb also shows up all the faults.  I have quite a few repairs mostly in the engine bay.  Also quite a few of the rubber grommets are absolutely shot.  I have never seen them for sale so think I will start with my spare w108 looms and see if I can loot any compatible rubber bits.

Also blew the final coat of satin on the latest batch of parts.  I cant wait till the shortened steering shaft comes back this week and I can get the car back on its feet with all the steering connected back up.  I think ones I get the steering and wiring loom in things will go back together quite quickly, or should I say the pace will pick up. 

[GGR]

You may want to consider a kit like this one for the grommets: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mercedes-Firewall-grommet-kit-W113-113-230SL-250SL-280SL-PAGODE-PAGODA-ROADSTER-/221299597436?pt=Vintage_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item33867be07c&vxp=mtr

[andyburns]

Thanks GGR.   I have been looking at a firewall set for a long time.  The grommets I am after sadly arn't part of that kit.   More down the side of engine bay where smaller arms of the loom pass through brackets and various other openings.  Most of the really perished ones are around heat sources or low down where oil gets all over them and over time they just disintegrate.   A good example is the main power feed from the battery to the alternator which passes through three of these grommets which are pressed into small brackets which are bolted the bottom of the engine running just below the main pulley right out the front.  If your interested I can take some more detailed pictures.

Another similar issue I have is that around the same locations, ie heat and oil,  the once flexible insulation on the wires goes hard and brittle.   I think I will sacrifice one of my other looms and look for identical guage wire with the same color code to splice back in.  The last thing you want with a new restoration is an electrical fire in the engine bay.  

[GGR]

The rubbers shown in the first picture have been used on many models including more recent ones. So you may be lucky to find some newer ones in junkyards, though they are often blue.

[andyburns]

GGR will try my local parts man in the next couple of days.  I pulled out three W108 looms looking for the rubber bits I need.  None of them had any the same which was quite frustrating. 

So I gave up and moved on this afternoon breaking down the gear shift mechanism.  I am not quite sure why but the rubber seal underneath the main base plate had turned to absolute glug.  When I pulled it out of the car half of it stayed on the inside of the tunnel and the rest pulled away with the lever.  Quite a mess to clean up.  Even thinners didn't really budge it.  Smearing with a rag was the most effective technique.

Also another strange thing was that it seems half of the bushing have been done and the two minor arms bushes were stuffed.  I would have thought that they all come as a set.  Guess I will have to buy an entire set to get the ones I need.

Does anyone know what the factory finish on the arms is suppose to be.  ie gold electroplating or paint?  All I have is a rusted mess with no sign of what my friends at the factory intended.

[andyburns]

Another couple of decisions I need to sleep on.  The pedal set is in pretty good condition with only slight patina visible.  Is it enough to justify pulling the whole unit apart and strip it to bare metal.  I think I might just leave it and touch up the localized areas that need a little bit of attention.  May also pull out the spring and get it re-plated again as its a bit rusty. 

Also I am a tad worried about the clutch master leaking onto my brand new carpet set.  That would really rip my undies. For those of you that have never been to New Zealand http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Wouldn%27t%20that%20just%20rip%20ya%20undies! .

Last push with all the power steering components also.  Again I am resistant to remove the factory lettering on the power steer canister.  I think I will leave it and just paint the cap and bracket.  Will have a crack at getting the pulley off the pump tomorrow.  Last one I did I had to use heat.

[aussiebattler]

Hi Andy,
Re your gear leaver "stabiliser" rod parts. I have found them at SLS in Germany, very helpful people, you will be able to buy the whole kit or individual parts.
Re rods, I painted my rods black as it looked like thats how they were.
Re you power steering reservoir, I did what you are considering, taped over the yellow writing and sprayed the rest, in any event the strap/clamp covers the writing I think.
I guess you know, but in case you don't, when masking up something like that, to avoid having a hard edge when de-masking, apply the masking tape with a rolled edge, sticky side out so the paint can be "feathered".
Cheers, jack

[andyburns]

Cheers Jack,  I will give SLS a try.  I am also probably going to do a big shipment from Buds at some time soon for all the interior so I might try them to see if I can keep the shipping down.   If they dont have then SLS it is.

Thanks for info on the rods.  I am interested to figure out why they were so badly rusted.  Guess a combination of a lot of road spray, heat and oil.

Thanks for the advice on the soft edge,  if I do paint the reservoir I will probably employ that tactic as well.  It hadn't occurred to me. During my journey painting the car I picked up a lot of new knowledge around painting including the soft edge trick your talking about.  I used it extensively as by and large I painted the car section by section and used this tactic to avoid hard lines. 

Even after all the painting I have done I still am not that good at it.   The parts I painted yesterday were sub standard as I didn't thin the paint quite enough resulting in the paint going on a bit dry.  I have a variety of guns including a very fine touch up gun that I have been using to control the over spray on the smaller parts I am painting in my garage.  I have found with the small gun the paint also has to be thinned out that extra little bit to get it running smoothly.  Guess its the smaller apertures? 

[andyburns]

Main rear engine seal, or gearbox input shaft seal???  I am picking its engine oil.  I will definitely  be resealing the gearbox but didn't want to have to drop the crank to so the rear seal.  Think I know which way it will have to go...

[andyburns]

Got my steering shaft back today so am on the home stretch with the power steering.  The guys did a brilliant job shortening the shaft.  Its all been certified as stronger than the original part.  They are going to supply me the certification report in the next couple of days complete with the analysis of the material, photos of the construction process and all the computer traces of the post and pre welding heat treatment process.  If anyone is interested I can post it up here.

[garymand]

I'm sure I missed something, why shorten the shaft?  the tranny oil is red autotranny fluid.  Or, possibly the oil came in from above? 

[andyburns]

Hi Garry,  I have had to shorten the shaft by 40mm as I have converted the car to a factory power steer box where the input shaft protrudes 40mm further toward the drivers knee than the non power steer box.   I hope I haven't missed something as a new shaft will be hard to come by!

When I pulled the engine out there was 40 years of filthy crud everywhere.  The dilemma is that the engine was running so beautifully before I took it out I dont want to do a full strip down and reseal the entire engine.  At the same time I am uncertain where exactly the engine was leaking or if it was leaking at all.  The crud could have been there for 20 years!   

[garymand]

How many miles are on it?  The primary leakage areas are the valvecover.  But the head gasket gets soggy by 100K mand lots of years.  Especially the 280 which has a cut between each cylinder and not much gasket there.  I caught mine just in time and the slots were very plugged up.  You sjould be able to see the back of the fly wheel and see if the oil came from the rear seal.  The rear seal is a bear.  The top is pinned in the center top and cannot be pulled out like an old chevy.  You have to drop the crank to replace the top rope seal.  Its not hard to rr&r the head and you can check the ridge and bores for wear. 

[aussiebattler]

Hi Andy,
Sounds like you have the same dilemma that I had, whether to full the engine down completely or just replace the crank seals, as with you my engine was running sweetly and seemed in quite good condition. As I had no idea really how many times it had "been round the clock" but the speedo was at 17K (miles).
I am very glad that I decided to go the whole way because I'm sure the car has sat around for many years, result cavitation in the cylinder bores, I had also thought the head, camshaft and valves were ok, but alas the head is stuffed, very soft, has been welded at some stage and had a curve from one end to the other of 3.5mm !!
The camshaft bearings had "picked up" obviously because the thing had been forced into trying to follow the curvature of the earth plus a lot more.
Also when I took off the valve cover, a tappet collet fell out on the floor, it didn't come from any of the valves, so I can only assume that whoever worked on it last dropped one, lost it and just used a spare one. Very lucky the previous owner, dealer and myself that it didn't find it's way into the timing chain.
I'm now looking for another head.
It's having  a rebore and new OS pistons, bearings and all.

If anyone reading this knows how and where is the best way to attach a W113 to a rotisserie please let me know. I was thinking that the bumper mounting points would be ok, but I don't want to stress anything.
Any help would be great.

Jack

[stickandrudderman]

Provided your car is solid (see my WYSIWYG post in bodywork section) then you'll be fine mounting it on the bumper mounting points. If there's any doubt about the structural integrity then don't do it.

[andyburns]

Having a weekend away on holiday.  Quite nice to on ocassion not think about these wonderful little cars.  Sitting on the balcony of our hotel in rotorua watching the geothetmal steam rise from the lake.

[Cees Klumper]

Who gave you permission to take five? 

Enjoy the break!

[andyburns]

First night since I can remember I didnt go to bed thinking about bead blasting 113 parts.  I think I may be having withdrawl symptoms.

[aussiebattler]

Hi Stick,
Thanks for that, the body is in very reasonable condition, so will most likely use the rear bumper mountings, but on the front I intend to use the sway bar mounting bolts in conjunction with the front bumper mounts.
Jack

[Tomnistuff]

Andy,

The rubber grommets, without the metal bracket part, in the top photo of your reply #231 (along the flange of the oil pan) are part number 1109970481 and are used on many, many models in various places.  The actual originals were bonded onto the little brackets but can be replaced in the bracket holes by the ones I identified above.  At ECS Tuning, for example, they are $3.00 US each but shipping to you would be probably prohibitive.  There are four on the oil pan flange and one more that attaches with a different style bracket on the battery tray.  I had to make my battery tray bracket (it was missing) out of sheet metal using the attached photo.  Note: one of the grommets is missing from the photo.

Good luck.

Tom Kizer

[andyburns]

Thanks tom.  I will get onto the loom as soon as I get home in a couple of days.  I want to get that sorted quick pront and move back onto the brake lines and booster.  In the mean time I will continue to soak up the holiday.  Just a pity the car couldnt feature in the foreground...