Restoration Difficulty Level

[66andBlue]

....  Tonight I am going to hit the hay.  ....

I hope you did not have to bale it too. 
While you were sleeping I found the instructions for the antenna up/down trigger switch. You need to find one thin pin connector for the jack (number 7 e,  in the attached picture) and exchange it with the spade connector on the white wire of the AUTA-2040.

[andyburns]

Thanks Mike and Alfred.  Sounds as if the problem is now sorted!!!  I will meter out the pins tonight to confirm and let you guys know my findings.  The antenna has now been shipped so should be with me in the next 5 days or so.  Just got to extend the ambilical now.  I am going to have one last fit up with the painted readio plate tonight and see if I cannot somehow shoe horn the amp under the radio.  It definitley wont go above it.

[andyburns]

Start the reassembly of the glove compartment this afternoon.  Everything went well.  All the chrome pretty good so just a good clean and refit.  When I got the car the light never worked and the wires were snipped off and tucked back into the door shell.  I have no idea where they attach to the main loom so would appreciate some guidance on this.  I refurbed the light fitting and soldered two new wires onto it that are long enough to track a fair distance behind the dash. 

Second problem I hit was that the new spring arm kit that buds Benz provided doesn't appear to fit.  One of the arms should have an opening that is wider than the other but the ones I have are both the same.  The arms fit the mating post on the glove compartment but not the door if that makes sense.  Take a look at the photo.   

After two 15 hour days I am just to shattered to get the files out and modify it so its back in its packaging for the time being until I have had some decent sleep.    If any of you have encountered this one I would be interested to here how you solved it.  Am picking 10 minutes with a half round fine file will sort it.

[andyburns]

Have any of you guys who have mounted up a becker made up your own rear mounting bracket.  The factory solution is shown in the photo below.   It appears to snap onto the tab that is welded to the firewall directly behind the radio.  

If anyone has one it would be great to get some dimensions off it.  Quite hard to measure up with limited space.

[Larry & Norma]

Hi Andy,
Firstly the glove box light wire should go to a terminal strip on the side of the heater box, this
is connected to the glove box door switch (top left of door) and provides power and the other is ground.
Secondly the radio bracket, I made a simple 'L' shape out of 1/2" steel. The length was determined
by putting a rule through the radio opening to the back of the mounting shelf, subtract the radio depth
(and a little more) and voila. As for height I assumed the top of the radio was the same height as the shelf
and drilled the mounting hole in the bracket accordingly, works fine.
Hope this helps
Larry

[Larry & Norma]

Just like to add that I wrapped some insulation tape around the end of the bracket
which sits on the shelf so as to damp any tendency to rattle.

[66andBlue]

Andy,
that spring steel is not cheap and you may end up at the same price : 
http://www.koenigs-klassik-radios.de/ersatzteile/blaupunkt/radiohalter-fuer-mercedes-pagode-h11/a-36109/
http://www.authenticclassics.com/Radio-Mounting-Bracket-for-230SL-250SL-280SL-p/auth-003670.htm

[Bonnyboy]

Reduce, reuse, recycle.....

When I made my bracket for the radio, for the spring steel I used a section of metal banding that I found cruising the back alleys looking for scrap steel.  I found some spring steel behind a chemical place that was actually the banding that they use to secure stacked drums of chemicals to pallets.  (Then I took 2 the pallets home and used the 4X4 sections by 10' long to make a pergola for my grapes.  The wood was a fine grain stuff that looks sort of like oak.  I used the rest of the wood from the pallets as firewood for camping.)   

[andyburns]

Guys thanks for all that info.  I think I will have a crack at making something.  I cant get one in NZ and to get one out of the US will cost more than 60 dollars with the shipping.  It absolutely crazy but for some obscure reason shipping out of the states costs a bomb.  I get stuff shipped from china all the time.  Mainly small items off aliexpress, and the shipping is peanuts.  Order a small bracket from the states and hey presto 41US.  This part of the restoration should be where you get really careful.  All the small purchases end up on one huge one!  I would love an original Becker bracket and will continue to look out for one at a reasonable price.  Also need to source a bracket for the amplifier. 

Thanks for the heads up on the wiring for the light.  That makes sense.  I did find two random wires screwed up to the chocolate block on the side of the heater.  Remember being confused when I took it apart a year ago.  Still a way fitting all this up as I need to sort out the radio and all its wiring.  I did find an original Mercedes radio fuse box yesterday in my pile of W108 stuff.  Looks to be identical to the 113 version.  Will clean it up and mount in the engine bay. 

I have been thinking about tapping into the fuse box for power for the radio.  Can use the fused side of things so I have double protection on the radio circuit.  Easy to get to and I dont have to cut anything.  Can just use a crimp fix spade terminal.

Am going around to my fathers house today to help him out so wont be doing much today.  Its a bit of a sad day.  He has been active in the Mercedes car club for more than 30 years now and has always had a mercedes or two in the garage.  He picked his love for them up from his father, my grandfather, who purchased a black W108 up from the factory in Germany in 1967.  My fathers health has deteriorated to such an extent in recent years that even driving them is becoming physically difficult.  He has a 280sl which doesn't make things easier.  Finally he has come to the realization that 'its not working' and has asked me to come around and help him sell up.   

[benz55]

Would  be happy to post dimensions of the bracket, will make up a sketch and post by tomorrow
Posted Rough Sketch, Note that the Spring is quite strong and can barely be moved with finger pressure.

George

[kampala]

Andy,

I can't help your technical issues ... but just wanted to say that it is sad about your dad ... and I feel for him and you.  However, I would think it brings him great pleasure to see his son enjoying his passion for these cars and working on them so diligently ... and with so much care for correctness.  

best

[andyburns]

Thanks Kampala and George.  Appreciate your help and sentiment.  

Today I have been concentrating on the radio again.  Raided an engineering firms bin down the road looking for spring steel.  Found some perfect 38mm wide strapping.  Then cut down some L section angle iron which started its life as shelf framing.  Was perfect as it already had long adjustment slots cut in it.  Carefully bent up all the steel and secured with rivets just like the original.  Probably not as tidy but it works perfectly.  I cut and bent the steel to an even 80mm L shape.  This gives you about 5mm wiggle room at the firewall.  Cut it too long and you wont be able to fit up at all.

Then went on to bolt up the radio to the face plate.  Had issues with not being able to get the backing clamps to tighten up with the plate.  I needed to generate a bit more interference so cut some very thin strips of dense closed cell foam and glued it on.  This worked a treat and stopped any potential vibration at the plate junction.

Mounted up the cig lighter after I tested it.  Probably never use it but absolutely hate fitting up non functioning equipment.  I have waited for a long time for this fit up and was really happy with the result.  Think the becker is stunning.  Work of art dont you think.  

[andyburns]

Turn back the clock

Moved on to another issue which has nagged me for the last 6 months or so.  The previous owner decided to replace the absolutely stunning matching clock with some nasty tacky BMW VDO unit.  Looked appalling.  First thing I noticed when I went for the test drive.  Well that's apart from the horrendous 1980's 50 dollar tape deck.

As part of the 'up grade' they sliced apart the factory loom and connector block and soldered on some spade terminals.

Time to roll back the clock and get the loom back to close to what it was when it left the factory.  I looted my stash of W108 looms and found a correct electrical block.  It didn't come with the correct colored wires so I also chopped out another couple of sections to get what I wanted.

Soldered it all back together and now need to splice it back into the loom.  Tomorrow.

[66andBlue]

...... Also need to source a bracket for the amplifier.  ...  

Andy,
your L-shaped radio holder looks perfect, you should have no trouble fabricating the amp bracket also. You can only buy the shorter amp brackets but not the longer for the TR amp.
http://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=10844.msg72111#msg72111



The trick is to bend one side U-shaped to fit into a wide slot on the amp and the other side has a square hole for a  tab (not visible in the pic).

[andyburns]

Hi Alfred,

I spent last night sighting up somewhere where I can mount the bracket.  Have come up with a blank.  I searched hi and low for existing fixing locations that could be used so I dont have to drill any further holes in the firewall.  Nada.

I think I will use velcro and jam it up into the general area.  A bit nasty but a reasonable compromise.  Now all I have to do is lengthen the umbilical cord.

George,  your bracket looks much more authentic than mine.  Awesome job.  Good that my measurement came up to within 5mm of yours.  than has put my mind at ease.  If mine is too long I can just grind off the 5mm

[andyburns]

Found the standard pin out spec for the 5pin Din plug I appear to have for my Aux in.  The only question now is will the unit combine a left and right channel signal from pins 5 and 3 or is it only going to be using one of them in a pure mono configuration.   I may have to crack the back of the unit to find out.   Instead of a wired 3.5mm jack plug I intend to go high tech stealth and install a bluetooth adapter.  Anyone done this before. 

[66andBlue]

Andy,
since the TR is a 'mono' it never had to deal with a 'stereo' input. If you want to feed a stereo signal from a MP3 player you have to do more than just combine the L+R signal into one (which may create havoc for your tuner transistor).
Here is one solution (that also avoids humming): http://www.antiqueradio.org/iPodAdaptor.htm.
What do you mean with Bluetooth adapter? Feeding the MP3 output signal into your radio at a certain frequency on the dial?

[Peter van Es]

Bluetooth to Stereo adapter. or something similar... Disclaimer: I haven't tried it but this Belkin product might do the trick.

[andyburns]

Spent the day on a 'reccy mission' for all the bits and pieces I need to get my mexico up and running and installed.

After heaps of research last night I settled on a Belkin Bluetooth receiver which has a very good output stage suiting high end audio.  Only catch is it runs off 5v so I also took the liberty of securing some 5v regulators.

All went really well other than a nasty little ground loop which I am still working on.  Nothing major but just a little buzz that I will notice forever if I don't get rid of it now.  Nothing that cant be overcome.   Am going to pick up a DC to DC convertor tomorrow which will hopefully isolate the loop.  If it doesn't work then I can always use the optical output to solve the issue. http://www.jaycar.co.nz/productView.asp?ID=MP3200&w=dc+to+dc+converter&form=KEYWORD  Will let you know if this solves the problem.


Made a quick video off the progress if any of you are interested.  When I get it all installed and all the problems ironed out I promise I will make a much more polished version and a better installation guide if anyone wants it.  Please don't laugh at my pathetic production skill.  Certainly no Peter Jackson!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzFanU3LRco

All the same I have been listening to all my favorite tunes blaring out of the little Mexico all afternoon.  I think I have fallen in love again.  Even though its just a little mono amp it has quite a warm quality about it.  Feeding it the digital clean signal is a huge improvement over the audio quality of the tuning circuits.  Really transforms the unit into something quite usable.

[reggie]

Andy i just love what you are doing, and also taking the time to share it with us, You must have an understanding wife also.
If you dont receive an Oscar for this performance there is something very wrong,
Keep up the good work, 

[andyburns]

Hi Reggie,

The work yesterday would have only been a couple of hours had it not been for the ground loop problem.  I then messesed around with filtering caps for another 4 to try and rectify it.  At that point my wife was steering well clear as my frustration levels were running quite high. 

We had a nice day all in all.  Took the family to a vintage tractor day up the road where they had all sorts including heaps of classic cars and a old war bird planes doing flyover demos.  Tiger moths, dehavaland Harvards etc.  Beautiful for parents and kids alike.  As you say gotta keep that family to car balance or all hell breaks loose.

[andyburns]

Chipped away at all the electrics.  Extended the radio Umbilical and also the speaker cable.   Finished off the loom including re-taping it with cloth I pulled off my W108 loom.
Couldn't resist and powered up the radio to see how it would sound and behave.  Thrilled to bit.  Sounds great in a very 1960's way.  The windscreen act as a sort of sound shell and really changes the tone quite a bit from what it sounds like on the bench.   Am so glad I went the extra mile with the refurb.

 Can now forge ahead with the remainder of the interior.  Hopefully I will have some quick wins and see some solid progress.  I think I have finished quite a bit of the fiddly difficult stuff.  Need to wait now for my latest shipment of bits and pieces.  Waiting on the electric antenna and new rhd sun visors.     

Next thing I have to think about is the wood.  Mine is actually ok looking.  The flash photography really makes it look bad.   But still the same I think I will end up replacing it.

[andyburns]

Been working on the radio again this week.  Am determined to get it right.  Its been in and out of the car a couple of times now and is currently back on the bench and in the process of having a few different variations of isolating circuits hooked up to it to try and eliminate the last of the interference from the Bluetooth unit.  Thanks to everyone in here who has helped out on this project.  Really good advice and help. 

I also forged ahead with the final dash refit.  I got the two upper dash parts back from the trim guy.  To be honest I was a bit disappointed.  It looked as if they had been done in a hurry.  I made mention of it to the trimmer.  He was pretty good and fessed up that they had been busy.  He unpeeled some of the more obvious areas where there were flaw and made an attempt to put it right. 

When I got home I unpeeled all the edges and spent another couple of hours carefully trying to rectify the situation.  It is better but still not 100%.  Good enough to put back in though.

So I spent a good 3-4 hours cutting a gluing the final pieces of leather to the dash.  Quite time consuming as the leather is wrapped around in some quite complex configurations.  Just fiddly.  In the end I templated it after wasting a few bit of leather.

   

[Garry]

Andy,

That first photo is probably the most difficult area to get right and it looks like you have got it right.  Over time the area under the curve tends to lift off and you will often see cars with it bubbled in that area usually through shrinkage of the leather.

Great job.

Garry

[star63]

It is better but still not 100%.  Good enough to put back in though.

To me the corners look perfect.