Doorhinges II

Went shopping for clips, bolts and tools. The great thing about Brighton is that everything is within walking distance. Now have the bolt extractors and some Jubilee clips to see if the thermostat housing can be saved.

Tried out the new blowtorch on the rear hinges, but still not happy with the lower hinge on the passenger side. Will have to get a hinge pin extractor and do it properly. There is also a bit missing on the driver's side lower rear hinge, so Hercules is going to be donating a few more bits in the near future.

The rustiness of the long distance bolt

Thought I'd get the head off the thermostat today. As with almost everything on a 49 year-old car, instead of taking five minutes, it's going to take a while. Not only have two of the Allen bolts sheared off, but the jubilee clips on the hoses are rusted solid. So I've cleaned up the two bolts that came out intact and have replaced them so that the car is drivable, and I will leave the housing alone until I have all the parts I need to make a proper job of it.

Then it started to rain, so this evening I'll mostly be reorganising my house into something approaching a home, albeit one smelling of petrol and oil. Just one more coffee should do it...

Door Hinges & Pertronix

My grease gun arrived today along with some other toys, so I made a start on the hinges which were mostly stuck solid - The needle nose grease gun adaptor snapped as soon as I introduced it to the grease nipple, which was a good thing, because it was obvious that it was useless for the job in hand. I drilled out the needle stump with a pilot drill, and now have a nigh on ideal tool for greasing the hinges. I know there is a correct tool available from Mercedes, but there is something quite satisfying about making one yourself.

The grease went in fine to one of the hinges, but none of the others. Having researched the cure on various fora, I decided to cook the recalcitrant hinges over my hob [WARNING - boiling grease spits out in all directions], given that I cannot find either my electric paint stripping gun or my blowtorch in the place formerly known as my sitting-room.

Having grease-gunned the barbecued hinges whilst still hot [WARNING - boiling grease now squirts out in all directions], the hinges are completely freed up and ready to go back on, once I have finished cleaning them and assuming they don't seize up again overnight. The rear door hinges which are welded to the B posts are going to need the attentions of a blowtorch which I will either find or replace.

Other jobs I did today were reconnecting the fuel tank, cleaning the plugs and the distributor cap and borrowing my neighbour's compressor to see if Hercules rises off its haunches tomorrow.

Hinges



As I was doing the plugs, I thought I would take a couple of pictures of the Pertronix 1864A I installed about 4 years ago on the 220 - the installation was very straightforward, the only nerve-wracking job being grinding off a bit of the vacuum advance pivot arm to clear the magnetic collar which sits over the spindle and underneath the rotor arm. At the same time as installing the Ignitor, I changed the coil for a 40,000 Volt Flamethrower from the same company, doing away with the ballast resistor connection as per the instructions. The only visual difference is that there are two wires going from distributor to the coil instead of one, and of course none to the resistor. I think I might enclose the two wires in some black heat-shrink sleaving once the engine bay is finished, for the sake of originality.

As to performance and reliability, I have to say that it's been brilliant. I kept the points just in case, but it has never let me down since I installed it, and the car goes like a rocket (speed limits permitting, naturally).

Pertronix Ignitor 1864A

Petrol Tanks and Pulleys

In spite of industrial amounts of coffee and cigarettes, it has taken me two days to recover from sorting out the garage. I must remember I'm 50, not 25.

Today I took the valve cover off the 220 to check the timing chain - it's as tight as tight can be, so no worries there. I took the opportunity to clean the cover a bit, but a lot more cleaning is required. One of the Allen bolts has sheared off in the thermostat housing and there are water marks everywhere, so I will try and extract the remains of the bolt, or failing that, will replace the housing at the same time as putting in a new thermostat and rubber hoses. I also intend to replace all the brake pipes and the master cylinder before selling the car.

The rest of the day has been spent inhaling petrol fumes. I got the petrol tanks off both cars and removed the dregs and old fuel. I have mostly got the 220's back on, but intend to put new hoses on both of them before I'm finished with the job.

Finally, I got a message from a very kind member of the Mercedes-Benz Club who told me where Hercules had been - Muswell Hill. He has the pulley off the generator and is going to let me have it back, as he borrowed it off the enthusiast who had apparently bought Hercules. He also bought the lights, so they now have a very good home on his W112 Cabriolet. It transpires that the chap who owned Hercules had good intentions for the car, but that the council intervened and towed it away. He must be gutted, poor bloke. I'm sorry I made assumptions and called him a vandal now. Anyway, when I get Hercules back on the road again, I'll have to pay him a visit in it which I hope will cheer him up.

Sorting out the garage...

Started at around midday, finished around 8.00 a.m. My sitting room is now a repository of car bits, computer bits, bits of kebab and general crap. Fortunately, I am single at the moment. However, at least the door-less 220 is comfortable. I, on the other hand, am a bit tired. Nothing an industrial quantity of coffee and cigarettes can't sort out though. Plan for today if I can get going, is to drain Hercules's oil and fuel, reconnect the damaged fuel line, borrow the generator pulley from the 220 and install, then fire the 300 up, now that I have the keys.

Before:



After:

The eBay Advert

All doors off

Got the back doors off today and am soaking the hinges in petrol. Trying to get the brakes to work properly by using a piece of wood to fully depress the brake overnight, as recommended by my garage. The rear doors are in quite good condition and only need a bit of repairing.

Fixing the 220b

My concentration has turned to getting the 220b into restored condition.
So far have got the doors, bumpers and dented wing off.
I tried fixing the dented wing, but it's too far gone, so am now replacing it with a new old stock one. The underneath is extremely solid, and requires only a little welding to the front of the o/s sill. The damage to the front beam is very minor and the plan is to cut the bent bumper turret off and replace it with the one I cut off the 300se. The bumpers are also being replaced with those off the 300se.

Repairing the crash damage to my 1961 220b

Got bumper bar off, then took wing off and replaced sheared bonnet hinge bolt.

More Dismantling

More work today - Cut off the bumper turret to repair my 220b. Removed the headlining, scraped off a lot of soundproofing from the rear of the cabin. Also got the dasboard mostly off.

Dismantling the car

I've spent the last three days dismantling Hercules. The rust is pretty bad, and both sills and most of the floors are rotten as are the front and rear cross members. The bumpers are now off, and I took an angle grinder to the exhaust which was rusty, very bent and trailing on the ground. All the air suspension parts are intact, and I will attach my neighbour's compressor to the reservoir to see if the car rises up. The airbags are pretty ancient, but they used to hold air, so hopefully they still will.

Hercules Returns

I've just got my old car, Hercules, back after 6 years!

This is the picture from the eBay Ad.

Luckily the interior is still all there and the chrome is in the boot.

I had no idea a car could disintegrate so badly in six years.

Anyway, Hercules is back, and will rise again.