Restoration Difficulty Level

[andyburns]

Star, far from perfect, but reasonably presentable.  I think she is going to be a good 30 foot car.

Garry I think you are right about the shrinkage.  I have tried to counter that effect though.  When it came back I peeled up this entire area and carefully and repeatedly heated the leather in the curved area and let it cool.  Hopefully this has 'pre shrunk' the leather. 

I also didn't trust the glue the guy was using.   Generic contact adhesive.   Also when I pulled back up the leather I noticed that he had not sanded back the aluminum to give the glue a good key.  Absolutely critical to keep leather under tension in place.  Clean back all the glue and sanded with 80 grit.  Applied the F38 in the curve as well as the rest of the leather I had pulled back up.  The first place the glue will let go when its heated is also where its under tension so hopefully I have countered the problem from both of these fronts. 

Fingers crossed. 

[andyburns]

A Small Setback

Had the most fantastic day today up until about half an hour ago.  A friend of mine picked me up at 7am in his lotus Elise and we traveled in convoy with a bunch of old 356 porches and Lancia's down to New Zealand's best American car show in a place called Whanagmata.    Idyllic location set on one of NZ's best beach with just a mind blowing array of old tin to feast your eyes on.  Thousands of American cars as far as the eyes can see.  Pig in Mud.  http://www.beachhop.co.nz/

Anyway got home at 3pm buzzing from the experience and thought I would just have a quiet afternoon on the 113.  Decided to tweak the heater levers to get them coming out the slots cutting in the dash 'just a little bit better' than they were already set up.  Dropped the 3 nuts holding the front plates, repositioned to get the levers sliding just a bit better.  Started tightening up and then 'swaaackk' the central bolt sheared off.  

Why does the dear lord above always seem to take it upon himself to torture me in this way.  It always seems to be the case that when I am just about to finish something up something breaks and your back to the drawing board again.  I think I dont do myself any favors by not being satisfied and having to constantly fiddle and pull things out to get it just so.  Torturous!

I tried to fix it by mig welding another stud to it but as expected the metal is not weldable and dissapears like heated candy floss the instant you take the welder anywhere near it.  Very porus cast components.

Anyway if you have a spare plate (see photo of my cockup) I would love to send you some money to make my current problem go away.   Alternatively if anyone know of anyone else selling one of these I would be interested.  Cant find any on ebay.  The real frustration this end is that until I get this piece I cant put my dash back.  

[Larry & Norma]

That's another tough one Andy, more common than you would think a friend of mine
has a 280 with a chrome screw fitted right through this part. The head clearly visible
on the front. He hadn't even noticed it until I pointed it out

Good luck with finding a replacement.

[GGR]

A Small Setback

 I think I dont do myself any favors by not being satisfied and having to constantly fiddle and pull things out to get it just so.  Torturous!

I'm a bit the same way and my father kept on telling me that sometimes, "better" can be the ennemy of "good". So I'm trying to compound myself within the "good enough" approach, given that constantly trying to improve on things may well end up into a much less satisfactory situation, a lot of wasted time and frustration.

As per your bolt, if it's steel, you could try to shape both broken ends in a way that they form a groove when put together. You could then weld in the groove and grind the weld, hoping that heat won't alter the color of the fascia side.

[andyburns]

Decided to move on from my problems yesterday and have a crack at the broken 4mm rod on the end of the seat mechanism.   I stripped the assembly right apart as was almost certain I would be chroming again.  To get any sort of strength in this very thin shaft I was going to have to try and use as much surface area over both the shaft and the new threaded rod.  So I ground both to a point and used some old vice grips to hold everything nice and straight while I got the first few spots in.  I was pleasantly surprised as the weld took beautifully on both pieces.  Quite a contrast to the crap pot metal of the dash pieces the day before. 

It took quite a bit of patience to dress the welds back to look like the original square shaft.  Did my best.  Not quite perfect but will do.  There are a few small holes which I might go back and fill.  Under close inspection Mercedes has only polished the front side of the shaft before chroming.  The rear side which faces the seat is quite rough. 

Also finished up my quarter panels.  Quite happy with these.  I ended up stripping all the open cell foam off and replaced with a 4mm closed cell foam.  Its much more forgiving when you have to pull the leather off it.  Closed cell foam just rips so you only really get one shot at it. 

I did have another 'just gotta laugh' moment.  After I had finished the quarter panels I started prepping for doing the door cards.  Pulled out all the leather that came in the kit and discovered that it shipped with perfectly cut and sewn quarter panel leather.  I spent so long sewing these all up and cutting to the correct dimensions.  Just had to chuckle.  Really topped off my weekend.  I think all in all with all the stuffs ups in the past couple of days I am probably down two days labor.

[andyburns]

My good mate Rodger helped me out today fixing up my broken dash chrome.  He has the most amazing home setup of beautiful old machinery.   All of the same vintage as the old pagoda which made me all warm and fuzzy.  

Took Rodger only half an hour of milling and tapping and the part was better than new.  Its amazing to watch a true engineer in flight.  Really glad I didn't try this myself.

We went for a slightly smaller 4mm stud with a higher thread pitch rate to maximize surface area and strength.  I dont plan on tightening this sucker up too much in any event.

Thanks Rodger 

[andyburns]

Got my one part back on the car for the day.  Easy target this time.  The Hirschmann HIT AUTO 2050 automatic antenna turned up in the post from the states.  I was expecting quite a crap quality unit as it only cost 80 dollars delivered.  I was pleasantly surprised by the build quality.  No substitute for the old metal case ones but ok for the money.  I dare say if we come back in another 50 years its got no chance of still being functional.

Used it to test my radio unit out and test out the auto tuning which all seems to be running perfectly. 

Set about installing it.  All in all it was only a 30 minute job.  Am really pleased with the result.  Still look in keeping with the car.  Just a pity they dont stamp the H on the tip anymore.  Surely it wouldn't cost them significant money to do this and would set it aside from the competition.  Without some form of branding it could be any cheap aftermarket unit for a cosmetic perspective.

Can wait to get my radio back in again.

[andyburns]

Radio back in.  All under dash panels fitted up and looking fantastic.  Moved on to the glove compartment and hit another issue. 

This time its with the door spring kit supplied by Buds.  First problem I documented a week ago was one end of the spanner type arm did not have a wide enough opening.  Fixed that with the dremel.  Then when I tried to fit everything up it was obvious it just was far to long. 

Spent half an hour reading the tech manual in here about the spring and the first thing that hit me was the arm in the photos in here sits lower than the base of the box when the door is shut.  Mine sits at about the same height. 

Measured the arms and spring supplied by buds.  All seems within reasonable tolerance.  A few mm difference but not enough to make a huge difference.  Then measured up the relative distances between the center or the arms, compared them with the photos and measurements in here, and the problem is obvious.  Much shorter.  More than 20mm.  See pictures below.  Note the inset images are screen shots from the tech section in here.

I am wondering if I have just encountered a little RHD difference... again.

The arm is on the other side of the car, on the opposite side of the glove box.  Quite possible that the box is not as deep due to differences in the firewall.  Anyone encountered this before and know the answer.

My only recourse is to shorten the spring and arms.   

[andyburns]

Started tonight on the rear 'jump seat'.  Took an hour or so to pry up hundreds of staples holding the cover on.  The  construction of the new cover is fairly simple.  I only need 3 or 4 straight seams to be sewn and am confident I can do them myself.  All the rest of the corners are simply folded.  The only corners that are sewn are the ones which are seen.

The pads seem to be in good condition and have a thin 2mm wadding glued on to them.  All in good condition and reasonably tidy so I think I will just reuse.  I cant imagine the seat has had too much use since the last time it was covered.  Probably in the 1980's

Choose some nice leather and cut using the old covers as templates.  I am a bit gutted that I have so much leather over.  Its 1000 dollars I could have poured into other areas.  I dont know why Buds sold me so much given they are doing these refits all the time.  Perhaps they thought my wastage would be 50%.

[andyburns]

Finished the dash up today.  Good feeling.  Only have the wood to sort and I think I will end up having to buy a new set.  I cant find anyone in Auckland who is capable of putting back on the veneer.  Aside from this what I have is really quite good condition.  Frustrating.

Spent this morning cutting down the buds glove compartment spring kit.  Had to take almost 20mm off the rods and shorten the free length of the spring about the same amount.  With the reduction of length I immediately had an issue with the spring wanting to kink during the compression.  I got around this with the trick from the tech section of a tube around the spring.  Good trick whoever came up with that.

I confirmed that the wood can be bolted up with the glove compartment in place and made the decision to finish up.  Am happy to have it behind me.  Other than the wood I am happy with the results.

Also dropped off the next load to the chrome platers yesterday.  All the bits on the seats.  I got a huge surprise when I was told that it was 500 dollars.  Quite small and fiddly.  The seats are now worth more than my 3 piece leather lounge suite.

[WRe]

Hi Andy,
great work, congratulations!
For the wood work see German Pagoda forum: http://www.pagodentreff.de/artikel/holzteileaufarbeiten.html .
...WRe

[andyburns]

Hi Wre,

My German is limited to a few pickup lines I learn't in my teens.  If there is a good source of RHD wood on the site I would really appreciate some help with communicating with these guys.  I believe all the aftermarket suppliers source from Germany.  I would rather deal direct and save some money.

[WRe]

Hi Andy,
if you read the experiences of restoring or renewing the dash wood you would decide to restore it. Main reason is accuracy of fit of a new one and the price.
I will send you the name of a Pagodentreff.de member who has done it and can help you.
...WRe

[WRe]

Another source to restore dash wood and other things: http://www.beetle.homepage.t-online.de/holzteile_in_einer_pagode_ueberarbeiten.htm
...WRe

[andyburns]

Wre, 

I went and looked at that last site you supplied.  That level of workmanship is 100% above what I would ever be capable off.  That guy has done a wonderful job and it look as if its a DIY.  I translated the page using google Translate.  The result was a bit bizarre but I got the general gist of things.  Sounds as if he researched how to do it all off the internet and then went to work.  I am almost certain that that guy must work in the industry, perhaps a cabinet maker by trade. 

In any event I would love to save the original wood if I could.  Its part of the original fabric of the car.  Every part you take out and replace with an after market knock off means that bit by bit the car is further becoming less 'Mercedes'. 

It does however take much more effort or money to get these little details correct and I often wonder if they would make an ounce of difference to a prospective buyer should I ever decide to sell.  I think its more to do with getting it right.   I would probably be the only person that ever noticed.

It probably sounds stupid but after working on the same car for so long I have think I have developed quite a deep seated attachment to it.  Almost one of the family. 

With all this said I have a confession to make.  I have purchased some aftermarket sun visors.  They are only a day or two from arriving now and I am really terrified that they will be awful.   They worked out at half the cost of the OEM Mercedes ones but I am rapidly running out of money so had to make the call.  The original ones were about 1200 where these ones worked out at about 650 including shipping.  Even if they are a total embarrassment I will do a write up on them.

[andyburns]

Also been looking at new feet for my little princess this week... actually I have been on the lookout for the past 12 months.  I had really set my heart on white walls.  I have given up on the wide band American style as they are soooo expensive in NZ. 

Even the thin band 10mm European style are hard to get.  Getting them in 195/75/R14 is proving a real challenge.  I do however have a set of 205/75/14 available to me now and need to make a decision quickly in order to secure them.  Would appreciate everyone's feedback on these.

I have run the calcs and other the width I am happy to take the rest of the differences.   Even with this measurement its only 20mm wider that the original 185.  If 20mm starts to cause interference issues then I will steer well clear.   I would imagine that this would only happen on full lock in the front and can understand how this might touch the exhaust on the rear.  The exhaust can however be tweaked to fix this.  More the front end I am worried about.

In terms of the speedo the worst outcome is probably 1.4km measured speed difference at 100km/h.  So what.  Parallax error on the drivers part is probably more significant.

The only consideration is rubbing in my mind.  Unless otherwise convinced I don't know if I believe the stories about significant damage to steering and suspension componentry due to excessive loading.  We are only talking about a couple of percent variation on all of the dimensions. 

I have been using the following site to quickly compare and contrast the different sizes relative to what shipped on the car back in 64. 

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/tirecalc.php?tires=185-80r14-195-75r14

[andyburns]

Cut the leather for the jump seat down to size this afternoon and stitched the 3 edges that can be seen.  The rest were all folded when I took the covers off so I am going to copy. 

Fitted the jump set up with the new covers just draped over to ensure that I am going to cover everything that needs to be covered.  I cant finish off until I get the right staples for my gun.  The staples that I pulled out were all made of copper.  Must have used this to mitigate rust issues.  I am going to source some stainless staples in their place.

Thats next weeks job.

Another nice little surprise was waiting on the front door step when I got home.  The postman had been and delivered my sun visors.  I made quick work of mounting them up.

[andyburns]

Sun visors have minor differences from the originals.  Overall I was impressed.  The faults are as follows:

1) Chrome done poorly with pitting and imperfections.  I may pull them apart and get them rechromed.
2) The mirror is a different shape and is noticeably smaller than the OEM.
3) The plastic moulding around the mirror has a different pattern than the original
4) The shape is slightly different.
5) The are very stiff to turn.  Will have to be very careful not to crease them.
6) Missing Chrome dome covering one of the swivel screws (see photos).

They ended up owing me around 900 dollars delivered.  I didn't count on the import tax.  I could have had originals for 1200.  The replicas did come with the plastic clips as well which saved me another 80USD.

They are in now and I am happy.  Another 'expensive' problem in my rear vision mirror.

Tires, ash tray, new wood, engine, gearbox and I am home and hose. 

[mbzse]

Sun visors.../... 5) The are very stiff to turn.  Will have to be very careful not to crease them

On the factory issue sun visor, the clamp down force is adjusted via the screw, visible in the corner of the visor.
/hans in Sweden

.

[andyburns]

Hi Hans,

I actaully took the screw you have referred to right out and worked the visor back and forth to free things up.  No joy.  I really didn't want to force it though.  I actually have to move the visor closer to the A pillar as the plastic clip and the screen surround isn't matching up with the locator U shaped bar on the visor.  Probably 10mm shortening would do the job but I just cant seem to move it.

[mbzse]

Hi Hans, I actaully took the screw you have referred to right out and worked the visor back and forth to free things up.  No joy

OK Andy, I get it. I have changed my suggestion about the screw in reply #718.
/Hans in Sweden
.

[andyburns]

Hans,  I think your suggestion was right on the mark for the factory visors.  The spears on my original units slide right off the visor once the scew is removed.  Definitley how they are suppose to work. But for some reason on the replica it seems to do absolutley nothing.  Frustrating.

[andyburns]

In the lead up to fitting the leather on my soft top hatch cover I needed to paint the underside.  I thought I had done this months back and when I pulled it up a couple of weeks ago I was a bit despondent to see the green hue of the epoxy etch primer. 

So last night I hauled it out and started sanded.  Finished off the sanding after work today and then masked up and blew 3 coats of stain black.  I had almost forgotten what a messy horrible job sanding and painting is. 

Its done now and I will get on with the leather over the next couple of days.  I was suppose to be doing this with Rodger, so he can get an idea of how to do his, but he has swanned off to Aussie land and will no doubt be enjoying a beer or 10 on the beach with Garry!

I have also been working on the entertainment system again.  I really want excellent sounds but dont want them to be seen.  Stealth install.  When I got the car it had 6.5 inch speakers in the doors and in the factory kick panel location.

It was a no brainer to get rid of the ones in the door and I welded all the 'supplementary' holes the previous owner drilled routing wires through the A pillar and door.  Long gone back to factory look.

The new challenge was to research speakers with enough grunt to fill an open cabin and clearly be heard over wind rush etc.  Difficult to achieve from a 6.5 inch speaker.  One thing going for the factory location is that it has plenty of mounting depth available.  I am taking advantage of this and have source some infinity Perfect 6.1 components out of the states.   

I am planning on mounting the tweeters inside the main round driver and passenger grills.  With this set of speakers I think this is really going to work to my advantage as they have an excessively bright tweeter.  The grills can be adjusted in about every plane and can be used to diffuse and direct the high end.  I am also considering a parametric equalizer if I can fit one in somewhere where it wont be seen.

Am looking at some high end D type amps with optical inputs that can take the signal from my Bluetooth receiver.   Will document this at a latter stage if anyone is interested.

Rodger dropped off some Ali washers for me on his way to the airport.  Thanks mate, make sure you come over for a beer when you get back.  Finished painting your power steer reservoir.

[rutger kohler]

Hi Andy, thanks for the reservoir paint looks great, and your welcome to the aluminium washers too.  Sorry I won't be there to see you recover the softop hatch but will streak over to your place to get you to help with mine when I get back.  Bit of a stretch to see Gary, mucvh as i'd like to but marooned (joke) on Northen Beaches Stdney whereas garry is in melborne.  Would be great to meet up with some W113 owners around here.

[Garry]

Common Rutger, I am only just down the road a bit about 800km away There is a number of members there.

Unfortunately I have only just got out of hospital after an operation and will be recovering for some time yet i think.

Enjoy the surf.

Garry