My Custom 1980 W116 300SD Project - Page 10 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Squiggle Dog · #**136** 05-27-2011, 11:29 PM

As you can see, I am very precise in my measurements.

Here is the instrument panel in place. I am ecstatic with how it looks! All of the gauges are functional, the dash lights finally work, and the clock even keeps accurate time!

Here is the dashboard cover installed. I ordered it from Dash Designs in Tempe, Arizona ( http://www.dashdesigns.com/ ). It is a perfect fit and is the highest-quality cover I have ever seen. I ordered mine in the dark brown velour with saddle 300 SD logo. I also made sure to let them know to NOT cut a hole for the climate control sensor. The only complaint I have is that the "D" was coming unraveled and I had to rethread parts of it. The cost before shipping was $55.90.

The original dashboard wood was badly cracked and chipped. I had a spare set of wood in almost mint condition that I installed.

This is a personalized placard that my roommate gave me. It was a great gift and ties in with the fact that this is a very unique car. It is perfectly centered on the wood and if I were to cut the extra slot for the center vent slider it would fit perfectly between the top of the wood and the placard.

Squiggle Dog · #**137** 05-27-2011, 11:30 PM

I'm gradually becoming less and less embarrassed of the interior. I'm not doing bad for being on a very small budget. I'm hoping to find some better tan seat skins so that I can make my two-tone skins to match the tan with brown door panels.

It's an improvement from how it looked a few months ago!

When I was at Pick-N-Pull there was a W123 chassis 300D there with tan speaker covers. I thought they would look nice in my car, so I got them to replace the black ones. They are more of a Fischer-Price tan, but they match the carpet and I like the look.

TheDon · #**138** 05-27-2011, 11:32 PM

I like the instrument cluster

GregMN · #**139** 05-28-2011, 10:05 AM

If the reservoir tank is brass, you should give it a coat of spray lacquer to prevent uneven tarnishing.

mercmad6.3 · #**140** 06-18-2011, 06:23 AM

Your turbo problem sounds like the mufflers are collapsed inside. Try fitting a bigger rear muffler from a V8 ,say a 500 or 560SEL . The gas from the exhaust spins the tubo but that gas has to be able to escape without too much restriction.

sshanky · #**141** 06-29-2011, 01:08 PM

Beautiful repairs! I have a couple of 80 300SDs and love restoring them but I'm really amazed with what you've done and learned with yours.

sshanky · #**142** 06-29-2011, 01:09 PM

The front speakers are very small but the one you show in your hand reads "6x9". Are you sure that's the same one that you fit into the dash? I would love to find some replacements for the front that sound halfway decent.

Squiggle Dog · #**143** 07-02-2011, 02:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sshanky

The front speakers are very small but the one you show in your hand reads "6x9". Are you sure that's the same one that you fit into the dash? I would love to find some replacements for the front that sound halfway decent.

I believe they are actually 4"X6".

Squiggle Dog · #**144** 07-02-2011, 02:08 AM

Don't ask...

The sliding roof was opening slowly and needed to be helped to open and close. I thought it would be nice to have a functioning sunroof this summer, so I bought the special Mercedes grease. I intended to clean and lubricate the parts, however, there were complications that caused me to take apart half of the interior and drop the sliding roof tray. The roof insulation fell down and would not allow the sliding roof to open fully and parts of it were bent and causing it to jam.

When the sliding roof tray was coming out, the front rubber drain hoses broke. Removing the assembly was very nerve-racking and I could have easily damaged everything of value in the interior, including the wooden shift knob, the dashboard components, and the vinyl covered upholstery. The front seats needed to be reclined completely and anything of value covered with padding.

I decided that since the sliding roof was already removed I might as well convert it to manual, though I had hoped to take my time and do a more thorough job. I had a sliding roof assembly removed from a W123, which appeared to be identical to the one in my W116.

Squiggle Dog · #**145** 07-02-2011, 02:08 AM

It turned out that even though the W116 and W123 sliding roof trays are stamped from the same dies, the W116 has shorter rear mounting tabs and extra metal spot welded to the underside for the headliner.

What a shame since my tray was rusty and the W123 tray wasn't. Some day I will replace it with a less rusty one, but I was in a time crunch to beat the weather and also to drive to Utah the next week.

I brushed on Rust Doctor since it will keep it from rusting through until I replace the tray.

The brackets that hold in the felts are different between the manual and power roofs. The inner brackets are manual as they don't have the extra guides.

Squiggle Dog · #**146** 07-02-2011, 02:10 AM

The headliner was coming off on the inner edges.

I sprayed adhesive and attached the headliner as necessary.

Because I couldn't use the tray from the W123, I had to cut off these lift brackets. They are what make the roof raise when the handle is turned.

They were spot welded to the tray so I had to grind the welds from the backside and punch them out.

Here they are, ready to install.

Squiggle Dog · #**147** 07-02-2011, 02:11 AM

The lift brackets are easy to position as they are made to fit precisely on the tray. Notice the screws for fine tuning. I drilled 5/32" holes in the brackets, then in the tray using the positioned brackets as guides. I then applied POR seam filler in the area to keep water from leaking in, then riveted them in place with 5/32" pop rivets.

Putting the assembly back in was tricky. Once it was in the car I laid on my back, lifted it with my legs, then started putting in the screws.

I removed the components from the W116 sliding roof, then installed the ones from the W123 roof. There's a lot of fine tuning at this point. I made sure to grease all necessary points, though I was using felt sliders instead of plastic in the front since that's all I had to replace the broken plastic ones. The roof takes a bit of effort to move since I need to replace the plastic slides and get rid of the felt ones. Once I have those replaced it will slide easier. There are only 4 plastic slides on a manual roof as opposed to 8 on a power roof!

I removed the cable tube and power motor for the sliding roof while I was at it. I cut the front drain tubes to get a clean edge to attach them to the tray. Unfortunately, the rubber was hardened and they split when I tried. I looked up the part number (A 003 997 63 82), which is $36/meter MSRP at The Classic Center. Each side is 1070mm long, so I needed 3 meters. Ouch. It turned out that it was not in stock and they weren't able to get anything longer than cut 1 meter lengths at the time.

A few days went by and The Classic Center was still having trouble obtaining the hose, so I went to a hose specialty place, however they did not have any comparable hose. The closest thing they had was 1/2" heater hose, which would not have stretched over the oval drain tubes and would have been too thick to come out the ends of the A pillars.

I then went to my local Mercedes Auto Service to see if they had the hose I needed. I parked next to a black W116 300SD that looked nearly identical to mine. It even had the same grille badges, and in the same places! Once again, all they had was heater hose. The shop owner said that he had a W116 300SD behind the shop and that even though he doesn't normally let people go back there, he would let me pull the drain hoses from it. I went back and just before I started pulling the headliner I noticed that the car didn't have a sliding roof!

I told the shop owner and he said that I could try the W123 he had back there. I was able to get the front drain tubes out and the rubber was still supple! What's more, the shop owner said I could have them free of charge! I got home and then realized that the W123 drain hoses are only 1000mm, which was much too short. I got on the EPC and noticed that the rear drain hoses from a W126 are 1490mm each, which was more than enough!

I went back to the shop and I pulled the rear drain hoses from a W126 they had. They even had the 45 degree angle cut on the ends! I cut them down to 1070mm and snaked them down from the openings in the tops of the A pillars. I had to twist them a little to get them past a certain point, then I reached through holes in the A-pillars below the dashboard to help position, followed by a screwdriver through the door dome light sensor openings to put the ends of the hoses near the holes, then worked the ends out of the holes between the front doors and fenders. I then lubricated the ends, then carefully pushed them onto the tubes with a rag and pliers. The Classic Center still wasn't sure about being able to get the hose, so I canceled the order--which saved me quite a bit of money, especially considering the shop didn't charge me for the W126 hose and even gave me some needed W116 rear speakers screws!

I was glad to have the proper drain hoses since I was having to use ridiculous ACCII sensor hoses routed out the front windows for the roof to drain. The headliner panel from the W123 roof matched perfectly! I have to admit that installing the header panels around the headliner was tricky.

Squiggle Dog · #**148** 07-02-2011, 02:11 AM

I also installed the brass coolant reservoir. The fitting at the bottom is a smaller diameter than the plastic reservoir had, so I had to cut off the flared end of the hose, but it worked.

I was tired of the hot air coming into the cab at this time of year, so I removed the ACCII servo, then removed the ridiculous metal pipes that ran from the left side of the firewall, over to the servo on the right side of the firewall, then back to the left side of the firewall to the engine block. I cut off a piece of the pipe assembly so that I could attach a new heater valve to it since all 3 metal ones I had were leaking. I used part number A 107 830 05 84, which was brand new, had the star on it, even came with the vacuum pod, and I was only charged $20 for it! It's made to work off of vacuum, but I plugged the end of the pod, then disconnected the lever so I could move it by hand. Eventually I will do a full manual heat conversion.

Squiggle Dog · #**149** 07-02-2011, 02:12 AM

I put well over 2,000 miles on my 300SD this last week. I drove from Tacoma, Washington to Heber City, Utah to visit family. Because of the sliding roof fiasco I ended up leaving much later than I wanted. In order to get there on time for the family reunion I drove 15 hours without resting. The original plan was to stop and sleep halfway through.

I brought my dog with me, just like last year when I drove my 1968 200D fintail. He is a good passenger. When he is in the car he wears a harness which is attached to the seat belt. Dogs also need to be protected in a crash.

Here's why the arm rests were designed as they were:

An interesting thing happened halfway through Idaho around 11 PM on I-84 East. I noticed a car on fire on the side of the road. No one was stopped to help, but the car in front of me pulled over and I pulled over in front of it. We ran toward the car calling out if anyone was in there. I ran around the car and tried to look through the windows from a distance to see if anyone was inside. Then the car erupted into flames, so if anyone was inside they were a goner. The back door was open, but there was no one around. After some time the fire department came around. I wonder what the story was.

Here's a video of the car fire: http://youtu.be/S3G267wn_MU

Squiggle Dog · #**150** 07-02-2011, 02:13 AM

I got to my mother's house and slept for 6 hours before driving another 2 1/2 hours to the reunion near Price. I did a lot of driving when I was down there and had no break-downs. The engine didn't seem to use any oil at all. There was a noticeable loss in power at high elevations. It cost me about 6 tanks of diesel. Here are some videos of driving through the Heber City area: oldhousemidway.MPG and mainstreetmidway.MPG and deercreekdrive.MPG

On the way back I drove 10 hours, slept at a Wal-Mart Super Center, then drove another 3 hours until I was home. The car was very comfortable, however, I don't feel like doing much driving again for a while!