My Custom 1980 W116 300SD Project - Page 14 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Squiggle Dog · #**196** 01-02-2012, 07:12 PM

Thanks for the comments. I might use the roof rack for shipping things, maybe for large parts from PickNPull, and possibly for when I move to Arizona. I will use padding whenever I put something on there. I just feel like sedans have such little cargo room. Even going from driving a W110 to a W116 I've lost a lot of trunk space.

suginami · #**197** 01-02-2012, 09:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squiggle Dog

Thanks for the comments. I might use the roof rack for shipping things, maybe for large parts from PickNPull, and possibly for when I move to Arizona. I will use padding whenever I put something on there. I just feel like sedans have such little cargo room. Even going from driving a W110 to a W116 I've lost a lot of trunk space.

So you are moving to Arizona?

I recall you posting recently that you were laid off. Did you find employment in Arizona?

bmor_62 · #**198** 01-03-2012, 01:56 AM

Squiggle Dog - What car did you get the manual window regulators from?

Squiggle Dog · #**199** 01-03-2012, 04:53 AM

My roommate and I are moving to Arizona because we are sick of the rain in Washington. I much prefer the dry desert heat and sunshine. We both lost our jobs, so we might as well move. I'll just look for work once we find a place to rent. It's a renter's market these days and housing is half the cost of here, so even if we make half of our old wages we won't be too far behind. For me, having no career or any real education makes it easy to pack up and move because I'm used to living on less than $15,000 a year.

I got my manual window regulators from a W116 that had manual windows (only W116 regulators will fit).

Squiggle Dog · #**200** 01-20-2012, 05:37 PM

The Seattle area is having a historic snow storm. We rarely get any snow here; in fact, just one inch causes everything to shut down! We got seven inches of snow which melted, then froze into ice. There are downed trees, power cables, power outages, and dozens of crashes.

The power cables have fallen down on the cars and the driveway is blocked. The City doesn't know if they can get anyone out today. The garbage trucks never came by on Wednesday and the mail truck got stuck in front of the house. We lost power last night, too.

mercmad6.3 · #**201** 01-20-2012, 06:18 PM

Gentlemen, Start your engines... We need to fight global warming as a united group.

Squiggle Dog · #**202** 02-20-2012, 07:47 PM

I just scored a sunroof deflector at the wrecking yard. It's the clip type and I got the hardware, but this is just a test fit. I think it helps tie in the roof rack and the main reason I wanted it was because I'm moving to Arizona, and sunroofs are practically useless to vent the car when it's hot because the sun beats down on you. This one is tinted so it will filter the amount of sunlight coming through.

Squiggle Dog · #**203** 02-23-2012, 10:17 PM

Today I installed the wind deflector. The first thing to do to install the clip type is to open the sunroof.

The mounting clips will fit behind the felt seal holders at the foremost screws. I could sure use new seals if they weren't $100 a pair!

This is how the clips fit at the sides of the sunroof:

Squiggle Dog · #**204** 02-23-2012, 10:19 PM

The mounting screws were rusty and I didn't want to go to the hardware store, so I soaked them in Evapo-Rust, then painted POR-15 on the heads and ends.

I then sprayed the whole screws with gloss black Rustoleum paint then set them in my handy holders (my old rear rotors) to spray the heads.

The deflector is installed and I love it. Now people will know I have a sunroof even when it's not open!

Squiggle Dog · #**205** 02-23-2012, 10:20 PM

At the wrecking yard I got the clips I needed to finally put the rocker trim back on.

This should stop the wind from billowing in and making noise.

With the sunroof cracked, the tinted deflector will ventilate the car without the sun cooking me when I live in the desert.

katja · #**206** 02-28-2012, 12:46 AM

Your car looks like such a European touring car now, with the roof rack, Euro lights, manual klima, windows & sunroof, and now the sunroof deflector. I remember that all the W123's I saw in the 80's in Germany had the sunroof deflectors and I didn't understand what they were for until much later.

Now, all you need are the velour seats and the short Euro bumpers, and a speedometer in km/h, and you will have the perfect Euro 300SD that never was available from the factory...

Squiggle Dog · #**207** 02-28-2012, 10:49 PM

Due to the fact that I am selling a 1966 fintail which was storing a bunch of my parts, I had to make room in the station wagon to put them. I had an upper rear seat half from a 6.9 that I was hanging onto because the frame was in good condition and so was the padding, but I decided to toss it because it was taking up too much space.

I also found the old bamboo rear seat skins from my last 300SD which I had replaced with better ones that I had found. I decided that, despite their condition, they would look better on my rear seat than the blue velour seat skins that were on it. The blue seat came from a Euro 6.9 in Texas and I had it shipped here through Greyhound for $106.35 (on top of the $100 I paid for the seat). Before this I had a poorly recovered seat with cheap vinyl on an extremely rusty frame and nails holding on the skins. And before that one I had a blue back seat from a W123 that didn't fit.

I pulled out the rear seat and removed the blue skins. They are still intact, short of the fabric at the back that tends to tear. I noticed that the pad on the upper half of the seat was sagging, so I removed the one from the spare I had which was nice and firm. Even though both upper seat halves were from a 6.9, they were very different. One had coil springs in it, whereas the other didn't.

Squiggle Dog · #**208** 02-28-2012, 10:50 PM

With the rear seat out, I noticed that there was water on the insulation.

Pulling up the insulation, I could see a pool of water in which the wiring harness was submerged.

I removed the drain plugs so the water would empty and I also removed the insulation since it was saturated. I am nervous about my rust-free seat frames rusting.

The fabric on the backside and rear of the bamboo skins was missing, so I used spray adhesive to glue the padding strips in place. Luckily for me, it already had the grommets for rear headrests. The skins look wrinkly, but at least now they match the front seats. I'm going to get nice two-toned ones eventually.

Squiggle Dog · #**209** 02-28-2012, 10:51 PM

I removed the blue headrest skins, which was interesting since I've not done it before. I used a pick to pull out the ends of the zippers and unzipped them with the pick. It appears that the skins have to be removed with the pads. The pads are glued to the headrest frames, so it took a while to separate them. Then the skins and pads bend over, allowing the headrest legs to pull through the holes in the skins. I decided not to glue the bamboo skin pads to the headrests because I'll be recovering them some day anyway.

I removed the sliding zipper piece from my wallet and used it to zip one headrest. It was hard to get it started because the ends were so rough. Then I tucked the ends in. The second headrest had a damaged zipper, so I closed it with a few safety pins.

Squiggle Dog · #**210** 02-28-2012, 10:53 PM

Today, there was good and bad. My roommate said there was a 1981 240D freshly brought into the yard that he wanted to look at to see if it had seat nets for his fintail. We got there, and sure enough, the car had the good older style, wide seat nets. So, we got those.

Then, I noticed that the wheels on the car had stripes indicating they were the rare "steel-look" aluminum wheels that I was wanting for my Universal fintail station wagon. Sadly, I only saw three, even though the car was literally just placed in the yard. I have a sinking feeling that one of the wheels was used to make a jackstand. Fortunately, there was one in the spare tire well, so I ended up with four, afterall.

Now here's the bad: these wheels had old, rotten tires on them. The yard said they wanted $60 for the tires on top of the cost of the wheels, even though the tires were bad. They marked them and told me to have them removed at a tire shop, and then bring them back within 72 hours. I was having second thoughts about getting the wheels, but I bought them anyway and spent $20 to have them dismounted at a tire shop.

I went straight back to the yard and they told me I couldn't return the tires because I have to do it within 72 hours. I said, "I was just in here earlier today!" Then they said, "We don't do returns here." I replied, "I can't even get store credit?" They said, "Find some tires and we'll exchange them for TIRES ONLY".

So, I looked at the tires on the rack, figuring I would find a set of 185/80R13s to give to my roommate for one of his fintails. The owner of the store came over to me and said, "Hey! Those tires don't count. You bought yard tires. You have to exchange them for tires from the yard, but you'll also have to pay for wheels again." I said that that was totally unfair, to which he answered, "Well, they probably shouldn't have charged you for those bad tires, but if you want a set of tires from the rack, I'll make you a fair deal on them."

Long story short, I found a mismatched set of 185/80R13s for my roommate, however one tire had a hole in the sidewall, while another was rotten, so I had to exchange them AGAIN for some better ones. At least I didn't have to pay any more money for them, but I spent $80 on tires I didn't even want.

And now my right rear door won't shut for some reason. It latches enough to not pop open, but it won't close--it's like the latch is jammed solid. The left rear door already wouldn't open from the outside and the left front door has a difficult time closing. The body definitely reflects the 310,000 miles on the odometer.

Because the door won't shut all the way, I put a tarp on top of a car cover over the car to keep the water out. I'm tired of the floor and trunk being full of water. My move to Arizona can't come soon enough!