Finally, an intro to the 300TD manual project. - Page 7 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

crazy4diesel · #1 06-21-2014, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cooljjay

Nope your lights should work as long as the cluster is installed and headlight switch. Its possible your rheostat is bad. Back up lights should also work, as mine did. Blower motor should also work as long as the plug on the center wheel is plugged in and blower...

Looks like some tracking down of stuff needs to be done, and I hate electrical gremlins. I attempted to repair the rheostat and thought I'd managed it...I have the one from the brown car that is jumped and could try that to test the theory.

Thanks

cooljjay · #2 06-21-2014, 10:21 PM

No problem, yeh try the jumped one and see if there is any change.

Also don't forget to go over your fuses and replace them with the copper/brass versions...

More then likely your germlins are from ground points. It seems like that is the most common.

crazy4diesel · #3 06-22-2014, 05:07 PM

OK, got the fan motor working now, one of the plugs had a bad connection. The interior lights are still a mystery though. ONE light bulb lights up, the one in the temp dial wheel...all of the others remain off.

MTUpower · #4 03-07-2015, 02:31 PM

No pics of the final results? No final results post at all?

crazy4diesel · #5 07-18-2015, 04:35 PM

So, very sorry everyone! For a variety of reasons, I had to take a lengthy break from the project. I'll be getting back to it this month.

deejaaa · #6 09-10-2015, 09:53 PM

was hoping to get to the end for a happy ending. i will continue to read your thread until done. can't wait till you get back to it. you're doing it right.

crazy4diesel · #7 06-03-2017, 01:54 PM

Wow, when the crap hits it really hits. I had to take a long sabbatical from this project in no small part due to extensive travel. Filled up all the pages in my passport in less than 2 years. Also, stupidly took on a second car project with a 1982 VW Rabbit Diesel pickup. I'll post a photobucket for that project in case anyone is interested, I'll be selling that truck soon too, now that it's almost finished.

I'm getting back to the Mercedes now as well, as you can see from these pics I didn't totally stop on it, I've been doing all the body work, which took forever, since I'm incredibly slow with it. It's like drywall for me, I CAN do it, but am very SLOW at it.

The car is just about ready for primer now, I posted threads here for help with removing the sun roof, but got zero assistance with that, so paid the guy at Mercedes Source for his video to see how to do it, then regretted it when I found out how really simple it is. But, it was only $7.50 so oh well.

Have the roof panel out now, and will paint it off the car, along with the fuel filler door and rear quarter cargo area windows. The doors are staying on, and I'll do a two step process to paint the car, and then the jambs once the clear coat on the car has cured enough to be taped off. I messed up, and didn't degrease the jambs BEFORE getting to sanding the car, and now don't want to contaminate the surface area of the car anywhere in the process of cleaning the jambs. So, I'll foam tape the jambs off, paint the car, then once that paint is cured for a couple weeks, clean the jambs, mask off the car, and paint the jambs then. It all seems to be coming together, sort of, there's tons of crap I won't remember how to put back together

Also, I'll need to put the leather seat covers on the front seats still, which I bought two years ago. And find a carpet kit to install (any suggestions there?).

Thanks all, and sorry for disappearing, I actually have been around and contributing to the site when I could.

crazy4diesel · #8 06-13-2017, 05:28 PM

So, after much internal debate I decided to degrease, scuff and paint the jambs first. I only used epoxy primer, as I didn't want a build up of material in the jambs. Overall I'm pretty happy with it, there's one area I need to touch up along the top side under the drip rail on the passenger side, just didn't get enough clear there. I have what seems like plenty of light in the garage, but it's still amazing how you can't see crap, when you're actually painting.

Masking for the jambs, is a total pain in the butt!! But, I decided, if worst case, I have an issue with something, like paint being pulled off my tape, I'd rather it be in the jambs than on the surface, so that's why I opted for this order.

crazy4diesel · #9 06-14-2017, 09:03 AM

Clearly there is no further interest in this thread. It takes time, and if no one cares, there's not much point to keep it going. Thank you all for all your help.

Ted_Grozier · #10 07-01-2017, 04:41 PM

Lots of lurkers are out here watching and really appreciate your posts. We want to see this thing come together!

Amadomon · #11 07-02-2017, 09:33 AM

Yes, we're here! Please update us.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

crazy4diesel · #12 07-06-2017, 07:37 PM

OK, so if anyone tells you it's no problem to paint your own car in the garage, hit them upside the head VERY hard.

It can be done, but really it should NOT be done. Aside from all the safety issued (all of which can be mitigated) like blowing yourself up with an ignition source. There's the simple lack of control of the environment. Even with pretty good filtration (I sealed everything up tight, and had furnace filters on the only areas that were providing air flow. On one side of the garage I had a regular 30 inch wide door, and on the other side I propped up the garage door with 30 inch 2x4s and attached furnace filters across the bottom. Then on the outside I had 5 box fans pulling air through those filters to the outside, and sucking air from the other side of the garage. It worked well to vent the overspray out, in fact even with the clear coat the garage would clear out in a few minutes.

BUT! You can't control dust, lint, even a surprise bug got in somehow. Also, as the time of day changes, your dew point drops, and you risk condensation if you're providing any fresh air at all. So, this falls into do as I say, not as I did.

I fought with tiger striping on the hood, due to the color and the fact it was a semi translucent pearl base coat. I had to shoot it three times, on the third time I used a different gun a SATA 4000 instead of the Devilbiss Tekna Copper...and finally it went on perfectly.

The reflection is from the roof after I've sanded and polished. Overall, I'm pretty happy, though see some minor waves due to never being able to get all the unevenness out after removing the rubber strips that were on the roof.

crazy4diesel · #13 07-07-2017, 03:34 PM

The brown car with the German VIN will be headed to the salvage yard by the end of this month, if anyone is interested.

Squiggle Dog · #14 07-07-2017, 04:32 PM

Awesome thread! The paint came out brilliant, even though it must have been really difficult and frustrating doing it in your garage.

crazy4diesel · #15 07-09-2017, 06:49 PM

Thanks Squiggle Dog, been a lot of hard work, doing almost all of it alone. Still struggling with some things, we'll see how they go. Hoping to chase down last of electrical gremlins soon here. It would help alot if these dang 100 degree days would go away! The heat is freaking killing me.