Finally, an intro to the 300TD manual project. - Page 8 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Squiggle Dog · #1 07-09-2017, 08:21 PM

No kidding. I've been helping my roommate work on his 1960 Ford truck outside in the sun and it's been about 118. It was 121 about a week ago. I'm glad that I at least have a garage space for my own car. Having working air conditioning in my car seems like a pipe dream.

crazy4diesel · #2 07-09-2017, 08:42 PM

It's always much better when a buddy is around, even if they don't do all that much! It's one reason the wagon took a long break from being worked on, neighbor buddy moved away.

funola · #3 07-09-2017, 09:26 PM

The first time I saw this pic, I thought "wow, that's really calm water with beautiful reflection on this lake front house". You do amazing work! Keep it up.

t walgamuth · #4 07-10-2017, 12:53 AM

Very slick!

Ted_Grozier · #5 07-10-2017, 01:49 PM

Gorgeous!

crazy4diesel · #6 09-02-2017, 12:24 PM

So, there has been some progress and some setbacks. Progress in getting things put on, and setbacks on electrical issues. I am confused by electrical in general, so it's not something I am at all well suited to troubleshoot. I wanted to use LEDs in the IP and other dash lights, and found some that supposedly would work. The small rice grain bulbs I did find some that worked great! Are a nice color, and illuminate without so much heat on those old brittle plastic bits, so hopefully will help prolong the life of that plastic. The two wedge bulbs in the IP though to illuminate the gauges, not so much luck (if anyone has a source of bulbs that are known to work, I'd like to know).

With those wedge bulbs, I had issues with the rheostat overloading. They would not light up at all, and I turned the rheostat knob and they would flicker, then they lit up fully, for a millisecond, which was followed by a "pop" sound and the smell of electrical fire. The rheostat fried the wire at the point of connection, AND the copper trace was fried on the circuit board (the fuse was fine, by the way, good job on that one M-B).

I repaired the trace and the rheostat, with solder, but the wire on the rheostat rejects solder, only thing I could do was sandwich it in between two dabs of cold solder.

It works now, with the incandescent bulbs, but I also made sure the rheostat could not go to full power, by applying a small dab of hot glue as an insulator on that solder connection. The rheostat works and dims the lights on the multimeter it goes from 003 to 016, so the resistance does change.

crazy4diesel · #7 09-02-2017, 01:27 PM

I installed Taiwanese knock offs of the Bosch Euro headlights. They are made by DEPO an aftermarket lighting manufacture, with varying levels of quality (like EVERY aftermarket manufacturer it seems). But, in this case it's worse than in some other cases, because DEPO has more than one "official" importer of it's products in the US. The primary importer is a company call Maxzone Auto Parts, which is a great company with excellent service. However, the company that imports the W123 lights is a company called KT Campus, Inc. which is a horrible company with dreadful service. The sell the lights mostly on Ebay under the username "bid4speedster" and also at an Amazon store as well. My suggestion if you buy these is buy them on Amazon so you will at least have some buyer protection. I fought with KT Campus on trying to get support on how the W5W bulb for the city light feature is supposed to be inserted into the socket, because no matter what I do, it just falls back out with the slighted vibration, and let's face it the Mercedes diesel has just the tiniest bit of vibration.

I still don't have a solution, but have begun to communicate directly with the factory in Taiwan, so will hopefully get something soon. But, their first response to me was: "We have checked this item, but we don’t think this item has W5W bulb, what it should have is H3 size of the fog light, you can check the below youtube link for how to install this bulb." So, I'm not entirely hopeful, when the manufacturer of the light doesn't know the specs of the light themselves. Attached is their spec sheet showing the bulbs used in the light.

Back to KT Campus and bid4speedster, I tried to get answers from them on how to install the bulbs, and just kept getting back the same inane responses about how the bulbs fit, and no one complains, I'm guessing 90% don't even bother with the city lights. So, I bought a second set of the lights just to see if there had been a design change that was warranting the obstinate assertion that there was no issue with the socket. When they were exactly the same, I submitted a request to return them, and I sent them back. At this point they connected that I had bought the same light 4 years ago (when I started this project), which was true I did buy the first set then, and they were sitting sealed in the boxes in my garage the entire time, and that first set is what you see here installed in my car. They fought me tooth and nail on refunding the return, claiming they needed to confirm with DEPO that the lights I returned were the ones shipped this year and not the ones shipped 4-years ago (which is a pretty nasty accusation). Fine, but after 2 months, I filed a claim with paypal and got the money back. KT Campus/bid4speedster changes their location between Walnut, CA and Rancho Cucamonga, in their listings to confuse paypal and ebay on returns. But, I provided the company filing with the Secretary of State showing their address in Rancho Cucamonga, which is where I sent the lights and proof of their delivery and Paypal made the refund. No one should have to go to such efforts to get some modicum of customer service. But, alas...customer service is a dying skill.

My end solution will be to wire in a new connector for the W5W bulb, I have wired in the park lamps, and they light up when the light switch is turned to the left to activate the city lights, so I know I have it set up correctly. I used a 6-pin connector from the taillights of a W124, and soldered a pigtail to the front side marker light, avoiding the mickey mouse wire "kit" KT Campus sells with the lights, to set up the city light feature.

crazy4diesel · #8 09-02-2017, 08:58 PM

One of my many flaws is that I tend to impulsively buy parts as I find them, knowing I'll need them for this project. The drawback of course is you don't find out if they fit or work, until months or years later, when you go to install them. I've learned from this, on this project and if I ever do another one, I'll order things, and install them right away, just to confirm they fit, even if it means they come back out and get put on a shelf for later. Also, I'm always looking for a value, I'll blame my Scottish heritage for that trait.

Seat covers was another one of these purchases. I bought them online in leather, and they made them custom for me, matching the number of ribs and the double stitching of my original covers, though the "poofing" of the ribs is no where near as pronounced, because they, nor I knew about the inserts Mercedes uses to provide that. But, that's ok...I got them in leather, for less than $300 all in, and I knew I'd have to make some compromises.

I didn't know that I'd have to make so many modifications though to get them to fit properly. I'm glad I grew up with a mother that taught me a few things about sewing.

Mercedes changed the seat design around 1983, and my car was one of the first to get the newer design. The top of the seat back is thinner, there is a strap inside that attaches to a plastic comb to pull the seat cover to the cushion about 2/3 the way up the seat back. The bottom and side bolsters are more pronounced.

Nothing I could do about the bolster, adding material wasn't an option, and taking away material in the upper portion of the seatback was also not an option, as my sewing machine isn't powerful enough to resew the plastic edge used to attach the cover to the seat rail. But the strap I was able to add, once I discovered the material was a perfect match for the straps on an athletic supported I had kicking around.

Doing it over, I would buy the M-B Tex covers from German Auto Tops, as they have the proper patterns for the newer seat shape, and they are just a real up and up company, John the owner always answers the phone, and will always help you out. I know because I bought the carpet kit from him, which I'll be showing here soon I hope.

But for the price, these leather ones will do me fine, they look ok with the exception of the puckered material in the upper area on the sides, and the insanely tight fit on the armrest. They are quite comfortable as well, and feel cool and breathable with the perforated leather I speced.

Front seat covers done, check.

crazy4diesel · #9 09-02-2017, 09:11 PM

Fixing the droopy map pocket nets is pretty easy. I'm not going to go into a great level of detail, and I'm sure others won't bother to reuse the metal clips that hold the cords in the plastic frames, but it didn't take much time, and I only stabbed my finger once in the process.

Once you have the back seat panels pulled off, you take out the two screws holding the plastic webbing frame, and then slide the frame upward, then sideward to release the tabs.

From there just pull out the top cord with is 3/16" bungee cord. I used 1/4", but the 3/16" would be better, I just didn't want to return the 1/4" and it works fine, but it's a bit too strong to pull out easily, though I'm not sure how often anyone puts anything in these anyways.

I pried the metal clips apart and then reclamped them on the new cord, you don't want the cord to be much shorter than the unstretched length, maybe stretch is a half-inch in length is all.

Pop the cord into the channel, and secure the clips and put it all back together, the whole thing takes 15-20 minutes. And then they look like new.

crazy4diesel · #10 09-02-2017, 09:16 PM

I installed the spring supports that Mercedes came out with as an afterthought for the seats in the W123 and W126. This is a dealer part, and the MB part number is 126 914 22 15, they cost $15-$20 a pair and each seat needs one pair.

They are a bit hard to stuff in the spring, I started at the cushion, and basically twisted them inside the spring. They make a massive difference in now far the seat will compress on the front, and provide a firmer less bouncy seat feel. Big improvement.

crazy4diesel · #11 09-02-2017, 09:24 PM

I ended up doing my seat refurbishing project inside the house, as it was at least something I could get done on the car in the heat way we are enduring in Southern CA. It's been 105 where I am in the day, and 85 at night for the past week. So, my living room ended up being my work shop.

I separated the seat bottoms from the backrest, as it's much easier to work with them, and it's not to bad to put them back together, though with a second person, maybe slightly easier to line up the bolts and pull the hinges together a bit to thread the bolt.

The thing I found with the plastic pieces is to get a round quarter inch dowel, behind the clip as close to the clip as you can get it and give it a pop with a hammer. Just gently pulling from all around, you'll fracture the brittle 35 years sunbaked plastic somewhere (ask me how I know).

Don't you love finding funny mystery pieces of paper inside old car part! The pink paper was just sitting inside the backrest, I have no idea what it's for.

ROLLGUY · #12 09-03-2017, 12:01 AM

Todd, having been at your place, and seeing the pile of parts awaiting assembly, I have an appreciation for what you are going through to get the car back on the road! I also admire your craftsmanship, having seen it personally. I have seen a lot of DIY paint jobs, and I have to say that I have not seen a better one elsewhere. Also, the paintwork on your Rabbit pickup is superb in my opinion, and I was very impressed. Especially since both were done in a garage!
I can't wait to see the wagon when it is finished. I am sure it will be stunning. Keep up the good work!

crazy4diesel · #13 09-04-2017, 01:35 PM

Thanks much Rich! I really appreciate the compliments on the paint. Considering the Rabbit was the first vehicle I've ever painted, and the Mercedes is the second one. One thing I learned was your first paint job should probably not be a very difficult tri-stage product!

Seeing you take away the German spec brown car was both a relief and also sad, I loved driving that slow beast. Before I ripped it apart, that thing would just start up and drive off no matter how long it had been sitting. Granted it didn't drive off anywhere very quickly, with that NA engine, at least it had the manual. Which of course is now in my originally ivory, and now blue-green pearl, US spec turbo car.

And thanks for the metal clip you pulled and sent back to me too. The biggest fear I still have is getting rid of the donor car too soon, but your assurance of getting pieces I might need really made that an easy decision. The other problem, I didn't expect was putting my car back together, sometimes I could really use that car to see how things go back on. LOL

The Rabbit Pickup sold on Ebay, for $6,500 I wanted closer to $7K but, it's a soft used car market these days, and despite 59 watchers on Ebay listing, only had two actual bidders. I've posted some pics of the Rabbit for those who are curious. I hope that's not a violation as this isn't a Mercedes diesel, but it is a diesel all the same, all 52hp of it! LOL

ROLLGUY · #14 09-04-2017, 01:48 PM

The photos are great, thanks. I am sure the buyer will be very happy with it. I know your wagon will probably not be done by next weekend, so you will miss the gathering in Long Beach. It will probably be the largest gathering of Mercedes-Benz vehicles ever. If you get a chance to be there, please do so, even if you don't bring an MB.......Rich

crazy4diesel · #15 09-04-2017, 02:11 PM

That sounds incredible, I'd love to attend, (and no my car won't be done) but I'll be headed to the Frankfurt auto show, and then on to Munich to visit some friends, and then Moscow just for the heck of it.

I was glad to hear old brown will live on, when your friend gets him put back together.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROLLGUY

The photos are great, thanks. I am sure the buyer will be very happy with it. I know your wagon will probably not be done by next weekend, so you will miss the gathering in Long Beach. It will probably be the largest gathering of Mercedes-Benz vehicles ever. If you get a chance to be there, please do so, even if you don't bring an MB.......Rich

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