OFFICIAL 1st Annual Mercedes Shop/Fast Lane GTG and Tech Session (TX, OK, LA, AR)
 

Updated [twice!] October 25, 2007!!!![All new info is blue]

There will be a GTG and a series of Tech Sessions with our Super Moderator and Mercedes Shop guru, Roy Hunter (whunter) in Winnsboro and Mt. Vernon, Texas NEXT WEEKEND, October 27 and 28, and we plan to have a swap meet for parts, as well. This coincides with Winnsboro’s Autumn Trails Antique Car Parade and Rally. Attendees for this event usually include the Shelby Cobra Association of Texas (Carroll Shelby hails from nearby Leesburg), the Model T and Model A Associations, and a number of newer, classic car groups. Mercedes Benz is unrepresented!!!

9 a.m., Saturday, 10/27: Coffee, breakfast nibbles, and parade-watching from Winnsboro Bakery & Cafe, 810 N. Main (Hwy. 37, the first two-story space north of Hwy. 11, on the east side of the road). It's too late to participate in the Parade or the Rally, but spectators are welcome. Parking is annoying, but there's a train depot on the SE corner of Main (37) and Hwy. 11, with lots of parking. You can also park along the grassy railroad right-of-way along Hwy. 11 west of Hwy. 37 (Main). In either case, you'll end up walking a quarter block or so -- it's "downtown," after all!! I'll be at the Bakery -- if no one shows up by 10, I'll bail out and head up to Mt. Vernon because......

10:30 a.m., Saturday, 10/27: SHOP OPENS! Tech sessions at Tri Lakes Garage, 220 E. I-30 (south side at Spur 423 exit) in Mt. Vernon. We've decided to go ahead and get started early, since there's been so little response to the parade. Read on in the thread to find out all the stuff we'll be doing, and who'll be doing it!! Roy is coming of course, but so is Larry Bible, Randy (RLeo), Dave Morrison, Whiskey Dan, and a number of other folks we've all come to depend on for advice and help with our cars. We also learned today that we'll have a home-scale biodiesel reactor and it's designer there to discuss those options. (Tri-Lakes' mechanics Curtis and Steve can be reached @ 903-537-3818)



Lunch on your own:
For those chowing down after a hard morning of parade watching....

• The Winnsboro Bakery & Cafe has lunch sandwiches and such.
• Lou Viney's Cellars & Bistro (111 East Broadway in Winnsboro, literally around the corner from the Bakery on Hwy. 37) has a very nice menu.

If you don't want to fight the "crowds," hit the road (Hwy. 37) and head north 15 miles to Mt. Vernon. (or if you're already at the Tech Session)

• There's the Mt. Vernon Cafe at the SW corner of Hwy. 37 and I-30,
• a Dairy Queen just west of that intersection on the south side (service roads are two-way),
• and the Sweet Shoppe (sort of a tea room with soups and sandwiches) on the NW corner of Hwy. 37 & I-30

.

1 p.m., Saturday, 10/27:
The swap meet will be at Tri-Lakes, as well -- we have a lot of space to work in, so we'll be swappin' and dealin' and sellin'.


7:00 p.m., Saturday, 10/27: FREE Texas barbeque dinner with all the fixins, plus lemonade and iced tea. Mercedes Shop and my husband and I are footing the bill for dinner at Texas Barbeque Corral @ 201 I-30 W, on the southern service road, between Tri-Lakes Garage and Hwy. 37. There may be music, there may not be -- one never knows about that, but the food is fabulous!
(I will find out if alcohol can be brought into the restaurant, but they definitely don't serve it. High ethanol beverages are BYOB -- this is a dry area, and the nearest package store is 10 miles east of the shop, on I-30, in Winfield.)

10 a.m., Sunday, 10/28: Sweet rolls, donuts, coffee, and the tech sessions continue at Tri Lakes Garage.

Between 2 and 3 p.m., Sunday, 10/28: Farewells as everyone hits the road for home, greasy and happy!!

For questions, directions, regrets, or anything else, call me (Sunny) @ (817) 360-7330 or husband John @ (903) 243-4164.

Winnsboro is about halfway between Dallas and Texarkana, about 15 miles south of I-30, deep in the piney woods of East Texas. It’s convenient to Dallas and Fort Worth, and easily accessible to folks in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana as well. We've invited the Texas MBCA clubs, as well as ones in adjacent states. The temperature has dropped, so it looks like we'll have autumn color like you rarely see outside of New England, with native sweet gums, maples, persimmons, and other colorful foliage against the backdrop of pine and cedar. Gentle hills, winding country roads, abundant wildlife, and around 10 area lakes complete the beautiful scenery. For our loving and tolerant significant others, there is ample antique shopping, and next weekend also features Winnsboro’s annual massive sidewalk sales, flea market and swap meet. There’s evening entertainment available in the form of a “coffeehouse” with live music and Lou Viney's, Winnsboro’s own winery outlet, has live jazz and other great music.

Bring your cars, your extra parts to swap or sell to fellow Benzers, and your tools for a great weekend. And MARK YOUR TOOLS – sorting out whose sockets are whose is beyond annoying, and we want to spend our time learning and doing, not wrangling over a wrench! Besides, no one can afford the shipping to bring Roy’s tool box or even the contents of his trunk (since it includes the crew of the USS Missouri!), so he’ll need us to provide as much as we can, especially in terms of the larger, unique-to-Mercedes tools. Looking forward to seeing everyone there!!

Sunny

what is planned for the weekend, subject to time limits.
 

I am looking forward to being there. :D:D

Here is a rough list of what is planned for the weekend, subject to time limits.

---------------------------------------------------

Bring work cloths/coveralls for the hands on.

LarryBible will demonstrate drip timing 240D

whunter will:

be answering questions both days.

inspecting your cars/addressing issues.

perform an alternative diesel fuel demonstration, one vehicle will run on four different fuels..

perform a full steering/suspension inspection W123

perform valve adjustment OM617

perform a full Brake inspection W123

R&R and lubricate the windshield wiper linkage W126

demonstrate/explain the correct location to install transparent filter into the vacuum system, as a safety device/permanent diagnostic tool.

demonstrate the correct way to remove the instrument cluster W123, 126

demonstrate the correct way to rebuild the vacuum pump OM617

demonstrate injector remove and install + nozzle replacement

demonstrate how to use the glow plug reamer and replace glow plugs OM617

EDIT: I was just informed the following may not be possible due to massive delivery damage.
Condition unknown, full survey of a EURO 4 speed manual transmission 300D Sunday, and get it running if possible.



Please post to this thread if you can attend...

I bet I could make this one.;)

Yes!!!!
 

I was hoping we'd hear that from you!

I'll be there! Maybe my 73 350SE with a 4 speed manual will be with me by then.

Gonna pencil those dates in. Sounds like a nice drive for Millie...and she rarely gets to visit with other Mercedes, being an only child :)

List so far --
 

Since this post is on Page 1 of the thread, I will continue to update the list [below] as folks let us know they're going to join the fun.


Al -- sounds like you'd need a crew to bring all those great cars, but who would you trust to drive your babies? So how do you choose which one to drive?

Tarbe -- we just bought an '83 300SD, and have a rowdy bunch of '84 300Ds, so Millie will have ample playmates her own age. It's a gorgeous drive up from Houston -- at that time of year, you're very likely to go from deep summer greens to the bright autumn colors in that trip, and all, if you want, on pretty country highways instead of boring interstates.

Who's coming so far:
1. whunter
2. sunnyintx (and John, her MBZ diesel-loving husband)
3. okieone
4. Whiskeydan
5. alabbasi
6. tarbe
7. sdpartz
8. dmorrison
9. chasinthesun
10. Rashakor
11. ik04
12. JimmyL
13. RichC (and young, hot wife!)
14. bodyart27
15. mechmagcn (maybe, Sunday only)
16. Hit Man X said :thumbup1:
17. justinperkins
18. LarryBible
19. rmakay
20. Fuzzball (definite maybe)
21. blindwolf (and wife)
22. MajikBenz + 3
23. Grandpa
24. Lakeside
25. RLeo
26. romansek
27. Pagoda_tect
28. TX76513 (John -- 90% likely)


[Counting friends, significant others, etc., we're now at 35 folks! Where are the rest of you?!? I'm ordering enough barbeque for a regiment, and we haven't even pulled together a division here!!! We can do better than this -- call/e-mail your friends in the 4-state area who'd like to learn a thing or two about their Mercedes-Benzes and invite 'em to come along. Just be sure to post additions to this thread so we keep a good count!! ]


We'll either join or watch the parade at 10:30 before we drag Roy off and start burying him in questions!! :laugh3: We'll have the shop open early for those who want to get started on their cars instead of watching other people's cars in the parade!

I'll put it on my schedule. I won't get my flying schedule until 20th of Sept. If I'm scheduled to fly that day I should be able to trade the trip.

Dave

Shelbys and Old Mercedes!:dizzy2: ,it dont get no better than that.I wouldnt miss it for the world.Now ,if we could put a MB diesel in a 67 mustang fastback.Hmmmmm

Spectacular!
 

Yay, Dave!! So glad you'll come!

Happy to see you, too, Chasinthesun! I don't think you should mention your idea where the Shelby people can hear you unless our crowd's bigger'n' theirs, but it sounds interesting indeed.....

We have held a diesel tec GTG here at my house for 5 years now, and we always have it on the second Saturday of October. That is the 13th if I remember correctly, and usually have about 20 to 25 cars show for the event. In the past they have been from TX, MO, AR, IL, TN, NB, OH, GA, MS, MI, OH, IA, KS, KY, WI MD, PA, and OK in the past. We also have Jeff from Rocket Chip in attendance to chip VW TDI's, Jeep CRD's, and MB diesels. If anyone wants to stop in feel free to do so, and here is a link to that happening. Old Navy's GTG

That said I will try to get there if I can, but I don't have the free time I had last year to travel., It's a long story but we are raising a grandson and the wife is working. If we can get his daycare changed to one next to where wife works I will have no problem with the time, it will just depend on how worn out I am from the GTG here the 13th at my place.

Go see oldnavy, THEN come to Winnsboro!
 

Everybody keep your fingers crossed that oldnavy works out his schedule and gets some rest so he'll join our party!

Or maybe vhunter and I and others can convoy down to TX, not really out of the way if your comming from MI or OH.

This is gonna be good!!!

Count me in.

Yes it is!! Welcome aboard -- lookin' forward to seeing you then!

I see we're gonna be cooking more than a couple of briskets.....which is just fine!