JiveTurkey's Garage
 

Hello friends in the vintage forum. Its been a while since I've posted anything at all but I've been trying to read the new posts when they come up. Suffice it to say that 2011 has been an odd year for me. Its a long story but I'll give you the concise version of it.

In february of this year my 76 year old grandfather left my granny up here all alone to die. He ran out (they were married for fifty four years!!!) with a 36 year old oxycontin addicted prostitute down to florida. At the time grams had a broken back. I quit my job and moved out to the farm (22 miles from my house) to take care of granny and all the **** that needs to be done daily on a farm. On the plus side, the giant garage i used for Wilma a year ago is now mine! ALL MINE! Grandma is having a rough go of it. She's eighty one years old, and this is the year she stopped driving. Shes largely unable to care for herself, so I cook the meals and take care of her as best I can.

Needless to say there has been slow progress on the Merc fleet. In september I was going to buy a forum members w116 so I flew out to Dallas, but I ended up not purchasing it. I did however finally get to meet Alabassi. Holy **** can he cook an amazing Lamb Curry!!!

"Mert" the 280 (wolf walkers old car) is in GREAT shape right now. I havent had to touch the bloody Solex at all and it still fires up on the first try every morning I need it to. I attribute most of this to Wolf Walkers incredible talent tuning the carb, and partly to Leaded gas. Both of my 114's really love leaded gas. Right now I'm replacing the windshield on Mert, and doing a few other little odds and ends on him.

"Karl" the 300SD is damn near ready for the road again. In april I took out the injection pump because the shaft that attached to the ALDA had broken, sticking the rack in the low enrichment position. The result? A car that would do no more than 997rpm. I did actually fix things by removing the top cover to the old IP, welded a shaft to the broken part, replaced the top cover, and then clamped locking pliers on the "new" shaft to keep it in the "up" position. This actually worked brilliantly for six months. Anyway, my new IP from Phil sat on my workbench from April until just the other day. Once I time it the SD will be back on the road and mightier than ever.

"Wilma" (everyones favorite Green Coupe) has been sitting patiently in the garage since march when her fuel pump and fuel pump relay blew. Wilma is on the back burner for now.

In other news, I bought a fintail. No really, I did. It's a '63 220b out in California that I found on a popular auction site. I have to arrange shipping but it looks like a nice clean old beast. The heater core has a leak and is bypassed. How bad is it to replace a heater core on a w111? I also added a Hobart Air Force 500i plasma cutter to my arsenal. Holy **** does it make cutting metal fun!! I dont think I'm ever going to use my double cut shears, my tin snips, or my die grinder to cut metal ever again!

I'll be posting all my automotive escapades in this thread from now on, except for highly specific questions which I will ask in a seperate thread. That way if someone is searching for that particular issue they won't have to dig through this thread.

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...84862107_n.jpg
Heres a picture of the aforementioned fintail that I took from the guys ebay listing. No thats not me in the car.
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...62359377_n.jpg

The SD is starting to look distinctly annoyed. Its been sitting there with the hood up since april.
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._4019654_n.jpg

And last, here's my 280 "Mert" looking very happy in his berth.
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._7648402_n.jpg

You're a good man, Turkey - doing the right thing on all fronts. I dig the garage.

Thanks man. It hasn't been easy. For instance, grandma has had three falls this year that have put her in the hospital. For each one either myself or my mom was by her side until they released her. The hospitals here like to kill elderly patients through stupidity. Mom and I are actually the sole remaining family members my grandma has left. How sad is that? I can't tell you how many times people from the hospital kept telling us to put her in a nursing home. We sure As **** aren't going to let that happen. Were making sure she gets to stay in her own home / farm until she's gone.

Fun fact, grandma has smoked a pack a day or more (cigarettes) since 1948. She STILL makes me go outside to smoke one of my cigars though. :D

She actually did manage to drive once a couple months ago. I rode with her to make sure everything was ok. She loves her car, naturally it's an E 320 BluTec. Holy smokes is that thing quick!!

I love that garage! But if I had that space, I would just fill it up with more junkers and I already have too many junkers :)

You and me both man. Thankfully I have the presence of two females to moderate my propensity to purchase any Mercedes with wheels and rust. Lol. I've actually got fifteen acres of farm to store Junkers on. I don't have any Junkers yet, but I'm sure after I slip in the first dozen or so the ladies will simply give up. There's actually a 42' X 20' berth attached to the rear where an RV used to be stored. Unfortunately there's not A SINGLE ELECTRICAL OUTLET in said berth.

As it is my shop barely has enough juice for my needs. I think there's only 40amp service when I'd prefer to have 100 plus. Still, it beats the **** out the two car garage I used to cram everything into.

Hey Al, tomorrow if I remember I'll take a picture of that weird furl pump and ppst it here for you to look at. It's sitting on my bench.

Thanks for checking in, and taking care of your family!!

It's funny that you mention that because I was just thinking about it.
The correct Mercedes Benz fuel pump should look like this:

http://www.4mercs.com/files/product_...0010917101.jpg

This is what I have on my 280CE's and what i've had on my various other V8 D-Jet cars.

If I remember your description, you seem to have something like this:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/catalog/..._fuel_pump.JPG

Which is a Porsche 914 D-jet fuel pump. As it's still a D-Jet fuel pump, it's probably going to have the same flow and pressure as the MB one and would work on your 250CE.

Let me know if I'm close.

Seriously jealous of your play space. Deeply humbled by your willingness to step up for your family. It isn't often easy, but it is often challenging ;)

The simple completeness of something Darling Wife said to me once has stuck, has calmed the turmoil more than once: "They're family. It's what you do."

Congrats on doing the right thing. Hope you can make Grandma's last days better.

I sold a car very similar to the one you bought, the fintail, I mean. I still have some other parts. It's gonna be between you and whoever else wants them when they get sorted for sale.

You are lucky things are as warm as they are in Tennessee. I have to install a heater soon for the winter!

Keep us posted on what's going on, and if you need help!

A wise person once said to me: "If your having trouble deciding what the right thing to do is,...choose the one that's the hardest, that's usually the right one". Nursing home,..easy. Being care giver to the elderly,...hard.
As if I didn't have enough reasons to hate you already (big garage, plasma cutter, fun cars, endless projects), now I find out your caring and sincere! This may take some time for me to "get over".
Best wishes to you and your family, they are lucky to have you.
Jack

Sterl sold me his 61 220Sb finnie. Let me know what you need.

Salute !
 

You are doing the right thing,,the greatest gift is helping others in need.

I can't thank you guys enough for the kind words. Really, I can't. I'm only 23 (going on 85) but I've already had to pack up and move ten separate times in my life. I've been here in TN for the last three years but still haven't made a single friend or gone out much. If it weren't for peach parts, my LP collection, and cigars I'd have gone insane by now surely.
Threes still a few chapters to the saga of the last year that I haven't told you guys either. Here's another, the story of Cole. Cole was born in '62 and was a full blown alcoholic by '79. Larry, my grandfather (yes, the bloke who ran out on poor old granny) has purchased sixteen cars, ten homes, and multiple businesses for Cole. Colehas never worked a day in his life, and on average consumes 48 beers a day. We have broken our hearts and our backs trying to get him sober, but despite two (completed) trips to rehab he saws back on the bottle in only a few weeks.
Two years ago Cole decided to stop trying altogether. He sat in his house and did nothing but drink and watch TV for a year. He ended up so deconditioned that he was unable to rise from his bed and started literally ****ting the bed... At 48. Of course old Larry rushed him to the hospital, and after a few weeks the docs there saved his life. When Cole got out of the hospital what do you think he did within forty eight hours? That's correct, drink. In February when Larry absconded with his whore, Cole dutifully followed the gravy train.

Are you ready for the sickening part? While my mom and I have been out here on the farm being caregivers / field hands, old Cole has been LIVING in a La Quinta in Florida on the beach since march on Larrys dime. Cole has always been grandmas favorite (he is her firstborn, after all) and she is unable to cope with his tailspin. Beloved Coleman is also a deadbeat dad to his two kids in Wisconsin whom he hasn't seen since 2007.

Words alone cannot express the pain of the betrayal, the lies, and the pain that my granny, mom, and I have been through. There's actually still more to the story than what you've read so far. It's actually cathartic to tell you guys, so I hope you don't mind the rambling novella above. I promise i will talk cars in my next post.

this year, yes, you're correct. But last year when I was relying on my SD for daily driver duty it was not so! The CCU and the blower died simultaneously. I had to drive around with weather in the teens until the parts came. I then learned that the fog from your breath will ACTUALLY FREEZE to the inside glass. This presented an additional challenge for winter driving. Lol.

Is do have to say this, with Bridgestone weather force tires that w126 was one of the best snow cars I've ever driven. It had no trouble starting even when it dipped below ten degrees.

Isn't your ccu basically the monovalve, for heating purposes? I just put one in my 126 and it didn't help much.
Plus I need to check out the radio in my 126 which seems dead. Can't find the second fuse in that thing to get it to work.