5.0 117 engine ( euro version) all scrubbed up

Chev V8 1/2 finished.
3.5 (3.67-1) diff installed in W111.

What's the 5.0 going into Ron?

__________________
With best regards

Al

This car...
http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y152/Mercmad/Deans%20Covertible/

is that your SLC in the background?

__________________
With best regards

Al

yep 74 450 SLC with custom interior and zender spoilers
I've just fitted new sills and a floor on the passenger side

That's a mighty good looking car. I love the under bumper spoiler.

__________________
With best regards

Al

I got it through as guy on the SL Friends site .Craig S was shipping a couple of Buicks from the US to here in OZ so I had the spoiler placed in one of the cars .It was here in a few weeks and freight was cheap because I only had to pay from San Fransisco to LA .
They are very rare now and i think they look better than the AMG or Stock spoilers. I have a set of Borbet type A wheels which may go on yet to round out the 1980's tuner look. but I need to sell it to make room for the two Mercs I bought last week....getting as bad as you!

Anyone got any plans this weekend? I had a productive start. Yesterday, I bought a Large metal tool cabinet (on casters) and a set of 4ft wide metal shelves for $150. Neither are very pretty but very strong and heavy duty so I have now migrated my tools there.


The weather was glorious so I spent my time at the shop tinkering on the 1997 E420. I changed the serpentine belt. The old one had bits stripped off it and was over due for replacement. Replacing it was quite interesting to say the least. Lesson learned is to draw a diagram of how the belt goes on before I remove the old belt.

After that, I changed the oil and put some fresh mobile 1 (the only car that gets it) and also replaced the fuel filter.

Tomorrow, I hope to change the front brake pads and bleed the brake system. The brake fluid is dirty. Then I want to look at the 350SL. It has some serious floor rust and no longer runs (it did when I got it). It would be nice to get it running again so that I can drive it out of the shop. I hate pushing!

I'll try to get some more work done during the week as I have vacation all week. Fun Fun!

__________________
With best regards

Al

Sl's are picking up in value ,possibly because knowone can afford to finance a new convertible and 350 is a nippy driving car.
K&S are your best bets for new floors and remember to check under the front fenders at the top of the firewall,that box gets eaten and never seen .It's a common source of water leaks once it eats into the car itself. I have sold my 450SLC,the new owner is happy it went straight through vehicle inspection without any problems.
The rest of the weekend is taken up with cleaning the shop before Christmas and finishing a paint job on a finny.

Ron

I have some old floor pans from a rust free car. The car is an SLC but I think the floors can be modified to fit. K&K are good folks, I bought some parts for the SLC 5.0 from them.

I really enjoy the SLC, they really are great drivers.

__________________
With best regards

Al

Sl's are 14" shorter so the tin snips are the next tool to use...

Yes Ron the floors have been cut to size

__________________
With best regards

Al

Productive weekend. I suspected that the fuel pump had gone out on my 72 350SL. It was not the right one in any case as it looked like the blue CIS pump and not the older D-Jetronic pump.

I attempted to use the pump from the old 350SLC parts car but was frozen solid. So I took it apart and dropped it some parts cleaner.

Instead I used the pump from the 72 280CE which I rebuilt some time ago. The 280CE does not run for some other reason which I have yet to determine.

After a couple of tries (hoses needed shortening and I had the pump wired incorrectly) I got the car running and it actually ran quite well while cold! Once it warmed up, it started running really rich.

I suspect that the idle richness was adjusted to compensate for a weak pump. I adjusted ECU dial to lean out the mixture. It's not perfect but i'm happy.

The floor on the other hand is pretty horrible. There is rust everywhere and I suspect that the entire section needs to be replaced including the cross member in the middle. I have some floors cut out of a 450SLC that i parted which I'm hoping will work. Once the floor is in, i'll need to rebuild the console as it was taken apart. Other then that , the dash does not have one crack on it and the seats are in great shape.

Here are some pictures of the floor.







Some may know, my W210 got vandalized last August and they must have unloaded 7 cans of spray paint on it. The headlights were already in pretty bad shape from de-lamination and were yellow and cloudy. I used goof off to get most of the paint from my car but the goof off made a real mess of my headlights.

As these are Xenon headlights, the dealer informed me that lenses were not available and the regular lens (which is all tempered) could not be used. No parts supplier had them either. Thanks to MBDOC, I was able to source the correct Hella lenses and fitted them today. They were not cheap, but they were a damn site cheaper then the $1200 per side that I would have had to pay for a new assembly.

Here is a pictures of the original headlight lenses.


Here is the new lens fitted to the drivers side.


In replacing the light lens, I discovered that the bulb must have burnt out my lens reflector and it made a real mess. It's not noticeable from the outside. Of course a call to the dealer confirmed that I would have to buy a whole assembly in order to replace the reflector so I will leave it like that.

Here is a picture of the reflector.


Here is a picture of the melted lens.


Here is a picture of the lights in a side by side comparison of the old vs new


Here is the finished job


Lastly I changed my brake pads. I've had the old ones on for more then a year but amazingly there was still a lot of pad left. I guess it's because I now live in a flat state and do a lot of highway driving.

I did find out that I need new rotors, so the plan is to change them out and bleed the brakes sometime during the week.

I also hope to have the floor out of the 350SL by the end of the week.

__________________
With best regards

Al

Nearly set the 350SL on fire today! The fuel lines were in bad shape so I replaced them and cranked the car up... Nothing. So a bit of carb cleaner and it still wouldn't play. A bit more and woof! the engine caught fire.

It took me about 30 seconds to get the fire extinguisher but there was not a lot of damage. The return line on the fuel rail was leaking thus causing the fire.
Once the fuel line was replaced I was able to start the car and get it running.

I also managed to un-seize a d-jetronic fuel pump although I don't know how good it is.

Lastly I replaced the rotors on my E420 and also re-connected a vac line to the air pump valve which I hope will clear my check engine light.

__________________
With best regards

Al

This weekend I made an attempt to repair the floor pan on my 72 Mercedes Benz 350SL. The car is quite interesting, it has very solid rocker panels (sills) but the floor is shot. It appears that the majority of the rust has taken place from the inside out and what looks like a solid floor is actually just under seal with very thin metal. You can poke it and it will bend like rubber.

I bought the car of a gentleman who originally bought some floor pans from me from a 450SLC that I parted out. So while I knew it needed bad floors. I also knew that the owner will be providing the floor pans that he cut out of my car.

I think the PO under estimated the amount of floor needed and while I did have some floor. It was not enough to cover the rest.

Here is a picture of what the drivers side floor pan looks like:


The passenger side is actually much much worse. With the big cross member that runs across the floor pan is completely rusted through.



Above is a picture of the floor cut out, with the replacement floor pan shown. The replacement floor pan is from the 450SLC but there is no way to weld it as the metal to the front and closest to the door is very weak and hence had to be remove. As I did not have that section of the floor. I made it using some sheet metal that I had lying around the shop using my bead roller.



The following pictures are in black and white because the camera seemed to take the pictures in green. The floor pan piece that I made was welded on by first drilling some holes 1.5 inches apart into the sheet metal then screwing it in using sheet metal screws. Once the floor was welded in, the sheet metal screws were removed and the holes were welded up.



Lastly, the 450SLC floor pan was welded in using the same method once the metal edges were cleaned up and the under seal was removed. While it isn't the prettiest weld. It does a good job of keeping the floor together.



The next step will be to grind the welds flat, then cover with seam sealer, then POR 15 so that the floor no longer rusts. I will also be using rubberized underseal to seal the underside of the floor.

__________________
With best regards

Al