This weekend's wrenching - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

alabbasi · #1 07-03-2006, 12:38 AM

This weekend, we managed to put the fuel pump on the Rover P6 and change some fuel lines. We also added all the new hoses and thermostat onto the engine and put the stainless steel exhaust system that we pulled from the other Rover P6 that we parted out. We then connected the battery cranked the engine and nothing....
We disconnected the fuel line at the fuel filter located next to the carburetor and turned the ignition. We could hear the fuel pump turning and some bubbling sound but no fuel. We then checked the manual and compared the fitting at the fuel pump to the one on the diagram in the manual and we could see that some of the fittings were the wrong way around. Once we corrected this, we switched the ignition on and fuel came through the pipe to the carbs. We connected everything back and cranked the engine and bam... it fired into life like it has been run for the last 20 years. We had to adjust the carbs so that it would idle at 1000 rpm (anyone know the correct idle setting?). I was happy.

Later that evening, I ran an angle grinder with a wire cup brush attachment over some of the rusty areas to see what I had... it looked bad but not as bad as I though.

Here are some pictures.

B-Piller has some holes here that could be plated. Inner Sills appear to be in good shape.

Pretty nasty just below the C-Piller. Will need to be cut away and welded.

Stainless Steel Muffler bolted up, new hangers and clamps.

Today was a super busy day, we took the rear brake calipers off the rear end from the 2000TC that we parted out and the front calipers from the 3500S. Jim will take these home and use the rebuild kits that I bought to rebuild them.

As some now, I sold my 78 Euro Mercedes Benz 450SEL 6.9 to Wodnek from the MB forum who will come to collect the car in a couple of weeks. As Wodneck lives in Wisconsin, Jim and I hit the local pick and pull to locate some rust free parts that he would need for the 6.9 restoration. We pulled a set of doors, a trunk lid and hood. Most of the doors have their full internals including window, regulator motors and door panels.

I also have a set of Euro bumpers; Grill and other trim panels grouped together for when I was planning the restore that is probably going with the car. I still feel a little sad about not restoring it but I know that Woodnek will bring it back and make it flawless.

As you can see in the picture below, I'm piling the parts together that will go with the 6.9 in preparation for its collection.

So some would ask why I would sell this car if I liked it so much and was so keen on restoring it? Well there are a few reasons. First of all, I have too many restoration projects going at one time. The Rover P6 is in the middle of a full blown rebuild in process, the 280SEL still needs interior and electrical work and then the A/C and heater taken care of. The 6.9 has lost it's temp gauge and still needs the A/C addressed and I would like bring my 71 RHD Mercedes Benz 250CE here to the US from where it's been sitting outside my father's house in London for the last 8 years..
All of these are good reasons to lighten the load but the biggest reason for me is that I wanted to buy a pickup truck. I have a bunch of work to do on the house including the eventual building of an external garage and I also have some big restoration projects that require me to head to the junk yard on a regular bases. Every time I need to buy a large item from Home Depot or the junk yard, I either have to rent a pickup truck or Pay Jim for his time and Gas money (his truck is a 5 ton box truck that does 6mpg) to bring these pieces home. It just makes sense to get a pickup. So this week, I thought I would spend Wodneck's hard earned money in buying a pickup truck and had my eye on a 63 Ford F100 step side that was described as needing a fuel pump, some wheel cylinders and brake shoes. The truck was a lot rustier then it was described. We tried to run a gravity fuel line to the carbs so that I could hear it running. The car would not fire up but we did see a lot smoke coming from the dip stick indicating blow by. I walked away. So this truck fell through, what was I going to do? I really needed a truck and the last thing I needed was another restoration project. So I bought an MGB that appears to be nine boxes.

OK so I’m out of my mind, but I have always wanted one of these. This is a 1973 which is the last year before they started getting funky and the seller has started taking it apart to begin his restoration. His work role began to require him to do a lot more traveling and he found himself not having any time to spend on it. The fact that the car is stripped allowed us to have a real good look at the car. The frame was very solid with very little rust, the interior was stripped and the only rust that I could find was by a seat bracket. All the pieces are available and the previous was willing to allow us to take anything we wanted from a 74 MGB Parts car before he junks it.

I put a deposit down and agreed to collect it in a couple of weeks. Here are some pictures. Enjoy:

Finally, This weekend I covered some pretty serious distance in my 6.9. As it was a Sunday and traffic was light I thought I would drive it back and forth from the yard and to see the MGB. I have really missed this car. It's so much more responsive since I cleaned the injectors out. The difference is amazing! I also seem to be getting better gas mileage. This time I got 280 miles from my $63 dollars. It may still be low to some, but I'm not shy about booting my car. I even had a guy in a CLS500 accelerate to get a better look, of course I didn't let him get to close ;-).

mercmad6.3 · #2 07-03-2006, 06:19 AM

Ali...Maaaate! why on earth would anybody spend time and money restoring a MGB body? ,It's just not done any more,A heritage body shell is miles cheaper and it's brand new!.
http://www.mgcars.org.uk/cgi-bin/gen5?runprog=mgoc&a=&p=emg/bmhltd.html

alabbasi · #3 07-03-2006, 06:45 AM

Heritage shells are pretty expensive and this body is 99% rust free. They make sense in England but not in the US, this body looks like it came out of southern california or Arizona, apart from a tiny bit of rust, there is nothing there.

davestlouis · #4 07-03-2006, 09:02 AM

I always look forward to your reports...although you're scaring me with all the English cars...you're going to need a tow truck, not a pick-up.

Wodnek · #5 07-03-2006, 04:12 PM

I thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to find me rust free parts that just are not available in the rust belt.
Thanks,
Wodnek

alabbasi · #6 07-03-2006, 04:47 PM

No problem, I needed to top up my farmers tan anyway. Hopefully you wont need any more large items. Let me know if you ever need smaller items.

alabbasi · #7 07-04-2006, 09:25 PM

OK so now that I have my NADA Rover P6 project running, I decided that it would be a good time to start stripping the carpets and seeing what we have behind it. The carpets were very rotten and disintegrated as soon as you touched them.

The drivers side (left) still appears pretty solid. I ran an angle grinder to it with a wire cup brush attachment and removed much of the surface rust. The Right passenger side is an a horrible state. We can see that the rust has eaten at the floor from the inside out which is not usual as the car does not have a sun roof. Work back to front you can see most of the floor in the rear is rotten.

The front floor was as bad with pin holes everywhere and a huge gaping hole at the tip of the floor.

The inner sill is also rotten I managed to bunch a pretty nasty hole with just my hands.

I also found a hole in the transmission tunnel that appears to have been cut out to make access space for a dip stick.

I'm going to see if I can cut he sill from the 2000TC parts car. I doubt that the floor on that car will be in good shape. This is starting to look pretty ugly now.

Mike D · #8 07-05-2006, 12:50 AM

Well, you did say you wanted to practice with that wire-feed welder!

suginami · #9 07-05-2006, 01:03 AM

Thanks for the update. I really enjoy reading about your progress on all the cars.

On the one hand I admire and envy you with all the resto work, but on the other hand I keep thinking to myself, "...there but for the grace of God go I.....".

alabbasi · #10 07-30-2006, 06:10 PM

The floor pan is on for the most part and the rocker panel has been repaired. The rear section was replaced with the floor of the 2000TC that I parted out. The front section was replaced with 2 sheets of 20 gauge metal that I purchased from the local hardware store.

I took Ron's advice and cut a pattern from a cardboard box first. We had to do some hammering while welding to form the shape required. In the end we got a pretty decent weld. On the rocker panel side, we had to add some 16 gauge angle iron as the lowest part of the inner sill was rusty. Once this was welded we had to jack the floor pan up to meet the angle iron piece.

We could raise the whole car on the new floor pan so I guess this weld is going to hold

Here the rear floor pan from the 2000TC that I parted out was welded in place. This floor is not perfect and has some surface rust.

The front floor was replaced with new sheet metal.

The top of the rocker panel was repaired using a section from the 2000TC that was cut to size and replaced. The lower section was repaired using 16 gauge angle iron that was purchased at the local hardware store.

Wodnek · #11 07-31-2006, 07:37 AM

Looks good. I would get some POR 15 and paint both sides so the rust doesnt return.

alabbasi · #12 08-13-2006, 09:21 PM

The last two weeks were spent working on the floor of my Rover P6 and also fitting heat shields to my 6.9. When I bought the 6.9, the heat shield appeared to have been replaced with a fibreglass material with a reflective lining. It went with the floor pan when it was replaced. Driving the car without the heat shields was almost unbearable. So when I found a 450SEL in the junk yard, I pulled the heat shields from it. Last weekend I installed them.

The first thing that came to my mind when I drove this car after the heat shields were fitted was why oh why didn't I do this earlier! The car feels so much better to sit in now that even in the Atlanta heat and with no A/C, the car is fun to drive with the windows down.

My joke for the car (as it was silver and shiny) was to call it my fat suit. This is because as soon as you get into it, you would sweat 5lbs.

The rover has new floors! we installed them and then gave them a thorough going over with POR15. After welding the floor, I used the fabric material provided in the floor repair kit to cover the joins so that they do not rust at the seam. I plan on adding additional silicon sealer to that followed by under seal but for now, it looks pretty decent.

This is the front floor when we started.

Then we added the new sheet metal.

Now sealed

New metal was also added to the outer wheel well

The C-Pillar

The rear inner wing and the crushed mud guard was cut away and replaced with a good one from the 2000TC that we parted earlier.

We stopped today when we run out of welding wire but I think we have only one more days worth of welding before we start the body work and paint.

It's slowly coming along.

You can see the complete list of photos on http://www.w108.org/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=Rover-P6&page=1

Wodnek · #13 08-13-2006, 11:51 PM

Looks like youve made some progress.
I recieved my POR15 catalog. There is alot i would like to get in the catalog. Too bad money doesn't grow on trees! Although if it did I would have bought a 6.9 that didn't need work.

alabbasi · #14 08-14-2006, 12:02 AM

The POR-15 is good stuff, but I would never never never ever use this stuff to make a floor pan. I don't care what they suggest. The fact that they suggested that made me really wonder.

It may be feasible for a car with separate chassis but on a uni body car, the floor is structural. I did lay that fibreglass floor kit on edges and the seems in an effort to seal. While it hardened, you could push a screw driver through it if you applied enough effort. Fortunately there's now a metal floor underneath it.

I know have this urge to paint my cars. Both the MG and the Rover. I've been doing a lot of reading on the autobody101 website and it seems like PPG omni au may be the paint to go with.

Has anyone here painted their own car? I would love to hear your first time experience.

I'm still looking forward to seeing that black 6.9 get bought back... hurry up and finish the 300D. If the 6.9 is outside, put a tarp over it, the sunroof leaks like a b****rd.

Wodnek · #15 08-14-2006, 09:29 AM

PPG is deffinately the way to go. They do the best job of color matching.
Be sure to have enough compressor before you attempt the job. A good rule is that if it runs on 110 its probably not enough compressor for painting.

Be sure to use a good air drier. The toilet paper filter driers work good. They have a cartridge that holds a roll of toilet paper that does the drying and filtering.

Buy a large hood with lots of contours to practice on. You need to learn how to put enough paint on edges and lines without getting any runs.