De-chromafication

With Jade's bumpers, grille and headlights removed, a phone call from a really nice chap on the other side of the country who needed some chrome for his car, motivated me to get moving with the next stage of Jade's de-chromafication.

I few of the hip line trim pieces were already damaged making these a good place to start to see how easily the parts would come off; after all I didn't want to damage parts that someone else was able to use.

To my I surprised the hip line and sill trim pieces all come off very easily.  All I used was a cloth covered large flat screwdriver, and worked my way along each piece popping the clips out of the holders.  Jade may have been an exceptions as the trim had already been removed one already when Jade changed colour, cars with original paint may not be so easy.

Starting with a damaged one.  

Here you can see the red fixings that hold all the trim pieces in place.  

It is a simple press fixing.

So much chrome, part of the /8's appeal

 

The quarter panel hip line trim is almost 2metres long!!!

The sill trim for some reason had had new fixings points drilled into the sill which, with little consideration for the old one that were left unfilled, potentially assisted with the spread of moisture and therefore rust within the sills.  Not a good example of "out of sight, out of mind".

WHY??!!!! Why would you add twice as many holes into the sill?

Most alarming was the amount of crud that I found under the rear window trim.  This is of corner to me as UGU already has a rust blister under her back window which I have been trying to ignore, but seeing this I realise that I need to deal with it before winter arrives in June.

It is easy to see how rusting under the back window is so common 

when this much crud gets trapped under the trim.

Thankfully the clever folk at Mercedes-Benz in the late '60's must have know the day would come when I would need to post parts across Australia, so the rear window surround breaks down into several pieces thanks to these corner backing plates.

 Rear window trim as we would see it installed on the car

Rear window trim seen from the back with helpful backing plate holding the trim together 

A few of us have had lengthy discussions on W(A)114/115 debating a topic that gets a surprising amount of back lash from the purists: Chrome wheel-arch mouldings, WAM's for short.

Love them or hate them, WAM's appeal to a lot of people and are a common sight on many classic cars and, on the right body coloured car, I quite like them too, but being from the UK, I like many other people had concerns that they would trap moisture and lead to rust.  However, in our climate in Western Australia, we have busted this myth, it is simply not the case and Jade is another example of that.  Despite the huge amount of rust seemly everywhere in her body, the fenders and in near perfect, rust free condition.

WAM's removed and there is no evidence of rust on the 

fenders despite common misconception

Windscreen bottom lip trim and windscreen wiper cowl

So, with the chrome now all off, it's time to get them packed up and off to their new owner.

What's the next task you ask? hmmm, not sure yet so keep posted.

A date with Jade

After the big race today (Melbourne Cup) I decided that instead of heading out to celebrate with those that won, and commiserate with those that lost, my time would be better spent with Jade.

With a two hour window before sun set I was quite pleased with my progress, from this:

to the much sadder looking:

I was really surprised how easily I was able to remove the parts absent in the second picture, but even more surprised at how bad I felt about dong this; a bit like destroying a work of art.

I know that all these bits could be easily bolted back on, and yes I know that the rust is right though her, and yes I know I don't have the time nor money to restore her, but still; I feel sad.

I started this afternoon's work by removing the front bumper which I found significantly easier than the back one, probably due to ease of access.

There are four bolts that hold the top bumper bar in place, and as this is a Series 1 six cylinder car, it also has the lower bumperettes which are fixed the top bumper bar but also have a further two bolts securing them to the valance.

Front bumper mounting viewed from inside the wheel well. 

 (Front bolt has been removed in this photograph)

Bumperette mounting seen from above and behind the bumper.  

No room for a racket here so open ended or ring spanner only

With the bumper off I removed the headlights, grille, windscreen wipers and cowling which are so simple an explanation would be insulting to you the reader.  

The battery has been disconnected since Jade was parked up, but today I took it out to find the battery tray rotten and a piece of flat metal inlaid to fill the hole.  I am not sure what an intact battery tray is supposed to took like as I have never check UGU's, but I certainly hope it doesn't look like this:

Rusty battery tray, rust, rust everywhere...

And finally, as a reminder to myself as to why I am doing this, a gentle poke of the passenger sill with a screwdriver, and the the score is, screwdriver 1, Jade, Nil!!!

Screwdriver 1, Jade Nil

Tyro Part Mart - Item 3 Series 1 Steering Wheel

This is the steering wheel that was removed from Jade, 1971 W114 250CE.

There are a few cracks in it but it is perfectly usable or could be restored to be perfect, become the crowning jewel to your Mercedes restoration.

Suitable for W108, W109, W111, W112, W113, W114 & W115 vehicles

Quantity - 1 only

Part number: N/A

AUD $100 excluding postage.

Vacuum Seat Lock: Video

Further to my previous TyroBenz blog post relating to the repair of the vacuum driven seat locks on UGU's front seats; to which I received a lot of interest, I decided to take the opportunity to make a short video explaining the system as I began to uncover it as the interior dis-assembly of Jade continues.

I really hope that this is of help to someone else:

Apologies the video is not full screen, I will get it right for the next one!

Jade's weight loss begins

This morning in response to a parts request, I went out to check a few of Jade's interior parts which I had been storing safely in the boot as I have nowhere else to keep them.  You can imagine my annoyance when I was unable to unlock the boot!

After 5 minutes of fiddling with the lock and key my patience was wearing thin so I decided the best thing to do was walk away and come back to it later.

Later in the afternoon with a clearer head I went back to have another go, a further 20 minutes of fiddling n' twiddling with the key and a few swear words the key finally turned in the lock and I was able to open the boot; hurray! I was very relieved as there is no other way into the boot in these cars.

With the boot opened and an rare hour to spare, I decided to have a go at removing the back bumper which has been requested by a fellow MBCCWA member.

After a quick examination I located the four bolts that hold the bumper in place, two on the back and one on either side.  It is worth me mentioning that this is the long sided bumper which I understand was only fitted to W114's, that is 250 and 280 variants.  The smaller engined W115's had shorter / no side returns, and I would hazard a guess that they only have two bolts holding their bumpers on.

Note the length of the bumper returns on UGU....

.... compared to these shorter bumpers on this 220 (W115)

With the fixings location I sprayed them with a heavy dose of penetrating oil and set to work.  It is not possible to get a socket onto any of the fixings so a ring spanner was my weapon of choice, and a successful one at that.  The back fixings have a threaded bolt that is fixed to the car so it is just a nut that needs to be undone, on the sides it is the opposite, a bolt goes through the quarter panel into a nut that is an integral part of the side bracket.

Looking up at the bumper, back bracket of which there are two.  

The nut is what needs to be undone

Passenger side bumper fixing is located inside the boot once the boot side trim is removed.  I found the bolt to be too close to the bracket to use a socket and ratchet, so again a ring spanner was the best option

The drivers side was a little harder to spot initially as it is tucked in behind the jack cradle, petrol tank vent filter and on this car, behind the electric ariel  

I have to admit I was also a little distracted by Jade's internal water feature!  This channel was full of water, and of course rust!!

With the bolts undone, the bumper can be slipped off, however if you are dong this on a car that you are precious about, I would call a friend as it could be very easy to scratch the paintwork.

Once the fixings are all undo, it's time to phone a friend

This is what the back fixing point looks like

Job done.  Just needs a polish and then it's off to a new home

And just to confirm to myself that I am doing the right thing dismantling Jade, some more rust!

Disassembly begins

With the decision made to sacrifice Jade to the benefit of others, I set to work removing the interior of the car which despite being filthy wasn't in bad shape.

First I removed the front seats, a simple job of removing four bolts per seat that I had done on UGU many times before.  I then moved onto the back seat, door cards and rear panel cards; again all things I was familiar with from working on UGU.

Drivers seat was the first thing to be removed

 Unfortunately the drivers seat shows wear to the door side, but generally the seats are in usable condition. Note seats are in reverse order in picture

The back seat was/is actually in great condition once the dirt was removed

Back seat with ghostly seat belt pattern

After a wash down, the rear seat is in near perfect condition

With the seats out there was now a lot more room to work in the car.  I turned my attention to cleaning it out.  As with many cars you always find rubbish under the seats that you would rather not have to touch.  Hair brushes, half eaten sweets, bottles of juice, as well as parking tickets and general accumulation of 40 plus years of gunk. On the flip side, I found $1.45 in change and in a rare instance, found the missing accelerator pedal under the passenger seat!

Centre console in excellent condition

As I started to remove the interior trim I was reminded of the excellent build quality of these cars.  Not a single thing broke or snapped as I undid the screws and bolts.  Only one screw in the rear had rusted do the point that I needed to drill it out.

With that said, I have become sceptical as to whether this car has actually been stored inside as I was told by the previous owner.  It may have done; time can also be a destructive source, but the dash pad, rear view mirror and seat belts were so brittle that it seems to me that they have been sitting in strong day light.

Seat belt spaghetti

I removed the centre console which again was pretty easy despite my concerns about it otherwise.  The hardest thing to remove was non Mercedes-Benz stereo which, without the key to remove it from it's cradle could only be removed with the console out.

Aftermarket stereo and a very damaged gear knob

I removed the speaker cables running to the back of the car and all the old mouldy carpet, things were looking better, well cleaner anyway: the level of rust was not looking healthy at all.

The cleanest this interior has been in many years

As you would have seen in my previous post, this car has had a dreadful repair done to the drivers footwell which has allowed water to get into the car and has run back as far as the front seats, but interestingly it looks like this car has also had issues with rust along the length of the passenger side sill that has been painted over perhaps in a bid to stop it.

I cannot for one minute believe this messy black paint work is standard issue Mercedes-Benz which makes me think this is someones attempt at rust prevention

I make reference to this car being "beyond repair".  To clarify, no car is beyond repair if you are willing to pour the money into it. So what I mean is this car is beyond economical repair.  It would cost several times the cars value to repair it, so until my lottery numbers come in, I am not in a position to salvage this car and so, by dismantling it I am hoping to help other owners and enthusiasts, recoup my initial investment in both the car and tools, and expand my knowledge of these amazing cars so that one day I can perhaps bring one back from the brink.  Everything I learn I will share with you via my Tyrobenz blog.

Check out my first Tyrobenz video to find see more about the disassembly process:

The diagnosis is not good

After giving Jade a good wash I turned my attention to looking for rust.

I already knew the boot floor was very rusty as the accident damage to the rear end meant that the boot lid was no longer able to close correctly, allowing water to leak in.

Accident damage allows water into boot and the boot floor begins to rust

I next lifted out the interior carpets. The floors in the back were solid and in good condition put as I started to look towards the front things took a nasty turn.  In the passenger floor there was a large hole and as I pulled back the frayed carpet on the sill more daylight could be seen.  I had a look under the car and saw huge patches of rust spreading towards the rear.

Rear driver-side floor section is solid and rust free, but does have cobwebs

 Passenger floor and footwell is full of rust allowing daylight to be seen

As I moved to the drivers side the story got a whole lot worse.  I find it amusing that I was able to get into the car and drive it and not notice that there was no accelerator pedal!  The lack of pedal is an excellent clue to the dreadful repair that had been done previously to the drivers footwell.  The repair is crude to say the least, and the fact they did nothing to address the rust issues as that repair was being executed, just made things worse.

Special edition light weight accelerator!  You can see the floor is wet following me washing the car, so water must be leaking through the firewall somewhere. Not good.

Drivers side floor.  I don't know if you could call this is repair, but what ever you call it, it is a disaster!!

It is enough to make you sick!

At this stage things are looking very bleak, but I had to keep looking.  The harder I looked the worse things got.  

These next photos are not for the weak hearted, and will potentially upset fellow lovers of not only the stroke 8, but all classic cars out there.

The boot is very rusty and is thinner than paper at the back edge and around the fuel filler

Holes through the body work where the boot closes

Rust bubbles around back window

More bubbles starting to come through in the rear quarter panel, a common stroke 8 rust spot

Rear wheelarch, passenger side.... 

which after a bit of poking with my finger became this, then....

THIS!!!!!  I stopped at this point.

Driver side footwell.  Again I am not sure why water would be seeping in here, but it cannot be a good thing.

Game over!

No doubt by this time, like me you will all be feeling sick to the stomach.  The rust is horrendous, and I sure, like an iceberg, there is a lot more that I cannot see at this stage.

It breaks my heart to do it, but I have decided that there is no hope for Jade.  There is no way I could commit to the investment it would take to fix her.  It would take a full bare metal restoration to cut out all this rust. I hope to salvage as many parts as I can to help save some other series 1 C114's; UGU included, before sending Jade for a permanent vacation.