What I've Been Up To At Work

Early this summer one of my customers sprung a bit of a surprise on me - he had just paid his brother many tens of thousands of Euros for their Grandmothers old 1952 Mercedes 220 cabriolet. "Better" still, it was a non-runner that had been off the road for over twelve years!
Despite having spent my all working life working on Mercedes and a lot of that time on the older models and classics I was still a little worried (or a lot worried truth be known) as over three thousand euros had been spent on it in Rome in an attempt to start it. Worse, I had six weeks to turn it around before it was booked on the Dover/Calais ferry so that he could drive it back to his Grans old home where she lived when she bought it brand new. In sixty four years this car has had just the one family owner.
Finally the lorry arrived with it in and we unloaded it. At first glance it didn't look too bad - new brakes had been fitted just before it was laid up all those years ago, a new fuel tank had been fitted fairly recently (more of that later) and all the ignition system had been replaced in Rome as well. They had managed to get it to start but that was about it - keeping it running was a challenge and attempting to actually drive it proved impossible. The bodywork was sixty four years old but in good but not perfect condition and the chassis and running gear looked A1. The soft top had been replaced (a leaky rag top is no use to anyone!) and the interior trim had needed replacing after its lay up and looked to have been done to a good standard. It also had all its books and manuals present, a complete factory toolkit and the fitted luggage was also present and in good condition.
So the work began. A cylinder leakage test showed that the engine was in pretty good order with just a little leakage from a couple of exhaust valves. But the carburetor was full of what looked like silt, some alluminium corrosion had made a hole in the body where there shouldn't be a hole and the flat faces were no longer flat. One of the metal plates that bolt to the side of the block to expose the water jacket was like a pepper pot but the other one was fairly new.
The cylinder head was taken off and sent to the engineers to have hardened valve seats fitted for unleaded fuel. The customer then decided bugger it, we'll replace the piston rings now and be done with it so that was done. A new set of valves were ground in before the head was refitted to the engine.
Sadly the hot spots in the exhaust manifold had obviously been blowing so some kindly Italian mechanic removed the flap, bi-metallic spring and spindle and shoved a nut and bolt in instead to stop the exhaust blow. Without this part there and in working order it means that the inlet manifold gets super heated when the engine is at operating temperature resulting in the fuel exploding in the inlet instead of the cylinder. So a kit was located and this was sorted out properly.
Then the carburetor. The corrosion hole was welded up and then I reprofiled it by hand. The unflat surfaces were made flat by hand using a sheet of glass and emery paper and the whole thing totally stripped back to its component parts and thoroughly cleaned before rebuilding. The fuel tank was drained, the fuel lines flushed through, an inline fuel filter added (the factory fit filter was an inadequate effort and caused no end of problems so it was always backed up with an extra filter in the fuel line) and fresh fuel put in.
New oils and fluids and it was now ready for a good run. A quick ten mile test and return for a check over as this was the first time it had been on the road in many years. All looked good so off for a grand tour of a hundred miles or so but ten miles in it was flagging so turn around and back to the workshop. Horror of horrors, the silt was getting past the fuel filters and blocking the carburetor again. It could only be coming from the new tank (maybe they had refilled it with the old fuel?) so the tank was removed. illegitimate children! They had cut the top off of the old tank, cleaned it out (badly), welded it back up and then done a gorgeous job of repainting it so that it looked brand new when it was fitted back to the car. Time was running out so we had to cut it open, clean it out properly (far from ideal), reweld it and refit the damned thing. A second inline filter was added and the day before it was supposed to leave another long roadtest was attempted. Fifty miles in and disaster number two - the brakes were sticking on! However, calm soon returned and the fault soon became clear - the small vent in the top of the alluminium reservoir cap had corroded up and sealed it up. As the brakes were used the fluid expanded but the air in the top of the reservoir couldn't escape causing the brakes to bind. A small hole was drilled and all was well.
Come the day of departure the owner was given a bagful of replacement filters and a clip tool and shown how he would be changing the filters every morning. The tank had been cleaned as best as possible in the time that we had but better safe than sorry was the opinion of mechanic and owner. Then they left for Sicily!
The next time that I saw the car was six weeks later. It had covered over six thousand kilometers and that was the first time that it saw the inside of a workshop since it had left. Along the way I received regular updates which included one very moving text as he thanked me for making the dream happen. He loved this car as a child and now it is his the intention is to keep it as original as possible whilst ensuring its reliability.
So it has been back to its first home and now it is back. A huge trip after such a long lay up has bought to light the jobs that need doing and as I'm doing these I'm taking photos (time constraints the first time around meant that it never occurred to me to photograph the work) so in my next posts I'll list the work with photos.

If you got this far thanks for reading!

 

Your talent is amazing!

 

Must show this to the OH! I often wondered what you did for a living, longk.....

 

Blimey Lonk, well done mate

 

Someone that has never done a job like this, ie bringing something back to life, will never understand the sheer satisfaction on different levels of doing so. @longk well done. Looking forward to seeing the photos in your next post...

 

A very interesting read it was too!

I was a little worried, at one point, that some immigrant children had been smuggled in via the tank ...

...

Bravo on a labour of love

 

@longk when I read the word "body" I wasnt sure if you meant the carb body or the actual car body. If my ancient memory serves, this car was built in the period Mercedes were changing over from aluminium to steel construction. I assume you used something like Lumiweld to make the repair?

The (ground) glass and emery is real old school mechanics, good for you.

When you refer to the metal plates, I assume you mean the ones covering the tappet chest? Again, trusting to memory (probably wrong) there were two, each covering 3 cylinders.

 

Thanks all!

Definitely! Especially on something like this which is about recommisioning the car as opposed to a restoration - with this it is my call what is needed rather than just gutting it and starting again. For the owner it is an emotional choice to retain as much of the original car as possible.

Nah............foul mouthed sod that I am I swore!

Nope - it was the carb body. It was a flaw in the original casting mould that left a very small thin area in the casting that basically evaporated as soon as any corrosion set in. If you didn't know you would assume that it was meant to be there.

Optically good glass and emery (or cutting paste) is a good enough basis for most light automotive repairs if you are in the doo-doo or don't trust the local machine shop enough with something that is almost impossible to replace.

Nope. The W186 model (introduced in 1951 or '52) was the first post war Merc produced using a new six cylinder overhead camshaft engine. It was also the first oversquare engine that Mercedes made. There was a steel plate on each side of the engine that exposed the water jacket when removed.See parts 50 and 51 below...............

 

@longk as you know, I am working on a car at present. That too started off as a recommissioning but ended up as a full blown restoration. I'll start a thread on it in the hobbies section when I can show you that it started in a similar way to the 220 you are working on!

 

You? Never!

 

If I am a credit it is to the two guys that I worked with as an apprentice and the wisdom of five year apprenticeships (as opposed to these modern affairs that seem to last a couple of years at most).

Upon her return from her journey we went out for a ride and stopped in the town for provisions. We parked her behind a McClaren 12C and guess which drew the bigger crowd! Worth similar money as well!

Next autumn she will be resprayed at a cost of £15000'ish. Thankfully there is only one spot of rot but the paint has started to crack since she was returned to the road. We will have to make a call before then as to how far we go when that happens as it would be the ideal time to gut the chassis and do a ground up restoration whilst the body is off.

 

So, the front end was relatively straightforward. It was sitting a little too low and was too floaty so the springs and shock absorbers where replaced. New anti roll bar bushes as well. These were already on the "too do" list before the trip.
After the trip one of the rear wheel cylinders was found to have developed a leak. Despite the fact that all the wheel cylinders had been replaced shortly before the car was parked up all those years ago the customer decided that it would be best to replace all the cars brake cylinders (at a cost of over €1500) as a car without brakes "will soon become rubbish"!
New wheel cylinders, springs, shockers and other small jobs. by longk48, on Flickr

New wheel cylinders, springs, shockers and other small jobs. by longk48, on Flickr

The lower spring mountings which bolt to the lower wishbones had 64 years worth of crap in them and some mild rust. After a soak in a rust treatment solution they were repainted. The bump stops were still in good condition so they were cleaned and refitted.
The oil leak came from a perished o'ring on the one shot oiling system. After all those years the one shot still works perfectly.
One other issue that cropped up after the trip was excessive play in a track rod end. Unlike a modern car these can be stripped out and the issue was a broken preload spring so all of these were replaced and the track rods themselves were cleaned, repainted and the adjustment threads lubed before reassembly.

And that was it for the front suspension, steering and brakes.

 

I could be tempted to come over and help with that restoration...

 

I got sidetracked today as the owner of the cabriolet wants to buy a 1966 Mercedes 250S that we have for sale on behalf of another customer. The only sticking point is the awful gearshift quality and delayed shifts from the automatic box.
The fault was easy to find - the three way solenoid on the top of the box was seized. This solenoid tells the gearbox roughly where the accelerator is and gives it an idea of how hard it is being driven. Alongside a valve that is controlled by the vacuum that the engine is producing (more of this later) this controls the quality and timing of the gearchanges.
Mercedes 250S gearbox solenoid by longk48, on Flickr

Removal of this solenoid is a pain in the arse! It sits on the top of the gearbox and is held on by two bolts. One bolt is easily got at through the hole in the transmission tunnel that doubles up as access to the solenoid link rod adjuster. The other bolt is impossible to get at without removing the rear gearbox mounting, dropping the exhaust, disconnecting the propshaft and lowering the back of the gearbox as low as it will go. Even then your arms will still get scratched to buggery!
With the solenoid removed and stripped the problem was easy to see - the operating shaft had corroded in the body stopping it moving...............
Mercedes 250S gearbox solenoid by longk48, on Flickr

Mercedes 250S gearbox solenoid by longk48, on Flickr

Mercedes 250S gearbox solenoid by longk48, on Flickr

Cleaning it up would have been easy were it not for the rubber gaitor. The gaitor is there to provide a degree of protection against the elements so damaging this fifty year old piece of rubber is not an option so the solution is simple - soak it in coca cola for a few hours!
Mercedes 250S gearbox solenoid by longk48, on Flickr

All that was left to do was reassemble it with lashings of high melting point grease and trim back the perished rubber boot for where the wiring goes into the solenoid and repair this with some heat shrink to keep the solenoid electrics dry..............
Mercedes 250S gearbox solenoid by longk48, on Flickr