Justas22 / GG. - W126 SEC

[FUN500]

I am really impressed your passion level. As well as much as can see it is going right way. When you expect to finish the process and start to get satisfaction? For enthusiastic people process giving an emotional as well, but if this is not a commercial project, on my opinion you can not get full relax, until you become a one part with the car. I mean when you not just a regular driver on a regular car, but you know exactly what you expect to get, you predict car reaction and it response to you.

[GG.]

Pradžioje rašė FUN500

I am really impressed your passion level. As well as much as can see it is going right way. When you expect to finish the process and start to get satisfaction? For enthusiastic people process giving an emotional as well, but if this is not a commercial project, on my opinion you can not get full relax, until you become a one part with the car. I mean when you not just a regular driver on a regular car, but you know exactly what you expect to get, you predict car reaction and it response to you.

Thank you! For me, a big part of the satisfaction is the process of building and getting to know the car. When you put your hands on each and every little part, you sort of become one with the car, as you say. You know every little sound the car makes, you know what to expect. This is my first experience with Mercedes, and through this process, I really fell in love with these cars. The attention to detail is amazing, everything is engineered with longevity and repairability in mind.

I was hoping to be on the road around May/June, but due to the delays in the paintshop, I start to doubt that it will happen this season.

[FUN500]

How is about spare parts? Where are you getting? Because when I was looking couple specific parts for w126, I got 2-3 phone numbers from Riga and Liepaje, but due conversation, prices get me shocked.
What you gonna do with exaust system? Stock or? M117 has the most purest sound of all MB V8 engines.. IMHO

[GG.]

Pradžioje rašė FUN500

How is about spare parts? Where are you getting? Because when I was looking couple specific parts for w126, I got 2-3 phone numbers from Riga and Liepaje, but due conversation, prices get me shocked.
What you gonna do with exaust system? Stock or? M117 has the most purest sound of all MB V8 engines.. IMHO

Yeah, I know the guy from Liepaja, he is a perekupas His prices are astranomical. I have bought some things from him. Wear parts, like suspension etc are no problem, they all can be bought in standard shops. For small bits and pieces my friends at Family Garage in Riga always help me out and their prices are fair to say the least. Coupe specific parts are very expensive, but it makes sense, it is a pretty rare car and not that many of them are left on the market. Plus good ones usually don't get parted out. I paid 500Eur for a whole front bumper because I needed the middle chrome piece. I got the headlight lens with an entire headlight, swaped the lenses and sold the cracked one. The difference was about 150eur. The biggest problem is the rather unique interior. There are veeeeery little coupes with the Palomino/Dattel interior in velour.

For the exhaust I want to do a replica of AMG exhaust. When I bought the car, it was very quiet, and I only later realized that the two middle exhaust silencers (the kidneys) are removed and there was only the catalyst and rear silencer. But it still was very quiet. I don't want it to be loud, as I like driving a lot, especially long trips.

[GG.]

Good evening, keeping the thread alive. Not much progress, but it is moving forward.

Started working on the belt presenters that worked intermittently. Turns out the plastic gears are partially stripped and one of the microswitches was dangling in the air.





Since I had to learn solidworks for another project recently, I figured out I will sketch and print the gears myself from nylon plastic.
While working on the mechanism, I really appreciated the very analog overload protection built in to the mechanism. When there is too much resistance on the belt presenter arm, the part that holds the bigger gear swings downward and presses the mircoswitch that stops the motor. Fantastic and very analog design to avoid damaging the gears and/or motor.

Next up, I restored the rain tray plastic. The car did not have these parts, so I bought used ones. They were wrapped in plastic and I did not check them when buying. Turns out they were covered in silicone (appearantly somebody tried to repair a leaking winscreen) and the metal mesh was all bent.

Kinks in the mesh


Sketching the lost shape of the mesh


Wooden blocks and a rubber mallet do wonders.


Pssst pssst


The glovebox looked like it had suffered water damage, it was too deformed to restore.


I bought a good used glovebox plus some bits and bobs for the interior.


The seats will not be reupholstered at this time, since I cant find the striped fabric. But I still needed some fabric for other parts, namely the rear parcel shelf and rear door cards. I found a matching fabric in a local upholstery store. Given the fact that the original fabric is very faded, the match is perfect.


Somebody along the way had installed a "very neccesary" thrid brake light by drilling holes in the parcel shelf.


I removed the original fabric which was super fragile from the UV damage.


Making the template



Heat resistant adhesive does magic




I think it turned out very good!

[GG.]

Part 2, too many images.

When I was removing the rear door cards, I noticed that the middle inserts are DIY handmade. They were made from laminated pressed cardboard, covered in sintepon and wrapped in gray faux leather that was spray painted beige to match the interior. It was held in place with supeglue and double sided tape.



It looked very grim, everything is dirty and covered in glue.


Yikes, it is a bit dirty.


I spent a few hours with a scalpel, scraping off the excess glue from the vinyl.


Continuing the DIY theme, I used the existing laminated cardboard as a backing plate. I trimmed it slightly so it fit better and compensated for the thickness of fabric. I then laid down some foam to make it softer and to make it look more 3d.


Making my own template.


I think it looks much better now. The inserts are supposed to be striped, same as the front door cards. But I think the difference won't be that obvious. I could not find original replacements, so I had to get creative.


10 months later FINALLY the car is painted. I am about 80% satisfied, but I must say that I am super picky about bodywork and paint. So it actually is very good.

Blauschwarz metallic 199


Engine bay is in semi-gloss








I love this color. Depending on the ambient lighting and environment it looks gray, bluish gray, black and even a bit golden. I have no idea why anybody thought it was a good idea to paint it in a different color. But I guess it was considered cool in the 2000s


I finally found a photo of a car that looks exactly like I imagine mine. Matching color bumpers and moldings, amg bodykit, chrome, amber turn signals and amg aero 3 wheels. It will look just like this when finished.


The engine and transmission are being installed next week. And then the rest of assembly. Thanks to the bodyshop I won't be able to drive it this season, but it will be ready for the next spring.

[GG.]

Labas dienas, I will continue this thread so the history of this vehicle is not lost.

What has happened since September, in chronological order
-Engine and gearbox installed
-Fully restored driveshaft
-Installed the original fuel lines, which were in great shape
-New fuel pumps
-Painted and installed the fuel tank (there was no rust inside, yay!)
-Work in progress on the AC retrofit (it is going very slow)

I had bought a "full set" for the AC retrofit. However it was incomplete, some parts were missing. I had to buy a brand new idler pulley for the AC belt, the bracket that holds the compressor, blower motor, lid for the blower motor. The wiring harness in the kit was in pretty bad shape, many cut wires etc. The work is still ongoing. It is pretty hard to find good electrical diagrams. If you have a diagram for the manual AC system in a v8 126, please share it with me :shame:

Engine and the drivetrain in:




The HVAC unit, with both new radiators.



New idler pulley.



The flying spaghetti monster. Donor harness for the AC.



The sunroof was in pretty good shape, minimal rust. The rust was treated and painted, no welding required. There were some cracks in the guide rails and the lifting arms. New OE guide rails were installed and the turkish lifting arms from ebay.



The sunroof was not functioning properly before. It is fully operational now.



Meanwhile, my daily CL55 was helping it's grandfather with transporting some of the parts. I am pretty sure that one day, a nice c216 will help this c215 the same way.



The pillarless bodyshape allows to stuff amazingly large items in the interior. Like the roof moldings and the headliner.



Most of the rubber seals on the body were in bad shape. Many had paint overspray on them, from the previous paintjob. I ordered the megaset of 65 items from mbzclassicparts.

[spoiler]1x rear window seal A 1266700239

2x door seals/seal frame each left/right A 1267200378 A 1267200478

2x seal rails rear window outside each right/left A 1266700138 A 1266700238

2x seal rear window each left/right A 1266700539 A 1266700639

2x frame seal A-C pillar each right left A 1267200154 A 1267200254

2x sealing rails door window outside each right/left A 1267250265

2x sealing rails door window inside each left/right A 1267200724 A 1267200824

2x sealing rails rear window inside each right/left A1266730365 A 1266730465

1x windshield seal bottom A 1268312398

2x window run sealing outside mirror in each case left/right A 1267250766 A 1267250866

1x tailgate sealing A 1267500198

2x bulkhead sealing(engine compartment rear + front) A 2015050386

4x plugs jack admission 2018990008

1x antenna sealing A 1268271589

1x sunroof sealing SET front/back/right/left 1981-1985 1.Generation 380 500 1x A 1237820498 1x A 1237820398 2x A 1087820198

1x Sunroof seal 1985-1991 2. Genertaion 420 500 560 A 1267800198

1x Tank nozzle sealing A 1239973581

2x Rubber buffer door cover A 1119871740

2x Support door handle each left/right A 1267660205

2x Seal under light unit 1985-1991 2.Generation 420 500 560

2x sealing light disk headlight A 0018261480

2x sealing light disk fog light A 0018264380

2x sealing cover headlight rear A 1268260180

2x edge protection trim under light unit A 1268890265

2x sealing bumper between trim and body until 1985 A 1268850198

2x SEALING FRONT LEFT & RIGHT,BETWEEN BUMPER AND Fender A 1268850585 A 1268850685

2x sealing rear chrome frame left & right A 1266982198

2x sealing top chrome frame left & rehcts A 1266981898

2x sealing front chrome frame right & left A 1266980998

2x sealing turn signal right & left A 0018261580 A 0018261680

2x sealing rear lights sealing ring right & left A 1268260091

2x sealing headlights right & left A 0018261780 A0018261880

2x SEALING TRIM BLADE FRONT WALL COVERS LEFT & RIGHT A 1266981398 A 1266981498

2x EDGE PROTECTION COVERING UNDER LIGHT UNIT A 1268890265 [/spoiler]

The rear glass, as seen on most c126, had delaminated in the bottom corners. I had ordered a brand new Pilkington windshield and rear glass. The guys at familygarage.lv found a brand new OE rear glass, which of course, I had to buy. Esentially, it is the exactly the same product from Pilkington, except it has the three pointed star on it.





The enormous rubber set finally arrived. I will talk about the quality in at a later time, when all of them will be inspected.


Glued in the new windshield, assembled and serviced the window lifters, polished the side glass. It starts to look like a real car again.
The car was running surprisingly well when I bought it from Lithuania. It had been sitting for 5 years, and it drove just fine. For an extra layer of security, we rebuilt the fuel meter head, installed a new EHA pressure regulator, and a new potentiometer, just to be safe.

At the moment, I am waiting for the wiring to be completed, the wood is being refinished, and we had to make a new AC condenser/radiator. The one in the "kit" was from a sedan, and it didn't fit, as it is higher. I got a negative answer from Mercedes about a new OE radiator, so we had to fabricate a new one.

That is it for now, thank you for your time.
:sign: