Schaefft's (transatlantic) Bargain Barge Extravaganza - Double the Trouble!

[Schaefft]

The Safrane has finally returned with a freshly rebuilt alternator. It threw a hissy fit shortly after leaving Scaryoldcortina's garage by deciding to leak some coolant from the quick release connector in the engine bay that connects the heater matrix, but after a previous owner's bodge was revealed and fixed with two new o-rings its back to normal again. As mentioned before, I will daily it until the end of the month unless Mr. Flat4Alfa decides to pick it up earlier than that, it'll be a good shakedown for the car before it will leave these lands.

 

Have some better photos of it after giving it a quick wash:

 

 

 

In other news, I completely forgot to update this thread regarding the temporary "driveway". The first section is done, I will start with the next section tomorrow so I can fit even more chod on my property before the actual black paved driveway is being built. This is only supposed to get rid of any steps caused by the old concrete foundation of the garage and greenhouse that were there before, and to clear the ground of anything that might cause issues in the future. Eventually the remaining shed will be dismantled, the entire concrete base removed and a proper block pavement put in place.

 

 

 

 

[Schaefft]

So I used the weekend to dig a giant hole of rectangular shape in my garden.

 

 

 

 

More progress next weekend.

[Schaefft]

Bit of an update, the hole has reached its final size over the last weekend, next step will be getting rid of the tree trunk and filling it with smashed bricks and concrete I have left from tearing down the garage to form the start of the subbase on which the drive will be built on. I think I am slowly moving away from block pavement to stamped concrete now, which can, if done properly, look amazing while not costing nearly as much as the former. Before that happens I will need to tear down the rest of the workshop and the concrete base thats left though.

 

A hole:

 

 

The same hole:

 

[Schaefft]

In unrelated news: I tried to fix the radio in my Senator. 2 of the 3 station selection buttons dont work anymore so I can't enter the radio code to unlock it. I can't solder the circuit "board" either so I need a replacement. Any idea where I could find one of these radios you could order for the Omega A and Senator B below?

 

[DVee8]

I'm not to sure but I have or had something like the first one in my shed.I'll look tomorrow,carn't promise but i'll have a look..

[Schaefft]

I'm not to sure but I have or had something like the first one in my shed.I'll look tomorrow,carn't promise but i'll have a look..

That would be brilliant. I'd really only need the flexible board that senses the buttons presses, so the button layout needs to be similar. The rest shouldnt matter too much.

[loserone]

Concrete should be loads longer lasting than block paving, but check you don't need ( or have ) planning permission for either. You will need to have thought about what happens to water which lands on you short driveway and where it can go, e.g. a soakaway.

 

Looking good!

[Schaefft]

Thats a good shout, not sure if I'd need a permission, I would have thought no as a drive is just seen as "landscaping"? The drive is on an incline, the water would run off the sides onto the grass or towards the lower end of it. Eventually there's supposed to be a garage there though, at that point I might need to think of a rain gutter so it doesnt flow straight into the garage, but thats still way into the future.

[loserone]

If the surface in non-permiable I suspect you might hit issues, but there's a few resident planning folks on here who will know much better than I

[DVee8]

In unrelated news: I tried to fix the radio in my Senator. 2 of the 3 station selection buttons dont work anymore so I can't enter the radio code to unlock it. I can't solder the circuit "board" either so I need a replacement. Any idea where I could find one of these radios you could order for the Omega A and Senator B below?

 

Hi. What i have found in the shed so far  is a aftermarket player.

 

 

[Schaefft]

That looks proper oldschool. I've had a few people on facebook saying that they might still have an original one laying around somewhere, I'll see what they might find first. Thanks for the pictures!

[Schaefft]

Apparently its been a month since I've updated this thread. No much news on the car side, I had to move the Senator, Celsior and 528i today. The Senator doesn't have a driver seat in it (in the progress of replacing the seat frame), the Celsior is crap at offroading and the 528i needed a while to sort its idle out again after not having been started for a few weeks.

 

On the garden side of things, it now looks like the RAF confused my garden with a secrete V2 manufacturing facility and blew the shit out of it. I guess it can only get better from here?

 

 

 

It also turns out that if you are too lazy/cheap to get rid of your dirt, Facebook is a pretty good place to find people who'll do it for free!

[DVee8]

So is freecycle/freegle.Thats how I got rid of my front garden when I turned it into a hard stand

[Schaefft]

Hear hear, I have grand announcements to make! My latest acquisition, the mystery car, has finally arrived at my lair! And as you can see, it is an absolutely glorious machine.

 

Not a real collection thread, but have a pez shot anyway.

 

I've mentioned it a few times before but haven't really posted anything about it. What we have here is 1992 Mercedes 500SEL, the manifestation of "German Engineering" in its most beautiful form. I don't think I need to explain to anyone what this car is so I am jumping straight to the details of this particular example.

 

I've found the car for sale on Ebay, it was exactly the engine and color I wanted for a potential W140 future purchase so when I saw that it was advertised locally, it took me about 2 minutes before picking up the phone to agree on a viewing appointment, which was agreed upon to be the evening of the next day. The evening came and I showed up at the vendor's door, which was at a fairly remote farmyard north of Newcastle, about 20 mins from my house. The point of the viewing really was only to figure out whether the car was a complete heap or not. Since the seller even agreed on letting me drive the car (a whole 300 yards up and down the dirt road that was connecting the farm yard to civilization), my decision was pretty much made already. 5.0l W140s are few and far between, if I could agree on a somewhat reasonable price I would take it right there. To my surprise, and even though the auction on Ebay was only a day old, the seller actually accepted my very first offer of 1200 pounds, which is, all things considered, not a bad price for the car I have now purchased.

 

The smoke has hopefully cleared up by now!

 

So here's what the car needs: The most obvious issue was the whining power steering pump. It will require a rebuild, something that I am not particularly worried about as gasket kits and bearings are cheap and readily available, the pump seems fairly accessible and I happen to know a guy who previously rebuilt the pump in my Celsior for a very fair price, and agreed to help me with this one as well.

 

It also has an ABS issue. Now ScaryOldCortina has replaced a faulty ABS sensor but recons that the other side could potentially cause trouble by dirt/rust gumming up the sensor, causing it to read incorrectly. I will monitor the issue and see if it will fix itself, it wouldnt be the first time that happened.

 

The car also needs some cosmetic work, its has the typical W140 front wing rot so those need replacing, the lower edges of the doors are a little crusty as well, I'll need to take a closer look at them to see whether they need replacing or not.

 

I also have no service history for the car, so things like the waterpump or fuel filter will get replaced asap. It's also that car which the seller decided to not deliver the 2nd and 3rd key for, so I only have one remote key right now (which probably needs its battery replaced).

 

Filth of who knows how many years, time for a good scrub.

 

Apart from these things, the car is in surprisingly good condition. The engine and transmission are incredibly smooth, there are no strange noises coming from the suspension, it doesn't overheat or pull to the side under braking. I gave it a proper thrashing on Newcastle's motorways and everything seems absolutely fine so far.

 

With all these things in mind, I will naturally take this car on a 2000 mile roadtrip through France this Sunday. Because why wouldn't you? It'll be interesting to see how well the car fares after having been parked up for 3 years, I have a few more days to make a final decision but if nothing suddenly blows up over the next 3 days, I think this will be a first great bonding experience between me and a car I have been longing for for a long time. I really cannot wait!

 

Posts about my driving experience and details of the car should be coming up over the next few days.

[loserone]

Bonne chance, Monsieur

[Jim Bell]

When Vanilla Ice wrote "Rollin in my Five point Oh", he wasnt talking about one of these.  But he should have been.

 

Well bought man.  It ooks HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH CLASS with a nice ass.

[loserone]

Oh, it's that car.

 

I wonder if it gets stopped by every police car which sees it.

[Schaefft]

Thanks guys, it might not be a foxbody Mustang but still gives me some mad street credz. Helmut Kohl had those, right? As everything I seem to buy its a project. Hopefully it won't take too long to solve the most urgent issues, having an additional 17+ ft of granite parked at my house also is a good reason to keep working on that drive extension...

[dome]

Epic. Just epic.

[cort16]

That’s nice

[RobT]

Excellent. I bet it laps up the French road trip no bother. Where are you going?

[vulgalour]

Many, many years ago, (above 20) I remember going for some sort of camping trip with friends in a gigantic Mercedes and was never entirely sure which one it was until your pictures of this thing.  It was the biggest car I'd ever been in.  Previous to that, the biggest car I'd ever been in was a Rover 800, and this thing made that feel small.  I don't remember what engine it was, I think it was either pale gold or silver with a beige/cream interior (the car, not the engine).  There was so much legroom in the back you could sit on the floor if you wanted to.  What I don't remember is why a bunch of teenagers were entrusted with it.  It certainly didn't take very long to travel quite a long way, I do remember that.

[Broadsword]

That is an amazing Merc with an amazing engine. Fabulous purchase!

[Dave_Q]

Schaefft continues his impeccable record of delivering to the thread title.

 

Top Shiting sir.

[davehedgehog31]

Spectacular, well acquired.

[Schaefft]

Thanks guys, glad to see so much appreciation for this old Merc! I drove the car to work today and slowly get used to its size (while sitting on the right, the Lincoln is just as big but lhd). Started without a single problem this morning after having temperatures around the freezing point over night, the heated seats came it very handy, too. I'm still amazed how smooth the engine is, the only gripe I have with it so far is that you need to press down the go fast pedal quite a bit before it registers it, does anyone know if this can be adjusted to be more linear?

 

I don't have much free time today or tomorrow but hopefully can clean the car up a little and do some basic checks before I leave on Saturday. We will spend the first few nights in Ventron which is a small town not too far from the German border and Basel. The second half of the week will be closer to the Alps in Prenovel which is north of Geneva. We've scheduled a route which should lead us through some amazing landscapes, if any of the previous trips are anything to go by, the scenery will be nothing less than stunning. One of us guys happens to be a motor journalist and photographer so with a bit of luck I might be able to get some great photos of the car while being there as well. That is if the power steering pump (or anything else) doesn't quit before that.

[The Moog]

Buy massive car, take pez shot noticed it has issues.... Drives to France.

 

Excellent plan!

[NorthernMonkey]

..... the only gripe I have with it so far is that you need to press down the go fast pedal quite a bit before it registers it, does anyone know if this can be adjusted to be more linear?

 

 

My 5.0 140 coupe is exactly the same....nothing much happens until the pedal is a third down then it’s off like a scalded cat. Excellent fun trying to reverse up the gravel slope at home....coax the pedal until the power kicks in then quickly back off once it’s rolling otherwise there’s plumes of gravel from the rear wheels and not much movement.

 

TL:DR they all do that, sir.

[wuvvum]

I had a go in one of these years ago, albeit the pleb-spec SWB version (belonged to Scrapingscrap / thescrapman / Utterpiffle formerly of this parish).  Took it for a blat down the A11 a private dual carriageway, didn't think it felt that fast, then looked down and I was doing 120.  The only other car I've owned which has come close to that level of speed-related deception was the Cadillac STS.

[Schaefft]

I had a go in one of these years ago, albeit the pleb-spec SWB version (belonged to Scrapingscrap / thescrapman / Utterpiffle formerly of this parish).  Took it for a blat down the A11 a private dual carriageway, didn't think it felt that fast, then looked down and I was doing 120.  The only other car I've owned which has come close to that level of speed-related deception was the Cadillac STS.

 

This, I still need to check how accurate the speedo is but 70mph definitely don't feel like 70mph, I keep wondering whether I am going too slow, this car just asks you to speed.

 

 

My 5.0 140 coupe is exactly the same....nothing much happens until the pedal is a third down then it’s off like a scalded cat. Excellent fun trying to reverse up the gravel slope at home....coax the pedal until the power kicks in then quickly back off once it’s rolling otherwise there’s plumes of gravel from the rear wheels and not much movement.

 

TL:DR they all do that, sir.

 

Why tho. I'm sure I'll be able to get used to it but I rather have a normal throttle application that I can actually modulate.