Engineered like no other car. Not a single one like it. Thankfully.

[Talbot]

This:

Is a car I've not mentioned much on here so far.

It was bought as an accidental ebay purchase just after the "high speed oxidation event" of the E300 last year.  I put a load of bids in on cars, none of which I expected to come to anything as they were all really low.  So of course, a few days after buying the W203 and driving it to Glasgow, I got an email through:

"Congratulations, you've won, pay now!"

Ah bums.  Ok, well I suppose I could go and have a look at it.  It is, after all, a C250 Turbodiesel S202 estate, with an OM605 engine in it, so it's a great stablemate for the E300 OM606, and might be useful.  So, I lobbed my bike on the train and headed up to Maidenhead.
What I was presented with was a seemingly half-decent car.  High miles at 259,500, but it started well, drove fine (albeit with quite a hefty delay on the gearbox) and the worst thing I could find was the headliner hanging down very badly.  Worth it.  So I paid for it, lobed my bike in the back and drove it home on the remaining few days of MOT it had left.
Overall impressions were good, although there was definitely something amiss with the gearbox.  Not that that mattered at the time, as I had already got the W203 to use as a temporary car while repairing the S210, so what on earth do I do with it?

Answer?  Lob it in the works car park and forget about it for about 6 months.

It came in very handy for supplying a spare alternator when the E300 shat its one in the breakdown detailed above:

It being an OM605, pretty much all the auxiliaries on it are identical (or at least compatible) with the OM606.  The engines are all-but identical, save for 1 cylinder difference and 500cc.  And 30hp.

After I had sorted the E300 out above, I thought it best to get the c250 on the road, either to use or to sell.  Either way, it's doing no good just sitting about, so having re-instated it's alternator, topped up the gearbox fluid with an aftermarket dipstick, and a perfectly-fitting funnel in the tube:

Which allows the fluid to be dipped even when the funnel is in place... (yes, different car, but the same principle:)

It was lobbed in to my local MOT place.

It failed, naturally, but astonishingly only on corrosion issues.  Absolutely everything else was a pass... So that's rusty brakes that have been sat for months, 260k mile suspension, 4 questionable tyres (3 of which go flat over a few weeks) and an engine that has been beyond the moon all passed... it's just got some holes in it.

Well then....  Time to get the Electric Pritt-Stick out and fix it.

 First area of issue:  NSR.  Patch.  Patch like you've never patched before.

I should qualify the above:  I just did not care how good/bad/indifferent the patching and welding was.  I just want it through an MOT.  I know it's bad.  Actually I know it's utter dogshit, but if it's acceptable for an MOT, that is all that matters.

Hole:

Patch (and the bit above too)

Move on to the OSF, which was quite bad:

Extensive use of Cardboard Aided Design again:

Weldy Weldy:

You'd never* know I'd been under here!:

Were it not for this mess anyway....

General scene of chaos:

There was also some rot in the OSR and NSF, but nowhere near as bad... so that was patched up too, and with some fingers crossed, it was lobbed back in for MOT.

Yes.  It's rusty, has crap tyres on it and the wiper is falling apart.

... but it's a pass.

[Jim Bell]

Stirling car park revival man. It's a big win. 

[Talbot]

Since this now had a pass, it seemed only fair to give it a clean-up before using it for a bit.  So break out the VAX.

I really rate the VAX I have... it's a nothing-special 6131 with the wrong head on it and cobbled together from three facebook marketplace purchases, but was cheap and works amazingly well.  I VAX the house carpets regularly and am always astonished at the amount of yeuch that comes out of them.

So, time to use the upholstery attachment and clean the C250:

You can even see the mud being pulled from the carpet.

Did the same for the seats:

And it looked a load better thereafter:

Mainly because all the ick was now in here:

Absolutely superb bit of kit.  I wouldn't be without one now.

Other than the headliner completely detaching from the fibre-board (foam has all turned to dust), the interior is holding up exceptionally well for a car that has so many miles on it.  Not even bolster wear, which is amazing.

The obvious next move is to start running this one on SVO/blend/WVO/something alternative.  It's an OM60x series, so it should be absolutely fine, right?
Well yes, but also no.  The engine is fine on it, the only issue is that the W202 has a "saddle" tank that sits over the propshaft, meaning it's essentially two fuel tanks that have a fuel managment system between them.  There's two level sensors, and the dash gauge gives a summation of the two.  There is, however, only one pick-up one side.  The way fuel is drawn from the "other" side, is the returning fuel from the engine creates a venturi, which is used to pull fuel from one tank to the other.  Only bloody Mercedes could do that!
It works well with petrol, and just about works with Diesel.  However, start using something more viscous, and the venturi doesn't work properly, meaning it never draws from the "other" side, and you end up with one side full and the other empty, and run out of fuel with the gauge reading half-full.
Various people over the years have fitted balance pipes under the prop, pumps between the two sides, stronger venturi, two pick-ups and all manner of other "fixes" for this, but the basic issue is that the tank isn't really compatible with running anything other than diesel.

So I haven't so far.

[Talbot]

Is it possible to have too many grinders?  A different disc in each one is very handy:

[Talbot]

It's been a while since this thread had an update, so:

err.. where was I.

Yes.  I had a C250 that was now road-legal.  So instead of using it, I took the E300 on a road trip with a difference.  Drove to just south of Birmingham:

And then put a load of cryptic pictures up of an A-frame journey.. towing this:

 

The AA bloke was most interested in what on earth I was doing, as he'd brought someone in on a towing dolly too.

Got it up to @MrsJuular, what with it being her car and all, and left it randomly on her driveway.  Mainly to replace this little lot:

All of which went in the back of the E300, and got brought back down to my filtering setup.

As per bloody usual, I lost a glowplug at some point, so this was the view AGAIN.  I think the plugs I bought were a bit crap, as I always seem to be changing the same ones over and over again:

Not long after that, the E300 had to go in for MOT.  I am glad I had the C250 roadworthy, as this happened:

Bums.

Most of it was easily sorted, but yet again... corrosion.  And a lot of it.  What started out as a hole about 5mm wide and 30mm long...

Got worse:

ended up as this:

egads that's a hole.

Sheet steel from the local steel stockholder:

Thickness comparison:

The old steel has a fairly hefty burr on it here, so I'm going to say they're close enough.  I then got a bit "hammery" with the new steel, and made up a new floor section:

The stiffener that comes down from the engine bay was also looking fairly forlorn, so it got hacked off and replaced with some more folded steel:

A large pile of unwanted bits of mercedes were left over:

and I had had to pull the brake lines and fuel lines well out of the way of welding.  I did not want to remove them, so it was just easier to bend them out of the way and retain them with a ratchet strap:

Throughout all of the above, the C250, despite being a bit leaky, a bit broken and generally a bit on the tired side continued to do sterling service:

Rather out of focus, but that is a french registered LHD AMI8 that ended up being towed up to the FoD to be used as spares and parts for the rather nicer one that was A-framed up to Scotland.

It was also astonishingly rusty.  Various parts were removed simply by pulling them off up at the FoD.  Rather concerning having just towed it about 150 miles.  Although amazingly the brakes worked fine.  LHM is just so much better as a hydraulic fluid than DOT3 brake fluid.  Nothing siezed, working just fine.

I can't remember the timeline, but at some point this happened:

Two cars that I would not have owned had the E300 not caught fire.  A W202 and a W203.  They drive remarkably similarly, despite one being a diesel auto estate and the other a petrol manual saloon.  Given that Rover the absurd Teddybear, which is now the mascot for 2CV car 48 is in the passenger seat, I can only assume this was after a race meeting.  Probably Cadwell.

[Rust Collector]

Was that French Ami the one from Newhaven? It’s been taunting me for ages!

[Lacquer Peel]

8 hours ago, Talbot said:

Rather out of focus, but that is a french registered LHD AMI8 that ended up being towed up to the FoD to be used as spares and parts for the rather nicer one that was A-framed up to Scotland.

It was also astonishingly rusty.  Various parts were removed simply by pulling them off up at the FoD.  

 

 

 

[Talbot]

9 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

Was that French Ami the one from Newhaven? It’s been taunting me for ages!

Yes.  It is now beginning to be taken apart.  It is/was as rotten as a pear.  But largely complete, which is what was needed.

Thankfully the chassis is in great condition.. otherwise A-framing it would have been out of the question!

The body, however, has structural paint.

[MrsJuular]

10 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

Was that French Ami the one from Newhaven? It’s been taunting me for ages!

Indeed it was. I'm almost done with it.

Will have a thread about it shortly. Hopefully. 

[MrsJuular]

3 hours ago, Lacquer Peel said:

 

This wasn't the worst of it. I'm not sure why I even bothered trying to take out the last screw holding that in. 😂