W123. Going for gold.

[nacho man]

The poor old gal had sat for 5/6 weeks but fired straight up.

Because today was a nice ish day, changed the plugs, leads, distributor cap, rotor arm and air filter as they are easy.

Decided to change the temp sensor.



This little £10 sensor has fixed the hot start issues. Which is a lovely little bonus.

Also had x4 continentals fitted and had it aligned as was pulling slightly to the left. Runs nice and true now.



Hopefully this week will be able to get it to my fella, so he can change all the bits I have stacked up.


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[nacho man]

So this has been in the garage for the past two weeks.
Works done:
Oil and Filter
Fuel Filter
Fuel Pump
Rubber fuel lines around the tank and pump
Radiator
Fan
Thermostat
Coolant 
X2 aux belts
Auto gearbox filter and oil
Brake fluid
Diff oil
Power steering filter and fluid
Interior Heater blower replacement
Under Bonnet insulation replaced.
So remember I said the hot starting was sorted, wrong.  Still did it the day after, I told my man who said it could be a wiring issue if I had been messing in the area, so he checked that, all was good. Then he checked this switch which is hidden down near the stat housing. Switch was caput. Rang the local factors and no luck, rang Merc, £229 but discontinued. None on ebay. Bugger.

This little bastard took some finding. In the end I got it from Germany from this place:
https://www.niemoeller.de/en/search/detail/D 08 551
Actually listed for w113 pagonda but all the specs were the same so took a chance and ordered one. Came next day and cured its little hot start problem, properly this time. Been out in it all day bombing about and always starts from hot first turn now.
Also it had the original stereo in which was ace, but I have a mahoooooosive collection of cd's so purchased this.



Which I think looks alright, same backlighting and what not, out of a w124. Kept the original so if I sell then can all be returned to standard. 
Want to do a nice big road trip in the old boat now, but that will have to wait till the world resumes normal operations.
 
 

[motorpunk]

I’m throbbing for this.

How’s the transmission? I’m not a fan of slurry old autos but hope these are good in a Merc.

[nacho man]

I’m throbbing for this.
How’s the transmission? I’m not a fan of slurry old autos but hope these are good in a Merc.

It’s ace to be fair. Lovely and smooth, kick down is responsive.

Proper suits the car. Doesn’t feel sluggish at all, feels quite sprightly.

If a car suits a auto box, it’s this.


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[nacho man]

Really could do with some storage for this, the usual place I used to use is full and has been for a while.

It’s in to get its paintwork sorted early Jan so hopefully it will come back perfect.

Then it deffo wants to be under cover, it won’t fit in my garage as it’s a shit little thing and the clio only just fits in.


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[nacho man]

So this is in the body shop this week.

Call from the body shop

“Aup Dan it’s worse than I thought”

“Ahhhhh shit”











So awaiting the price to get it all sorted.

Gulp.........


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[Talbot]

That's not that bad really.  The repair to the jacking point doesn't look too bad, and the front valance/wing interface has really good access to be able to repair it.

Maybe worse than you were expecting, but it could have been much worse than that.

[Bren]

The first picture of rot looks like a pirahna.

[B4lljoints]

That's all fairly standard rot for a W123 so if that's all you have then that's pretty good really. If there's any grot at the back of that front wing (where it meets the sill) then maybe a replacement panel might be best as it will come with a decent chunk of the front valance too...

[HMC]

Nice one, not bad from my experience, mine had all gone to varying degrees in that valance  / front wing join area and had been wobbed up in the past, great to see your doing it properly!

Hows the base of the rear screen surround?

[nacho man]

To be fair it looks pretty mint under the screen, but then the rest of it looked pretty good before.

[Peter C]

If the front wings are original, I would advise against replacing them with pattern parts. They just don't fit properly.

Years ago my W123's front offside wing had rusted away in the same way as yours. As the rest of the wing was original and in good condition, I cut it along the red line, bought a pattern wing and cut it along the same line and had the new repair section welded to my original wing. The joint, which is mostly hidden by the corner bumper trim, was made good and I only sprayed the repair section, blending the paint with the original where necessary. Job done, my original wing still fitted perfectly and I had no issues with colour matching.

[Peter C]

I didn't cut the wing as shown above.

This is the remains of my old wing, which hangs from my workshop ceiling.

I actually cut the wing like this:

[nacho man]

So this has been in the body shop since Jan, still there by the way.

First off, getting the wings was a bit of a nightmare, everywhere selling them saying they had stock was lying.

They ended getting two sent over from France. Obviously the new import/export fiasco made that go on longer than needed.

Then last week they said they are painting both full sides, as they have had the dent man in getting rid of every last dent in site. I agreed to make it top nana.

Then I needed a rear wing trim piece that bends around to the boot. Obviously couldn’t get one. Found a full set of trims on eBay.de coming from Turkey. Hope there bleeding right, as cost a few quid.

Then they rang this morning to say they had found something dodgy on the edge of the bonnet.




Also they want to take the screen out to do it properly. And they reckon it will probably crack when they take it out.

Brill

To be continued....


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[Talbot]

2 minutes ago, Danterzza said:

Also they want to take the screen out to do it properly. And they reckon it will probably crack when they take it out.

Only if they don't take enough time over it.  There's really no reason why they should end up cracking it.  If you work methodically and carefully, you can almost always get a rubber-seal screen out in one piece.  The  way I've managed it in the past is with a large pot of lolly-sticks.  After removing the expander strip, you work your way around carefully lubricating the rubber with fairy-up lipsquid.  Then lift a section of rubber up, and insert a lolly stick to keep it up.  Now another about 50mm along, and another... etc.

Once you get around about 30% of the screen, you'll usually find the rubber has lost it's "grab" on the glass, and as long as you've lubricated it properly, it will just slide out.

Alternatively, if a new seal can be sourced, just cut the old rubber seal off, lift the glass out and then re-fit with a new seal.

[nacho man]

Screen out and not cracked, popped in and they told me they was just worried, so thought they would warn me.




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[Low Horatio gearbox]

Ouch.  While it looks bad it could have been worse in that the structure under the skin seems reasonably sound rather than  flimsy lacework of rust.

[nacho man]

Picked this up this evening after work. Happy with how it’s looking now. In the end both sides and the boot were done. Might as well have the bonnet done now and it will be mintola. No more pics as two mins later it pissed it down and then got dark.

Still awaiting the other side rear arch trim, there going to put it on once it’s delivered.

Not sure what to do with it now really. Want to take it on some major road trip when we can.

But also I actually enquired about parting it off to a fancy classic car place to sell, who seem to reckon they can sell it for a good wedge. But one of them wanted £1800 to sell it and the other a minimum of £2500.

Was ace to drive it back. I just love bombing about in it.


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[cort16]

It looks great now. How's the colour match against the original panels?

Friggin nora £2500 quid! Have you thought about Chris Harris's collectable car auction site?

https://collectingcars.com/

[nacho man]

The match is pretty good will give it a good clean weekend and have a proper look. The bonnet looked slightly off but that’s the last big panel left not done apart from the roof. However that’s not original paint on the bonnet either. But then when I got it outside you couldn’t really tell. 

Might give it a go on one of them sites, but might also keep it and use it all over summer.

[flat4alfa]

55 minutes ago, Danterzza said:

keep it and use it all over summer.

This.

[nacho man]

This is back at the painters having the bonnet done, so it’s basically all been going to be painted now bar the roof. 
 

Also my trims I got from Turkey turned out to be a bob on fit. Which was a nice surprise, thought they would be shite. I mean they took 7 weeks to turn up, but beggars can’t be chooses. 
 

It’s also started blowing from the downpipe. So ordered two as they come in two bits, and two fitting kits so it will have pretty much a new system apart from the manifold. From eBay and from a company called bm catalysts, so will see how many miles they are off when I come to fit them. 
 

They were cheap though. 
 

 

[artdjones]

On 3/10/2021 at 8:07 PM, Danterzza said:

Picked this up this evening after work. Happy with how it’s looking now. In the end both sides and the boot were done. Might as well have the bonnet done now and it will be mintola. No more pics as two mins later it pissed it down and then got dark.

Still awaiting the other side rear arch trim, there going to put it on once it’s delivered.

Not sure what to do with it now really. Want to take it on some major road trip when we can.

But also I actually enquired about parting it off to a fancy classic car place to sell, who seem to reckon they can sell it for a good wedge. But one of them wanted £1800 to sell it and the other a minimum of £2500.

Was ace to drive it back. I just love bombing about in it.


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That's a lovely car. If you do sell it seems pointless to get some other man to stick £2000 on top of the price. He will have to charge top price which will mean it will take longer to sell. Just stick it on Car and Classic at a more reasonable price. You'll get more money and the buyer will get a cheaper car. Win/win except for the middleman, and who cares about him?

[nacho man]

 

The 80’s baby is back.  Changed the gearbox oil, with the proper proper proper! stuff this time and it’s bleeding lovely now.
Changed the oil as well for the sake of £30, and banged a new cheapo downpipe on, which to my utter surprise fitted like a glove. 

It’s also back from the painters for the second time and happy with it now. 

Now to use it. Or sell it. One or the other. 
 

 

[nacho man]

https://collectingcars.com/for-sale/1983-mercedes-benz-w123-230-te

Wonder how much this will go for? Its an estate so worth more than mine. But I would say mine is as in good condition as this.

[nacho man]

Looking classy in the suburbs.