1963 Mercedes Benz 190DC Fintail. Now in winter storage.

[artdjones]

7 minutes ago, hairnet said:

N5 to mayo looks like that now @artdjones 

That good?

[Dyslexic Viking]

27 minutes ago, artdjones said:

If you just faded out the colour saturation on the sky, that could be a picture from 50 years ago.

Sort of like that 

And that picture turned out great with what you did. So will save it and use it.

Thanks.

[hairnet]

13 minutes ago, artdjones said:

That good?

😀

higgins will be down to lynch you for dissing his infrastructure so

true tho and not changed in 40 years

[Dyslexic Viking]

Still not much happening here, the MOT is next week, so something will probably happen then. Took this grocery shopping again today and has now passed 1000km in my ownership and since it has done about 14,000km in the last 25 years, that is a lot for it.

[TrabbieRonnie]

7 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Still not much happening here, the MOT is next week, so something will probably happen then. Took this grocery shopping again today and has now passed 1000km in my ownership and since it has done about 14,000km in the last 25 years, that is a lot for it.

One of those cars that adds a touch of class everywhere it goes 👍

[Dyslexic Viking]

Like all cars newer than 1960 and older than 4 years, this one must in to a MOT every 2 year here.

So I'm leaving soon for the MOT. So hoping that this goes well.

Will update later.

[BL Bloke]

Good luck with the MOT. 

[hairnet]

alt vil bli bra /doc brown

[Dyslexic Viking]

Things didn't go well at the MOT, the car has got a driving ban and I have to show it to the road authorities, both of these are stupid things.

I am both pissed off and annoyed. Will write more when I get more time later.

[Rust Collector]

7 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Things didn't go well at the MOT, the car has got a driving ban and I have to show it to the road authorities, both of these are stupid things.

I am both pissed off and annoyed. Will write more when I get more time later.

Sorry to hear that mate, I hope it’s nothing too serious 😢 the car looked well sorted after the welding.

[Dyslexic Viking]

42 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

I hope it’s nothing too serious

It's not, just stuff so stupid you'd think it was a joke. But it creates a lot of problems.

Will start writing about it now.

[Dyslexic Viking]

So these are the defects from MOT

The left rear brake hose is damaged, has rubbed on bleeder? and must be replaced

The brake fluid has too low  boiling point and must be replaced

All headlights must be adjusted

Brake lights don't work, this is what gave it a driving ban. Have checked and the brake light switch has failed on the way to the MOT and is now dead.

Signal light in instrument panel for lights does not work. This is going to be a very fun job, not.

Light connection for trailer does not work.

And this is the big one

Wrong seating, The car is registered for 6 as it had a bench seat it no longer has that and only has 5 seats now. And this has now resulted in a deficiency despite the fact that the car has passed the MOT with this for over 20 years. So this means that I have to make an appointment with the road authorities and transport/drive the car for 1 hour to them and get it re-registered and approved for 5 seats. This is one of the worst public offices in Norway and all this is a massive ballache.

And someone has managed to mess up the MOT deadline so it was the start of October, it is now yesterday and no one seems to know why.

[somewhatfoolish]

3 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

 

Signal light in instrument panel for lights does not work. This is going to be a very fun job, not.

Light connection for trailer does not work.

 

These two things may be related(the brake lights as well maybe), worth working on the trailer socket first before blaming other parts of the wiring.

[hairnet]

[Dyslexic Viking]

23 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

These two things may be related(the brake lights as well maybe), worth working on the trailer socket first before blaming other parts of the wiring.

It is possible. But I checked the brake light switch and it has power to it but none out and jumping the terminals the lights come on. So I'm pretty sure it's faulty. But can check the trailer contact first as you have suggested.

[Rust Collector]

33 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Wrong seating, The car is registered for 6 as it had a bench seat it no longer has that and only has 5 seats now.

Any chance of tracking down a front bench and swapping it out for the test?

[Dyslexic Viking]

3 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

Any chance of tracking down a front bench and swapping it out for the test?

It would be difficult if not nearly impossible to find one.

And the car is marked in the system as having to go to the authorities and there is nothing I can do about it.

After half an hour of waiting, I got through to the road authorities over the phone and they think there should be no problem to approve it as 5 seater if the seats in it are original in original mounts.

[Dyslexic Viking]

The brake light switch doesn't seem to be the easiest thing to find but have found one from a newer Mercedes that looks almost identical and it's not expensive so have ordered it together with the brake hose and brake fluid and should get this next week. And all this was available from my usual Norwegian parts supplier.

And the brake switch on these is on the brake master, so it's easy to get to.

But fixing the lights in the instrument panel won't be fun as this has to come out and I suspect and hope the light bulbs are the fault.

It also rained a lot today, but the car handled it well.

[RoverFolkUs]

You will get there in the end

I've seen far worse fails from 10 year old cars let alone a 60 year one!

The brake fluid boiling point test is intriguing, it's not checked here in the UK during an MOT but I think it should be

Considering the fact that anything over 40 years old is exempt from an MOT over here, it sounds like quite a stringent test for a 60 year old car. 

[ETCHY]

47 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

The brake light switch doesn't seem to be the easiest thing to find but have found one from a newer Mercedes that looks almost identical and it's not expensive so have ordered it together with the brake hose and brake fluid and should get this next week. And all this was available from my usual Norwegian parts supplier.

And the brake switch on these is on the brake master, so it's easy to get to.

But fixing the lights in the instrument panel won't be fun as this has to come out and I suspect and hope the light bulbs are the fault.

It also rained a lot today, but the car handled it well.

Sorry to hear about the MOT fail & all the hassle.
Got to say though, just look at that picture of the car you posted above, it'll all be worth it, that thing is just uber cool.

[Dyslexic Viking]

2 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

You will get there in the end

I've seen far worse fails from 10 year old cars let alone a 60 year one!

The brake fluid boiling point test is intriguing, it's not checked here in the UK during an MOT but I think it should be

Considering the fact that anything over 40 years old is exempt from an MOT over here, it sounds like quite a stringent test for a 60 year old car. 

It was the seat situation which was the worst and really annoys me. And the rest is not as bad as you say, but the fact that the brake light causes a driving ban is a bit much I think.

And it is strict and this one is subject to the same rules as all cars of any age is here. And these rules are determined by the EU, which does not like old cars.

I can re-register this to the preservation class, which gives cars older than 50 years MOT exemption, but there are restractions for use under this and will certainly come more in the future, so it's not something I want as I want to use the car as much as I want and not according to what others have decided.

But wish the rules were less strict for cars of this age. Because one can risk having to take a car off the road for good because the heater fan does not work or the like if parts are not available.

[egg]

How do they measure the brake fluid boiling point?

You know, in England we sometimes look at Scandinavian countries as being run perfectly (especially as you have over 1,000 billion in a sovereign wealth fund) but it seems petty admin issues are the same all over.

[Dyslexic Viking]

1 minute ago, egg said:

How do they measure the brake fluid boiling point?

You know, in England we sometimes look a Scandinavian countries as being run perfectly (especially as you have over 1,000 billion in a sovereign wealth fund) but it seems petty admin issues are the same all over.

I don't know how they measure the brake fluid boiling point but someone here probably does.

And things here are definitely not run perfectly, the healthcare system, elderly care, etc. are a mess. 

[RoverFolkUs]

12 minutes ago, egg said:

How do they measure the brake fluid boiling point?

You know, in England we sometimes look at Scandinavian countries as being run perfectly (especially as you have over 1,000 billion in a sovereign wealth fund) but it seems petty admin issues are the same all over.

 

5 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

I don't know how they measure the brake fluid boiling point but someone here probably does.

And things here are definitely not run perfectly, the healthcare system, elderly care, etc. are a mess. 

I imagine they use a hygrometer, one of these: 

You can get them for about £5 online, although I imagine the exact tool they use will be calibrated and more expensive

What it actually measures is moisture content/contamination which has a direct relationship to the boiling point of the brake fluid

The higher the moisture contamination, the earlier the fluid will boil (lower boiling point) and fail under operation - also causes corrosion in the system

Brake fluid is definitely a highly neglected service item on modern cars. Most cars on the road are probably still running around on their factory brake fluid if the system hasn't been opened up for repair. 

I can say that pretty much nobody books their car in for a standalone brake fluid change, it's usually done as an "upsell" upon recommendation. And even then, most of the time the recommendation gets ignored 🤷

[sierraman]

I tested some brake fluid a while back on a car that was 10 years old, it hadn’t had a brake fluid change, it still tested perfectly fine for the moisture content. 

[RoverFolkUs]

1 minute ago, sierraman said:

I tested some brake fluid a while back on a car that was 10 years old, it hadn’t had a brake fluid change, it still tested perfectly fine for the moisture content. 

Sounds daft but do check the tester as they randomly stop working, I got suspicious of mine saying everything was "green" over the period of a few weeks. Dipped it in some water directly and it still displayed green. Oops!

[Dyslexic Viking]

I wouldn't be surprised if the brake fluid in this one is older than some of the members here.

So not surprised it failed.

[somewhatfoolish]

35 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I tested some brake fluid a while back on a car that was 10 years old, it hadn’t had a brake fluid change, it still tested perfectly fine for the moisture content. 

I go by colour; if it looks like healthy piss it's ok, if it looks like Bob Monkhouse's bathwater it's time for a change.

[Dyslexic Viking]

I had the good idea to go on ebay and look at the instrument clusters on these.

And is a bit interesting, what I have marked with a red arrow on both pictures, I can't find any other explanation that that is the mounting / fastener to the dachbord?

And the blue arrow in picture one is where I may have to change light bulbs and there appears to be a hinged hatch there.

 

So there may be some hope that this is made for easy access/removal?

[danthecapriman]

I can see the issue with the actual ‘defects’ they found on the test, fair enough, if it’s damaged or worn then yes it should be repaired or replaced in order to get a fresh pass. 
But, that issue with the seats is frankly pathetic! It causes absolutely no problems for anyone or anything if it’s got a 5 seat layout or six! If you were trying to present the car for a test with a milk crate as a drivers seat I could probably see their point but as it is here is ridiculous.

We moan about how stupid things are here in the uk but imho this sort of nonsense is much worse.