6.9

The process has begun. I'll attempt to record the progress as I move from front to back on the car.

The first step is rebuilding the front suspension. Everything was in really sad shape once I got the car up onto blocks and the tires removed - both sides had the brake pad wear sensors in tatters.


The sheathing on the wear sensor wires had long since perished:


The passenger fenderwell was particularly nasty:








The inner bushings on the upper control arms were almost non-existent:


I removed the struts - this was easy, no pressure in the system after sitting on blocks for several weeks.

There were three areas of difficulty -

I fought with the driver's side brake line where the flex hose attaches to the rigid line. The ham-fisted mechanic that replaced these hoses tightened the connection to the point where no amount of persuasion would break the connection. Even a set of locking pliers refused to release the connection. I spent over 2 hours trying to get the line to break loose from the hose. Finally resorted to a pair of wire cutters and cut both the hose and the line...

The second was disconnecting the steering knuckle from the lower ball joint. I have a tool that presses up on the control arm and down on the end of the ball joint where the nut attaches. I tightened this for all I could and nothing would give. Finally resorted to using a pneumatic impact hammer with a blunted chisel to hammer on the finger of the tool where it presses on the ball joint stud.

The final area was the lower control arms where they attach to the cross member behind the engine. The bolts were rusted solid in the bushings.

Removed the lower control arms as a unit with the transverse member, then used a pneumatic cutoff grinder to cut through the bolts on the head side of the bushing. With the nut removed and because the transverse member is slotted to allow for suspension adjustment during an alignment, I was able to pivot the control arm out of the cross member.

The rear bushings were shot - here's a picture of one before I removed it from the cross member:


The front bushings appeared to be in good condition, but I removed them anyway, since I had a complete repair kit:


Removing the upper control arms involved detaching the outer bushing carrier from the torsion bar, as there was no way to remove the bolt that goes thru the control arm and bushings and attaches to the torsion bar. Once the were on the bench, the state of failure was obvious:



The bushings in the transverse member are cactus as well:




Started cleaning up the passenger side fenderwell. When I went to remove the oil tank, I discovered that the same monkey that worked on the brake lines also worked on the hoses to the oil tank. I could only get the smaller of the 3 busted loose. Resorted to cutting the other two lines - I have a new set of hoses anyway.

Discovered that there's a cover missing up by the torsion bar. It's present on the driver's side. Thank goodness this is so, because the parts were impossible to find in EPC. The driver's side part had the part # cast into the plastic. They appear in the section with parts for the center console...




Cleaning with a mixture of Simple Green and Purple Stuff resulted in a fairly good outcome:






Did discover some rust in the typical spot. Have to replace the rocker panels anyway and I'll fix this mess then:


These rust spots are actually solid when probed with a punch:


I think this is a drain hole in the upper control arm recess - at least I hope it is:




I've decided to pull the fenders off the car and do a proper job. While I was waiting for the heat gun I ordered to arrive, I started cleaning up the parts in preparation for powder coating:
Lower Control Arm - before:




Lower Control Arm - after:




Brake shield - before:




Brake shield - after:


Sadly, the brake shield shows noticeable pitting - I think too many years sitting the shed is the cause. No rust-through, but they won't look as nice after powder coating as if they'd been un-pitted.
I'll see if I have versions of this part from #1164 that are in better shape.

That's all for now ---

W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

Brian,

Thanks for the pictures. This project would make a good article for the Lode Star. We are chronically short of good 6.9 material for the magazine. Certainly looks like a previous owner neglected routine maintenance issues at a minimum.

Art

WOW you've done a great job so far! Can you describe the process of cleaning those parts and the inner guards? The cleaned suspension bits look like they've been media blasted. Any links to the products used?

Those bushes were in real bad shape.

Mark


Last of the steel Mercedes

2001 Ford AU Fairmont Ghia 5L (Deep Blue)
1980 450SEL #101122 (Green Lantern)
1979 6.9 #6301 (Blue Flame)
1979 6.9 #5541 (Red Bull)
1979 6.9 #5318 (Silver Arrow)
1979 6.9 #5298 (Man o War)
1978 6.9 #4248 (Skye Blue)
1979 6.9 #3686 (Moby Dick)
1975 450SEL #28414 (Gold Nugget)
1957 Buick Roadmaster 73A (Titanic)

Is this the same stuff?

http://australia.simplegreen.com/

Mark


Last of the steel Mercedes

2001 Ford AU Fairmont Ghia 5L (Deep Blue)
1980 450SEL #101122 (Green Lantern)
1979 6.9 #6301 (Blue Flame)
1979 6.9 #5541 (Red Bull)
1979 6.9 #5318 (Silver Arrow)
1979 6.9 #5298 (Man o War)
1978 6.9 #4248 (Skye Blue)
1979 6.9 #3686 (Moby Dick)
1975 450SEL #28414 (Gold Nugget)
1957 Buick Roadmaster 73A (Titanic)

What about this?

http://www.thepurplestuff.com/

Mark


Last of the steel Mercedes

2001 Ford AU Fairmont Ghia 5L (Deep Blue)
1980 450SEL #101122 (Green Lantern)
1979 6.9 #6301 (Blue Flame)
1979 6.9 #5541 (Red Bull)
1979 6.9 #5318 (Silver Arrow)
1979 6.9 #5298 (Man o War)
1978 6.9 #4248 (Skye Blue)
1979 6.9 #3686 (Moby Dick)
1975 450SEL #28414 (Gold Nugget)
1957 Buick Roadmaster 73A (Titanic)

quote:

---

Originally posted by oversize

WOW you've done a great job so far! Can you describe the process of cleaning those parts and the inner guards? The cleaned suspension bits look like they've been media blasted. Any links to the products used?

Those bushes were in real bad shape.

Mark

---

The inner guards were just manual elbow grease with Simple Green - full strength, and Zep Purple Cleaner - full strength. Zep works better than Simple Green, at the cost of the paint.

First I scraped all of the mud and loose stuff off using a variety of tools that were non-damaging. I have a piece of 1/2" thick HDPE about 1" wide and 12" long from some project years ago. I cut a sharp angle on the end with my chop saw, and rounded the edges of the opposite end to make it easier on my hands. That does a good job of scraping without scratching things up. Also a 1/4" thick x 3/4" wide piece of wood fashioned to a point along the wide edge creates a nice narrow scraper for nooks and crannies.

Once all the nastyness was removed - about 1/2 gallon by volume..., I started at the bottom in small sections with the cleaners. Wet the surface and scrub with a small brush with stiff plastic bristles. I bought a bunch of these from Harbor Freight on the cheap. I only use the nylon bristle brush. The brass and steel I reserve for other work.

http://www.harborfreight.com/3-piece-detail-brush-set-69638.html

Use them gently and when they get too worn out - toss them and grab another.

I also purchased a pressurized spray bottle from Northern Tools - holds 2 gallons of water and has a wand sprayer that can be adjusted from fine spray to strong stream.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200596645_200596645

I start at the bottom as a matter of principal. I'm not working in the driveway, I'm in my shop which has an elevated wood floor, so I need to control where the water goes. When you start at the top, the rinse water runs along the rough surface created by the remaining dirt & grime and goes all over the place. When you start at the bottom, the path of the water is more predictable.

Sounds like a good reason, huh?[:D]

The cleaners work best when they're not diluted, so I keep a bunch of rags around to periodically dry the surface where I might need a 2nd or 3rd application of cleaner. The cleaners are so effective and the fenders so dirty that you quickly can't see what you're actually cleaning from the slurry that builds up and obscures.

As for the cleaned suspension and brake parts, I start out in my parts washer, which I got several years ago from Harbor Freight - I bought one like this:
http://www.harborfreight.com/garage-shop/parts-washers/20-gallon-parts-washer-with-general-purpose-pump-7340.html

I've rebuilt it to use a filter for the fluid and use an external solvent-rated pump. I use Kerosene for the cleaner. I'll post up some pictures of the washer setup later.

After the grease and grime has been removed, it's off to the media blast cabinet, which I built using a kit I purchased from TP Tools:
http://www.tptools.com/Skat-Blast-Master-Build-Your-Own-Foot-Pedal-Cabinet-Kit-45-X-Large-Lens,7196.html?b=d*8042

I use glass bead - it is slower than other media like aluminum oxide, but I don't have to worry about damaging the surface of the items being cleaned.

I'll post up information on the creation of the media blast cabinet as well.

W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

quote:

---

Originally posted by oversize

Is this the same stuff?

http://australia.simplegreen.com/

Mark

---

That's the stuff.

W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

quote:

---

Originally posted by oversize

What about this?

http://www.thepurplestuff.com/

Mark

---

Nope - here's what I bought:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/ZEP-1-gal-Industrial-Purple-Degreaser-ZU0856128/100047759

W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

quote:

---

Originally posted by Art Love

Brian,

Thanks for the pictures. This project would make a good article for the Lode Star. We are chronically short of good 6.9 material for the magazine. Certainly looks like a previous owner neglected routine maintenance issues at a minimum.

Art

---

I have plans to contact our esteemed editor to do a series on this restoration process.

Routine maintenance (RM) seems to be a dirty word in some circles. What results from lack of RM is dirt and grime.

The amount of crud that had built up under the passenger fender I think was attributable to leaking sump hoses. They'd drip oil while the car was in motion, which would be picked up and slung all under the fender.

Much of what you see in the pictures was a very loose conglomeration of oil, sand and dirt. I think the car saw a lot of dirt roads at some point in its life.

The space between the fenders is equally dirty, just not as much dirt buildup. The suspension pump was dripping when I got the car. The oil would run down the body of the pump from where it was escaping at the connection point for the high pressure hose and drop onto the power steering pulley to be slung all across the engine compartment. There were literally puddles of oil under the battery and in the recesses below the suspension oil tank.

The front main seal is leaking as well, so the underneath of the motor is a real mess. I can hardly wait to start on that part of the project (rolls eyes).

W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

Here are some pictures, as promised, of the Parts Washer I'm using.

For a cleaning fluid, I use Kerosene. Seems to work fine, and if I keep the lid on the washer closed when not in use, I'm not even aware that there's a parts washer in the room, odor-wise.

I modified the parts washer to externalize the pump, and even found a solvent-compatible pump (Little Giant Model 518550 PE-2YSA) on Amazon.Com for a reasonable sum of money.



The pump requires a sealed connection where the wires enter, so I took a 1/2" pipe and welded it to a cradle that stands up in a 5 gallon bucket. This elevates the pump off the floor of the bucket.



I added a setup to attach a large oil filter to the output of the pump. This is an attempt to keep the cleaning fluid clean - not sure if this is working for or against me. The system worked like crazy when I first turned it on. I cleaned some really nasty parts and then the flow dropped off dramatically, so I changed the filter, thinking it was clogged. The flow came back up some, but tapered again very quickly. I discovered that the lid on the solvent bucket was being sucked in as the level in the bucket drops if the outlet from the tub gets clogged, which it does regularly. I need to change the outlet from a 3/8" fitting to a 3/4" and add a screen of some sort.



And I adapted the outlet of the pump to allow for either a brush or a nozzle.


W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

The sand blaster is a unit of my own construction, using a parts kit from TP tools. The floor of the unit is 24" deep x 48" wide. The arm holes are the right distance off the floor such that I don't have to stoop down at all to use the unit.

It took 2 sheets of 3/4" MDF to build the cabinet. The top was easy, the funnel was a Pain In The Ass. The instructions from TP Tools give you the dimensions required to build a funnel for a 30" wide (if I recall) unit. It took quite a bit of fiddling to adjust the dimensions to make the funnel wider. In addition, the TP Tools instructions assume that you'll use caulk to fix all the inconsistencies in the joints.

I used caulk, but only to provide a radius in the corners - the joints on all aspects of this cabinet don't need caulk to seal tight.

The frame for the cabinet is my own design, and creates a cradle that the funnel sits in. A few bolts keep the funnel in the right place, and the top sits on the funnel. I do have a piece of 1/4" thick foam weather stripping between the top and the funnel. There's nothing other than gravity holding the top in place - it weighs about 100#, so it's not going anywhere.



For lighting, I added two 150w halogen spots in the back corners, plus a 36" long 2-bulb florescent light on top. A gasketed piece of lens designed for a suspended ceiling florescent light keeps the blasting media and dust from fouling the light.

Here's a view from the outside with the main light on:


And with the halogens going:


Interior views of same scenes:




As I started using the cabinet, I discovered that there was too much of a shadow in the front of the part, so I found 3 LED puck lights from SuperBrightLEDs.com - part # SSM-x3x



This adds some needed light between and adjacent to my hands. The pucks are rated for exterior exposure, and the wires are housed in the copper tube so they're safe from the harsh environment:


I painted the interior with gloss white paint, and the exterior with the same battleship grey that coats the floors in the shop, with a few blue accents thrown in.
I can see after just a little use that I'm going to have to get a piece of sheet metal to protect the back from the harsh effects of the glass media.

To bring air to the blasting gun, I decided to mount a regulator on board, with a 1/4" pipe welded to the frame to accept the air inlet:


I also wanted a dust-off air gun inside the cabinet, so I added a tee to the back of the inlet, the dust-off gun air supply doesn't flow through the regulator.


A 1/2 copper pipe passes the air across the back of the cabinet:

and to the front where a short piece of 3/8" air hose passes the air to a custom bulkhead fitting:




This nothing more than a 1/2" fender washer, drilled to accept a short section of 3/8" iron pipe which is tack-welded to the washer. A similar setup passes the air into the cabinet from the foot pedal to the gun.

To control dust inside the cabinet, I added a slide valve to attach my dust collector system.


The inlet is at the opposite side of the cabinet:


If I open the valve fully, the gloves inflate so much that they're difficult to move, so 1/2-way open is good enough.

The dust collector is the same unit I used for my wood-working equipment. It's a 3hp cyclonic unit with a high efficiency pleated air filter on the outlet of the blower, the airflow from which is ducted outside the workspace.

Since the cabinet is on wheels, I wanted to have a place to hold the foot pedal, so I added a hook on the front and drilled a hole in the top of the pedal.


After using the cabinet for a while, I grew frustrated as the foot pedal would slide around too easily. A 1/2" rare earth magnet set into the floor at the right place keeps the pedal in the proper position:


I put two such magnets - one for the pedal in position for right-foot operation, the other in a position for left-foot operation.

The door has a full gasket seal, and two toggle latches keep it securely shut. Truthfully, I don't really need either of these - with the dust collector on, the door stays shut all by itself.
I did make a mistake in my choice of gasket material. Once closed and dogged down, if left for even a few moments, the door sticks to the gasket material and is hard to open. So far, no gasket material has transferred to the door, but I think a different sort of foam, maybe something open-celled would work better. I'll have to do some experimenting in this area.


Power comes in at the left rear of the cabinet. The upper switch controls the main florescent light and the LED pucks. The bottom switch turns on the halogens.


So far, the only complaint I've got is how quickly the protective mylar sheet on the inside of the window has gotten fogged from the flying media. I think I'm going to devise a setup to allow me to add regular window glass easily. Then I'll buy a bunch of pieces and swap them out as they get obscured. The glass will last far longer than the mylar - I'll just have to devise a good seal to keep the media from getting between the two pieces of glass, and a frame to make it easy to exchange the glass as needed.

I've not had any issues with media flow, but I do plan to construct a pressure feed pot to make the media delivery more consistent.


W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

In a separate thread, I asked about inner fender colors, and S Class indicated that the only proper way to restore a 6.9 was to properly restore it - not to cut corners.

The more I thought about it, I realized he was right - I was just hoping I could avoid a bunch of really nasty work...

So I began the task of pulling the front fenders...

First task - the bumpers, headlamps and valance(s) under the front bumper have to come off:






Then you need to buy, make and utilize some tools to remove the fenders. The first is a heat gun capable of generating 600C temps (about 1100f) - Amazon.com to the rescue for about $100.00.




A bent putty knife is helpful to release the seal that binds the fender to the fender well at the top:


A bottle jack and a brace puts gentle upward pressure on the fender to help ease it off the car:


The service manual says to heat the fender at the point where the bolts attach, then use a sharp knife to cut the PVC liner from inside the fender at the top where the fender and inner fender meet. While it might seem a good idea to heat the fender from the inside, this won't work well, as the PVC acts as a very good insulator.

I tried the passenger fender first, and a little over-zealous prying with a wide bar left me with some scars that will have to be repaired:




This dent is in the top edge of the fender and was caused by pulling to vigorously before all of the PVC had been cut free.


Once the fender is free of the car, the real picture can be seen. Very small surface rust on the inside of the fender:








This rust is not as bad as it appears, it should clean to bare metal and require no additional work.


I was more patient with the left side fender and no dents were created. I did have to drill/grind out one of the screws that attaches the fender to the body behind the trim at the bottom of the fender.

Rust not as extensive on this side, but holes are still there to be repaired:


I thought it would be a good idea to remove as much of the PVC with a combination of a sharpened putty knife and a small sharp chisel. What you see here is a small part of what must be done, and it took about 3 hours to get to this point. 99% of the rust seen in these pictures is surface only, but almost all of it was invisible under the PVC - as good a reason as I can find for following Ryan's (S Class) suggestion.






I ordered some quick-change rust removal pads that fit in my 4-1/2" angle grinder from Amazon.Com - about $12.50.



It requires an adapter to fit the grinder, but allows for quick swapping between discs - about $11.50


With the disc mounted in the grinder, this is the result after about 10 minutes work:







I need to get some smaller versions of these strippers to get into the nooks and crannies. I've yet to figure out how I'm going to deal with the cup that receives the strut - it has nooks and crannies behind it that will be impossible to reach fully.

That's all for now - my shoulders and back are still angry with me...

Regards

W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

Everything looks good. The usual wear and no rust up around the sway bar mounts. I have seen cars where this has dissapeared completely [xx(]
Have you ever had a jolt from static electricity build up in your blast cabinet? Tghe one at work is a shocker...ha ha . it has a cabintet built from plexiglass and operators get a belt every now and then. We also have a pretty effective air dust seperator which uses a big shop vac. It keeps the air clean so the parts being blasted can be seen .
A lot of the oil under a 6.9 is the normal result of the Struts leakdown system of lubrication .

quote:

---

12-14-2004, 11:49 PM #8
Tom Hanson
MBCA Member

What the heck, try to stuff a MB 6.9 liter V8 in it. What a machine that would be..
__________________
Tom Hanson
Orange County Section

---

Thanks for the reply, Ron. Glad to see that what I've got is typical and not earth-shattering.

I've yet to get zapped by the blast cabinet. Houston has very high relative humidity (avg 60%), so static discharge isn't something we encounter too often.

That being said, there are many metal penetrations to the interior of the cabinet. All are grounded to the central leg of the electrical circuit that feeds the lights, so hopefully I won't get a zap.

I've been on the wrong end of things like that before. Years ago, I was using a shop vacuum to dust the walls in the finishing room at my old workshop. A lot of overspray had accumulated on the walls and I needed it clean for a cabinet finishing effort. Everything was going just fine - I did notice the hair on my arms standing on end, just before I strayed too close to an exposed metal conduit on the wall. Static discharge out through my elbow to the conduit left my arm and elbow aching for several hours thereafter. Not something I care to repeat.

Since all of this stuff is located in my workshop, which was primarily designed and out-fitted as a woodworking facility, I have a large cyclonic dust collector. I've attached the blasting cabinet to the DC, and it does a fine job of keeping the air clear. In fact, I have to reduce the flow out of the cabinet via a blast gate, else the gloves inflate to a point where they're difficult to use...

I've checked the dust bin on the collector recently, and there is some media there, but not so much as to be objectionable. Better that the air in the cabinet stay clear.

Most of what I've blasted thus far will have to be re-done when I'm ready to powder coat - the bare metal surfaces will flash rust if left for very long in that same Houston humidity that guards against static discharge. I'll swap the media in the cabinet for some brand new stuff before the final blasting exercise, just to get a good cleaning with no risk of redepositing goop that may exist down in the media from dirty parts before.

Regards

W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

Excellent work, Brian, thanks for posting. This kind of thing is very good for my motivation.

benz_head
#1349

That cleaning pad is unreal!!! I'll try those on my 280E rocker rust that I am going to tackle shortly. The results are amazing as getting to that point is one of the most difficult tasks. These projects are inspirational for many of us.

Here's some more "progress" thru 08/29/2013.

Started this evening stripping away more PVC under the driver's fender. Already revealed some rust on Tuesday, but it's surface and nothing to worry over:





Worked more, and uncovered even more rust. I'm beginning to think that it's not "if" a W116 has rust, it's "how bad is it" There were virtually no external signs of most of the rust you'll see in the following pictures, with the exception of the rocker panel, although even that didn't look as bad as it appears now.

The rust below the fuse box looks worse than it is. The metal is still solid, although I expect the entirety of the metal behind the overlapping flange is rusty. I'll investigate from above how bad the problem is and may decide to drill the spot welds out, open the flange and do some abatement, then re-weld the assembly.







Once I got the fenders off, I took the time to wiggle out each of the clips that area attached to the body through which the bolts secure the fender to the car. Each was covered in the PVC from the fender side, and the sticky black foam from the engine compartment side.

I found the quickest way to get them clean was to hold them with a pair of pliers, and gently play the flame of a MAPP gas torch over the item. The PVC will catch fire and burn, reducing much of the goop to a charred grit which is easily removed in the blasting cabinet.

I made sure not to overheat the clips lest I destroy the temper of the item. They got hot, but probably not much more than sitting in the sun with the engine of a freshly shut-off engine baking them.

I tried removing the PVC with the blasting cabinet alone, and it acts like a resist material - it's too rubbery and the glass just bounces off.

This is one of the clips from the front of the fender where the light bucket is - it's not as bad as the clips across the top of the fender, but it gives some indication of how nasty each clip was:




And here's how the clean clips appears:




I'll either paint or powder coat the clips before reinstallation.

That's all for now...

W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

Brian, Mercedes sells a "repair kit" for the fenders. This includes all the clips, bolts, nuts, molding clips, etc. that you would need to replace a fender. For your car it is part number 116-880-01-97 (was superceded a couple of times) and you need one kit for each fender. They show a price of about 46.00 each. Makes it real easy to get all the hardware you need and you don't have to worry about re-using rusty old fasteners. They also sell similar kits for the doors as well.

Chris

Thanks, that's good to know. I'll add this to my next order from the Classic Center.

Regards

W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

I took the week of 09/02 off on vacation to spend more quality time with #521. Monday was "Labor Day" so no real "work" was done. Tuesday was work of a different sort - errands, etc.

Wednesday the work continued more-or-less in earnest. I have other projects going on in the shop, so I try to complete one non-6.9 task each day, so there were delays.

I continued with the stripping of the PVC liner from the drivers fender well - here you can see most of the paint and PVC have been removed:


The upper recesses of the fender were a real pain to work with. The angles aren't good for digging the PVC out. I finally resorted to two pieces of EMT conduit, 1/2" and 3/4" OD, which I put a fine edge to one end. This works well for scraping the PVC out of the various curved recesses.




I finally got all of the PVC removed on Thursday evening and was able to start the next step to remove all vestiges of the PVC, paint and primer down to bare metal.




I got a lot more done than appears in the pictures. I got the bulk of the PVC out with my 4-1/2" electric grinder fitted with a scouring pad. Then came the small right-angle pneumatic grinder with a 2" scouring pad. That allows me to get into the little nooks and crannies that the larger grinder can't access, but not everything. When I got to the point of needing to address the under side of the crease at the front of the fender well where it meets the engine compartment, there were still too many things in my way to do a credible job.

The engine compartment is seriously grimy, and there's a very real chance that if I don't take the time to clean it up, there will be issues with fouling the primers, paint and rock chip undercoating, so I started removing the items attached to the motor and in front of the motor.

First, I started removing the left and right main wiring harnesses from where they connect to the headlamps, horns, A/C fan, etc. I purchased some string tags that I used to label each wire when it was disconnected from something. Hopefully this will allow me to get the wiring back together again.

I have no pictures for the removal of the PS pump, Alternator, A/C compressor, radiator, A/C condenser or oil filter housing - the work there was simple enough. Hardest item was the two lower bolts on the oil filter housing - my socket mounted 6mm hex wrench was too large to fit in, so those bolts came out with a standard L-shaped wrench, 1/4" turn at a time - that took a while.

Once all those items were removed, what was revealed was a study in "nasty":


To the left in the picture below, you can see the string tags I spoke of earlier. More "hack" repairs can be seen on the bolt on the lower left hand corner of the water pump. There's a nut and a couple of washers behind the hex head. I'm guessing the right-length bolt wasn't available when the pump was changed...

When I removed the A/C compressor, I discovered that the lower rear mounting bolt had 3 washers between the compressor frame and the block, and the front tensioner pulley has 3 or 4 washers between the bracket and the compressor frame. When I get everything clean, I'll remove the frame from the compressor and see if the washers, etc were really necessary to proper alignment. I have a NOS compressor, so this grimy example will not be reused.




It may be possible to see in this picture, but the fitting that feeds the bypass hose isn't really a fitting, it's a female pipe thread to compression fitting adapter - no hose barb as one would expect. Naturally, the inside of the bypass hose was cut to shreds from being clamped over the threads. I had thought that the seals had perished on the water pump - I think it may have actually been this hose leaking...




All of the brackets, etc that have been removed from the engine have had their respective bolts bagged and tagged with application, and the brackets themselves have been through the parts washer.

I've decided to pull the motor and transmission out and finish the entire front clip of the car with the proper rust abatement, priming and undercoating, along with replacing the rockers. I don't want to do this stuff twice, and getting everything clean and tidy before any paint hits the metal is the best way to ensure success later on.

More pictures to follow as I return to work on the car next week.

W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

Someone buy this man a beer.

That looks like so much fun, I'm actually jealous. Wish I could work on my own cars instead of customer cars...

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I'd actually prefer a bottle of Tylenol or Advil.

Ouch my aching shoulders/back...

Thanks for the words of encouragement.

Regards

W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

This is brilliant work and I'm sure the results will be amazing! Keep it up!

Mark


Last of the steel Mercedes

2001 Ford AU Fairmont Ghia 5L (Deep Blue)
1980 450SEL #101122 (Green Lantern)
1979 6.9 #6301 (Blue Flame)
1979 6.9 #5541 (Red Bull)
1979 6.9 #5318 (Silver Arrow)
1979 6.9 #5298 (Man o War)
1978 6.9 #4248 (Skye Blue)
1979 6.9 #3686 (Moby Dick)
1975 450SEL #28414 (Gold Nugget)
1957 Buick Roadmaster 73A (Titanic)

In preparation for removing the motor and tending to painting the entire front clip, I've been removing things from the car.

Part of the risk of an endeavor like this is being unable to reinstall the parts back to the car when the time comes, which may well be some weeks (months?) in the future. As I remove any fastener or sets of fasteners, they go into an individual zip-lock bag with a label tag containing (I hope) enough information for me to know where the fastener should be used.

For larger parts, I tie the string tag to the item.

I'm sure the service manual tells where each of the hard lines from the suspension are supposed to go - I'd just as soon as be sure.

In the case of the front level control valve, there are 4 ports, marked N, Z, B & R (if I recall correctly). After removing the valve, I tied string tags to each of the line ends with the proper reference included.




When it came time to remove the 4 lines that run over the inner fender from the valve to the right front pressure sphere and connect to lines running across the car to the suspension tank and height control valve, the easiest method was to label each end of a disconnect point A matches A, B matches B, etc.



After these lines were removed, I could start cleaning the grunge that was found on the fender and at the bottom on the frame rails


Method was the same as the wheel well side of the fender, Zep Industrial Purple cleaner, scrub brushes and patience:





It's not done, but it's a start.

The driver's side inner fender was far cleaner to start with, as I'd previously cleaned much of the gunk out when I first got the car:



But it's coming along nicely, too:


W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

Was the car originally green or blue? I number the bags sequentially, so you can refit them in the reverse order and not have to remove something you just fitted during reassembly...

Mark


Last of the steel Mercedes

2001 Ford AU Fairmont Ghia 5L (Deep Blue)
1980 450SEL #101122 (Green Lantern)
1979 6.9 #6301 (Blue Flame)
1979 6.9 #5541 (Red Bull)
1979 6.9 #5318 (Silver Arrow)
1979 6.9 #5298 (Man o War)
1978 6.9 #4248 (Skye Blue)
1979 6.9 #3686 (Moby Dick)
1975 450SEL #28414 (Gold Nugget)
1957 Buick Roadmaster 73A (Titanic)

Just want to say thanks to Brian for so carefully documenting and sharing this work with great pics. It is a pain to take, organize and post pics especially with the descriptions. This is really educational for me and I hope to be able to use some of your techniques on some rust on my 280E.

Just want to say thanks to Brian for so carefully documenting and sharing this work with great pics. It is a pain to take, organize and post pics especially with the descriptions. This is really educational for me and I hope to be able to use some of your techniques on some rust on my 280E.

quote:

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Originally posted by oversize

Was the car originally green or blue? I number the bags sequentially, so you can refit them in the reverse order and not have to remove something you just fitted during reassembly...

Mark

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I definitely need to categorize the fasteners in some way. I came across a clip that I'd missed for some section of the car and it took me forever to find its mates in their bag.

The car is supposed to be Cypress Green - that's the color we're going back with. Gonna be a royal PAIN...



W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

quote:

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Originally posted by etmerritt33

Just want to say thanks to Brian for so carefully documenting and sharing this work with great pics. It is a pain to take, organize and post pics especially with the descriptions. This is really educational for me and I hope to be able to use some of your techniques on some rust on my 280E.

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You're quite welcome. Much of what you're seeing is literally by the seat of my pants. I'm hoping that the results are as good as I intend for them to be.


W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

quote:

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Originally posted by S class

Someone buy this man a beer.

That looks like so much fun, I'm actually jealous. Wish I could work on my own cars instead of customer cars...

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I have the same problem right now....[:D]

quote:

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12-14-2004, 11:49 PM #8
Tom Hanson
MBCA Member

What the heck, try to stuff a MB 6.9 liter V8 in it. What a machine that would be..
__________________
Tom Hanson
Orange County Section

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Very nice Brian, Zypress is a stunning colour.

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More progress from Monday, 9/16 and Tuesday 9/17.

With the decision to pull the motor in order to properly strip and repaint not only the fenders but basically the entire front clip of the car, on Monday, I took on the particularly nasty task of removing the exhaust system and driveshaft.

The exhaust is a butchery job - it looks like it was replaced at some point at a local muffler shop, with pipes that are too small for the application. Notice how they reused the flare portion where the pipe meets the manifold?





Surprisingly, only 1 of the 4 bolts that hold the exhaust to the manifold gave me any grief, and it appears that it was one replaced by someone at some point, as it wasn't a 13mm head like the rest.

Pulling the driveshaft wasn't too difficult - the bolts on the front flex plate came off with little persuasion. The rears, however, were apparently installed by that Grunter fellow - - had to get the rattle gun out to break them loose, which meant a face full of dirt and grime... Thanks Grunter...

When I pulled the transmission support to get at the front flex disc, I was reminded why it's not a good idea to let seals leak on cars, particularly when rubber items are in the path of the leaking seal. The transmission mount has Melted...





As I was removing the driveshaft, the carrier bearing revealed just how completely shot it was...





Still working slowly to remove all of the PVC stone guard from the driver's fender...





I'm not certain how I'm going to get at all the undercoat and grime around the cup that retains the top of the strut - the right-angle grinder that I'm using, combined with the peculiar angles of the fender components means this is as far as I can get with pneumatic/mechanical assistance. You can see the remaining coating on the left-hand side of the mounting cup.





This view is the interior of the recess where the upper control arm mounts. The shiny spot at the back is the extent of the reach of the grinder - going to have to do better than this...


Tonight, I finished (98%) stripping the coating on the exterior side of the fenderwell - a little surface rust to be found, but nothing scaly at all...






I've managed to purchase the last two large tools needed for the motor/suspension work. The largest wrench required to service the dry-sump hoses is a 36mm. My stock of wrenches goes up to 32mm only. Here's a comparison of the Armstrong 36mm I just got vs a 30mm Craftsman unit - just a tad more beefy, wouldn't you say?



Both wrenches are USA-stamped - getting anything Craftsman with USA on it is becoming a real challenge. I've had the 30mm wrench for about 4 years.




W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

It's sad to see how badly these cars have been neglected and butchered over the years. But it's reassuring when you see a new owner that gives a damn and saves all that wonderful engineering! I think I better go back in the shed and DO something! [;)]

Mark


Last of the steel Mercedes

2001 Ford AU Fairmont Ghia 5L (Deep Blue)
1980 450SEL #101122 (Green Lantern)
1979 6.9 #6301 (Blue Flame)
1979 6.9 #5541 (Red Bull)
1979 6.9 #5318 (Silver Arrow)
1979 6.9 #5298 (Man o War)
1978 6.9 #4248 (Skye Blue)
1979 6.9 #3686 (Moby Dick)
1975 450SEL #28414 (Gold Nugget)
1957 Buick Roadmaster 73A (Titanic)

I need to buy stock in whomever makes flap discs. Great work Brian.


With best regards

Al

Brian, we get into the last corners that the grinder can't get to with a selection of rotary wire brushes mounted in an electric drill. Its less effective than the stripping discs, but one has no choice. Wear goggles - the brushes like to shed steel hairs at speed...

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Don't know what you are contemplating relative to exhaust system replacement?? I put a Time Valve 100% euro stainless steel exhaust system on my 6.9. Included is a euro muffler. I am very pleased with the system and obviously expect it to last a long time.

Timevalve will be the source for the replacement exhaust. $pendy, but worth the money.

W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

I've not forgotten this project, but have been sidetracked by things that must be done before I can continue with the stripping of the fenderwells.

I've decided to pull the motor and transmission. This will give me the opportunity to clean the engine compartment 100% and paint it back in the original Cypress Green that it should be, at the same time I paint the fenderwells.

I've got work to do on the motor as well. New seals, etc, plus new intake rubbers. To facilitate this - the engine needs to go on a stand.

After viewing the stand that Art & Justin built, I decided that I was up to the task of creating one "like" that one.

Part of the "problem" of creating something like this is that I'm missing several critical pieces of data:

1) How much does a fully dressed M-100 motor from a 6.9 really weigh?
2) How much stress will that weight, when bolted to a plate and suspended in mid-air place on the device trying to overcome gravity's strong desire to drop the block to the pavement?
3) Any sort of engineering training that would allow me to take the value from #1 and calculate the answer to #2.

So, true to my nickname "Bullet-Proof-Brian", what I constructed (I think) is an engine stand that takes overkill to the next level.

Started out on eBay for a pair of pillow block bearings:


These have a 2 inch (50.8mm) bore.

Art & Justin's use of a right angle gear box to rotate the block was a stroke of genius, so I sourced one - also from eBay.



I had originally ordered one about 60% as big as this one, but the seller didn't have the one I wanted, so he sold me this one instead. It's quite a bit larger, but there was no additional cost.



At this point in the process, things got a little screwy - mostly my fault. The original gear case had a 1" drive shaft, so I ordered a set of spider shaft couplings from McMaster Carr - this on the same day as the completed eBay purchase, but before the seller contacted me.

The gear box arrived the same day as the shaft couplings, and I took one look at the output shaft and realized that it was much larger than 1". I think I measured it and came up with 1-1/2".

Ordered a piece of 2" 1018 rod for the shaft - also from eBay. This came in at the same time as the gear box, so I gave it to Tin, who's a machinist, to turn one end down to 1-1/2" to correspond to the ID of the shaft couplings I was going to have to reorder.

Placed an order for the new, correctly sized couplings. They arrived about the same time Tin gave me the modified shaft:


Tested the fit of the couplings on the shaft - perfect fit.

Got to the shop, all excited to assemble the shaft with the pillow blocks and the gear box, and went to slip one of the couplings on the drive shaft - and the coupling is TOO BIG. WHAT?!?!?!?

Caliper in hand I check - the drive shaft is 1-3/8"... UGH.

So another set of couplings to return, and the shaft back to Tin for more turning...

For the frame of the stand, I sourced a 20' piece of 3" square tube. I'd asked my supplier for a 5/16" wall thickness (yes - overkill to the extreme), and when I arrived to pick it up, they only had 1/4" wall tube. They cut it into 2 10' pieces for transport in my truck.

Good thing they didn't have 5/16" wall - I was very surprised when I went to remove the tube from the truck - 1/4" wall 3" square tube weighs 8.8 pounds per foot. 5/16" is over 11 pounds per foot.

Cut the tubing up into the various sizes required to construct the stand. Two pieces to create a mounting frame for the pillow block bearings - cut and drilled with 5/8" holes for the bolts:



Welded them together:


This was my first effort at welding this size and thickness of metal. I must say it was invigorating - the crack and sizzle of the MIG welder cranked up for 1/4" stock is mesmerizing...

Welded a 30" piece of tube to the pair I just joined together. This joint is going to be under the most stress with the engine mounted to the stand, and my Hobart 187 welder manual suggests multiple beads for maximum strength in 1/4" material using .030 solid core wire.

Welds don't look very good, but I think the penetration is acceptable:




Taking a design cue from Art & Justin's work, I wanted to cut the tubes for the front and rear "feet" to allow the casters to be attached to the top of the tube - allowing for a 3" closer-to-the-floor stance.

Frankly - this was MISERABLE work. I used a 4" hole saw in my drill press to cut the arcs. The problem is that my 17" Delta drill press has some serious design issues, and the clamping bolts and trunion pivots under the table have cracked, so the table is held in place with a couple of C-clamps and is far from rock solid. I think it took about 3 hours to cut 8 arcs in the two legs. Then I removed the remaining metal on my Milwaukee 14" cold-cut saw.

This is one of the legs before I cleaned up the work with the right-angle grinder:


The front leg is 24" long, the rear is 30" long. They're joined by a 30" piece of 3" tube.

Fabbed up the mounting shelf for the gear box and ground the welds flat to make sure the case would sit square on it's base:



For the mounting plate for the engine, I got a 24" x 24" x 5/8" thick plate for $.40/pound. It cost just over $40.00 - yep - it weighs about 100#...

I took a piece of plywood and attached it to the front of the spare transmission and used a transfer punch to mark the location for the bolts. I knocked the corners off the plywood and traced the shape onto the plate and cut it out with the torch:


I managed to make 6 cuts for the mounting plate without dropping any molten steel on my feet or burning my hands. After I was all finished and had wrapped the hoses back onto the cart I backed into the tip of the torch and burned my right arm...

My original plan was to weld the mounting plate directly to the shaft. I had Tin tap the end of the shaft for a 1/2"-13 bolt so I could bolt the shaft firmly in place before welding it. I decided instead to cut a 6" square from the leftovers from the mounting plate, drill it for a central hole and 4 mounting holes. That way I can have other uses for the stand in the future besides supporting M-100 motors.

Here's what the 6x6 plate looked like after the torching:


And after a few minutes with the grinder and a 36grit segmented disc:


5 - 1/2" holes drilled:


The rough-cut mounting plate:


Cleaned up with the grinder - this took about an hour:


When I went to drill the holes in the mounting plate, I discovered that only 2 of them were accessible on the drill press. I drilled those first, and tapped them for 1/2"-13 bolts. I discovered the quick way to tap the holes is to mount the tap handle (which has a removable T-bar and a recess for a 3/8" drive ratchet) in my Makita 18v impact driver. With the proper tapping fluid and care, I can go back and forth quickly with minimal risk of breaking the tap. Each hole took about 2 minutes to tap.

After I got the second hole tapped, I noticed something peculiar - the bolts weren't in straight. I checked the drill press table and it was not perfect, but it was very close to perpendicular to the drill bit used to drill the holes. What went wrong?

I used a piece of 5/8" plate scrap with a 1/4" hole drilled in it as a guide bushing for the other two holes in the plate which I had to drill by hand. As I was drilling the pilot hole in the plate, I noticed that the table moved when I pulled down on the quill handle to drill the hole. I confirmed my suspicions by putting the mounting plate on the drill press and checking for perpendicularity - it was off a lot more with the weight of the plate (about 75#) on the table. Those stupid busted trunions bite me in the a$$ again... (what parts are still available - press is a whopping 5 years old) are on order from Delta. When those get here - that can take 1-2 months depending on who knows what - I'll figure out what I'm going to have to do to fix the table...)

The second set of holes tapped nicely - nothing out of kilter, even with doing it all by hand.

Here's the almost complete stand - the hand wheel is missing:


A closeup of the gear box, Lovejoy couplings and the pillow block bearings:


I sourced the casters from eBay - they came with hollow king pins ready for 1/2" bolts. The wheels have annular bearings and are rated at 225# per caster - hopefully that's enough to carry the engine plus the weight of the stand... To mount them I took 1/2" carriage bolts and ground the square block off the back of the head and used nylock nuts on the caster side.



The stabilizers use a 3/8" stainless all thread - there's a 3/8" nut welded inside the tube under the top. The feet and knobs are McMaster-Carr faire.

When I ordered the second set of wrong motor couplings, I also ordered a handwheel, going from memory that the input shaft was 7/8" diameter. IT IS NOT... so that handwheel went back and I got this one instead. The input shaft is 1-3/16, and Tin was nice enough to bore it out for me. A 5/16 set screw holds it in place, and I made the handle with a 5/16" bolt through a 3/8" brass pipe nipple from which I removed the threaded ends:


Hopefully next weekend we can pull the motor - the stand is ready and I think (hope?) up to the task.

W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

That's beautiful Brian. Nice work.

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It really is. I had a thought about all the gunk in your frontend and engine bay - it keeps rust away, so it's probably a good thing.


benz_head
#1349

Yeah, the gunk inside the engine bay keeps the rust away, and the PVC under the fenders hides the rust away...



W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

Been a while since I've provided substantive updates, so here we go.

Two weekends ago, Tin and I pulled the motor out of the car. The process went very smoothly, given that fact that the engine/transmission assembly weighs only slightly less than a small planet.

Nothing will put the fear of gravity into a person like the sound of metal popping when the engine assembly is 3 feet in the air and still a ways from being out of the engine compartment...

I had previously removed all the external attachments to allow for quick removal of the assembly. All that remained was to disconnect the engine mounts, remove the transmission support and lift/coax the engine out of the engine compartment.

Naturally, since the bolts that attach the engine mounts to the engine are steel, and the attachment points are aluminum, the bolts wouldn't break free. However, a lot of heat applied with a MAPP gas torch to the aluminum, along with a shot of PB blaster and the bolts came free with no issues.





In order to completely clear the core support, we had to take the body off of the support blocks in the front and lower it almost all the way down to the floor.









Total start to finish was about 2 hours. No fingers were pinched, no knuckles skinned and no damage to the body or to the engine assembly.

After the engine was out, next came the task of disconnecting the engine from the transmission. I should have removed the torque converter-to-flex plate bolts while the engine was in the car, but a little effort laying on the ground with the engine lifted off the floor provided positive results.

After that, the engine needed to be attached to the yet-as-untested engine stand. That process went very smoothly until I discovered that the mounting point of the adapter plate was WAY below the center of gravity of the motor, making it VERY top heavy.

Add to that the fact that the rubber "spider" that's in the Lovejoy coupling on the stand is way too soft for the application, what resulted was a very unstable and unsafe situation.

Disconnected the engine from the stand and removed the adapter plate from the engine. Shifted the mounting point for the stand-to-adapter plate 6" upwards and that improved things immensely.

I am VERY pleased with how the stand is working out. I can rotate the motor completely upside down with no issues at all. The casters are up to the task of rolling the assembly around, and the stabilizer feet allow me to jack the frame up to prevent the weight of the motor from causing flat spots on the caster wheels or leaving dents in the wood floor of the shop.

This week, I worked on getting the car dolly under the unibody and the unibody securely attached to the dolly.

The rear "attachment" point relies on gravity to place the car. The 1-1/2" square tube is welded to the trolley frame, but only the weight of the car and the subframe bolt head keep the car in position.


In front, I made a pair of staddle stands, and bolted the car to the stands through the holes in the side of the front crossmember attachment points.


When it comes time to move the car, these saddles will make sure the car won't separate from the dolly.

I tested the dolly once fully installed and I can indeed move the car. Doesn't move easily, mostly due to the wood floor and the very small contact patch offered by the caster wheels.

One of my ideas for the dolly was the ability to raise the car up for better underneath access as well as making sill replacement easier.

At each corner of the dolly, I added a tube I purchased from a trailer supply company designed to accept a 2" square tube.

Made 4 12" legs with bottoms - jacked the front of the car up and slid the legs into place. Repeated the same at the rear, and the car is now sitting nice and high (sills are about 18" off the floor).


Tonight, I resumed cleaning by working on the items at the firewall. Central to this task was removing the fuse box to ensure there was no rust damage behind the fuse box where it attaches to the firewall.

I'm happy to report there appears to be no issue. I carefully marked each wire that was removed from the fuse block, so hopefully everything can go back together when the time comes.

(How I'll get the top 3 nuts on the fuse box studs at that point is another matter for speculation...)

More updates coming soon.

W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

I am really enjoying following this project , admire your fabrication skills and wish I could be your helper. I'm learning a bunch!

Thanks - I'll admit freely that most of this fabrication work is self-taught.

I have no idea whether what I'm doing is sufficient or overkill. I suppose it's sufficient, since nothing has failed (yet).

I was going to make the trolly out of far thicker material and was dissuaded from that path by members of another non-car-related forum.

They apparently were right (as the constructed assembly seems durable and nothing has broken - yet) - and I saved some $ in the process.

W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

Keep up the good work. I am enjoying these posts, especially the wonderful pics

Luis

quote:

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Originally posted by cakalues

Keep up the good work. I am enjoying these posts, especially the wonderful pics

Luis

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Thanks, Luis. The pictures are part of the process. Hopefully I won't completely destroy the camera before the project is complete.

W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

Now that the massive bulk of the M100 has been removed from the engine bay, cleaning operations are at full speed - or at least my speed.
Here are a few "before" pictures - remember that a lot of the engine compartment forward of the strut towers was already cleaned - things were really a LOT more nasty than they appear here:






Just like the PVC in the wheel wells can hide a massive amount of rust, the sound dampening mat on the firewall can do the same - so off it comes.




Hurray! No rust!

The "off it comes" seems like it was an easy task, and frankly it was, once I'd removed everything from the firewall that was in the way, which includes, but is not limited to the following:

• Fuse box (this comes with a special prayer that I can get it reinstalled and all the wires hooked back to their proper positions when the time comes)


• HVAC low and high pressure lines. This required first the removal of the driver's seat, which typically had frozen height-adjustment slides which are required to be free-moving to gain access to the rear screws, then about 4 or 5 trips in and out from under the dash to get the right size wrenches.


• Vacuum line grommet adjacent to the fuse box - easy.


• Hood release cable - easy.


• Heater control valve - this would have been easy if the idiot that installed (or likely replaced, given the age of the car) the hose that's inside the cowl connecting the outlet of the valve to the inlet of the core would have put the band clamp on the valve oriented such that it didn't require removal of the wiper motor...


• Wiper motor - reason noted above. Turns out this was a good idea, as the grommet for the power cable had perished and there was evidence of water incursion (small amount) in that area under the dash. This also took a couple of trips in and out of the dash.


• Hose for heater outlet on passenger side - easy.


• Windshield washer nozzles. I marvel at MB's ingenuity. My modern W220 and predecessor W140 cars have electrically heated washer nozzles. The W116 engineers solved the problem of freezing nozzles by wrapping the pipe that starts in the engine compartment and terminates at a swaged end to form the nozzle around the heater core inlet and outlet hoses.


• Oil pressure line - easy.


• Suspension control line - easy.

Once all this was done, a little careful pulling and prodding with a putty knife released the mat without a single tear. I'll re-attach it later using the same adhesive used to put the hood liner in place.

Lots of scrubbing and washing reveal a more-or-less clean engine bay:






This a view down into the area where the front level control valve mounts - nice and clean:


The drivers side shows the damage that occurs with leaking master cylinders, the subsequent removal of paint and the rust that follows. All of this is surface rust. The wetness is fresh water after wash-down of the "Purple Stuff":


I'd like to have removed the suspension lines and the rear brake line from the car, but that proved impossible.

The rear brake line is a single unit that terminates at a T in the rear of the car. I can't get the nut on the line attached to the T to break loose, even with line wrenches. It's smack up against the bottom of the body, so there's no way to get any heat in there to coax it free.

The rear suspension lines run between the rear subframe and the chassis. I do plan on removing the subframe to replace the mounts and clean it up, but not this minute.

Thanks for reading...

W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII

FANTASTIC Brian. Wish I was doing this on my #1670.

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116.036
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107.044
202.026

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Great resto thread Brian.

This week I'm working on pulling the undercoating off of the passenger (RHS) inner fender. This is the fender that had all of the oily mess when I started working on the car.

Surprisingly, or maybe not so, several areas of PVC that were really oil soaked to begin with had completely delaminated from the metal and just peeled off leaving pristeen primer paint below.

Or maybe there was a bonding issue from the factory?

I'm about 75% done with removing the PVC coating. I'm being more fastidious about getting as much PVC off as possible. Learning from the driver's side fender tells me that less PVC means the scouring pads last longer and work better - the PVC tends to gum up the works.

W. Brian Fogarty

'02 S55 AMG (W220)
'92 300SE (W140) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted & gone
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter VII