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Sept 9, 2023 15:56:19 GMT
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So this has been in the fold for a few weeks now, so I'd better bring you up to speed....
This was all really kicked off a couple of months back when i needed to liquidate some of my stock to generate a bit of cash. The most immediately saleable of my fleet was my W124 estate, which i had only recently ploughed a load of time and money into getting back on the road and put into immediate service as my daily driver. I told myself it wasn't really straight enough to turn into a minter and I could find another, if i still wanted one, once i got back on my feet again.
So the 124 went up for sale and was bought by Jay from this here parish and taken to its new home up in Newcastle.
The truth is, i bloody loved this car, and needless to say, i regretted the sale as soon as i watched it drive away. For the greater good, i guess......
So, bills paid, i find myself hunting for a replacement. In all honesty, I'm actually still looking for another pre-facelift 124 in the same colour combo, but that's another story. This tale concerns another Mercedes........
An ad in the classifieds here caught my attention, but the car in question seemed to be sold, then not, then sold again, so i figured it wasn't to be. An off-chance email to Rmad revealed it was indeed still available and buying it would save him the misery and life re-evaluation that comes with listing a vehicle for sale on Marketplatz on the book of face. Clearly, with this being a matter of civic duty, a deal was done and i bobbed down sarf to pick it up.
On first impression, it looks awesome. But this is a 30yr old Merc. And she's been stood......
I think we all know that means i'd best warm up the welder......
Here she is in all her driveway collection splendour
Now, don't get me wrong - this was sold as needing work, and full disclosure was given, so i knew exactly where this would be headed. So without further ado, let's get stuck in.......
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Last Edit: Feb 29, 2024 21:48:56 GMT by joe1976
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Sept 9, 2023 16:06:36 GMT
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Oh, I suppose a bit of info - she's a 1.8 petrol manual, base spec with cloth interior and keep fit windows. A really great colour combo of blue and cream though, and obviously those wheels.... I work away most weeks, so i've spent a chunk of time gathering parts in readiness for getting stuck in when i'm back home. The door cards in this one have gone the same way as so many other 190s do and totally fallen apart - in fact, these are probably about the worst ones i've seen! Hunting around the usual places revealed a couple of things; cream ones are thin on the ground, and good ones are a sodding fortune! Anyway, a bit of patience paid off and i ended up scoring a complete interior for less money than i could find a set of door cards for. Result. Trouble is, it's leather and i'm an avid fan of cloth seats, so they may not get used yet. They are way more supportive than the tired cloth ones in there currently though, so you never know....  The new interior was pretty grim, but cleaned up pretty well, as you can see by the front seats |
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Sept 9, 2023 16:17:17 GMT
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The 'new' door cards still need repairing, so i'll show that process when i get to it later, and i've bought some leather dye to see if the seats can be improved. In the meantime, the welder looks to have warmed up nicely, so i guess i'd better get after it.... Merc's love to rust, despite the factory's best efforts to prevent this, and W201s are no exception. It always starts around the grommets they put everywhere and it's pretty predictable where they go. So, what have we got? Both rear sills and jacking point areas Both rear inner arches Both rear boot floor corners NS front sill and jacking point NS sill mid section like so....       Which turns into this....        |
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Sept 9, 2023 16:23:04 GMT
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Sept 9, 2023 17:18:27 GMT
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Nice work, it's certainly not taking you too long to get the jobs done,
Nice car, nice leather interior too,
(If I'm totally honest though, the estate was stunning !!)
Nigel
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BMW E39 525i Sport
BMW E46 320d Sport Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 325 Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 320 Cabriolet (Project car - currently for sale.)
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Sept 9, 2023 22:28:30 GMT
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Thats a good looking car!
Seems to have gone to a good home also :-)
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Sept 10, 2023 1:55:08 GMT
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Yes! I’ll be following along!
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Sept 10, 2023 19:28:12 GMT
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Nice to see that car being given a new life 👍
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Fraud owners club member
1999 Jaguar s type
1993 ford escort
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Sept 11, 2023 9:03:45 GMT
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Love a 201! I found Jasmine at FrauBenz excellent for parts for any pre 2000 MB. Just in case you need another option? www.fraubenz.com/ |
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Sept 11, 2023 10:10:38 GMT
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Awesome work so far...so pleased to see it's getting the attention it deserves. Flippin' Ell though, it's certainly rustier than I thought - although I suspect it's pretty much what you were expecting.
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Sept 12, 2023 11:27:30 GMT
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Love a 201! I found Jasmine at FrauBenz excellent for parts for any pre 2000 MB. Just in case you need another option? www.fraubenz.com/Thanks mate - hopefully this one doesnt need too much else now, although i could do with a couple of bits of trim... |
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Sept 12, 2023 11:31:27 GMT
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Awesome work so far...so pleased to see it's getting the attention it deserves. Flippin' Ell though, it's certainly rustier than I thought - although I suspect it's pretty much what you were expecting. Thanks mate - in all honesty, the rot is as expected! It's gone in the usual areas, but seems pretty solid otherwise. |
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Sept 25, 2023 11:10:10 GMT
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Well, i guess it's time for a bit more of a progress report! Time has been in very short supply lately. I've been away with work every week, which only leaves the weekends to squeeze everything in - something many of us can relate to. The bulk of my freetime recently has been taken up with stripping, ordering parts and then rebuilding my lad's moped, after he grenaded the gearbox on it. Who knew a 10yr old italian 50cc two stroke might prove to be a little highly strung! I guess that's the payoff for having a 50 that tops out at almost 60mph! So my spare time has looked like this  Which is now back together again (place your bets for how long), powering this angry little thing! I wish 50s were this much fun back when i had mine!  I'm fortunate enough to have a gf that loves cars too, and she's been amazing lately with just hanging out while i'm working on cars and bikes in my time home from work. This has allowed me to get a bit more done on the 190.... You'll be pleased to read that there wont be any more welding photos (hopefully!), and we can get on with ticking off the other jobs on the list.... With the welding boxed off, there were a few areas underneath that required a dose of rust converter, before the whole underside was given a fresh coat of stonechip. It felt like the best way to get through the jobs was working from the rear to the front, so the next job was some new hard brake lines, new flexi's and a pair of discs and a set of pads. Rear shocks were cheap, so a new pair of those were also thrown on for good measure. comme ça:  Moving forward, the front end is looking a little tired; the usual split ball joint covers on the track rod ends and some lower arms which are a little worse for wear. Brake lines are a little on the crispy side, so i may as well make some fresh ones up now, and she'll be getting new brakes and shocks on the front too. Sadly, i'm not home for a couple of weeks, so she will have to sit patiently again....  More updates when it happens! Thanks for checking in! |
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Time for another update! Things have been a little up and down over the last month at Chez-76, mainly down in fairness! I was working down in Birmingham at the start of my month and had my van done over in the hotel carpark and lost all the tools that were in it. The thing that got to me the most was the loss of my remaining SnapOn gear which i've had since i was 18. The rest of my SnapOn went years ago when my main box was stolen - the tools that survived were the ones i had in a carry box at th time. So that fiasco put the brakes on for a bit! So what about the car? Well, i've been cracking on! The front arms were shot - adjuster bolts completely seized and the ball joints knackered and the steering arms werent much better either, so it had new ones of each. New dampers went on, along with discs and pads. Flexis were pretty crispy, so they were replaced, along with the hard lines on the car itself. A dose of stonechip left it all looking pretty tidy again....  Finally time to take it off the bloody axle stands then! oh, hang on - not quite... One of the front tyres wasnt holding air very well, i'd just put this down to being stood for over a year, but it had more to do with it being the shape of a 50p on the inside barrell! Turns out there's a ritired boy local to me who earns a bit of pocket money straightening wheels for the local porsche dealership! His home set-up was really pretty impressive and he had my wheel truer than the day it was born in no time at all! Now she can go back on the ground! I noticed the foglights in the headlight units were both flapping around loose inside, so i figured i'd best address these next. I dug out the heatgun, in readiness for taking the lenses out, but was overjoyed to find they actually just clip in and out - what a bonus - not like the BMW ones i did for a mate the other week. Then, as an added little gift, it turned out the reflectors had just popped out of their clips, so it turned out to be an easier fix than i was expecting!  Better have a look at that terrible running next! More shortly...... |
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I had my eye on this when it was in the classifieds. Didn't have time to take it on with working a 60 hour - 6 day a week job. Glad it went to a good home, am looking forward to more updates. Seriously cool looking car  |
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The 190 came with a wooden steering wheel, which looked pretty cool on face value, but wasn't really my taste - being super glossy and flat spoked.  The lack of any dish actually made it a bit of a hassle in reality, as it left prcious little legroom underneath and physically got in the way when you wanted to use the clutch, so it had to go... In fairness, i would have swapped it out anyway for the Grant one i've had for years - this has been in loads of things over the years, but i needed to sort an adaptor for the 190. Grant wheels are an oddball 3-bolt fitting, and they only seem to do fitting kits for American stuff so it's back to the lathe to knock something up. I had an old Merc boss, but it just needed an adaptor and a horn pickup ring sorting - like so...  Which resulted in this thing of beauty. I bloody love this wheel...   |
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The other bit of baggage that the 190 brought to the party was the terrible running! Poor starting, rough idle and really poor light throttle issues made for an absolute pig of a thing to drive at low speed... Best get that sorted then! First port of call was the ancient-looking ignition side of things - the cap and leads were completely shot, so these were swapped out, along with a fresh set of plugs. This improved things, but it was still rough - better dig into the fuelling side then... These petrol 190s use KE Jetronic, which is a pretty basic electro-mechanical system - effectively K Jet, but with lambda feedback. A couple of vacuum lines were missing and the lambda sensor was knackered, along with the ambient air temp sensor. Sorting these out resolved pretty much all the rmaining issues and resulted in a vehicle that actually has low speed driveability again! Result! The idle still fluctuates a little now and then, so i suspect the air-control valve may be a bit gummed up and slow acting - thats next on the list. I also noticed the thermostat housing was cracked and leaking directly onto the dizzy cap, so that was replaced too. Didn't bother taking photos, but have a general pic.....  |
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This brought things up to the end of the mechanical side of things, as far as I could see, so I got her booked in for an MOT yesterday. Clean sheet!  Back on the road – Happy Days!! Not the end of the road though, not by a long shot. The interior is very tired, but I have a fresh one to go in – just needs recolouring to freshen it up first. The door cards have fallen apart and really let the car down – there are no polythene moisture panels fitted, so that explains why they have self-destructed! Again, I have fresh ones – but these need some repairs first. Central locking was playing up, some corroded wiring was the culprit here, so that’s sorted. There’s some linkage clips missing from the doors too, so they are on order. The other big issue is one that really gets on my nerves – it rains in! A bit of jetwash action showed the front and rear screens both leak. The rear is really bad! Need to get these sealed back up asap! Oh, and it needs some better audio fitting…… Thanks for stopping by, Will keep you posted…… |
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Really really well done for resuscitating this car.
I liked it, but felt it was more work than I was prepared to put in.
Very chuffed for you.
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Beautiful work on the car and congrats on the MOT pass,
I know you said you're not a lover of leather but I think it'll finish it off well,
Nigel
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BMW E39 525i Sport
BMW E46 320d Sport Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 325 Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 320 Cabriolet (Project car - currently for sale.)
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