tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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Congratulations, belatedly, on the wedding. It is always good finding a woman who love/likes/puts up/encourages our automotive choices. Thanks Grizz! It's definitely 'putting up with', although she does rather like the 60s cars, she isn't a huge fan of the boxy 80s designs... The first thing I knew I'd need was the rear bumper mount. Mercedes have unfortunately discontinued many W126 panels fairly recently, including the under-rear-window panel which almost all of these cars need. I scoured the internet, putting my credit card details into a number of dodgy looking websites (not like that!) and normally being refunded after they couldn't get the bumper mount repair panels any longer. Eventually, I found a place in the Netherlands that had ONE left in stock! So if you're reading this, apologies, I may have bought the last example of part number 1266300036 in existence! Each side is a mirror image, but the bumper mount is made of two mirror image pressings (the body curves round, so the mount sticks out more). Luckily, I only needed the bottom half of the mount on each side, so I could split the mount in two and use it! On the driver's side, I was fortunate that the bit of body the bumper mount is attached to is solid. A simple job of drilling out spot welds and welding the new one in. On the passenger side, I wasn't so lucky, so a lot more work was needed. Some other wheelarch holes were welded up, as were the jacking points. Top tip - a place on ebay sells jacking point repair panels from Germany. They were lovely pressings, but utterly did not match my car. I fabricated my own in the end. Rear valence repaired by a cut from the donor car (although I could have fabricated my own otherwise!) As was the wing: Old metal cut out: New metal in: It's worth noting that 560SELs had different front wings from all other W126s - the arches are flared 1-2cm more, giving a more aggressive look, so I had to try to save this wing rather than bunging a repro one on. Eagle eyed viewers will note that the driver's side wing is NOT a 560SEL one, but I now have a RH 560SEL wing ready to be painted and fitted. Last up, the rear wheelarch. Klokkerholm make panels which alledgedly are for this car. I wasn't overly convinced, so only used what I needed to! That concludes the welding, probably about 2 months to go until the wedding at this point. On to making it look good...
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Last Edit: Aug 6, 2023 7:34:58 GMT by tofufi
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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So, the rustproofing was expensive, but I figured it was worthwhile to save spending days on my back removing rust from the car, and then days removing rust from my eyeballs afterwards. I had an email, with a few pictures of rust (some of which I knew about, but I didn't think they would be worried about as it wasn't areas I wanted rustproofing). I also Here we go... (apologies for the close-up pics, I've borrowed those sent to me by the rustproofing place) Driver's side rear arch (was holed on the inner arch and also bad at the rear corner and middle section too) Driver's side rear bumper mount: Passenger side was even worse: Several rusty jacking points... Rear valence... Front passenger wing: Time until wedding at this point: 3 months. I just couldn't justify the £4500 quote for the welding (NOT including bodywork/paint!), when I'd not paid anything like that for the car. Time to get welding, prepping and painting. Gulp.
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Last Edit: Aug 4, 2023 20:34:41 GMT by tofufi
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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Well, I suppose it's time for an update on this one. For a while, life got in the way. Not much happened to the Mercedes, other than re-instating the rear hydro-pneumatic suspension, which drastically improved the ride quality - the previous owner had used towing spring assisters to maintain the ride height after removing the hydraulic assistance abd fitting normal shocks. I married a wonderful lady last year, and we used my Beetle (also my first car, now owned 18 1/2 years): and my Rover (painted in a single garage of a rented house while at uni 10+ years ago!): as our wedding cars... This leads on nicely to the next bit of the Mercedes story. I'll admit to not having done much with it, other than covering a few hundred miles. The first longer (20+) mile journey the Mercedes did was to a friend's wedding. We were running a little late, and as we turned into the car park of the wedding venue the photographer grabbed his camera and started papping away, until he realised the Mercedes didn't contain the bride! A few months later, my wife's bridesmaid got engaged. Soon after, my wife offered the white Mercedes as a wedding car. Somewhat amazingly, this was accepted. This then led me to realise I had 6 months to make a tatty, rusty, bubbly 80s Merc with a very blowy exhaust somewhat more presentable. This started with a new exhaust. I chickened out of making this (access to the front manifolds is awful) so a complete stainless system (manifold back) was fabricated by Infinity Exhausts of Bristol. Would recommend - they built the whole lot from scratch while I waited, and did a cracking job of keeping it quiet and making it suit the car. I then decided to take it to a company to have the underside rust treated and checked. This is where my plan started to go awry...
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Last Edit: Aug 4, 2023 20:33:37 GMT by tofufi
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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Are their any laws covering car size, or is it sponsored by wing mirror manufacturers? Under type approval requirements, all road vehicles are generally limited to 2.55m wide (2.6m if refrigerated body), 4m tall and 12m long. In the UK we're allowed taller vehicles. Big small car vs my Rover P6...
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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Fab work! (Sorry...) And what a milestone
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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Alvis TD21 could be fun, should be narrow enough to go in the garage, not sure on length. There are some gems out there in budget of this sort of style of thing, this one might be a bit too project-y: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404320643395 Wow. Styling wise, that looks like a car worth a LOT more than the asking price!
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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Hi guys, thanks for the ideas but a lot will not fit in a single garage and be able to open doors, I’m liking the rover p6 idea. Ideally looking for saloon/coupe really. I'm looking for something 80’s to 60’s really. For what it's worth, I've had my P6 more than 15 years now. It's a Series I V8, standard except for a few engine mods and a 5 speed gearbox. Lovely to drive, fantastic (unusual) suspension which wafts along. They're best on a fast, flowing A road in my view. Look out for rust (as on any car of that age). Good spares support. There are a few modified ones out there including Sowen's one here: forum.retro-rides.org/thread/45247/1972-rover-2300tc-saab-turboNot too big compared to modern cars...
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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I found this thread while googling for info on this vehicle recently listed on Facebook Marketplace - I'm sure some on here might be interested in taking it on! PMG 814E, a Manulectric converted to a Postman Pat show vehicle: www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/625797292940730 I think that's brilliant. Handy that they have a photo of it in a book saying it was converted in the 80s too, so proof of it's age. Shame it's not showing the reg as recognised by the DVLA, but hopefully it'd be possible to reinstate it.
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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May 23, 2023 15:51:12 GMT
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Great stuff, thank you. Awesome thread Nissan had (kinda still has in Japan) different sales channels for all these brands under what they called "Bluebird line" and "Prince line" and so on. This is now "simply" Nissan Blue and Nissan Red. Don't ask me why. I believe Toyota do something similar. When I was in Japan I was told that all of the different Toyota dealers (Toyota Store, Toyopet, Corolla Store and Netz) are all owned by Toyota but compete locally for business.
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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May 18, 2023 16:59:42 GMT
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A few spots from last week's work trip... This seemed a bit out of place next to the giant communist-era flats... Peugeot 206 saloon. Not uncommon over there! This seems to live right on this main road, and was there last time I visited too. Not moved in a while judging by the flat tyre. This mobile advert also doesn't seem to move often - always in the same spot. We also saw a much older Dacia 1300 being restored, engine out, flawless white paint. I didn't get a chance to take a picture as the owner was working on it at the time. Citroen Visa lookalikey - Oltcit Club / Oltena (or possibly Rodae?)
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Last Edit: May 18, 2023 17:02:48 GMT by tofufi
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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Apr 30, 2023 20:02:22 GMT
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Goodness I miss Japan. Hope I can make it back there again soon.
Thanks for the photos 🙂
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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What's the story with the black Mini - I've been wondering what the thing sticking out of the rear of it is! That was my first thought
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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Apr 26, 2023 13:23:44 GMT
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What's the story with the black Mini - I've been wondering what the thing sticking out of the rear of it is!
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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Absolutely cracking work, as ever. I only sometimes don't reply as I'm running out of superlatives Really looking forward to seeing the continued progress on this. It's always the first of the bookmarked threads I go to when there's an update!
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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I had a Clarke 150TE for 15 years or so (In fact, I still have it, set up for welding stainless for exhausts etc now).
I managed to get reasonable welds from it, and it wasn't a terrible machine (with a wire feed mod).
I then bought a secondhand but nearly new Sealey 180 from a friend who had emigrated. I paid £275, best new price I could find is about £400 at the moment. It is a better machine than the Clarke, although still not flawless.
Might be worth looking around at secondhand, although with this sort of thing there's some benefit to finding one you know hasn't been abused.
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Last Edit: Apr 14, 2023 6:29:25 GMT by tofufi
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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Apr 11, 2023 11:37:15 GMT
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Sorry, everything in this thread is now sold
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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I too have heard a few stories of unreliable electronic ignition setups. I tend to keep points and condensor, or go to a home-made transistorised ignition setup as per here: www.velleman.co.uk/contents/en-uk/p199.htmlI generally build them so that the wires are on spade terminals and a 2-second operation can see me switch back to using the condensor if it fails!
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Last Edit: Apr 11, 2023 9:20:10 GMT by tofufi
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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Mar 11, 2023 17:36:12 GMT
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Amazing - thank you for posting this!
Do you know the name of the company near Salisbury who built the car?
It might be possible to find out more if the company is still building wheelchair accessible vehicles.
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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message sent
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,454
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Feb 27, 2023 10:35:09 GMT
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Airbags are not, and have never been, mandatory fitment at the point of manufacture/type approval... Actually, they have. The standard car is what gets approval, and airbag equipped stuff used to have an airbag symbol on the vin tag on the dash (no idea where that is on the nearer stuff tho) No, they don't. The crash requirements mandate performance criteria, not fitment of an airbag. UNECE R94 is frontal crash, UNECE R95 is side impact. Neither mandates fitment of an airbag. (Source: I work for the DfT approving new vehicles with regard to crash safety).
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