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Apr 14, 2013 15:51:21 GMT
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Hi! Yesterday I parked the CE at my formers boss's. And collected a Dacia Express (Logan Van). With which we headed towards Cologne to collect another Turbodiesel engine I won on ePay for the irresistable sum of 50€ (I was the only bidder).  Before we could start, we had to make a stop at the hardware store, as the sat nav's plug was broken... 4 cents for a bolt later and some traveller bodgery, the sat nav worked and we headed north ;D  Much faster than I thought we arrived in Cologne (well, a village in the perimeters of Cologne. A quick chat about Turbodiesel tuning, and we lifted the gnine in the back of the Dacia and strapped it down.  Then we took of and headed further north towards Bochum where three W124 differentials were waiting for collection. Awesome Granada, awesome SEC and lots of awesome US-tin also. Some more fuel chatting and we headed home.  Not much happened and the fuel tank did barely empty. The diffs are not mine, they are for E. So we stopped at E's and unloaded them (well, he did ;D).  Sinceit was late and still warm (FINALY!!) we decided to warm up the BBQ. And so we did. And started the BBQ season.  This morning we noted that there was a flea market not far away. So E's 300TE was loaded with tat and we headed there...  Tat unloaded, and people actually bought stuff ;D  After 2 hours I had to leave, as I promised to bring back the Dacia in time. And i still had to unload the heavy iron in the loading bay... Which took me a bit, as one ratchet strap broke and the engine hoist barely fitted in the Dacia to lift the engine... But, I got the thing out and placed it infront of the 200T where it will rest for now.  I brought back the Dacia and drove the longest possible way home with the CE, all windows down, and enjoyed the first warm day after 5 months of winter  Had to take a snap when I found some beautifull cherry trees  1000kms done this weekend. And the Dacia did an incredible 52MPG, on the way from the flea market to it's base it was as much as 73MPG!!!!!  (empty, tired sluggish driving...) Whilst it's not a very appealing car, it has everthing you need - for a skiny price tag and is incredibly economic. For me, it's THE Volkswagen (peoples car) of our century People make fun of it, but most times not for very long  And this example can load 770kg(!!) in it's back! Over 2/3 ton of payload, that's insane! Cheers, Jan |
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Apr 18, 2013 10:00:14 GMT
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To keep a memory of the sound of the M103, I recorded this. Std. exhaust, but well worn ;D Think I need to make a video with the engine under load/accelerating And I repaired the free engine crane I got from work, which is a bit leaky and had a broken release knob. Which I fixed with a quick welding action. It's the key for the engine conversion, as I think it's quite impossible with the chain hoist I used to use for the Mini. Engine balancer is on it's way from the xBay    In order to install the tow bar which I will need to tow a trailer with the diesel engine I took off the bumper and found some rust behind the rear lights, so these came out as well.   And cured...  The other side has no rust and was protected with a slight smear of grease Then I painted the tow bar, as it was quite a bit rusty. It's a genuine MB tow bar with removable tow ball - will be 100% stealth if not in use  But: 2 of these need to be installed into the rear frame rails as reinforcement. I need to drill 4 holes for that, right above the exhaust. On the other side it's only 1 hole, but the hydraulic pipe for the rear suspension is a bit in the way... Guess how stupid I feel that I didn't drill this when I had the pipe out... Sigh.  At least all the drilling points are allready marked from the factory So no measuring and wrong drilling ;D Right then. I hope I don't have to remove the bodged single-piece exhasut for that...  Cheers, Jan |
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Apr 18, 2013 10:48:19 GMT
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 kfw in disguise ;D |
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2001 HONDA CT110 (NOT RCV)
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Apr 18, 2013 17:39:42 GMT
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I guess that's a compliment? ;D Back to the traveller hook. It's on. Luckily my local tools store had just THE thing I needed on the shelf - which I could not believe; neither could the owner of the store ;D ;D A 13mm drill with a 10mm shaft that fits a akku drill. With this it was easy to drill 4 holes in the backbox tunnel. Exhaust lowered, heat shield removes:   Then a bit of underseal removed to reveal another three marks:  On the passenger's side there's only one mark, you need to mount the tow bar and use it as a guide to frill the final hole. Four bolts here:  Two here:  One here:  Four more shiney bolts more and it's on:  Firmly attached to the car...  Easy-peasy ;D But it wasn't the first time; the first time I did this I had to install a horribly fitting BOSAL tow bar to a 500E. Mine is a genuine MB tow bar - went in like a dream and bolted right up without any troubles. Awesome! I feared it would take 12h after the Bosal experience... Tomorrow: electricery. Sigh. |
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Apr 18, 2013 18:02:39 GMT
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WTF bosal exhaust are scheisse - didnt know they did towbars
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2001 HONDA CT110 (NOT RCV)
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Apr 18, 2013 18:06:57 GMT
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Yes they do. And they'r voll kacke as well ;D
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Apr 24, 2013 18:13:58 GMT
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Guess what I had to install at work today? A bl00dy towbar ;D I'm getting good at this; this time it took me 1/2 the time ;D Aaand the scissor-type lift at work will be free in 1-2 weeks - which I will use to finaly break the TDT and tear out it's heart to put it into the Coupè which has developed quite a bad habbit of marking it's territory with black engine oil - worse than a Mini ;D Last bit I done on the Rocher is to route the wiring loom and put the bumper back on on fry-day.  It's very stealth; towball on:  And off:  Cheers, Jan |
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Apr 24, 2013 19:24:40 GMT
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wheres the pic of the funf hundert einspritz mit towbar ;D
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2001 HONDA CT110 (NOT RCV)
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Apr 24, 2013 19:50:13 GMT
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wheres the pic of the funf hundert einspritz mit towbar ;D I didn't take any... The cut rear bumper was too much of a shame. But here's a dutch E500 with obligatory caravan towing device ;D  Cheers, Jan |
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Apr 24, 2013 21:39:22 GMT
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parking sensor ;D
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2001 HONDA CT110 (NOT RCV)
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Apr 25, 2013 16:18:19 GMT
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Works well for that. Don't ask.... So - electrics. Erm - sigh. What an effort to route a little string of wires... Out with the back seat, to route the loom into the cabin:  Then out with the seat, mouldings and everything below the dashboard...  ...to gain access to the wiring channel:  It was when I had the loom under the dashboard, when I noticed (following the instructions step by step) that the front piece of the wiring loom (it's a two-piece loom with a socket under the dashboard) which goes into the fuse box and a extra fuse-box was a) cut and b) incomplete. F**k! All back in the car - I'll free the missing part of the wiring loom from the TDT when I see it next time. And hope it fits my car... As - virtually every single fooking W124 is different... Anyway. Along the installation of the wiring loom I repaired several smal things, like a broken vent on the driver's side. Two smal light bulbs which illuminate said vent & the headlight switch. But the best part is that I finally found the reason for the non-working pneumatic backrest locks. There's a smal valve under the rear seat bench which is broken (gets hot and doesn't work ;D). I bridged it, unlugged it - et voilá! Working backrest locks! Now the backrest doesn't flip forwards under hard braking anymore and to unlock it you push the smal button on the backrest, hear a silent *psshhh* and the backrest unlocks Awesome! AAAND I gained me some head room by removing this redneck seat lifting kit:  Can't get the stereotype picture of a tiny italian chav in his big, golden pimp-merc out of my head ;D 'cause you know, the 2nd PO was italian ;D ;D Cheers, Jan |
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Despite the ugly weather I removed the battery from the CE to move the TDT a bit. To gut it out; I sold the interior to fill the budget for the conversion.  The TDT moved to the back of the yard, no jump leads possible, plus I would've had to move three cars out the way... Easyer to just take the battery out and swap over.  And the interior is mostly dismantled, probably end up throwing lots of bits away - black is too common to be sought after and lots of little trim bits are broken anway.  and that's about it. Due to rain I was not in the mood to remove the towbar wiring loom from the TDT, so that had to wait for anyother day... Cheers, Jan |
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Your back yard looks like my front garden! ;D
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Sadly it's not my own, but my boss's Mine would have no visible gras left ;D ;D |
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Still no lift free at work... Same spares car sitting on it for the 3rd week now...  And I finaly had enough of the CD playing for the last 6 months ;D Radio? Har! The damn ugly AEG radio only recieves ONE station. And I kid you not: it's the station I hate most! ;D The TDT came with a working Becker Grand Prix - factory option; yes! Looks so much better!  Cheers, Jan |
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May 11, 2013 16:48:44 GMT
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So I recovered the large battery from the TDT - which shows only 4.3V remaining  I realy, realy hope I can reanimate it - as they cost mega-money in that size (~100€). I tried this for now, as the charger didn't even recognize it as a battery - resp. only as a part-empty 6V battery  Wish me luck or tell me some good tricks ;-) Also gutted out all the electric gimmicks that sell well - like power windows and seat heaters and some smal stuff. Cheers, Jan |
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May 18, 2013 15:24:27 GMT
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Looks like the battry has survived.  Phew! If you go one page back, you might remember this:  Today I investigated. It lookes a LOT better than I thought! The rust was only superficial and I could remove it completely. The filler was covering a dent - which took me maybe 2 minutes to knock out from behind. Why a cm of filler if you can get away with a light skim!? I don't understand...  So out with the strip disc and put everything back to bare metal. Discovered another dent which is impossible to knock out from behind, so I left it as it was - there was no sign of the filler lifting or rust under it. Will do me just fine.  Then primered everythung...  ...let it dry and now I'm watching the filler dry...   I hope I don't have to filler it again, as the stuff is very good quality, but takes 7-8 hours to dry (2k polyester filler). And meanwhile - I clear out my W123 spare parts man-cave-thing and sell most of the W123 parts I have. Cheers, Jan |
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May 20, 2013 10:35:33 GMT
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When the filler finaly dryd, I sanded it down and had to fill some areas again. Sanded it down again yesterday and give it another lick of primer/spray filler and sanded down wet & dry.  And then finaly painted it. Few coats of 'Champagne' and then some clear coat.  Doesn't look too bad? Well - surprise...   Paint's way too dark... Either I gave it too many coats or it realy is too dark. Or metallic is just damn hard to paint with rattle cans... Anyway - at least there's paint again and no rusty, lifting filler... But I'm not happy at all with that. I think I'll give it in the hands of a black magician aka. painter. At least I seem to get better with the paint preparation thing. Sigh. The wing needs to get painted anyway - after this I realy am going to leave it to a professional. Maybe they can repaint what I just messed up cheaper. When they have to mix the paint anyway. Oh, and this arrived some weeks ago:  C-Class intercooler, won for 1,50€ on eBay - couldn't resist Cheers, Jan |
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May 21, 2013 17:47:09 GMT
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Soooo - we have movement. After a 3h delay due to the registration office telling me I can't use the insurance I bought for temporary plates. In the end I had to buy another insurance and come again - which cost me 3h. Well, there's just no arguing with the officials. They are always right. Always - remember that!  Eventually I made it to the TDT with a set of freshly pressed plates. And first thing was to clear it out a bit...   Since I had allready sold the interior and many other bits - I had to improvise and took a seat out of a car that's going to the brakers. Installed, put some of the wiring back into place, re-installed the hazzard switch, dumped some interior parts in the bin and headed off. And it was awefull - quite unbelievable, how deafening loud the car was in this state, without door seals or any insulation left.  Due to the 3h loss this morning and 1h in a traffic jam and me being tired and hungry - I didn't start dismantling the car today - tomorrow will do just as good All my Mercs in one place. Two of them will go soon.  And in the daylight, the paint doesn't look all toooo bad - but it's still anoying... Oh well. More tomorrow. Cheers, Jan |
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May 21, 2013 18:05:26 GMT
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WTF bosal exhaust are scheisse yes they are !!  not sure if i am happy or sad at finding out they are also bad at other things |
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Had to take a snap when I found some beautifull cherry trees 
(empty, tired sluggish driving...)
And this example can load 770kg(!!) in it's back! Over 2/3 ton of payload, that's insane! 
I realy, realy hope I can reanimate it - as they cost mega-money in that size (~100€). I tried this for now, as the charger didn't even recognize it as a battery - resp. only as a part-empty 6V battery 
Phew!
