Mercedes 190e 2.5-16 - Dashboard Removal, More issues....

With that done, I fitted a few new breather and water hoses and fitted the pump.



Next came the oil lines. Both had been leaking. Additionally to that, the oil cooler threads were in a terrible state. The cooler went off to a radiator expert (that fitted new bolts and threads to both) and the hoses went to my local pipe and thread company. Everybody did a great job, quickly and without moaning. I was pleased as none of these bits are available from Mercedes anymore.



With all of this done, I fully assembled the engine bay, radiator, etc. New protective hose was needed for the alternator cable, which I found that VW Air duct hose looks almost identical - Perfect! Looks the part and wasn't too difficult to finish.



Belt and tensioner in, although I may replace the tensioner as the rubber seems to have gone soft.



Inlet installed, not too difficult, with the exception of trying to remember where the wiring all goes. By this point it'd been over 2 years since I'd taken it apart!

Obviously, i'd extended the garage and had a reasonable work area. The garage was now 9.5m long by 2.5m wide (within the original garage) and 2.8m wide in the extension. This gave me a good area for prepping and plenty of space for parts, etc. I have a few cars, so I needed this (Mini Sprint, GTM Coupe and this).
Next up was to find a bodyshop. I spoke to alot of people and constantly felt that they where taking the mick. I was happy to strip everything down, DA the car and remove all screens, door handles, bodykit, etc. Aas I wasn't getting anywhere fast, I decided to rebuild the front Suspension. Strip it down and see whats, ok, bad and downright *censored*



First off was the spring. Snapped, cut down and not looking great. That had to go.



And here is the small amounts of surface rust on the strut top. EVERYTHING was knackered. The bottom ball joints had so much play that they could have gone at any time. Serious action needed.



It seemed from research that all those in the know on these run Bilstein B8's and H&R Springs. I intend to keep the Self levelling system, so these are the only ones that'll provide a small drop and work with the back shocks - Perfect.

So in the end I replaced the following to the front;

- New Shocks
- New Shock bush and dust cover
- New Spring Pads (Went down a size to a 2 bump)
- New lower Arms
- New Anti Roll Bar Bushes
- New Top Mount Rubbers
- New Track rod ends and bars (inner bushes knackered too)
- New Steering Damper
- New Discs (Frighteningly warped)
- New Pads
- New Pad Wear Sensors

All visible rust was cleaned back, K-Rust, Primered, Painted and Laquered too. This Suspension Rebuild seemed to take an age!







This was repeated on the other side too.

Finally, i'd found somebody that was happy to do all the panel work. Replacing and filling, bonus being, that we're good friends through the Girlfriend too. I never realised how good he is at all of this until I was at a BBQ and we'd been chatting car. He said at the time "Yeah, I did an E-Type and a Healey for a customer that both ended up on the front cover of Classic and Sports Car".

BINGO!! I'd found the man for the job! Cheap, fair and works really hard. Only downside was that after everyday that he did, i'd have a list of "homework" that needed to be done for him to get on the next day.

But I honestly can't say enough positive things about him.

Not as bad as you'd have thought....

When I bought the head (all early 2.5's are Coscast, including mine) these cars could be bought for £4-5k in ok condition, with mint ones at £6-8k.
The head (from memory) was £1800 including VAT.

I still have the old head at home, that could be repaired and one day in the future I might sell to recoup some of the costs.

Don't forget the steering idler bush, if you haven't replaced it already.

Hats off to you mate, you're doing a cracking job

Now for the bodywork. As previously mentioned, i'd "persuaded" a friend to get involved. The sort of persuasion that takes beer, pizza and more beer. But it worked. So I bought the following;

- 4 jacking points
- 2 external sills
- 2 half rear wing sections (surprisingly cheap too!)
- Second hand bonnet
- Front Wing, more on that story later.....

I knew that things had to get better before they got worse, but oh boy, I wasn't ready for this much pain!





The jacking point and it's surrounds where totally shot!




After lots of swearing (on Marks part) he started offering up bits




Mark was determined to find anything that was sorf, didn't seem right or otherwise a concern to him. Nothing was safe!





Multiple holes had been found in the floor pan and perculiar other areas. It was only seam sealer that was hiding them all!



3 days of messing around yielded good results! Although the arch plastic needs a little more adjustability. The bolt holes are oval in shape from the factory.



Even under the pedal box?!



There was a lot more in the back sections that had rotted through due to very poor previous repairs. Once one side was done, it was on to the next.....

Is this guy Mark available for hire to the general public lol. Nice work as usual

Next was stripping all paintable ancillaries off. Two doors I could get reasonable access in the garage to.



Lots of parts removed and owing to another project that i'd bought, it all had to go up into the roof space. I have a very understanding girlfriend, but anymore parts in the house would be a tipping point!



Following this, I pushed the car outside and removed the other side. This included the rotten front wing. I'd bought a decent second hand offering off ebay (or at least I thought that I had). More on that later.





We are (at this point) very close to final panel test fit and sending the vehicle off to paint!

Looking forward to the updates on this