I look forward to seeing some more detailed pictures of this
Not had the chance to get a thread up on the cortina yet as very little has happened to it due to minimal funds. Will get something up on my sierra sometime soon too when stuff starts happening to it.
I'll keep a look out for the thread then
Well another resto thread bookmarked so I can keep up with it
Nice work on the steel holder jig things
Sorry about the house and the dog and cat (glad you saved one cat - wouldn't be without mine although they are useless at passing tools_
As luckygti said - skills and welding getting better every time
Thanks, the Plate Holders or "intergrips" as they are called elsewhere are very handy.
The skills will improve further when I get going on my Mustang or my MKII RS2K next spring
Time for an update, finally!
I have gotten all the photos uploaded now after a long and strenuous battle with Photobucket.
I'll start at the top the day we drove to Poland.
My dad wanted to get his '97 merc C250TD for some rust welding and a paintjob in Poland when I was to pick up the Taunus, so me and my cousin took that with us instead of taking a flight down there.
After all it was just 2340km one way
Monday 28 Sept. started with -5 deg c and a frozen Merc.
This is at Christer's (my cousin) place, where I was picking him up.
He's got a rather nice '78 BMW 745 3.5 turbo there as well
Here we have gotten around 800km's south of home, and we are enjoying the roads in Sweden immensely.
The 4-lane highways that go almost the total length of Sweden are 2000 times better in comparison to the Norwegian ones, Mostly because Sweden is flat with very little mountains, and Norway have a million mountain passes, 2-lane highways and more fjords than you can count.
That makes for a twisty turny trip with moderate speed averages, not good for long trips.
Before Christer took the wheel just 5 minutes before the pics were taken I had set a new personal record for the duration of time the cruise control was engaged in 120 km/h.
For TWO FRIGGIN HOURS the cruise control was engaged without cancellation.
A thing that is unheard of in Norway. We don't even have 120km/h speed limits here.
Here I've just fired up a ciggie and is enjoying the passenger bit alot
Christer Enjoys the roads too
When we got to a city called Ystad we had a few hours to kill so we found an old restaurant that was located in an old cellar.
It had been used as a Restaurant/eatery there more or less since the 1400's. Very special atmosphere.
The food was delicous as well
Here we have landed in Poland and are enjoying the roads there too.
Lots of windmills:
Strange gas-station:
So after around 120km's from the ferry we arrived in Szczecin, in the part of town called Mierzyn.
We found the hotel called Hotel Nord where we were to stay the night.
Cheap hotel though, one room with two beds with breakfast cost like ~27£!
The standard was excellent, new rooms, and a great menu with pro cooks.
So, we had to relax that day, look around a bit and get some sleep cause we were going to meet the painter and check out the car the next day.
The day after I got a call from the painter and he said he was a bit detained and couldn't show the car until five o'clock, so we visited the upholsterer that did the interior in the Taunus in the mean time:
On the inside they had a few cool cars awaiting some work.
The coolest of the two was this old 2 door Rolls, that was getting a new roof and new interior.
It had previously undergone a meticulous nut and bolt restoration and looked absolutely gorgeous:
They also had an old '67 Merc S250C that had the interior done:
These guys know their profession really well, and the interiour in the Taunus was spotless.
They have a webpage
olczak.comThey speak good english and is totally recommended for interiour work.
Then later in the day we finally got to meet the painter.
He wanted to meet us in the city but I told him to meet in his garage so we could see his shop and the work he'd done to the car in proper lighting.
And, also it was raining and we didn't want to get wet
This is what we saw:
These two was sleeping in a chair in the garage:
It was an absolute shed, in the middle of the rurals.
I started examining the car and found a lot of errors in the paintjob.
He had machine-polished the car way too aggressively and created lots of small scratches and tracks after the sponge.
He had also polished the paint too thin in a few spots so that the original paint showed through.
He hadn't welded all the rust I told him to do either, the rear left seatmount, and the bit behind the left wheel arch.
He hadn't fixed the front valance either, which was dented.
So, we had a bit of an argument back and forth and in the end he was paid a third for the job he did with the rustwelding and the paint.
I was promised a 100% flawless paintjob and all rust fixed in a proffessional manner.
When he couldn't deliver as agreed upon, he had no choice but to accept it, and cut his losses.
We got the car the next day when he had assembled the front of the car.
Had I known the quality of the work, the state of his
shed workshop, and the other things I'd never send the car his way.
I guess that's the price to pay for trusting friends of the family when they recommend this sort of thing.
I can possibly save most of the paint job with some paint and a correct three-step-machine-polishing, but that'll have to wait till spring.
The worst part is that The Merc was supposed to be fixed by this guy, (which was out of the question) so we thought we may have to bring the car with us back home.
But I saw a couple of paintshops next to the Upholsterer earlier in the day, so we thought we'd check there the next day.
The next day:
They had a paintbooth, and a proper workshop with all the necessary tools.
We checked an Audi Q7 S-line that they painted the left part of the front bumper on, and you couldn't see that any work had been done to it.
Proper job done there.
53 deg c inside the paintbooth:
These guys only knew french or polish so I asked the boss from the Upholsterer shop to act as an interpreter, which he gladly did, so we got a good price for the work to be done to the Merc, some rust welding, a few bits and bobs to the suspension and brakes plus a paintjob.
They even offered to send updates and pictures by email to me (which they have already done).
The Merc also had a bit worn interior so we had the seats and doorcards done in black leather at the upholsterer, for a little discount since we were repeat customers
So after much faffing about we were ready for the journey home.
We started Friday 2nd Des heading for the 23:00 ferry in Swinouscje, and landed in Ystad, Sweden 06:30 the day after.
So after using up the fuel we filled in Poland we had to stop for gas and food, with me taking a few pictures at the same time.
I also calculated the gas mileage and it did 28.68mpg's going largely around 110/120km/h on the highway.
It's pretty good considering I still have the 1600 4:11 rear end. The 5-speed gearbox probably helps a lot with the mileage though.
The return trip went without a hitch, we decided to drive through Norway on our way home so I could visit Mother in law in Oslo, and Christer's grand parents in Trondheim where we stayed the night.
We had dinner at my in-laws before we headed for Trondheim to stay the night.
These pictures are taken at a fuel stop just south of Trondheim, and we were really tired at that point.
Then sunday morning after we woke up to this weather:
0 degrees c and around a foot of wet snow. CURSES!
We snailed our way out of Trondheim and headed north through a few blizzards and slow traffic. Finally the heavy snow stopped, and changed over to light snow, and we could increase the speed somewhat.
I'm looking very concentrated here because of very slippery conditions
So, after we fueled in Steinkjer the snow stopped and the weather improved immensely. The Gas mileage improved also, 29.70 mpg's!
The roads were a bit slippery too, but not as much as before.
So, when we stopped at Namsskogan I had to take pictures of the beard the car had grown since Trondheim:
The trip went on without any problems. We had a little breather in Fauske, and when we stopped waiting on the ferry north.
Then I just had to take some pictures to show the dirtiest I've ever seen the car before:
And at last we could embark the ferry:
After a 45 minute ferry ride we only had 60km's until we were home.
The gas mileage was at Fauske only 33.61 mpg's btw
I haven't taken any new pictures of the car or the Interiour since I got home with the car, but I'll get some taken soon I think.
I've been too busy using and enjoying having the car back again
I also had the car Cavity and Underbody antirust treated at the local Dinitrol-shop so now the car is safe for use on salty winter-roads a few years.
Quite pricy, but it's worth it and it also gives a large peace of mind.
Bah! This took a long time to write, almost 2.5 hours!
I hope you enjoy it, and stay tuned for more updates, I'm still not done with the car
You like?