"Project wedding" Mercedes W123 280 coupe

[MrTibbs]

I had the day to work on the car today.

I'd managed to drive it to my lock-up earlier in the week. It's definitely loosing coolant; I can't be sure whether it's just from the radiator or whether the head gasket's going as well but it doesn't seem to have bags of power so I'm thinking head gasket.

Anyway, today I raised the rear of the car a bit on some sleepers and spent a fair amount of time in the pit sanding down surface rust on the rear floors and cross member (that was one of the 2 or 3 advisories on the MOT). It really doesn't look bad at all - it's all just surface rust where the underseal/paint has chipped over time. I couldn't find any serious rot, so I've just tried to get the big flakes off with a very coarse sanding sponge and coated it in Deox gel covered up with cling film. I'm a little nervous of using a wire brush attachment on my drill as it does spark a bit and I'm quite near the fuel lines under the car.

I'll need to decide at some point how thorough/over the top I want to be; I'm thinking it'd be ideal (and in a strange way rewarding) to get the underneath of the car back to bare metal and re-underseal it. I'm hoping to get the car to more or less concourse condition (with a couple of upgrades like an electric fan and a newer stereo), and bare metaling it underneath would be a good way to make sure it's clean and rust free and if I photo the process it'll help to be able to guarantee it's solid underneath if/when I sell. So one option's to take it back to metal then coat it with electrox, then epoxy mastic, then stone chip. That is going to be a LOT of time though, so I'm wondering whether to make sure all the surface rust has been treated then do the same electrox, mastic treatment, but on smaller areas.

I also wire brushed the paint off around a couple of spots on the sills and chassis rails at the front where there was rust showing. Again, as far as I could see today it's just surface rust again (which is very good news on a W123). I did find that the rear arches have more filler in them than I'd thought. Though most of the metal is still there. It looks like there was a bit of rust down where the wing meets the boot floor, and someone decided to use about 3 kilos of filler and spray over it. I'm hoping I can find someone to weld it on site for me for not too much (given it's quite a small repair); I think I'm going to get the car re-sprayed or maybe give it a go myself with an electric HVLP gun.

It was god to get a decent look under the car today as I've not managed to really have a poke around underneath and it was starting to play on my mind. Even the exhaust looks in decent condition - I wire brushed some shine back into the tailpipes to cheer myself up as I'd thought it'd need a new system.

So I'm starting to think this project will take a lot of time, but hopefully not as much cash as I was fearing. only one terrible photo today I',m afaid. Showing how small the hole is that seems to have given someone the excuse to use all their spare filler.

Mike.

[MrTibbs]

A quick update:

I've done a few bits to the car - mainly making sure all the bolts holding the rear subframe on turn OK and removing the rear shocks. I've also been working out how to support the rear of the car while the subframe's off; the subframe attaches very near the jacking points which makes it awkward.

I've also taken apart a spare steering box I've had knocking around for a year or two from a car that hadn't seen much maintenance in it's life. When I opened it I was surprised by the amount of gunge inside it - and it looks like some of the parts have 'varnish' on them. Much cleaning will be needed, and for now I've just got the worst bits off with fairly liquid and a(n old) toothbrush as all my degreaser's at my lock-up.

Here's a pic of the sector shaft showing the filth that was coating the inside of everything.

Mike

[MrTibbs]

I didn't end up using the coupe as the wedding car as it's going to be a full on rebuild. Instead, I used my saloon. It made a great car for the occasion, and it was nice to drive myself and my wife from the church to the reception as it was a good chance to have some time alone on the day.

I drove the car from Sheffield to the wedding (near Chester) then from there we went up to Berwick and North Yorks for a short Honeymoon (my wife's a teacher so we only had the half term week) and back to Sheffield again. Apart from getting a bit hot on the hills when approaching Berwick - the solid slate wine rack that weighs about 20 kilos we got as a wedding present didn't help here - the car was faultless.

All in all a very good day and honeymoon.

Hopefully now I'll get some more time to work on the coupe now there's no wedding to arrange.

Mike

[W123]

Fantastic! Congratulations, you guys look great in it.
I have a 300D. They are great cars!

[bnicho]

Congratulations on your marriage!

I'm glad you didn't rush the coupe to finish it. Rushed projects only end up being redone again soon afterwards to fix all the corners cut the first time.

Cheers,
Brett.

[alabbasi]

Congratulations.

[MrTibbs]

Hi folks,

I had a day off today, which I spent at the lock up of course.

I was there for about 7 hours and managed to get a fair amount done. I started off by taking the rear brake calipers off then moved onto getting the propshaft out. The propshaft was a bit of a pain as the flex coupling at the front is a bit difficult to access (well, in comparison to most stuff on W123s anyway).

I then moved onto getting the rear subframe out. I'd already taken out the rear shocks, and made sure all the nuts and bolts will turn. Getting the subframe off took me a while as I was taking it easy and making sure the body of the car was securely supported as my garage floor isn't that great; one side's fairly flat but the other is on a bit of a slope. I've ended up putting it on axle stands under the jacking points and leaving a jack in on each side. Then just for good measure I've slipped my ramps with a sleeper on top under the car. Getting the car raised and supported is my least favourite bit of working on cars (I REALLY want some kind of lift) so I'm glad It feels rock solid.

Next job is to replace all the bushes in the sub-frame, replace the diff (probably, the car was whining a lot which I initially thought was the auto box but now think's the diff), de-rust and paint the subframe, possibly do the rear wheel bearings which look a complete pain in the backside when they're on the car. Then I might replace the handbrake shoes (not sure how much they cost, if they're cheap may as well) and maybe new discs.

Then I'm going to get rid of all the surface rust on the rear floors while there's better access (there's no rot amazingly for a W123), run new brake lines, and electrox, mastic, then paint the underside.

Then I can stick the subfame back on and move onto rebuilding the engine.

Here's a pic of where I ended up at the end of the day.

Mike

[rich.]

congrats on the wedding..

[MrTibbs]

Took today off and spent the morning at the lock up.

I got one of the semi-trailing arms off, but my impact wrench was getting a little low on power so couldn't quite get the second bolt off the other one. I also got the diff off and one of the drive shafts; the circlip on the other one's being stubborn.

There aren't any chunks of metal or obviously badly chipped teeth in the diff, but it is quite gungy. If it is the diff that's whining, would I expect to be seeing a lot of very obvious wear?

I sanded/wire cup brushed the rust off the top of the subframe and gave it a couple of coats of Bilt Hamber Electrox, then a coat of satin black (bit of an Edd China moment there). I'll do the underside and the semi-trailing arms next.

I managed to break the head off one of the bolts holding the shock to the semi-trailing arm - got careless with the breaker bar. unless anyone has any better suggestions I think I'm going to try pre-drilling it a bit then using one of those reverse threaded tapered bits.

I also used the wire brush on the drill on some of the rust underneath. I managed to get some of it back to shiny metal, but it's taking a long time, and the Bilt Hamber Deox gel doesn't seem as effective as the stuff you make a bath of. It's definitely all just surface rust with no real rot, so I'm wondering whether to use a rust converter instead then underseal and paint it. I've attached a couple of photos showing some of the rust; not sure how well you can see but there's nothing serious - it's just where the underseal or paint has cracked and let a bit of water in but thankfully not gone far at all.

So next steps are to get some long threaded bar to press the bushes out of the semi-trailing arms, drill out that snapped bolt, maybe get a new diff if I can track one down relatively cheaply, then paint it all, fit new bushes and get it back on the car so I can move onto the engine rebuild.

Mike

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