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Old 18th July 2019, 17:15   #301
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

Quote:
Originally Posted by ajmat View Post
That Rover ad is from an era when the Rover's were the BMW's of that time period!
Yes, also check out the advertised Rover price tag: +/- UKP 1400! These days that gets you a nice set of car mats for your BMW!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom View Post
Not sure... is that the Rover 2000 era?

Damned good-looking. Not sure that they were regarded as highly as a BMW, though.
It doesn’t show well in the image, but the page has a date on it, October 1967, so that was the last year, British Leyland, manufactured this car. Very nice cars, very British, which is a euphemism for not particularly well build, prone to rust, prone to electrical problems etc. Still, a popular, upmarket car in its day. If you could afford this car in it’s day you were on your way up.

Quite a few have survived, the P6 is quite a popular classic and is generally considered an affordable classic.

Jeroen

Jeroen

Last edited by Jeroen : 18th July 2019 at 17:24.
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Old 18th July 2019, 17:42   #302
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeroen View Post

It doesn’t show well in the image, but the page has a date on it, October 1967, so that was the last year, British Leyland, manufactured this car. Very nice cars, very British, which is a euphemism for not particularly well build, prone to rust, prone to electrical problems etc. Still, a popular, upmarket car in its day.
They were manufactured from 1963 till 1975.

Around 1970, they came with a Buick V8 engine, all us schoolboys used to go weak at the knees when these were spotted. Standard UK Police car. 1972 saw some cosmetic revisions.
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Old 18th July 2019, 19:32   #303
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

Quote:
Originally Posted by ajmat View Post
They were manufactured from 1963 till 1975.
correct, typo on my original dates.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ajmat View Post
Around 1970, they came with a Buick V8 engine, all us schoolboys used to go weak at the knees when these were spotted. Standard UK Police car. 1972 saw some cosmetic revisions.
1968 saw the introduction of the 3500. The Buick V8, once it had crossed the pond made it into a variety of British cars for decades to come. Rover SD1, MGB, TVR, Triumph and of course Land Rover (Discovery). (Which I think was the last car it founds it’s way into.)

Well over 200.000 units of various variants of the 2000 were produced, only about 80.000 3500s. Which still means there are plenty left of both models, with the 3500 the most sought after for many.

See http://www.p6club.com/content/rover-p6

I read somewhere that until quite recently, a little company in the UK still cast this engine. It has always been popular with the kit car crowd.

Jeroen
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Old 20th July 2019, 20:37   #304
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

Today: Dry ice blasting day!

Whilst I was waiting for the guy to show up, I decided to tackle a little job on the W123: greasing the door hinges. The W123 has hinges that require greasing!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200062.jpg

It also requires a special grease nozzle. I had checked earlier and I am sure I had one, but for the life of me I could not find it. So I bought another at our local car part store.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200010.jpg

You have to push the nozzle quite hard into the hinge. So I decided to make a little handle to facilitate that a bit. First time I used my mini drill for real, drilling a hole. Not that special, but some job needs to be the first.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200038.jpg

By the time I was done, Peter owner of WP Prestige, showed up. (http://wpprestige.be/#toepassingen). First order of the day, was to try and get his truck and huge trailer to back into our drive. Which is not easy, it is a tight very steep bend. The trailer (massive oil free compressor) weighs 1700 kg and the truck was struggling!

But we got it into position.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200012.jpg

Setting everything up

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200016.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200022.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200029.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200011.jpg

Peter had advised me to put the cars in the open air. Because it does get a bit messy. So here we go. I could have sworn that Supercharger was as clean as I could make it, using a rag, but look at the difference where Peter has done the blasting and what remains!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200021.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200026.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200028.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200023.jpg

The end result is quite spectacular!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200065.jpg

The Spider went second. I took the airinlet filter and MASS off, to give Peter better access.

Before:

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200033.jpg

After:

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200064.jpg

Some details:

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200058.jpg

By this time it had started to rain, we are talking about rain of biblical proportions. The animals were heading for the Ark! So we had to do the W123 inside the garage.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200039.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200048.jpg


Before
My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200041.jpg

After:

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200066.jpg

And again, very impressive result. The valve cover needs some extra attention, but that had nothing to do with the dry ice blasting.

So afterwards I took the valve cover off, for sandblasting and a respray, still to be done

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200069.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200070.jpg

This dry ice blasting does get messy inside the garage. Look at this:

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200059.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200060.jpg

It took me 1.5 hours of cleaning, literally on hands and knees.

This is very first time I used this Dry Ice cleaning method. Overall, I am very pleased with it. It does a pretty good job. Peter was very capable and professional. About 90% of his work is on cars. Dry Ice cleaning has been used on all sort of industrial applications, but he prefers cars. Apart from the engine compartment, he also cleaned the doorframes, hinges, catch etc. Very convenient!

Getting everything right takes a lot of experience. The compressor, the various nozzles, even the type of ice has a big influence of the outcome.

I sweeped up most of the dirt, from under the W123. This is what is looks like. It is really quite amazing. This Dry Ice is blown against the engine at pressure (between 5 - 10 bar). It evaporates as soon as it hit something and it takes all grime, dirt with it!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7200061.jpg

So, all cars look great. Still some more tidying up to be done. I am leaving tomorrow for a short visit to Delhi! Next weekend I want to start on the valve cover. I have already the paint and stripper ready at the go. But this car needs a lot of preparation for the Concour in August. The clock is ticking!!

Jeroen

Last edited by Jeroen : 20th July 2019 at 20:44.
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Old 20th July 2019, 23:22   #305
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

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Originally Posted by Jeroen View Post
This is very first time I used this Dry Ice cleaning method.
It is the very first time that I have even heard of it!
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Old 21st July 2019, 00:14   #306
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

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Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom View Post
It is the very first time that I have even heard of it!
Have a look at this for some of the basic principles:

https://www.ics-dryice.com/en/techno...ing-principle/

It has been used for cleaning in various industries for quite some time. Especially food processing. It is very safe as it uses no chemicals. Also, there is no water involved so that is a big plus on a number of applications (including cleaning cars)

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Old 21st July 2019, 12:00   #307
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

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Originally Posted by ajmat View Post
Around 1970, they came with a Buick V8 engine,
If you went through the writings of the British motoring journalists at that time, and later on, you would think that discovering a discarded GM engine was the epitome of British engineering, and the stupidity of the Americans in discarding it - pearls before swine though not exactly stated like that!

On another matter, I had mentioned an MG ad on the Hector thread. The one about MG agreeing that their car was not 'sensible'. No one bit on it. Do you remember it? Jeroen should even have a copy of it in amongst his old magazine trove.

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Old 21st July 2019, 12:40   #308
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

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Originally Posted by Sutripta View Post
If you went through the writings of the British motoring journalists at that time, and later on, you would think that discovering a discarded GM engine was the epitome of British engineering, and the stupidity of the Americans in discarding it - pearls before swine though not exactly stated like that!
True, whereas the British have developed plenty of outstanding engines over the years. Most likely not so much a sign of the time as a sign of the inner working of British Leyland. They went belly-up of course, wonder why?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sutripta View Post
On another matter, I had mentioned an MG ad on the Hector thread. The one about MG agreeing that their car was not 'sensible'. Not one bit on it. Do you remember it? Jeroen should even have a copy of it in amongst his old magazine trove.
Actually, although I am known to “hoard” certain things, magazines I do not. I read them and either throw them out or pass them on. Most of the car magazines go to a friend. She has two little boys who can not read yet, but they love the pictures! They cut them out and pin them on a wall board.

With these vintage magazines I did the same. Read them, this time I actually cut out some adds, see my earlier post and then I threw them out. The boys like modern cars.

Jeroen
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Old 21st July 2019, 13:03   #309
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

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Originally Posted by Jeroen View Post
Today: Dry ice blasting day!
What! Releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Quote:
This dry ice blasting does get messy inside the garage. Look at this:
It took me 1.5 hours of cleaning, literally on hands and knees.
You didn't think of dry ice blasting that?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom View Post
It is the very first time that I have even heard of it!
One of the most effective ways of deflashing moulded plastic items. Only place where I have seen it being used here.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeroen View Post
Actually, although I am known to “hoard” certain things, magazines I do not.
But do you remember the ads? I remember some. Other than the MG one, there was one about LR and tear along dotted line. Believe that one went to the truth in advertising council.

Talking of British auto journalists, when BL started 'collaborating' with Honda, they tried to say it was a true collaboration, with the Brits teaching Honda about vehicle interior design.

Regards
Sutripta

Last edited by Sutripta : 21st July 2019 at 13:05.
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Old 21st July 2019, 19:30   #310
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

[quote=Sutripta;4624469]If you went through the writings of the British motoring journalists at that time, and later on, you would think that discovering a discarded GM engine was the epitome of British engineering, and the stupidity of the Americans in discarding it - pearls before swine though not exactly stated like that!
/QUOTE]

Buick discarded the engine as it was too small for the time. The big thing for British Leyland was having a V8 option for the mass produced cars. Only British V8's were in a Rolls at that point in time.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sutripta View Post

Talking of British auto journalists, when BL started 'collaborating' with Honda, they tried to say it was a true collaboration, with the Brits teaching Honda about vehicle interior design.
Just slapping Wood and Leather? All BL did was develop a couple of engines for the Honda's that they produced. Honda never trusting BL totally, and opened their own factory. Sure enough BAe sold the company behind Hondas back to BMW.

BMW helped Rover develop a decent car - the 75 but the issues and attitudes within BL were an upward task. They kept Mini and sold the rest off. Ironically, BMW invested more in Mini and and engine plant, that they would have ever invested in BL.

Last edited by ajmat : 22nd July 2019 at 10:21.
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Old 21st July 2019, 21:40   #311
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

^^^
The 3.5 V8 was developed I believe because Buick did not have its own V8 at that time.
I think it was in production in the US for two or three years. In that time, GM produced numbers that BL would catch up to late in its production run.
It was too small for the America of its day, but more importantly, costly to produce. At GM volumes, pennies mattered.

Interestingly all information I could lay my hands on came from British sources. Guess to the Yanks it did not merit even a footnote.

It powered lots of cars, but two were iconic - Range Rover, and SD1.
We need a thread for nonvintage/ nonclassic/ nonsupercar iconic cars.

Didn't Triumph have its own V8? (British engineering. At its (unreliable) best)!

We are hijacking Jeroen's thread! Discussing British cars. Which don't populate his garage.

Regards
Sutripta
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Old 22nd July 2019, 11:17   #312
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

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Originally Posted by Sutripta View Post
^^^

We are hijacking Jeroen's thread! Discussing British cars. Which don't populate his garage.
No problem, discussing vintage cars is part of "fiddling". I always learn something.

By the way, I do think I have a British car somewhere. Jaguar X308, V8 too! Actually that V8 was a proper British development. People often believe that the X308 was a Ford development as Ford owned Jaguar at the time. Nothing could be further from the truth. In those early Ford/Jaguar acquisition, it worked out well. Jaguar did what it did best, design true Old School Jaguars. Ford brought in a lot of expertise in better/more efficient/quality production methods.

Very few Ford parts on my Jaguar.

I have a good story on the development of my V8. I will find it and post it next weekend when I'm back home. Can not find the link anymore, but I know I have it on my Mac at home. Just arrived in Delhi for a week of meetings.

I have asked one of my Indian colleagues to buy the Royal Enfield Bullet model that was released by RE recently. I have been looking for a nice model ever since I got my Bullet. He ordered it online for me. Hopefully it will arrive this week, so I can take it home with me.

Jeroen
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Old 23rd July 2019, 15:54   #313
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

I just found the link to the Jaguar V8 development I mentioned earlier. Ok, just to be fair to Ford, they coughed up the money for the R&D and the tooling. But it was a true British design and subsequent development.

Makes for a good read:

http://www.ralphhosier.uk/car-indust...the-jaguar-v8/
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Old 28th July 2019, 13:04   #314
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

I have been away on a business trip for the last 6 days. I was in Delhi actually. I like visiting India, but unfortunately on these business trips I rarely get a chance to catch up with my Indian friends. It tends to be colleguaes and customers from early morning till late in the evening. This trip even more so, as it came about last minute.

Anyway, whilst I was away various parts and other car stuff started to arrive back home: Five new sign, some degreasers, paint, paint stripper, paint brushes and two new rubbers

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270001.jpg

I arrived at Amsterdam airport at 08.30. By 10.00 o’clock I was home and by 11.00 I am in my garage!

First job. Remove the old rubber holding the air inlet filter housing to the valve cover. I tried various ways, but the rubber just snapped.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270003.jpg

Which meant all what is left is a small circular plate almost flush to the valve cover. Tried to get a hold with several (grip) pliers, but it would not budge

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270004.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270005.jpg

Here you see the new one, with, what is left, of the old one!

Click image for larger version

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My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270002.jpg

So, desperate times call for some more serious measures. Dowsed it in penetrating oil (notice this is not regular WD40, but a special penetrating version)

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270006.jpg

Next hammer and chisel. This is a well tested and proven method. Get a proper (metal) chisel, hold it an angle to the edge of whatever it is needs freeing up and start tapping away. Worked a treat, I had both old ones out in a few minutes.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270007.jpg

With everything off, I applied paint stripper to the valve cover. This needs 6-8 hours to do its job, so to be continued tomorrow:

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270008.jpg

Next job: paint the master brake cilinder. The master brake cilinder works fine, but it does look rusty. I decided to give it a lick of paint whilst still installed.

I had ordered special metal paint that you can apply on rusty surfaces. Bit of masking tape and the (now very clean) engine bay covered, easy job!. Second layer of paint tomorrow.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270009.jpg

Several parts could do with a bit of polishing. So out comes on the polishing kit:

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270014.jpg

Looks all bright and all good again!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270011.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270012.jpg

In between various jobs I also hung the five new signs. I am particularly pleased with the oil can signs. Different shapes!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270015.jpg

Next job; the Spider has these very nice Alfa logo’s in the centre of the rim. When I moved the Spider outside the garage for the dry ice blasting, one of them fell out! Remarkable, they are kept in place with a circlip. The circlip was next to it on the ground. Closer inspection showed the left rear wheel had a similar problem with the circlip about to fall off!

Lucky for me, it happened on my driveway. These parts are unbelievable expensive and notoriously difficult to find.

In theory you should be able to pop them in, with the wheel attached to the car. But I thought I better clean out and make sure everything fits properly. So I took the wheel off:

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270032.jpg

It took almost an hour of cleaning and filing to get it back in. I am glad I decided to take the whole wheel off straight away

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270033.jpg
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Old 28th July 2019, 13:35   #315
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

Last job for the day: Fix the seat belt holder on the W123. As I mentioned before, there is nothing wrong with the seat belt holder as such. Other than it’s plastic casing.

Via one of my W123 forums I got in touch with a guy who gave me a replacement seat belt holder. Problem was, the plastic casing was fine, but the red release button was very faded. So a different solution than just replacing was required.

First thing, get the chair out to get access to the seat belt holder. As usual I always, even on simple jobs, check the workshop manual.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270013.jpg.

It is an easy enough job. You need to remove four bolts and two springs. I did not take the chair out, just moved it over. Looks a bit odd. But getting a chair in and out of a car on your own, is difficult and you risk scratching something. This will do nicely:

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270016.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270017.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270018.jpg

Notice the sliding (black) bar just underneath the anchor point of the seat belt holder. This is very typical of Mercedes. The seat can move forward/backwards and upwards/downwards. This sliding bar ensure that the seat belt holder stays in the optimum orientation towards the seat belt coming from the B-pillar! Not sure if I have seen anything like that on any other car yet?


The trickiest part was removing the plastic mould on the seat. (across the seat hinge and anchor point of the seat belt holder. My (American) workshop manual is very detailled and usually it specifies on how to get these sort of parts off. For this one it stated; remove the plastic mould. The problem is on a 37 year old car, all these plastic parts have become brittle. They are very likely to break. Replacing them is near impossible. So better safe than sorry. Which means very carefully trying to pry them off. Using mirrors, flash lights, plastic interior panelling tools to try and figure out how it is held in place. In the end I managed to get it out, without breaking anything.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270026.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270027.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270028.jpg

Initially I thought the plastic casing was just two halves popped together. And i tried prying it open. Would not budge. In the end I had to take a hacksaw and my dremel to it. So I cut off one half of my replacement part. Now to make it fit the broken case on the original seat belt holder

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270020.jpg

Dremel to the rescue. I measured out and cut the old and the new one to the exact same dimensions.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270021.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270022.jpg

Some super glue and black filler, bit of sandpapering and polish.

As good as new!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270023.jpg

Next, installing everything in reverse order. My workshop manual mentioned specifically to use Locktite on the seatbelt anchor bolt. Obviously, you don’t want it coming loose!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270025.jpg

The seat has two large springs, fitted underneath. It assist you in moving the seat backwards. Mercedes has a special tool you use to hook onto the springs and unload the tension. (see the image of the workshop manual). I do not have that tool, but I have something that works equally well. This tool is to undo rubber hoses. Works really well, I have shown it earlier on in this thread. But it does an equally good job, assisting you to undo and reset the springs!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270031.jpg

So finally done. This is what it looked like:

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7060007.jpg


And this is what it looks like now:

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270036.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-p7270038.jpg

Very pleased with this little job. I bought the W123 with this seat belt case broken. Never got around to fixing it, always annoyed me. But with the Concours d’elegance only 4 weeks away, this is the time to fix all those little problems.

Love this sort of fiddling. I used to internet to find parts, met with a nice guy, who is setting up his own W123 restoration shop, he gave me the part, and then I managed to modify/repair the original part. So all at no cost either. Just some very pleasant hours fiddling with my cars!

Jeroen

Last edited by Jeroen : 28th July 2019 at 13:37.
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