[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by abhinav.gupta88

Congrats
How long do you expect the work to get completed.

Originally Posted by GTO - Touring

Too bad about the mechanic abandoning your project, but your indomitable spirit is the silver lining of that experience. Congrats on getting the work rolling again. I love the fintail series...she deserves to get back on the road.

Please ensure that you put the body through pro-grade anti-rust treatment once the tinwork is completed.

True, agree to what all you guys feel.

The car is now in process of getting back in shape and making up for lost time.

Actually the previous tinker had done some percentage of job over loongg period of time, all the metal sheets have started corrding. The so called new floor panels prepared in Feb have already reached its last stage.

Process undertaken within the First week in the new workshop
1) All new floor pans ready and RHS is 75% complete
2) Old sheets are gone and made way for new metal sheets
3) Side running board RHS fitted.
4) RHS fender completed
5) RHS front and back door innards ready

The painter is actually planning things well. As per him we are preparing all the doors first, Bonnet and Dickey door next and next go in for all fenders and wheel flares, and finally get to the shell tapping and patchup.
Parcel shelf aslo is in horrid shape, new metal ready to go in.

As they say NEW BROOM SWEEPS WELL, its time this car comes out running on road by say maybe New year.

[mandip]

I am new to team-bhp and getting myself fimiliar with the forum.

I have owned the 190D 1964 model and every year made trips from Mumbai to Punjab and back. The car is very comfortable and reliable as long as she is on the move.
Once it is restored, use the car frequently and avoid making it a weekend car. She has lots to offer.
There are a couple of dedicated MB retail stores at Opera House in Mumbai that have catalogs & workshop manuals of the classic models.
They also have Indian equivalent parts identical to the originals that you could use till you can source the original parts like disc pads, heater plugs, engine mountings etc.
On the mechanical end, please check the condition of the break booster.
At 100Kms this car can roll more than a Km before coming to a halt.

Also observed from the photographs, please protect the white stearing wheel while the metal works are on. A single spark from the welding works will leave burn marks and the stearing wheel is really difficult to get.

Good Luck

[PAVAN KADAM]

2 weeks since the work is started, and finally all the lost time is being covered.

Still the final finishing welding on all the boards are being done.

Updating pics as on 05th November 2008

Monitoring such work is such a lot of learning, but to keep peoples interest on such project is a bit difficult I am enjoying it at the moment.

[Spitfire]

You could have used aluminium sheets in there. Cost?

[SuperSelect]

Pavan, are the floorboards sourced from another car, or were they originally there ? Just for my knowledge, is "spot welding" enough to take the weight the floor is subjected to?

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

You could have used aluminium sheets in there. Cost?

Welding aluminium to sheet metal requires mixture of different gasses. This in turn reverses the costing you save on sheet metal. Aluminium though is easy to mould.

Originally Posted by SuperSelect

Pavan, are the floorboards sourced from another car, or were they originally there ? Just for my knowledge, is "spot welding" enough to take the weight the floor is subjected to?

The spot welding is done in order to align the floor boards, once all the floorboards are welded in place and aligned correctly one complete round of welding them together will be done. This method is used to avoid the chassis twist.

[Dippy]

Just happened to see this thread after a long time. Pavan, the car was supposed to be on the road in the New Year. We are in Feb. Updates please.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Now with the not so regular updates.

This car has been sitting through other restorations.

Finally we've found some time to finish it "ASAP"

Complete tinkering and replacement of body panels finished.

Some minor patches being attended to now.

Here are the pics.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Now after a loong time some regular updates.

This car my god has been eating too much of metal. Its almost 80% metal sheet replaced. What lies original would only be the top shell, bonnet and dickey door

Every place we tap with a hammer, it starts falling off. The tinker says " Saar gaadi pura sadh gayaa hai saar, Bhagwaan bachaaye hame"

The moment he feels he's completed the tinkering, some other part of the body seems to fall in pieces, somehow feel this vehicle is now testing our patience after we made it sit idle for a real long time.

As on date, we need to replace only 4 pieces of sheet metal

1) One that runs at the bottom of the centre spine.
2) One at the RHS cross member
3) Gear box bedding holder
4) Rear LHS running board and wheel arch connector.

Here are some more pics. I dont think so anybody would understand anything by these pics (LOL)


BTW got hold of a decent pair of Indicators for this fellow.

[Prabal]

Pavan, that last picture is probably the heater radiator. If it indeed is so, you're really lucky to still have it in the car as invariably the hoses would be removed, the necks plugged (as the corrosion would cause water to drip in) and someday the heater mechanism completely dismantled to make way for a cooling unit.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by Prabal

Pavan, that last picture is probably the heater radiator. If it indeed is so, you're really lucky to still have it in the car as invariably the hoses would be removed, the necks plugged (as the corrosion would cause water to drip in) and someday the heater mechanism completely dismantled to make way for a cooling unit.

Thanks for enlightening me.

So you mean i can get rid of it right now, if i need to install an Aircon blower at the same place.

The place where the air gets into the blower(Air Scoop) and its sorroundings are intact and re-furbished, if only this can make place for the blower, it'll make an ideal car.

Need someone to shed some light on this modification, but should look original.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Now with some regular rather irregular updates

With the surfacer on and tinkering complete, the Merc is few weeks away from rollling on road

Let pics do the talking

[tantragna]

Great going so far! By the way how are you managing to source the original/similar body parts for tinker replacement? I am currently restoring SS80 the legendary maruti 800, 1985 model. Tough time for me to find or prepare the body parts. (I am shortly going to publish the restoration in a new thread

I would suggest going in for PU based finishing/painting products. I am currently working on DuPont products, costly though!

Best of luck!! :-)

[Star man]

Oh Dear!. I wouldn't have bothered with a finny that had rusted to that extent. in fact i have a better one here that I used for a parts donor for a customers project.( Rust free German built body)
Also,No offense intended here, but your panel beater /tinker has done the front part of the floor wrong. The W110 is Unibody and has no chassis so those inner sills are vitally important to the structural integrity of the body. I see that he hasn't rebuilt them correctly as the sill must continue from the rear wheel arch through to the rear of the front wheel house.
The outer sill panel,although it is a structural member is not so important. it will be almost impossible to get the front doors to align with the bottom 1 foot of the 'A' pillar missing like that. Also the cowl is double panel ,the lower part is the airvent for the interior and the top outer panel is simply the cover but all are important for the structure.
here is one i have finished this week to give you an idea of the correct shapes for the floors.
Login to a private Photobucket.com album

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by Star man

Oh Dear!. I wouldn't have bothered with a finny that had rusted to that extent. in fact i have a better one here that I used for a parts donor for a customers project.( Rust free German built body)
Also,No offense intended here, but your panel beater /tinker has done the front part of the floor wrong. The W110 is Unibody and has no chassis so those inner sills are vitally important to the structural integrity of the body. I see that he hasn't rebuilt them correctly as the sill must continue from the rear wheel arch through to the rear of the front wheel house.
The outer sill panel,although it is a structural member is not so important. it will be almost impossible to get the front doors to align with the bottom 1 foot of the 'A' pillar missing like that. Also the cowl is double panel ,the lower part is the airvent for the interior and the top outer panel is simply the cover but all are important for the structure.
here is one i have finished this week to give you an idea of the correct shapes for the floors.
Login to a private Photobucket.com album

Thank you buddy for dropping by this thread, Thanks for the link, it really helps.

This particular car is a single owner direct import from SA, The car was used in Bangalore for quite a long time and the last 20 yrs its been on roads only by towing.

My dear friend Brat001 picked this up (usually what you refer to as a huge chunk of metal) and wanted to infuse life into it. So far whatever is done on the car is just by using WWW inferences. We at Bangy dont have too much of technical and mechanical help readily available at hand to do the body works like the way you mentioned. Each and every part is hand crafted by my craftsmen(Tinker). Though there are few things that need period correctness, we are putting all our effort in getting this beauty back on road which usually others discard as Junk.

In very little time you'll see the car getting completed, I am sure we will achieve what we have set out for.