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1971 Mercedes W108 280SE 3.5 V8 conversion to OM606 diesel.

13

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    The crazy thing about that last photo - you live about 300 yards away from me. Really looking forward to seeing the finished product driving around the place

    You never know what's going on in people's sheds & garages!


  • Registered Users Posts: 314 ✭✭Darraghmh91.


    Just showed my dad this project and he loves it .. He had somethin similar years ago


  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    Some more progress being made, slowly but surely!
    She's starting to look a bit rough :) I've most of the interior and doors stripped now and removed a lot of chrome trim, etc.
    re_P1010437_zpsa116b8da.jpg

    Here you can see one of the 3 beautiful fibreglass patch-jobs I've found so far and what it was covering.
    re_P1010382_zpscc886f54.jpg
    re_P1010383_zps002c9863.jpg


    I found more rust in the rear floors under the sound deadening bitumen stuff, but nothing too scary.
    re_P1010439_zps0808e6d9.jpg

    I chipped a bit of paint away from the base of the C pillar where it was bubbling. There are small perforations, but, to be honest I expected it to be worse. I was surprised, though at how far the rot goes under what seemed to be good paint from the outside!
    re_P1010438_zps1669bf1a.jpg

    I bolted up the flywheel and clutch. I re-measured all the clearances with respect to the gearbox input shaft length, release bearing position, etc. It couldn't really have worked out any better, everything has fitted perfectly.
    re_P1010434_zps4dc32897.jpg

    The big news is that my welding expert friend visited earlier in the week and fixed my gear shifting mechanism in place. It worked out well in terms of position and seems like it'll be very comfortable to use. This feels like a big step as all the mojor requirements for driving are now in place. Happy days!
    re_P1010441_zps043a45e1.jpg


  • Registered Users Posts: 314 ✭✭Darraghmh91.


    This will be one hell of s stand out merc when it's all done you would never expect a fat v8 under it ha


  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    This will be one hell of s stand out merc when it's all done you would never expect a fat v8 under it ha

    Sorry to dissapoint Darragh, but the v8 is gone & 6cyl diesel inserted in its place. You definitely wouldn't expect to see that under there!!


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  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    There's been a major push the last few weeks. I'm sorry to say I've very few photos. Plumbing has been a large part of the work, there was quite a list:
    Feed for clutch master cylinder
    Intercooler
    Oil cooler
    Radiator
    Power steering
    Oil pressure gauge
    Temperature gauge

    The clutch master cylinder was the easiest part, just a length of hose from the brake reservoir down to the master cylinder.

    re_P1010447_zpseb3dd11f.jpg

    The intercooler needed a custom pipe to be welded up to get down around the alternator and the anti-roll bar. the intercooler itself isn't permanently attached yet, but fits well between the two front bumper mounts.

    re_P1010449_zps83b88160.jpg

    For the oil cooler, it was a bit more involved. In the original car, the oil cooler is actually boldted onto the right side of the radiator, in line with it, so, apart from being unboltable, it is effectively an extension on to the side of the rad. The biggest problem with this was that the oil cooler plumbing on the new engine was on the left hand side. In order to move the cooler to the other side, we had to de-solder the sides off the rad and swap them around. You cna see it in its new position on the left of the rad in this photo:

    re_P1010450_zps762fe7d0.jpg

    Once this was done, it was clear that the top connection on the cooler was going to interfere with the power steering pump.

    re_P1010442_zps173c07e3.jpg

    The solution was to swap the outlet position with what used to be the drain plug as the cooler is now upside down. So, we cut the fitting off the W210 E300 oil cooler as there was more meat in those and welded it to the oil cooler from the W108.

    The W210 oil cooler:
    re_P1010451_zpsdae1e2b3.jpg

    And the swap job on the W108 cooler:

    re_P1010453_zps35a82805.jpg

    Once this was all sorted out, the only requirement was to extend the oil feed lines slightly to reach the cooler.


    The top connection on the rad is very close to the outlet from the engine, so a bit of bodgery was required to get them connected. I got a couple of tight bends and cut and joined them. It's a little rigid as the engine moves about under power, but I'll try to sort that out by spreading the two halves on the joiner.

    re_P1010454_zpsb9ef7dbd.jpg


    The power steering was probably the most awkward to sort out. In terms of plumbing, the guys making up the hydraulic pipes had nothing that would fit the pump end. So, my good welding friend cut the original pump connector and welded it to the hydraulic fitting.

    IMG_2444_zps492fd29c.jpg

    IMG_2446_zps49cd93cb.jpg

    IMG_24471_zps1eb8d719.jpg

    re_P1010455_zps9d642469.jpg

    Now, I also knew that the pump output would produce about double the pressure of the old original one, so presumed that hooking my more modern version up to the ancient steering box would result in bad things. So, I bought a gauge for £7.50 from Ebay, and, welding ecxpertise was required again to put together a fitting so that it could be connected to the end of the high pressure pipe.

    IMG_2448_zps59acd0aa.jpg

    IMG_24491_zps8a7f16e6.jpg

    An evening of testing followed. The pump registered just over 100 bar at the start and I was aiming for around 60. There is a pressure relief valve inside the pump body, a very simple arrangement with a spring that holds a ball bearing against a seat until the pressure pushes it off the seat against the spring. There were a few shims in it, so I went about adjusting with shims. The first try had only minimal impact +/- 2 bar, so adjustment was acheived by shortening the spring with careful application of the angle grinder! 3 or 4 tests later and the pump was outputting about 60 bar.


    More welding was required to fit the engine oil presure gauge. There's a nylon pipe running to the back of the pressure gauge in the dash which feeds the pressure up to the mechanical gauge. The diesel engine had a handy bung at the base of the oil filter housing which was removed, drilled out and welded to the fitting from the petrol engine.

    The temperature gauge is a vial on the end of a capilliary tube which runs to the back of the dash. The fitting from the petrol engine went straight into a handy hole which was plugged in the diesel without any modification.

    If you're still reading, fair play! Here's what I'm getting around to:



    It works!! The first time in about a year she's moved out of the shed! The drive went well. Gearing is very low as was expected, but I'm very happy with the way the engine behaves. It's hard to tell what it'll be like until you have it on a manual gearbox, but it's great. Clutch and gearbox work nicely too. I'm very happy and really like it. I'll try significantly bigger wheels and tyres shortly. According to my calculations, +2 inches in diameter will have me cruising at 70 and 2,400RPM.


  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    Sorry it's been so long since the last update. I have a bit of work to do to get you all up to date with the current status. This post will be another "I didn't do any of this myself" one!

    My friend very kindly undertook to make me an exhaust pipe. The original engine was a V8, so there was a pipe down each side of the car that came together and entered the single back box with twin exit pipes on the driver's side of the fuel tank. The W210 donor car had a catalytic convertor just in front of the firewall around the driver's feet and a single back box on the passenger side of the spare wheel well with twin exit pipes. There was a lot of cleverness required to route the exhaust past the steering box (catalytic convertor was removed), over the gearbox support cross member and over the rear axle using only the existing piping and bends from two W210 exhaust systems. We decided to re-use the original back box as it was in good shape and the W210 item was really too big for the space we had available. He did a fantastic, tidy job. The silencing is great, the car is lovely and quiet. It's a little bit of refinement returning!


    This is the first short section which attaches to the turbo:
    IMG_2606_zpsooiplyzs.jpg

    The next section:
    IMG_2608_zpsnaa2pyhs.jpg


    You can see how precise it is feeding between the bell housing and the steering arm:
    IMG_2613_zpsykmuzf1j.jpg

    IMG_2615_zpsozlbdtbx.jpg


    The whole length:
    IMG_2612_zpsunyfib6s.jpg


    Here you can see how he fed both parts of the back box from the one pipe:
    IMG_2605_zps85qozjsp.jpg

    IMG_2609_zpsmkciljcw.jpg


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,938 ✭✭✭Bigus


    All those W108 s used to scrape their original exhaust centre boxes on irish roads !


  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    Bigus wrote: »
    All those W108 s used to scrape their original exhaust centre boxes on irish roads !

    Mine's seen a bit of action too! :)

    P1010723_zpsoyr3ylpp.jpg


  • Registered Users Posts: 73 ✭✭Steve320


    Just read through the whole thread , amazing work done on it, very impressed would have painted the intercooler piping black myself though for a more stock look but each to their own :)


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  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    Steve320 wrote: »
    Just read through the whole thread , amazing work done on it, very impressed would have painted the intercooler piping black myself though for a more stock look but each to their own :)

    Thanks for the compliments Steve. :) Original intercooler piping was unpainted alloy, but to be honest, the silver was just what came to hand. I'm not too pushed about what the innards look like beyond being tidy and well made.


  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    I've been lacking with updates as seems to be a theme with this write-up, but, thankfully not because no work has been going on!

    I've been having (anticipated) trouble with rear axle ratios. When I test drove the car, the gearing was very low, as expected. in 6th at 35-40mph. I tried running on wheels/tyres with a 2 inch larger diameter, but even this didn't make a significant enough difference.

    The original W108 axle has a 3.46:1 ratio. There are versions from the 6.3L 300SL that have a 2.82:1 ratio, I think. However, these are rare, and accordingly expensive. Also purchasing one over the internet comes with a lot of risk as they are probably all more than 40 years old at this point. I looked at the idea of just putting in new internals into my existing axle, but failed to find anything that would fit easily. It quickly came down to having to swap out the whole axle for something more readily available with an appropriate ratio.

    I already had the rear diff and subframe assembly from the 1999 E300 (W210) car that donated its engine. That has a ratio of 2.88:1, however, some quick measuring tape work established that it wouldn't fit between my chassis rails on the W108. Some further googling uncovered a sketchy report that someone had fitted a subframe from a W203 and although I couldn't find a write-up on the job, the photos looked like it hadn't been too troublesome.

    I found a complete W203 sub-frame from a 270CDI for 120Euro. It wasn't in awful condition, there were a couple of joints and bushes that needed replacing along with the brake backing plates and it needed cleaning up, but was structurally sound. Brake discs, callipers, CV boots, etc. all looked good. Most importantly, it had a suitable ratio in the diff of 2.65:1

    The original W108 axle was removed, and the bracket attached to the car floor that was used to stabilise it laterally was cut off to make room. It became apparent early-on that 2 things weren't going to work out. The first was that the wheels would be too close together to clear the inner rear wheel arches. Nothing some appropriately sized wheel spacers wouldn't solve. The second issue was that the front-top suspension link was going to foul the chassis rail on each side. After much head scratching, it was decided to just remove these links until the whole thing was fitted and then cut and strengthen the chassis rails by the required amount. It's a pity to have to do this, but there should be great benefits from having the modern multi-link rear suspension rather than the old swinging axle setup.

    There were some good points too. The subframe fits quite well into the existing floor pan without any chopping of the car required aside from the chassis rails mentioned above. The shocks looked like they'd line up with the original top mounts well, and there was room for the new spring seats to go in without anything being in their way.

    Thinking about how to fix the subframe in place, the rear was relatively straight-forward, just a cross-member to add with two spuds sticking down from it. This was chopped from the W210 donor car. The front, however, was completely devoid of any siutable anchor points, and of space to add anything as the rear seat footwell interfered with anything that could be added. I have a great friend who's been helping out throughout this build and he came up with the idea of butchering the W210 subframe in order to take its front mounting points and add them to the front of this W203 one. That would make teh W203 subframe longer and enable us to fix it to the structural points where the original axle had been fixed.

    So, two front "arms" were cut from the W210 subframe and welded to the W203 item with a lot of reinforcement being added to make sure they would stay put!

    I've managed to delete all my photos of the process, so I've stolen an internet photo here to try to explain what went on with a picture. I'll upload a proper one when I have the subframe off the car again, but for now, this will have to do. This is not to scale or anything and there's loads of extra reinforcing gone into it, but this gives you the idea:
    Selection_068_zpsohm35sib.png

    Two mount points were added to the car for these to bolt up to. An enormous amount of care and attention went into the location and alignment of these fittings so that the subframe would end up in the correct horizontal plane as well as being centred properly in the car at the same time as having the line between the two rear wheels perfectly perpendicular to the car's mid-line.

    Once the two front mount points were done, we bolted the rear cross member to the subframe and bolted it up to the front mounts. This gave us positioning for the rear cross member which was duly welded up to the boot floor.

    Now that all 4 subframe mounts were sorted, we could turn our attention to shock absorbers and springs. The position of the lower shock mounts meant that they couldn't be mounted up inside the existing shock turrets as we had hoped. They hit the edge at the bottom of the turrets. So, I bought some short shocks (VW Type 2 van itmes) and we made mounts for the tops of them that were fitted inside but near the bottom of the turrets. The bottom mounts just had to be drilled out from 10mm to 12mm. The upper spring seats were already part of the rear cross member section that had been removed from the W210, so that aspect actually worked out well! :)

    As mentioned earlier, the upper front suspension links would hit the chassis rails when the suspension was compressed. So, now that the subframe was in place, we could figure out how bad it was and cut sections from the chassis rails to compensate. The chassis was cut, re-made and plated on both sides of each rail to add back the strength that had been removed. You can see in the photos below how much was chopped and why.
    Before:
    re_P1010718_zpspkbq8z9f.jpg

    After:
    re_P1010720_zpsdr3njvkq.jpg

    The inside of the chassis rail looked in reasonable nick in this area which was encouraging:
    re_P1010722_zpsgommjkn1.jpg


    Next we turned our attention to the prop shaft which needed to be shortened a little and be adapted to somehow attach it's 4 hole UJ flange to the 3 hole job on the new rear diff.

    The hubs, new backing plates and callipers were all blasted and painted in the hopes of preserving them. They were then re-assembled with new bearings, bottom bushes and handbrake shoes and look like this:
    re_P1010747_zpswbvrg797.jpg



    I've struggled to write this update and keep interesting without making the work sound easy. Believe me, this was not a pleasant nor an easy job. We met problems everywhere. The mounting spuds on the W210 rear cross member didn't fit in the W203 subframe mounts and had to be chopped off, turned down on a lathe and re-attached. The outside of the W203 subframe had to be chopped to wihin an inch of its life to fit between the car's chassis rails. The W203 hubs needed their bearings and lower bush replaced. The two front suspension links on the subframe which are used for adjusting rear tracking were seized in place and had to be cut out. The new brake backing plates were too big for my original 14 inch wheels so had to be modified to fit. The drive shaft was too long for our lathe which made alignment a nightmare when welding it back together having shortened it. The drive shaft flange (which was attached to the rear universal joint) didn't match the input flange on the diff, so a custom adaptor job had to be made up. The newly made exhaust had to be re-designed to go around the subframe and the back box shortened by about 1o inches. The handbrake cables were too short and had the wrong fittings on the ends, so we had to modify the hubs to take the original W108 cables. One of the W203 callipers was badly seized so the W210 ones were used but these wouldn't fit inside the wheels so we took the angle grinder to the pad wear sensor mount point on the callipers. This meant using the W210 disks but these rubbed the backing plates so had to be adjusted slightly to fit.


  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    I took a photo tonight of the underneath. It needs a small bit of beautification and will get blasted and painted in due course:

    re_P1010758_zpsqtd4cjhv.jpg


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,083 ✭✭✭tom_tarbucket


    How are things going since pryantcc?


  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    How are things going since pryantcc?
    Hi Tom, thanks for asking! Things have slowed a bit but not stopped.

    I've been basically stripping. I've pulled out all the glass, wiring and vacuum piping. Removed remaining trim, door locks, handles, etc. Had a lot of hardship removing the sun roof. It looks like it wasn't the original and rather a shoe-horned in version from some other car. Lots of it was stuck in with tiger seal or something similar. I finally decided to dump it and weld up the hole which allowed me to take the grinder to it to aid removal! There was just too much potential for problems with leaking seals/drains etc., and the Irish climate doesn't really present a whole lot of sunroof weather. All the lights, etc. are off now and really it's ready to start blasting and welding.
    I got a bit of a bonus at work so bought a new windscreen (old one was de-laminating) and new tyres.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1 chevyvan


    Hey there,

    Your thread has been a great motivation to me, I've put this engine into a 1953 Chevy van and have been struggling for a month with the wiring issues as my key won't turn yet, probably because of the steering wheel sensor, not as easy as I thought even though I have the whole loom!

    So I've gone from mildly depressed about it to seeing a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel after reading about your project. I had been wondering about the gearbox but what you have done is an excellent way to resolve the limp home issues.

    So although I'm in the hotrodding world, thanks for posting all of your work on here and good luck with the rest of the build.

    Ady


  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    chevyvan wrote: »
    Hey there,

    Your thread has been a great motivation to me, I've put this engine into a 1953 Chevy van and have been struggling for a month with the wiring issues as my key won't turn yet, probably because of the steering wheel sensor, not as easy as I thought even though I have the whole loom!

    So I've gone from mildly depressed about it to seeing a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel after reading about your project. I had been wondering about the gearbox but what you have done is an excellent way to resolve the limp home issues.

    So although I'm in the hotrodding world, thanks for posting all of your work on here and good luck with the rest of the build.

    Ady

    Glad you found it helpful Ady, PM me if you have any specific questions and I'll try to help out.


  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    Update time!
    Mechanical work is essentially complete except for some aesthetic work to make the rear axle conversion look nicer. Next step is to patch the rusty bits. With this in mind, everything is stripped again and the car was moved to my friend's place for him to do the welding. We left the axles under it for ease of transport and loaded it onto the trailer for shipment. I could have towed it but had removed pedals, etc so was without brakes.
    re_P1010816_zpsvgfo3dyd.jpg

    I forgot to photograph the new engine mounts at the time and the engine has been on top of them since, so here's a picture. These 2 beefy lumps of plate are welded to the front subframe just inside where the original engine mounts were and the rubber mounts bolt onto them.
    re_P1010813_zpsicd46yxv.jpg

    Once moved, I adapted the front seats from the donor E300 Merc to fit the original seat rails. The old seats are pretty tired and don't have headrests, etc. The colours match and the more modern ones don't look too badly out of place. The floor needs a good bit of patching and removal of some old bodged repairs and it was always the plan to put the car on a rotisserie thing so it could be spun. After a very brief look online at the prices and quality of what is available, we decided to make our own. My welder friend knocked it up from scrap in just 3 evenings work!

    re_P1010818_zpsomhkrg0u.jpg
    re_P1010819_zpscwfthmop.jpg
    re_P1010825_zps2tttkuo3.jpg
    re_P1010824_zpsx2dvp1ll.jpg

    The car will be mounted to it by the bumper mounting points. In readiness for lifting I took off the doors and front wings. The axles will be left behid as it's lifted onto the rotisserie.
    re_P1010822_zpswsrlfbe4.jpg


  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    She's airborne!

    Axles/subframes removed along with steering column and steering box. It's already so convenient having it up like this and clear, well lit access to the underside.
    re_P1010844_zpslco5mqla.jpg

    I has been obvious from the time I looked at the car with a view to buying it that it has been at the hands of a body shop that is in love with filler. The underside had lots of clearly visible and poorly applied filler over the repairs. A little minor investigation of a rear wheel arch last night revealed what can be seen in the photo below with my index finger for scale. There's no obvious reason for it, the metal behind it looks like it was sound enough before the filler went on even though some rust has been working away underneath it since.
    re_P1010841_zpsiogec8dv.jpg


  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    Work continues! I had a batch of small bits and pieces ready for blasting and painting.
    re_P1010847_zps5nemuwba.jpg


    The power steering box was one of them. It had always been leaking so I bought a seal kit and stripped it down.
    I blocked up all the holes & blasted it along with my other brackets, suspension arms and small bits. It wasn't until I was geting it all ready for spraying that I noticed what seemed to be an oily patch on the outside of the steering box casing.
    image1_zpsf6b4rjcq.png



    It turned out to be a hairline crack!
    image_zps3rzaz8tx.png


    It also turned out that the steering box is made of cast iron which apparently doesn't take too well to welding due to differences in expansion and contraction rates in response to heat. So, I took it out to my welder friend to see what he could do. We ground out the crack and heated the whole lot to about 300 degrees Centigrade. He then TIG welded it up and we stuck it back in the oven to cool slowly overnight. Thankfully it hadn't cracked when examined in the morning!
    IMG_4702_zpsw5fuzcmp.jpg


    IMG_4712_zps87vwyewg.jpg

    Now it's back in the queue for blasting and will be painted up and re-assembled with new seals.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    Steering box is done. painted and re-assembled with new seals:

    re_P1010894_zps3pilbhkk.jpg

    re_P1010893_zpssgozqhji.jpg

    I've also blasted and primed the home made rear subframe, fuel tank and brake servo.

    re_P1010872_zpsymdkoloi.jpg
    re_P1010874_zpszzbih5xo.jpg
    re_P1010871_zpsgptbodo8.jpg
    re_P1010875_zpskpy2tsdm.jpg
    re_P1010876_zps8skzgc78.jpg


  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    Things have slowed down over the summer and I've given up all pretence that this is just an engine swap, it's a full blown restoration now, for sure! Hopefully I'll have a little more time now to put into it, things are already starting to move again.

    The focus at the moment is on the bodywork. There is a bit of a combination of replacing previous bodging as well as chopping out virgin rot and replacing with good steel. Having the car on the spit is absolutely fantastic, a huge help and makes things far more convenient, particularly for the underneath.

    So, work started on the passenger side sill area. You can see plenty of metal was chopped out, most of it previous mess:
    re_P1010896_zpsv2fy80sq.jpg
    re_P1010897_zpszlno2igc.jpg

    This is the back end:
    re_P1010898_zpskuhkli2w.jpg

    And some detail. There is good metal in there, you just have to dig a bit to get to it!
    re_P1010903_zps0esamfjo.jpg
    re_P1010902_zpszpzyjnwn.jpg

    Some patches going in:
    re_P1010905_zps5kezyd3r.jpg
    re_P1010908_zpshhucfbcf.jpg

    Then, once these were done, we wheeled the whole setup outside and blasted the inside of the sill and everything we could get at, painted it all with epoxy and coated all of that with cavity wax. I should say that the jacking points have been intentionally deleted. I didn't like having holes in the sills for them and I can just carry a little bottle jack for changing wheels and jack off some more robust areas. I've no photos of the blasting process, I'm afraid but just imagine lots of dirty lookin stuff, then dust, then nice painted stuff, then this:
    re_P1010968_zpsoxopzeev.jpg
    re_P1010969_zpsv5qlhqxv.jpg
    re_P1010970_zpstoypm0fc.jpg
    It's nice to know the upper sections of the sills are well protected by applying all the goop with the car upside down.


    Then to buttoning it all up:
    re_P1010975_zpsv8jut6ne.jpg
    re_P1010976_zpsjutlp91c.jpg
    re_P1010977_zpswh5v5gm5.jpg
    The inside of the sills will be given more cavity wax with the car the right way up to coat the inside of the sill bottoms, and when the whole bottom side of the car is done, the exterior will all be blasted and coated with epoxy primer.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13 kizmax


    Hi just read your complete thread and fair play it is a great description of a huge amount of work so well done , however having read it I now find myself with 2 e 300 turbo diesels and still wondering which older Mercedes is the easiest fit for a 606
    My original plan was a landrover defender but it involves quite a bit of fabrication
    I guess I assumed a merc to merc transplant might be the easiest
    Can you recommend which model is the handiest


  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    kizmax wrote: »
    I guess I assumed a merc to merc transplant might be the easiest
    Can you recommend which model is the handiest

    Hi, I can't recommend any model in particular since I've only done the one conversion :-) I can tell you that fitting it into the w108 was pretty straight forward. Have you had a look at the superturbodiesel forum? Quite a few conversions on there. Hold onto those E300s, lads are starting to realise their worth!


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,083 ✭✭✭tom_tarbucket


    Pryantcc,


    Any updated pics or general updates on how things are coming along ?


  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    Hi,
    There has been activity but it's not the most interesting stuff. Activity at the moment involves attacking small-ish areas of the car one at a time and working through the following process:
    1. Blast off all old paint, filler and rust
    2. Chop out rust and previous crappy repairs
    3. Cut and form patches from new steel
    4. Paint and rust proof any accessible bits that aren't going to interfere with welding in the patch.
    5. Weld in the new patch
    6. Pretty it up by flattening as far as possible so that the minimum amount of filling will be required at painting stage.
    7. Eventually the whole repaired car will be blasted and primed before going for painting.

    We started on the passenger side and worked around the car front wheel well, sills, rear wheel well, both rear quarter panels, driver's side rear wheel well and sill are pretty much done. Need to clean, protect and then weld up driver's side sill and move on to front wheel arch. A couple of floor patches have gone in too.


    Rear wheeel arch/sill repairs:
    39900942-E28E-45BE-A2CE-732CABFAE493_zpsrl92schz.jpg

    04AB7D0C-47EB-482D-93E4-3484BB2BBE8D_zps3wdygacs.jpg

    75453D2D-7728-4C36-8C17-EA91BFD8CB74_zpsblzxelbg.jpg

    DDBC3C57-7A09-44B2-B598-FB26B64CC923_zpsuceehros.jpg

    Driver's side rear sill rust and previous repairs removed.
    F013F2EC-9B92-40A5-BA49-6E65BFC5B3B1_zpsla4l8rb4.jpg


    Another part of the work was to tidy up the area where we welded in the subframe from the E300 W210 car into this one.
    Before:
    re_P1010900_zpsflden7as.jpg

    Then it was blasted and painted where possible in the places that were to be covered to try and get some basic protection in there. Wax will also be injected later.
    IMG_5550.JPG_zps7opfpdf6.jpeg

    2 large panels were made to cover the front and the back and make it look more like it belongs. Then we dribbled runny paint everywhere to try and get it to run along the seems. I think it turned out great and will look even better when the whole underneath is cleaned and coated.
    IMG_5555.JPG_zpsge3qocja.jpeg


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,938 ✭✭✭Bigus


    At the rate these are going up , you'll be putting it back original and selling it for 35 k 😄


  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    Bigus wrote: »
    At the rate these are going up , you'll be putting it back original and selling it for 35 k 😄

    The more desirable the better, Bigus! I hope to have a top class original looking machine that lasts and doesn't break the bank to drive every day. After all this, it'd take a lot to sell it!


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,083 ✭✭✭tom_tarbucket


    Any rough idea as to when it will be finished ?

    You started about 3 years ago I think.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭pryantcc


    Hi Tom. I've no end date. Time is my main enemy, I don't have enough of it. I'd love if I could have all the metalwork done this year. Then paint. Hopefully reassembly won't take more than 6 months. So maybe by the middle of 2018.


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