Giving my 2005 c class a 15 year facelift.. gone wrong

[horatio]

This fella does some pretty amazing crash repair work.

Arthur tussik

CAR BODY REPAIR. How to do it? To you here! Ремонт кузова машин. Как это делать? Вам сюда!

www.youtube.com

That bloke is scary talented. The videos are addictive.

Scary because I sure wouldn’t want a car that had been as mangled as the carnage he repairs! I have a pretty keen eye for panel gaps but some of those repairs would be hard to spot.

 

[ChipChop]

That bloke is scary talented. The videos are addictive.

Scary because I sure wouldn’t want a car that had been as mangled as the carnage he repairs! I have a pretty keen eye for panel gaps but some of those repairs would be hard to spot.

Some people are very talented when it comes to metalwork. I knew someone who was an ex Shipyard worker who made his own hand held ball joint press for his old Mercedes and it was made as well as a surgical instrument. Stunning engineering.

 

[Phil1968]

What's a 'fender'?

 

[rf065]

What's a 'fender'?

Usually a Telecaster or Stratocaster, but other models are available.

 

[nick9955]

Just had my cars mot today (took a while longer as I didnt realise you had to wait for the last one to expire to get a new one) and very surprisingly the car passed with no problems or advisories, did have to adjust the headlights as they were not aligned correctly but apart from that everything was good!

I have since purchased the w205 bonnet which I will try fit to the car to get rid of the crap fibreglass job!
one problem I have immediately realised is there is no spot for the windscreen washer jets on the new bonnet anyone know where they are positioned on the w205 c class? or ideas for where I could put them?

 

[Doodle]

Just had my cars mot today (took a while longer as I didnt realise you had to wait for the last one to expire to get a new one)

No, you don't. Whoever told you that is very much mistaken!

I have since purchased the w205 bonnet which I will try fit to the car to get rid of the crap fibreglass job!
one problem I have immediately realised is there is no spot for the windscreen washer jets on the new bonnet anyone know where they are positioned on the w205 c class? or ideas for where I could put them?

IIRC, they sit on a separate piece of plastic trim between bonnet and scuttle.

 

[nick9955]

No, you don't. Whoever told you that is very much mistaken!



IIRC, they sit on a separate piece of plastic trim between bonnet and scuttle.

Oh was under the impression I had to wait till the last month my existing mot to get a retest?

and thank you I guess I will try and mount them in a similar place, won't be able to mount them on the new bonnet tho

 

[markjay]

Oh was under the impression I had to wait till the last month my existing mot to get a retest?

You can MOT the car at any time, and the new MOT will be valid for 12 moths starting from the date of the test.

If, however, you get the MOT test done one month (or less) before the expiry date of the current MOT certificate, then the new MOT will be valid for 12 months starting from the expiry date . So if you present your car one month before the expiry date, the MOT will be valid for 13 months from the date of the test.

Waiting till one month before the expiry date simply ensures that you don't 'lose' any MOT months, I.e. that you always get full 12 months worth of MOT out of each and every test.

 

[Dickster]

I must also commend you on having a go. I think you would have succeeded if you had test fitted the bonnet and marked out where the bonnet needed to go. Then get it fabricated and welded to the edge of the bonnet. It seems you had a plan in your head of what you wanted to do but not a plan as to how your would do it.

I don't know why you wanted to do it but it's your car and you can do as you please with it. It's not very different to the max power jobs that were done to cars when I was young

I agree, and apart from the bonnet it looks as though you did an ok job - without seeing it up close!

Perhaps see if you can source a cheap
updated bonnet and go from there - what you are attempting is usually done by very skilled workers so well done.

 

[nick9955]

So just an update on this. Got the mot with the original bonnet

I have since bought the w205 bonnet from a breakers for £50 it had a pretty big dent in it but I didn't want to buy a nice one just incase I couldn't make it work. I managed to somewhat straighten out the dent but the w205 bonnet is aluminum so this was pretty difficult and time consuming.

I then made a rough template of the old bonnet out of card. Then used this to cut the shape of the new one, basically just trimming the edges and increasing the radius of the curve where the bonnet meets the windshield.

This meant I could fit the bonnet in the right place so I then tried to make the hinge mounting points for the new bonnet. Again this was very difficult as I couldn't weld to aluminum. I ended up bending the original mounting points down so that they would fit.

I then attached the ball for the gas struts this is where it gets a little sketchy. I had to rivet this on as I couldn't attach it to the aluminum any other way without damaging to outer skin of the bonnet.

I then used the existing threaded holes for w205 bonnet latches to mount an extended plate for the w203 latches, which I then reinforced with rivets. Then for the secondary bonnet catch I cut an access hole in the inner skin of the bonnet and drilled holes to bolt up the secondary latch and tightened using the access hole. I also had to raise the point on the car that this secondary catch catches on. The bonnet was FINALLY fully attached!

There was still a large gap between the inner and outer skin of the bonnet due to the trimming on the edges and by the windscreen ideally I would have used a bead roller or a seam roller to attach the 2 skins together. I didn't have either so I bought some silicone seam sealer and hoped it would hold. I ran this down both edges and round where the windscreen is unbelievable it seems to hold. However instead of pulling the inner skin up it pulled the outer skin down this means that there is a considerable lip between the bonnet and the wing which I am stuck with now

Finally made holes in the bonnet for the screen wash jets and bought universal nozzles to fit the holes.

 

[nick9955]

And that's it overall I'm pretty happy with the results it's clearly not perfect but considering I have no experience and the only tools I had was an angle grinder, a drill and a hammer I think it worked as best it could!

Overall the amount of work it took me was about 2 weeks not considering the time between doing the lights and bumper and the bonnet. If I was to do it again I'm fairly confident I could do it within 2 weeks. Furthermore I also ended up making money doing this the new parts I got were all damaged in some way so were very cheap and I sold all of the old parts except the bonnet which I scrapped for about £1. I will try and find all the receipts but I believe I made about £50 which I spent on a riveter and the silicone sealant. Although the car is effectively worthless now so..

Anyway I like the way it looks now and was a good learning experience! I also managed to entertain myself through three lockdowns, hopefully this is that last one or I'll have to start cutting up other peoples cars!!

If anyone wants more info or pics (even if it's just to have a laugh) lmk

 

[Petrol Pete]

What is that sticking out of the bonnet on the drivers side ?

 

[BTB 500]

Great story - well done!

Hate to ask ... but have you told your insurance?

 

[nick9955]

What is that sticking out of the bonnet on the drivers side ?

Oh that's like a small c clamp for while the sealant is curing

 

[nick9955]

Great story - well done!

Hate to ask ... but have you told your insurance?

Not about the bonnet yet but I had told them I put a facelift bumper. They asked if it was oem and didn't ask much else. I'm worried if I ask again about the bonnet it could look pretty sus

 

[BTB 500]

Not about the bonnet yet but I had told them I put a facelift bumper. They asked if it was oem and didn't ask much else. I'm worried if I ask again about the bonnet it could look pretty sus

Problem is if you get involved in a claim and they send an engineer out to inspect the car they'll soon see it's a lot more than a different bumper. Chances are it'll never happen, but

 

[nick9955]

Problem is if you get involved in a claim and they send an engineer out to inspect the car they'll soon see it's a lot more than a different bumper. Chances are it'll never happen, but

yeh that is a good point, but if I have told them it is different so I have a leg to stand on. And also would they really send an engineer for a car that's worth max 1k?

 

[AltonAnt]

Great turnaround there. Looks ok, at least from a distance.

 

[BTB 500]

yeh that is a good point, but if I have told them it is different so I have a leg to stand on. And also would they really send an engineer for a car that's worth max 1k?

They certainly would if there was a significant 3rd party claim involved. But undeclared mods would probably only void the cover on your car (unless they'd contributed towards the accident in some way, like the modified bonnet popping up for example).

 

[bob6600]

For the tools you had, that is a good effort. As I said before, I commend you on having a go!